DJ Nurotic Kiss FM Chicago

In 2010, DJ Nurotic premiered his first mix on 103.5 Kiss FM in Chicago, IL. From then on, DJ Nurotic Kiss FM continued to grow the brand and became a mix show DJ for other top stations including Hot 96, WFAV, and Sirius/XM.

To make himself stand out from other DJs who just play other artists music, DJ Nurotic produced a countless amount of original songs, mash-ups, bootlegs, and remixes to add to his sets. He is also part of the Fred and Angi morning show, Friday mornings with his Friday Throwback Dance Party aka #FTDP.

Dylan:
In this episode, one of the Windy City’s very own mix masters.

Dylan:
We’re talking to DJ Nurotic from KISS FM.

Diplo:
Hey, what’s up? This is Diplo and you’re in the Mix with DJ Nurotic. (music).

Announcer:
This is Club KISS.

Announcer:
With DJ Nurotic on 103.5 KISS FM. (music).

Announcer:
The top mix masters.

Announcer:
From Chicago.

Announcer:
You’re in the Mix with DJ Neurotic. Get him, boy.

Dylan:
How did you get your DJ name? How did that whole thing begin for you? Did it have a little bit to do with your personality?

DJ Nurotic:
It kind of does, especially when I DJ, I like things a certain way. I don’t like if people are in the booth, it just really bothers me.

Dylan:
Yeah. Like you’re a little bit neurotic. I don’t know. You might be.

DJ Nurotic:
I was in high school in psychology class. I was still awake and we were talking about neurosis and the symptoms and I was like, “Yeah. That’s me.”

Dylan:
DJ Neurotic from KISS FM 103.5 here in Chicago. What’s up, man?

DJ Nurotic:
What’s going on? How you doing tonight?

Dylan:
MVPM too.

Dylan:
Yeah.

DJ Nurotic:
Yes BPM Sirius XM.

Dylan:
Hello? An Hour of Dopeness?

DJ Nurotic:
Yes. Yes. The mix tape, Hour of Dopeness.

Dylan:
And newly added to the KISS FM morning show as well.

DJ Nurotic:
Yep. Friday mornings.

Dylan:
Whoa. What happened there? Tell us about that, is it the throwback mix? Or they don’t have a name for it. Is that kind of the joke?

DJ Nurotic:
Yeah. We don’t have a name for it.

Announcer:
Mr. Burns hates this idea. Thank God it’s Friday mix, with Fred and Angie on-

DJ Nurotic:
Yeah. The show, it really wasn’t supposed to happen, but it’s happening. So-

Dylan:
Some of the best things in radio started like that DJ Neurotic.

Fred:
8:16. You got your throwback and now my Twitter is exploding people.

Angie:
I love it.

Fred:
What do you want to hear? Fred On Air. You hit us up there. Angie Taylor KISS as well. And tell us what you want to hear. It’s our we don’t have a name for it.

Angie:
Shout out to DJ Nurotic!

Fred:
DJ Neurotic killing it right now

Angie:
Oh my God!

Fred:
or you can call us too, 855-591-1035 KISS FM. Fred and Angie.

DJ Nurotic:
Really, my goal was to recreate my high school days.

Luis:
Like prom night or something, or what?

DJ Nurotic:
No, no, not prom night. Just high school days. Also, you know, whenever any of my exes hear the mix to be like, “Oh, he made it! Why did I leave him?”

Luis:
This is actually the mix. That’s going out to everybody who you all mixed through. Right dude.

Dylan:
Dude, that’s the revenge mix.

Dylan:
How did you get into kiss FM to begin with? I mean, you’re working with Fred and Angie now in the morning show, how did this thing begin for you?

DJ Nurotic:
It actually started six years ago and I say persistency, because saying, “being a pain in the ass,” doesn’t sound as nice. Because, really I wanted to be on radio you know, that’s always been a goal. Wanted to be a mixed show. I just kept sending them my mixes. It was like, here’s a mix. Here’s a mix. I’m going to keep sending mixes till you say. Yeah, and then finally, you know, I was real cool with Boi Jeanius and Punk Boy Lee, and I ended up meeting like Jay Pop and some of the other guys at the station and Scotty Special K. He was like, “yo, we going to give you a shot, send in that mix.”

