Carlos Mélange Bio
Sneaking around your job after hours isn't a normal avenue for deejaying success. But when your career has ascended as quickly as Carlos Mélange's, there's no such thing as "normal."
When Mélange, then a 20-year old employee at a local Long Island restaurant, learned of an open deejay spot at a club the manager was opening, he jumped at the chance despite little—okay, zero—experience. "For two weeks straight, I would stay after the place closed and sneak into the DJ booth to teach myself how to mix and blend songs," admits Mélange. "I'd hide in the booth, wait for everyone to leave, and start rocking out."
While getting his first taste of the deejay life, Mélange postponed working the decks in favor of dancing, club promoting and emceeing, the latter his ticket to local fame as the go-to emcee at myriad clubs. "I knew in 2002 when I was emceeing a New Year's Eve gig in front of 3,000 people that I thought 'I want this,'" says Mélange. "I love being on stage and being able to control peoples' emotions. It was such a high and when I started deejaying, it took a hold of me and it wasn’t a question of whether I wanted it or not. It just took over."
Flash forward to 2007, when Mélange gave up all other gigs and focused on deejaying full-time. Despite being a relative newcomer, Mélange has already amassed an enviable résumé, having already rocked successful residencies at Tenjune, SL, Butter, Mixx at Borgata and Miami's Fontainebleau. In March, the fledgling deejay opened and closed for none other than Tiësto, handling the nerve-wracking gig with ease. "When I started, everyone stopped walking towards the door, ran back to the stage and started chanting 'Tiesto, Tiesto' thinking it was him," says Mélange, laughing. "But I started rocking it and kept most of the people there." The next day, the event's Facebook page was flooded with questions along the lines of "Who deejayed after Tiesto?"
With veteran deejays Vice and Chachi as mentors, Mélange's name is now mentioned among people that have been at the craft three and four times longer. For Carlos Mélange, deejaying is not sitting on top of a mountain, decreeing your tastes from on high. It's about constantly interacting with your crowd and ensuring they're as happy to hear you as you are to spin. "I love being able to go to cities and see people I've only known a few months, but feel like I've known my whole life," says Mélange.
In May 2010, Mélange released The Mélange Project: Volume 1, a 70-minute mix of electro, pop and progressive house that combines hidden gems with familiar classics. "If a deejay was spinning at a club and his computer crashed," says Mélange, "I want him to be able to put this mix on at any point and rock a crowd." Eschewing an overreliance of studio trickery and technological gimmickry, The Mélange Project replicates the deejay's enthralling live sets while still showcasing Mélange's expert ear. "I'm not a fan of hearing
a deejay's mix and then hearing him live and going, 'What the hell is that?,'" says Mélange. As one of the only deejays equally adept on a microphone as a turntable, Mélange can rightly lay claim to a skill most deejays can't even begin to garner.
With more residencies and The Mélange Project: Volume 4 in the works, Carlos Melange is only beginning his career as one of the nation's most in-demand deejays. His goal is simple: "I want to make people feel something," says Mélange. "I'm on the cusp of doing extraordinary things and I can't be more excited about life."

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