About

A 'wangzoom' side hustle: DJ gigs and stage design

By Jessica Brooks



For La Fete de Marquette 2019, Max and his team designed and built a DJ booth and stage backdrop that allowed three people to work lights, lasers, and projection video.


I learned a new word interviewing Max Wasinger: Wangzoom.

“Wangzoom" is a word coined by Max's father to describe something that is, frankly, pretty cool, fly, bomb, or stupid (in a good way). To use it in a sentence, his dad, a big motorcycle guy, might say, "The custom paint job on that bike is wangzoom."

This is how Max came to select "Wangzoom" as his DJ alter ego name. Let's back up—our very own Max Wasinger, Designer, moonlights as a DJ.

Put your headphones on and enjoy one of his mixes as you read more:

Wangzoom Live @ WiscoJazz at the Highbury (2019.10.12)

IN THE BEGINNING

Max's life in the DJ world started by designing promotional flyers for DJ nights. Max is a graphic design artist and is one of the designers on the WPS Marketing team.

Being close to the DJ world and having a great interest and love of music, it was only a matter of time before someone suggested that Max do DJ work himself. So, he did. He plays electronic dance, disco, reggae, classic soul, and techno, to name a few styles of music.

These days, Max has found a love and interest in more than DJing—he now designs the stages for DJs, an ever-growing industry trend.

THE TRANSITION TO SET DESIGN

DJs have always been able to dazzle the stage with more than their sound. At night, they can use lighting, video projection, and other tools to add to the experience. This becomes more of a challenge during the daytime hours at festivals.

In his early years as a DJ, Max was lucky to have a tablecloth. He saw an opportunity to put his design skills to use and design sets for DJs that were just as interesting during the day as they can be at night. As a designer, he works with colors, lines, tension, contrast, and more to produce a robust audience experience.

LA FETE DE MARQUETTE

One of the few festivals that Max is greatly involved in is La Fete de Marquette.

La Fête De Marquette is Madison's biggest summer community celebration. It is a four-day summer weekend packed with great food, family fun activities, and amazing musicians in the Marquette neighborhood.

Max is a part of the team that produces the Musique Électronique Program for one of the side stages, which grows and evolves each year; Max hopes it will one day rival the main stage. Max and his team are in charge of finding the DJs for this stage. Their goal is to bring new DJs that Madison hasn't seen, including international DJs. It wasn't always this large, but they have kept steady growth, and each year can bring amazing artists to Madison.

Along with booking artists, he also helps with social media promotion, flyer design, and stage design. He has even picked folks up from the airport when needed.

The fantastic thing is that this festival, hosted and funded by the Wilmar Neighborhood Center, continues to be a free and family-friendly event! Mark your calendar for July 14-17, 2022!