Mixmaster Joe

By Kathryn Skelton , Staff Writer

No ear-catching name. No NYC or LA cred. Instead, the kind of star demand that only talent, hard work and musical passion create. Mixin' it up with Lewiston's Joe Bermudez. As a DJ remixing songs for the club scene, Joe Bermudez has made connections that have landed him on 100-plus albums. The Lewiston High School grad has worked with Hilary Duff, Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears, Pink. But it was a certain Canadian songstress that caught his mom's attention.

"I did a Celine Dion record and I showed it to her. She's like, 'That's your name,'" Bermudez said. "'I know, that's what I've been trying to tell you.'"

Bermudez, 32, is a DJ in demand.

He's one of six up for the International Dance Music Awards' best radio mix show DJ honor this month. He's got a regular show on Sirius XM called Mass Movement. This fall found him playing one-night-onlys at clubs in Detroit, Boston, Houston, Laredo, Texas, and Raleigh, N.C.

"It's a weird gig. They pay for my travel, they pay for my hotel, they transport me around town, they feed me, and then they actually pay me to work," said Bermudez.

"The DJ culture, it's a weird phenomenon. It blows my mind every morning when I wake up that I get to do this for a living."

Home base right now is an apartment outside Boston in Watertown, Mass. He and mom Irene Gargan both say he doesn't get back to Lewiston enough.

When he couldn't visit one Christmas, Bermudez sent his mom a video of him and Hilary Duff sitting on a couch, both wishing her happy holidays.

"The possibilities are endless for him," Gargan said. "I told him to do it while you're young." Just what it needed - a touch of Joe The turntables hadn't always beckoned.

After high school graduation in 1994, Bermudez had been destined for film school at the University of Southern California. But that summer, before he packed his bags, he happened to drive past WKZS 99.9 in Auburn.

"I was like, 'Oh, that would be fun,' and I just kept on driving. I was like, 'You know what, what do I have to lose?' I went back and demanded they hire me so I could pay my rent," Bermudez said.

Station management laughed. They weren't looking for a DJ.

"I told them I just wanted a shot really, really badly. I would train myself. If there was any shred of hope, please, I could really use this. If not, I would understand. They were like, 'You know what, we're going to give you a shot.'"

He skipped film school and worked his way up from overnight shifts as a board operator. Jobs in Boston and Portland followed. Eventually, Bermudez landed his first gig spinning in a night club in Atlanta.

"I guess I just kept harassing the promoter to do something and after a while, he finally gave in. He had always liked the music I was playing," Bermudez said.

So, again, someone gave him a shot. It turned out, that's all it took.

"I got another (gig) out in Michigan. They were very slow at first, every four or five months I would get a gig. They slowly started building a resume for me, I would keep going back. Before you knew it, I was on a plane all the time," he said.

Not content to just DJ, Bermudez also applied his considerable musical interests to remixing, soon getting a name and a following for his many talents.

In the DJ Times' 2008 list of America's top 50 DJs, Bermudez came in at no. 18, amid names like DJ Crème and the Cut Chemist. (He's always gone by his own name and, yes, it's real.)

"In the states, a lot of people come out because they hear what I do on Sirius XM. Other people will come out because they've heard different records I've done for big artists and just want to see what I do live," Bermudez said.

"I guess the main draw, it's going to be something different. I do a lot of work during the week taking normal songs you would hear and re-editing them and putting my own special touch on them. So then when you hear it at the club, you're familiar with it, but you're like, 'Why is this all of sudden better than usual?'" Kick it up Sometimes Bermudez mixes songs just for the live shows, for fun. Other times artists or their management approach asking him to add more edge to a track for an album.

"My remix for 'The Trouble With Love Is' was the version that (Kelly Clarkson) used on tour," said Bermudez.

"My personal favorite (for Hilary Duff) is 'Come Clean.' Recently on her new CD, I did a track called 'Holiday' and I did a remix for a song called 'Reach Out' that just went No. 1 on the Billboard (hot dance club) chart."

He's done four mixes for Clarkson, nine for Duff, two for Spears. Other musicians have included Taylor Swift, LL Cool J and the Pussycat Dolls.

"They pretty much trust what I do. There will definitely be some input. I remember on the 'Holiday' record I did for Hilary that she was calling up," Bermudez said. "You wouldn't expect little nit-pick things, (but) she was like, 'I don't like your kick drum, you need a better kick drum.'"

A better kick drum she got.

Bermudez is currently working on a pair of remixes for the new Hannah Montana movie.

"I think they are just using my versions to get on the radio and possibly in the credits," he said. "They are coming out way better than even I expected, so they may make their way into the movie. It doesn't come out until April so my fingers are crossed."

Someday he might settle down, get back home more often, he said. Maybe he'll tour with a band and keep slightly more regular, slightly less jet-setting hours.

His brother Tim Bermudez is an Auburn mechanic. Grandparents Marcie and Robert Galipeau still live in Lewiston.

"My grandparents still think I'm a wedding DJ," Bermudez said. "They're like, 'You must do really good weddings if they're flying you all over the place.'" What does Joe do in a remix, exactly? He breaks it down for us: "Back in the day, a remix was pretty easy to do. When it first started in the disco era, someone would simply extend the intro and outro beats and maybe give the song a break in the middle where they made the cowbell louder. Nowadays, it is basically the same as producing a record. The only thing I use from the original production is the vocal, and sometimes I even have to redo that depending on what the label is looking for.

"When I go in, I listen to just the a cappella and decide what tempo I am going to readjust it to. Then I add a new drum track, bass, as well as keyboard and guitar parts depending on the vibe I am going for. There are very severe penalties in the Remix Agreements that labels give us for sampling. If something from another song is used, we are held responsible and have to pay all the costs associated with it."

Check out Joe Bermudez's XM show Mass Movement Fridays at 2 a.m. and Saturdays at 11 p.m. on Channel 81. And go to www.joebermudez.com for more.