DJ LIFE caught up with the Miami-based DJ Knockers, 36, to discuss his journey from late-blooming DJ to DMC USA champ.
If at first you don’t succeed… maybe you should listen to your wife. That’s what Scott Koltun did, and it helped him become a national-champion turntablist.
In his quest for the 2023 DMC USA crown, Koltun (aka DJ Knockers) stumbled in a regional competition, but was encouraged by his wife Jenni (and DMC co-organizer Christie Z. Pabon) to enter the USA final competition in New York as a wild card. After much tough reflection and more than a little support from his partner, Koltun submitted a last-minute entry to the finals and made his way to Gotham.
His finals routine, which included cinematic snippets, deft on-beat tricks, and a tasteful mixture of musical genres that stretched ethereal passages into drum-n-bass breaks, was stellar. The judges were impressed and that night he walked away with a championship nobody can ever take away from him. A little encouragement can go a long way.
We caught up with the Miami-based DJ Knockers, 36, to discuss his journey from late-blooming DJ to DMC USA champ.
DJ LIFE: Where did you grow up?
Knockers: I grew up in Miami, Fla., which is a very unique place. I love the eclectic grouping of people and the different types of music that you can hear. It is very much home to me.
DJ LIFE: Growing up there, how much was music a part of your life?
Knockers: It was, for sure, my parents love music. My mom and my dad are from immigrant families and music was on all the time. We had Spanish parties where my family would be dancing and singing along. Music was always around and my parents were willing to let me listen to anything.
DJ LIFE: When did you get started in DJing?
Knockers: I was actually a late bloomer, compared to many other DJs I’ve met. I really didn’t start getting into DJing until I was in college, around 22 years old or so. My first experience with DJing was at an open-house class at the Scratch DJ Academy in Miami, and eventually I became a student there. That’s where I was introduced to all the things that I fell in love with down the line.
DJ LIFE: After that, when did you start getting interested turntablism and competitions?
Knockers: After the first class, I knew DJing was fun, but I didn’t love it. It just felt like another thing. What really got me interested – and I can pinpoint the exact moment that I fell in love – was when I was introduced to the DMC Championships.
DJ LIFE: As a DJ, why did the DMCs move you so much?
Knockers: The DMC battles are one of the longest-running DJ battles, and it’s just the most hardcore technical DJing that there is. It started as a mix competition, but eventually became home of the scratching and juggling and body tricks – and that’s where people went to push the envelope. So, when I saw routines, it blew my mind. I’d never really given any thought to scratching until I saw that. When I saw people doing battle routines for the first time, that was the moment. That’s what clicked, and I was like, “That’s what I want to do!” I had never had that “a-ha moment” before.
DJ LIFE: Was the competitive aspect of the DMC Championships attractive to you?
Knockers: Definitely. I think I’m probably overly competitive. Whatever it is – sports, video games, cards – I always want to win. So, I think that helps because it gives me that extra energy to want to be better. Scratching and DJing was also my first kind of artistic outlet in any way. So, learning to express myself and have almost meditative practice with music, that just happened at a good time for me, I guess.
DJ LIFE: When was your first-ever competition?
Knockers: I started competing in 2015 when I was 22, relatively quickly after taking classes. Luckily for me, the head instructor at the academy there, DJ Immortal, was another U.S. DMC champion and he was practicing and that’s kind of where it started. I started asking questions, and he showed me a YouTube video from the 1990s, and I did more research. And yeah, there’s just such a rabbit hole to go down. There’s so many battles and so many iconic figures and moments and history that you have to learn about – and I was hooked.
DJ LIFE: How long did it take for you to realize you might be pretty good at it?
Knockers: At the beginning, I didn’t really take it seriously. It was more for fun. But my competitive nature took over and then I set a goal to win those battles. So that’s when I started practicing harder and there was maybe a two- or three-year period there where I was practicing like crazy. So, by 2016, I was ready to enter and actually compete at a higher level. In the early days, I finished second a lot – I mean, a lot! It took maybe another year to break through and start winning.
DJ LIFE: Tell us about your experience winning the DMC U.S. Championship… what do you remember about the journey to the title?
Knockers: I won the 2023 U.S. championship with the classic six-minute routine. It’s a regional battle first, so people compete in their region and then eventually the winners get together one more time for another battle. I actually didn’t win my regional, so that’s a pretty funny story. I messed up in my regional competition in Tampa, and it was a pretty obvious mistake. If you make a mistake at this level, it’s kind of hard to win. But I was encouraged to enter the finals anyway as a wild card. Christie [Z. Pabon], the organizer said, “You should enter the finals. You were good enough. You should have won, but you messed up. So, make sure you don’t mess up and you should come to New York.” To be honest, I didn’t want to go to New York. I said to myself that, I didn’t earn it, and “no, I’m done.” But my wife, Jenni, told me that I needed to go. With her insisting, I changed my mind and decided to go. It was really close to the deadline. We then traveled to New York and, I don’t know, I guess it was my night.
DJ LIFE: So, you have your wife to thank for winning the U.S. Championship?
Knockers: Yeah. 100-percent. Jenni is the best. The best! I think this is such a weird life, the life of a creative. You need to have a supportive partner, someone who understands.
DJ LIFE: What does your gear set-up look like when you compete?
Knockers: Almost always two Technics SL-1200 turntables and a Pioneer DJ mixer. I mostly use the Pioneer DJ DJM-S11 at home. Also, I use the Phase controller, which is a game-changer for high-pressure, loud, bass-heavy environments – no skipping needles. I can play with a lot more confidence in those competitive situations.
DJ LIFE: What’s next for you and your career?
Knockers: I am currently doing a lot of teaching, either online teaching or in-person teaching. It’s an opportunity to give back and teach the next generation. I’m actually teaching at the DJ Academy where I started learning. I felt early on in my DJ career that I wanted to start teaching because it’s good to surround yourself with other people that are trying to learn. It kind of lets you allow yourself to learn. You have better energy in your daily practice.
DJ LIFE: Will you be competing again in the future?
Knockers: I am at a really weird place because I honestly don’t know. If I had a DJ life goal when I first started, it was to win the DMC U.S. Championship. I did it and now I’m it’s kind of reassessing and figuring out how I want to keep going. I have some other areas of interest, like music production. I do some producing, including all the editing in my routines I have to do, but I want to create some more original stuff to leave the world. I want to leave something that my kids can listen to.
DJ LIFE: What advice do you have for DJs?
Knockers: Be yourself. Be original. Invest in yourself the time, but more than anything else, you gotta find your own voice and do it your way. To push yourself to that 1-percent, it takes originality, it takes a willingness to fail and try new things and try to experiment and push forward. Hopefully, you’ll rise above, eventually.
Photos by Jeff Straw Branding