Dylan:
Wow, I think that’s something that a lot of people don’t know. They want to be on the mix show, but they don’t know how they, how to do it, and they think it’s just going to have to, somebody’s going to come, “Oh, Hey, reach out. I saw you on SoundCloud. Do you want to be on Kiss FM?” They think that that’s going to really happen.

DJ Nurotic:
Yeah, exactly.

Dylan:
You have to be persistent. Now it started six years ago at kiss FM. How long have you actually been mixing?

DJ Nurotic:
I’ve been mixing 18 years now.

Dylan:
Yes.

DJ Nurotic:
Yeah.

Dylan:
So let’s say you were six years old when you started?

DJ Nurotic:
I was 12 when I started.

Luis 2 Live:
So he had a good resume going in.

Dylan:
So I’m listening to the hour of dopeness and you are so dope that you actually have Diplo. You actually have disco fries. You actually have Dylan Fringe. Is that another persistence thing or you just the most persistent motherfucker ever? I mean, do you just go after these guys too? Like, “I need to drop, I need to drop you got to give me a drop.” Is that how that happened?

Dylan:
How long does it take, does it take you two years to get Diplo? How does that get everybody in the pipeline there?

DJ Nurotic:
With Diplo, that one still blows my mind because of the fact that I get records from Mad Decent, they want me to play records and so I just built a relationship with them over there. And one day I was like, you know what, “Hey, can I get Diplo on my next CD?” And they were like, “let me hit off his manager.” So they sent him to this whole email thing, you know, we’re exchanging emails. And then all of a sudden I have a mix from Diplo in my email and I was like, “Hey, thanks for the mix.”

Dylan:
But…

DJ Nurotic:
“Can I get some drops too?” I was like, Because people are going to think I just stole your mix.”

Dylan:
Diplo making a mix for me wasn’t enough. No, I need him to actually say my hour of dopeness.

Luis 2 Live:
I need to validate this somehow.

Dylan:
That’s so cool.

DJ Nurotic:
Yeah. So that’s how that happened. So what I kept doing, I kept sending these mix tapes to the PD and BP is like, yo, Clinton Sparks says, I’m cool. Diplo says I’m cool. Atrak says I’m cool.

Dylan:
Dillon Francis, said I’m cool.

Dylan:
Do you want to join the club? That’s great, bro. That really is great. And I think you don’t understand in telling your story. I think how much that really will affect so many people in this business.

Major Lazer:
Listen, you’re listening to the hour of dopeness, volume six with DJ Neurotic and Major Lazer. And I’m talking about, they go together like peanut butter and jelly.

DJ Nurotic:
Consistency is key. Like, if you want something, you got to, you got to set that goal and you just got to keep going at that goal. No matter like what it is just fine.

Dylan:
Like you’re neurotic. Oh my God. You’re like really speaking to people’s hearts right now talking about like, you know, all kinds of things, fitness goals, health goals, you just got to set that goal. What is it?

DJ Nurotic:
You got to set that goal and follow through.

Dylan:
Now, what do you do? What do you do besides deejaying that inspires you so much? I know you do a lot. You’ve started running. So I know that has a lot to do with this inspiration that this talk that you’re bringing out.

DJ Nurotic:
Yeah. Last year I woke up one morning and I was like, “I’m going to run a marathon” and then I signed up for this week.

Dylan:
It was a week after he woke up and said, “this is how he wakes up in the morning.” Big ideas.

DJ Nurotic:
Yeah. So I signed up the Chicago marathon and so I started training for that and then training for that started doing other runs and then did and completed the Chicago marathon. I actually pulled a muscle in my right knee during the race at mile nine. So I still ran the other 17 miles injured.

Dylan:
Wow. There you go.

DJ Nurotic:
Yeah. Afterwards, I was like, “this was the stupidest thing I have ever done” and now I am training to run the marathon in Germany in April.