“I think that there are times where Williams needs to dance a little more.” This sentiment, expressed by DJ Quinn Wilson ’25, represents much of the motivation behind Battle of the DJs, which All Campus Entertainment (ACE) will host on Friday. The event, which will be held in Goodrich Hall at 9:30 p.m., features sets by four student DJs and will culminate in a vote to select the College’s top DJ, who will receive an undisclosed prize.
The DJ showdown — a novel event for the campus — was the brainchild of ACE member Linden Niedeck ’25, who said he was inspired by clubs he went to in Stockholm over the summer. “Between moments of just having so much fun and dancing with my friends, I looked around and was like, ‘Why is this, in my opinion, so much better than the parties we have at Williams?’” Niedeck said in an interview with the Record.
“Going to Hoxsey and just chit-chatting with people or being in a mosh pit of people with the same 20 to 25 songs was really grating on me, especially because I knew that it could be so much more fun,” he continued. “I said to myself, ‘Well, I’m part of ACE, and that’s literally our job.’”
On Friday, the battle will kick off with a techno set by DJ Jaskaran Singh ’25. Singh began DJing earlier this year after he produced a song while in Tbilisi, Georgia, for the Winter Study course “Williams in Georgia.”
“I realized I’m not that good at music production, but I do really like curating music and making a lot of playlists,” he told the Record. His experiences as a self-proclaimed “music nerd” and host of his WCFM show “Jassi Sweet Shop” ultimately led him to purchase a DJ controller from eBay and officially begin his DJ career.
Singh made his DJ debut last semester at the entry formal for AP1, for which he served as a Junior Advisor. After, he continued to DJ for several other events around campus, including a set on Hoxsey during Halloween weekend and an event for the South Asian Student Association.
Even though he prepares a group of songs ahead of each set, sorting them by tempos and noting the timestamps of his favorite parts of each, his playlist is not set in stone. “Usually I’ll test it out and get a sense of the vibes for the party,” Singh said.
When playing for parties, Singh has some go-to songs that he said are always people pleasers, such as Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina” as well as almost anything by Rihanna or Drake. At Friday’s battle, however, Singh plans to showcase less popular techno songs. “I feel like techno music is very hype when you have the right tracks,” he said.
Singh will be followed by EB Diallo ’25, whose DJ curation process begins with three hours of meditation, continues with two more hours of listening to music, and then ends with an hour of hands-on practice on the DJ board.
“Sometimes I’ll just scroll on Instagram reels in that last hour,” he said in an interview with the Record. “But I think those six hours really, really, really help me prepare myself for when I do actually touch the board.”
Diallo said he was first introduced to DJing at 8 years old when his uncle gifted him a mixing board. “Then he made me promise that someday I would be the best DJ at a small liberal arts college in Western Mass.,” he joked. Following his uncle’s passing, DJing became even more important to Diallo. “Ever since then, I just knew that’s what I had to do,” he said.
Diallo — like Niedeck — said he was influenced by his experience clubbing in Vienna, Austria, while studying away. “There was this small, local DJ in Vienna, and I would always ask to be in the same clubs she was in,” he said.
After Diallo, Quinn Wilson ’25 will take the Goodrich stage. In an interview with the Record, Wilson said he has been preparing for his set by listening to U.K.-based garage and house music — though his set will include other genres as well. “There’ll definitely be bouncy dancing music, but I also like to try to throw a curveball in there — something weird,” he said.
Wilson first became interested in DJing his first year at the College after taking a course about Black British music taught by then Professor of Africana Studies Lynnée Bonner. He started to practice mixing music along with a friend, and they both became DJs.
He said his approach to preparing a DJ set consists of listening to plenty of music, preparing a list of songs, and freestyling with them. “For shorter sets, like the Battle of the DJs, I’ll prepare a little more and try to plan it out a little better,” he said.
To close out the competition, Sachin Kirtane ’26 will deliver his DJ set.
Kirtane dove into the world of DJing during his first year at the College, inspired by Boiler Room sets, a popular live-steamed DJ performance series. “Whenever there would be [pregames] or parties, I was always the one on aux,” Kirtane told the Record. “Curating music for people is something that has always appealed to me.”
Inspired by artists like ISOxo and Knock 2, whose sounds echo 2010s pop, Kirtane said he aims to create an electric atmosphere and keep the crowd engaged with his sets. “I also really like the rave [scene], not so much because I like the music, but because the atmosphere is so cool,” he said.
Kirtane expressed his enthusiasm about an event in which DJing is front and center. “I feel like at Williams, it’s difficult to find spaces to really play,” he said. “A lot of the parties and events aren’t necessarily conducive to actually DJing, and it’s more about being on aux. There’s nothing wrong with that, but now I’m sort of looking forward to having more freedom.”
Editor’s note: Emily Zas, a managing editor for the Record and ACE board member, was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.
