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My name is Clayton Benito, I’m a DJ tutor.
Yeah, I’ve been working for him now for about two years, doing various tuition all over the place, all over the city, teaching inner-city deprived children basically how to enjoy music and play their decks.
Pato runs a lot of projects throughout Birmingham, and part of it is just to teach children how to enjoy music and how to play instruments. Well the decks ain’t really an instrument but it’s a difficult thing to master, and I can put them on the right road to practise. So they seem to enjoy it.
Some of it’s during school hours, some of it’s to do with college leavers – 16 plus. The school kids it’s run through the school so I think through their music lessons they’ll come out. Like tomorrow morning ten o'clock I’ve got some school kids here, I’m not sure what school but I’ve got them here from ten to one, so it should be interesting.
The college leavers actually they actually do a course, it’s like a taster course, it’s just an an introductory to the basic skills of DJ-ing So I basically put them on the right road to learn how to do it. And when they leave they get a certificate, and the knowledge to, if they want to pursue it further, buy their own stuff and practise. None of this was available when I started DJ-ing which was quite hard because I couldn’t ask anybody any questions or get any information.
Well I just liked music, and one day I visited a friend and he had turntables, I just started practising, but because I didn’t have any help or no one to turn to it took quite long for me to pick it up. Whereas the people I teach can pick it up quite soon and practise to develop into a good DJ.
I started four years ago, I started when I was 18, and since then it’s just I haven’t looked back, basically.
I did three months in Ayia Napa, in the summer of 2001. DJ-ing on the island of Cyprus. I play clubs around Birmingham every weekend, and London. And I just produce my own tracks and try and play them when I perform live.
Well basically all I did in the early days was I used to go out to the event where I’d ideally like to play and hang around the turntables watch the DJ, speak to the DJ. Until I felt confident enough to get a tape prepared and hand it to the promoter and just keep my fingers crossed that he gets back to me. I did end up handing about a hundred tapes out, and you’ll probably get one reply if you’re lucky, so you just have to have perseverance really. It’s how badly you want it.
Something like that. But basically, this industry I feel it’s not what you know it’s who you know. You have to really know the people for them to give you the break. So that’s why I did the hanging out stuff, and making the people aware that this is what I wanted to do.
After Pato just got his number one hit he actually moved just down the road from me, which was quite surprising. He had children the same age as me – I was a child at that point. I used to hang around with his kids, so I just got to know him through that. He used to let me set up my turntables when I first started , in his studio in his house, to record a CD for a demo. So he’s always given me the help that I’ve needed. Really, I owe him quite a lot.
Yeah, that’s all he’s really about is just trying to give something back to the children of Birmingham, to give them the opportunity and the chance to make something in the music industry.
Yeah, there isn’t really, I don’t know of any other routes really other than the courses run by Pato where he will take the time out and personally sit one to one with any student that shows an interest, and give them the best support that they can possibly expect. Whereas most people in the same position as Pato wouldn’t do that – he doesn’t have to do it but, he does. That’s why we’re here.
Well the reason I chose to teach is because it’s doing something that I love. DJ-ing is my life, music is my life. I didn’t have it on paper at the time when he give me my first tutoring job, that I could teach, but he had faith in me. And um, he just give me the chance, no one else would have gave me the chance. And I’ve proved my worth and I’m still here. I’ve had a lot of pupils come through my hands at the time that I’ve been doing it and it brings a smile to my face seeing that when they walk in and they don’t have a clue and they leave and, you know what I mean, they can actually put a link together.
You just need rhythm, basically. If you like music, you can nod your head to a beat, that’s all you need to get you started, as long as you like music, that’s all you need.
If anybody out there is listening
and they wanna be in the music industry, just don’t give up. It’s
not gonna be easy, it’s not gonna be short term, it’s gonna
take a lot of hard work and perseverance. But never give up.
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