Meet the DJs

The DJs have been assembled. And the clock is ticking, ticking ... down to 9 p.m. this Friday night at NV (220 Admiral), where a fresh crop of DJs will face off with randomly ordered, back-to-back, live, super-intense, peak-time, club-banging, 30-minute sets in the city's biggest yearly DJ event: The Pitch Ultra Music DJ Contest. We're totally excited about this year's contestants. They come from all sides of the music spectrum — and some are from halfway around the globe. But they're all coming to the contest to do one thing: Make. You. Dance.

1. Real name: Shaun Duval

Unofficial title: The Heavyweight

Mexican wrestler name: El Rey

Ridiculoso

Birthplace: Chicago

Cut his teeth: Atlanta, 1995 to 2005

Has been DJing: "Longer than I care to talk about. I would say, professionally, 10 years."

Started off spinning: "Strictly soulful Chicago house."

Preferred style(s): "I just kind of go with the event and the night that I'm playing. Some places, I play Top 40 mash-up remixes; some places, I play downtempo. But I don't really mix too many styles together. I try to keep to one particular style when I'm playing a gig. ... I like to rock a dance floor."

Inspirations: Hot Mix 5, Frankie Knuckles, Clever, Tittsworth, Diplo

Has played: Re:Verse (three-year Friday residency), One80, Mosaic, Blonde

Current residency: Thursdays at Nara, on rotation at Blonde

Calls his followers: The Shauntourage

Plan of attack: "Pure energy. I want to surprise everyone. A lot of people think that I play only one style of music, or that they can pigeonhole me into being one kind of a DJ. But I really wanna surprise people. I want them to know I'm not just house music, not just Top 40 mash-ups and remixes. That's the plan of attack — just energy, make some eardrums bleed."

2. Real name: Francisco Asis Morillo Otero

Unofficial title: The Spanish Flyboy

Taxi-driver name: Chow-Chow White

Birthplace: Cadiz, Spain

Day job: High-school math teacher

Has been DJing: Eight years

First gig: A club called Ajo in Cadiz

First gig in KC after moving here two and a half years ago: The Westport Beach Club, alongside Oz McGuire

Preferred style(s): Electro-indie, electro-noise, mixing up funk, reggae, hip-hop, afrobeat, "flavor music, urban sounds, very eclectic"

Inspirations: Ninja Tune, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow

Has played: One80, Balanca's, Record Bar, Eighth Street Taproom, Replay, Skybox, "pretty much everywhere"

Current residencies: Tuesdays at Nara, Fridays at One80

Plan of attack: "I'm going to play things that people recognize. ... I don't care if I win — I wanna play music and help people have fun."

Best thing about being a DJ: "The response of the crowd. Another thing is, I feel that I can put everything I have in my head — all the sounds and beats — and put it together in a session. I like to take people from one place to another place in terms of music."

Worst thing: "Requests for commercial music."

3. Real name: Scott Carpenter

Unofficial title: The Blonde Bomber

Hobbit name: Lotho Boggy-Hillocks

Birthplace: St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri

Has been DJing: Three years

Got started: "I used to be in electronic music when I was younger, and I kind of got away from it. Then I went to an event at the Madrid, featuring BT as the headlining DJ, and after that I just kind of re-emerged myself. I went out, bought some new equipment and got going again."

Preferred style(s): Electro-house

Inspirations: Deadmau5, Klaas; "Locally, Bill Pile, Steve Thorrell, and this up-and-comer Andrew Northern (who's real experienced with production)."

Has played: Blonde, Mint, Glow

Current residency: Wednesdays at Blonde

Plan of attack: "To go there with a handful of tracks that I love, feel the crowd out, and play what they're going for."

Best thing about being a DJ: "You get paid to do something you love."

Worst thing: "That, in this line of work, a lot of things can change really quick, as in working with nightclubs, and you don't necessarily get much notice."

During this interview, he was recovering: From a cold.

4. Real name: Jamel Williams

Unofficial title: The Hip-Hop Kid

Pimp name: Sheik Rockwell Slither

Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri

Has been DJing: 11 years

Got started: DJing in college at Central Missouri State University

Preferred style(s): "I work mostly in hip-hop. I'm part of James Christos' collective, the Guerilla Movement. I also like electronic stuff. I spin a lot of traditional house and ghetto house. I'm good friends with DJ Shad — we always had a bond because of ghetto house."

Hip-hop background, advantage or disadvantage? "I consider it an advantage. I think, as a DJ, you need to know how to spin, period. I think if you classify yourself as a specific type of DJ, then you lower your stock as a DJ. Funkmaster Flex – he spins a lot of electronic stuff, whenever it pays. Van Helden, Fatboy Slim — a lot of those cats, they have some kind of hip-hop background or some kind of background other than electronic music."

Inspirations: "Armand Van Helden is definetly an influence. DJ Funk. I actually have a pretty decent appreciation for DJ Skribble. The big dude that I kind of pattern myself after or try to emulate is [Afrika] Bambaataa, because he crossed genres whenever he pleased."