Adam Ferguson
Way back in September of 2020, while in pursuit of a story about the then-new Earthseed Black Arts Alliance and still reeling from the early days of COVID-19, I attended a show featuring a ragtag group of DJs gathered by local arts pro, MC and DJ Raashan Ahmad under his Love & Happiness events banner. The show took over the field at the Hipico Equestrian Center for one of the first live events any of us had experienced in months, and by spacing out parking spots/outdoor dance zones for small groups, nonprofit promotions outfit AMP Concerts managed to give us something we’d sorely missed—live music. For those of us who’d just spent months washing our hands raw and wiping down groceries with bleach, it felt like the hugest return to normalcy thanks to performances from Ahmad and DJs Sol, Ride and others; it also proved an incontrovertible fact about Santa Fe’s Dominic Gonzales, aka DJ Dmonic: The man knows how to rock a party.
Fast forward to early summer 2025, and Gonzales has tackled a whole hell of a lot. He’s one of the main event coordinators for downtown sportsbar/concert venue Boxcar, for example, and he’s managed to build a downtown party oasis that feels a bit like Santa Fe at the height of its nightlife powers. In fact, Gonzales says, the club hits or nears full capacity most weekends when it comes to DJ events, and band shows have proven popular, too. He’s also maintained his ongoing DJ-as-day-job practice through bookings across a variety of event types. The most notable feather in his cap currently, however, might be his Santa Fe DJ Club, an ongoing free series of workshops offered through the Santa Fe Boys & Girls Club Teen Center inside the Santa Fe Place mall. With an
assist from nonprofit Vital Spaces (headed by Ahmad) and equipment donated by a little company called Apple, Gonzales can teach kids the ways of decksmithing with top-
tier equipment and a simple yet powerful ethos about giving back to the community through music. But let’s take it back to 2001.
“Actually, I got into playing bass first,” Gonzales tells SFR of his musical journey. “I was in 7th grade when I got my bass, and I had a little band with my friends and did that for a while. But then in 2001, I went to my first all-night party in Tesuque, and Donovan, this longtime Santa Fe DJ, was there; when I saw him spinning…that’s what sparked it for me.”
Gonzales says he somehow convinced his family to get him turntables for Christmas that year, and he set about teaching himself to DJ using vinyl (a sadly rare part of the equation these days). He also found his DJ people.
“Later, when I went to my first party in a warehouse and saw a couple hundred kids dancing and one dude conducting the vibe, that was it,” Gonzales says. “It was easier for me to express what I wanted to say musically through two turntables than a bass.”
This was in the old days, too, when fledgling DJs had to learn in a world without beat-matching software and an unlimited sea of downloadable tracks; a world where lugging vinyl and facing gatekeepers was the norm. Santa Fe, however, was different. Just like the punk and metal scenes of the early-aughts were packed with musician types who wanted to teach others the ropes and collaborate, so, too, was the local DJ world. According to Gonzales, DJs like Julian, The Rev and Donovan took him under their collective wing, allowing him to spin and learn on the job at house and warehouse parties around town. Oh, they’d call him out when he mismatched a beat or took a sour turn, he says, but they became de facto teachers for a young music-lover looking to learn. Now, Gonzales says, he’s taking those lessons and feels, throwing in his nearly 25 years of DJ
experience and harnessing the power of corporate funding to pass along what he’s learned to a new generation. Already, Gonzales has stocked the Boys & Girls Club’s mall outpost with some of the best audio gear possible—10 stations containing the hardware and software to create relevant and competitive DJ sets. Not only that, but the Santa Fe DJ Club is free to attend every Tuesday from 4:30-6 pm, and Gonzales’
connections and clout mean that students can start performing at shows as soon as they’re ready. As someone who constantly gets mail from worried parents about what to do with their kids, this hits the mark in a major way. Plus, Gonzales says, the vibe is more about hanging and imparting knowledge informally than it is a stodgy class-like experience.
“My goal is to take a student who doesn’t know anything about DJing and have them be able to curate their own DJ set,” he explains. “One of my students already has two gigs, so I know they now have the skills to do what they need to do.”
That low-pressure setting has already inspired more kids to get involved than Gonzales ever thought possible. In turn, he says, he finds himself more inspired as a DJ and proud to boot.
“The reason I became a DJ was that I used to love being on a dancefloor and the freedom of closing my eyes and feeling it,” he says. “Creating something…that brings people together, and they’re not worried about this and that and the student isn’t worried about this and that? It’s art, and we’re here to express that, but also to have fun. There’s no wrong way to do this. If it works it works. I’ll show them the framework and they take it from there.”
Santa Fe DJ Club Weekly Session: 4:30-6 pm Tuesdays. Free. Santa Fe Boys & Girls Club Teen Center, 4250 Cerrillos Road, (505) 428-0249
