Adrian Arias | Valladolid (EFE)
‘Who is in da school’ is the personal project of the Valladolid DJ María Arias, who in June of last year decided to turn her professional career around and bet on her full musical facet, with her brand ‘Who’, which includes this public electronic music school that “fit perfectly into the plans of the municipality of Simancas”, he explains in an interview with Agencia EFE.
A reading workshop on the left, a zumba room on the right and, going up some stairs from the municipal center, after crossing a door: a music studio that delights the kids who enthusiastically come to teach the DJ the mixes they have made at home.
Mixing desk, controllers, microphones, headphones and a laptop to broadcast live through 89.9 is all that María and her students need to start their classes: “Electronic music also requires preparation,” explains Arias, who recognizes that in this world there is “a lot of freak” without any preparation or taste in music.
Technique, preparation and taste
“Everything here has its harmony and is based on a mathematical formula”, emphasizes the DJ, who rejects the idea of electronic music sessions based on improvisation and the moment: “You have to prepare sessions of one hundred tracks, and then finish using thirty”, he argues.
For this reason, Arias, who began mixing his own songs as a teenager more than 15 years ago, acknowledges that there is still a “great lack of knowledge” in society about electronic music: “Many people think that everything is crappy ‘Techno’ and that DJs play stoned for people with fluorine shirts in Ibiza”.
“Electronic music is more than that small parcel. I repel drugs and I claim that this type of music also serves to help people ”, emphasizes María, who advances that her intention is to extend this project to other small municipalities in the so-called emptied Spain.
A dose of self-esteem for young people
Precisely, helping young people with some problem or insecurity is another of the pillars of this electronic music school attended by boys and girls with special needs or, simply, with low self-esteem and where they find motivation that gives them that “ shot of energy and desire to continue that makes them eat the world when they get on stage and start mixing ”.
This is the case of the young DJ Anthua and Furonx, who tell while mixing how in less than a year their life has been “revolutionized” and they have found a motivation that they did not have before, which has helped them mature as people and have more confidence in themselves.
“My favorite thing is to go up there and make people enjoy my music. He is a rush that I cannot describe ”, explains Anthua, who at the age of 12 is clear that he wants to continue learning and perfecting his musical taste to dedicate himself professionally to DJing in the future.EFE
(Related information: The little mouse Pérez moves to the town and fills depopulated Spain with children; “La Repera”, the town “pógcar” that empowers rural entrepreneurs)
