Writing posts about industry moves is important. I get that you lose your collective minds at some of the shiny things that we routinely post about, but I feel it’s important that you get a connection to the people make the aforementioned gear for you. And in the case of the following piece of PR that landed in my inbox is concerned, I couldn’t be happier with the contents, or prouder of the person it concerns.
You see, one of our own is now sitting at an important desk at Pioneer DJ USA. Skratchworx OG and DJWORX team member Drew Bach aka ProfessorBX is now helping shape the future of DJing. Here’s the official word:
PIONEER DJ STRENGTHENS PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, NAMES DREW BACH TO PRODUCT PLANNING MANAGER ROLE
DJ and Music Industry Veteran, Drew Bach, Rounds Out DJ Industry’s Most Comprehensive, Committed Team.
(TORRANCE, CA) December 18, 2019: Strengthening its leadership position as the DJ community’s most innovative and partnership-driven technology provider, Pioneer DJ today announced the addition of industry veteran, Drew Bach, to its Product Planning team. Bach, who has extensive experience as a working DJ; product management and business development at Gibson, Apple, Guillemot and other leading brands, joined Pioneer DJ in August, and now operates from Pioneer DJ’s Torrance, Calif. office, reporting to Lars Schlichting, Director of Product Planning, Artist Relations at Pioneer DJ Americas, Inc.
“Drew has an innate understanding of the art and business of DJing, and his experience and expertise—as well as his deep connection and passion for this community—will inform our product planning, programs and organization,” Schlichting said. “I am very pleased to have Drew join our team and I’m delighted to see his ideas and the impact he’s already making at Pioneer DJ.”
Bach joins Pioneer DJ with a nearly two-decade background in the music technology space. Most recently having held roles at Apple and Guillemot, Bach spent much of his career in product development roles at Gibson (with the Stanton DJ and KRK brands) and Gemini DJ working on embedded DJ technology, turntables and studio monitoring solutions.
“I’ve dreamed of joining Pioneer DJ since day one of my career,” said Bach. “No other company has so consistently driven how DJs create and perform, from bedrooms to festival stages. I can’t wait to bring my experience to the team, and be part of the creation of tools DJ’s depend on to realize their own dreams.”
Echoing this sentiment, John Powell, President of Pioneer DJ Americas Inc. said today, “Pioneer DJ is committed to empowering the broadest community of DJs and venue operators with tools enabling creative expression in ways we have not yet seen or heard! To accomplish this, we need the best team possible and we’ve taken another step toward achieving that with the addition of Drew Bach to Pioneer DJ.”
Together in 2013 in my hood.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF PROFESSORBX
Back in 2003, I started skratchworx from a desk in my living room, with no real clue about how to make and market a scratch focussed website. What was also clear was that while I had the passion and determination to make it happen, I definitely lacked the knowledge of what DJing was about some 14 years after I stopped.
So I tapped into the growing hive mind of people around me, and ProfessorBX’s name kept coming up. And before long he was proving to be indispensable. Despite his youth (so forgive my chuckle at him being called veteran in the PR), he obviously not only knew so much, but loved everything about DJ gear. It was clear that while the site was mine, I was learning so much from Drew’s Rain Man like cavernous archive of a brain.
And that hasn’t changed. While I’ve picked up a huge amount of useful and useless information on my own, and developed skills that continue to keep me ahead of the game (and play some new ones in the future), Drew always has something to add that I didn’t know. And it’s definitely fair to say that as Drew has got older, the student has become the teacher.
And now Drew finds himself in a role that is the culmination of his journey through DJing. The Product Planning Manager role he finds himself in is so suited to his skill set. Despite the somewhat logistical feel of the job title, he’s essentially getting paid to mess around with DJ gear and make it better — well that’s what it feels like anyway. I’m sure it involves spreadsheets, reports, and the associated boring trappings of big business, but from the tiny bits I’ve seen of his “work” (that’s a Dr Evil air quote if ever there was one), it’s exactly the kind of geeky nonsense he would do in his spare time and lose me very quickly when he explained it.
It’s his real passion, and that’s a great thing for Pioneer DJ and the DJ community too. But Believe me when I say that he will be shaping the future of DJing for years to come — his role is that important.
Jared and Drew photobomb me at a NAMM house party.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO DJWORX
Now you might think that having a DJWORX member sat inside Pioneer DJ pawing whatever their future might bring will get us all the inside information and a never-ending stream of exclusives. Well it won’t — I won’t allow it.
Having landed his dream job, it’s not in his interests to leak. And having built a reputation of integrity and trustworthiness, it would hardly be in my interests to destroy my whole career to repeat anything leaked to me either. Inside knowledge is good to know, but it is of zero practical use to me as an acknowledged leak-free editor.
So you see, Drew works for Pioneer DJ now, and he has to do what’s best for them and the products he’s working on. Obviously we’re happy to help, but you’re more likely to see new products launched in great detail elsewhere.
And I’m absolutely fine with that. Like Drew, our journey through the DJ industry has been long and varied. And Pioneer DJ’s marketing needs are far better serviced by our peers. We’re on a different trajectory in the future, one that builds upon 16 years of being the most trusted and respected media outlet in the industry, and will make us better placed to help Drew in his new role.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU
At the start, I spoke about the importance of talking about industry moves. It’s often too easy to dismiss gear as having been made by people who may not ever have DJed in their lives. And I’m sure that in a great many cases, that could be true. It’s not necessary for example for an electrical engineer or a packaging technologist to every have beat matched.
But when you’re actually involved in shaping the design and function of the gear that will be bought by hundreds of thousands of people, you need the confidence that the people who are creating at least have a clue. And Drew most definitely does. Lots of them in fact.
At Stanton for example, Drew was creating standalone controllers before the industry had caught on. He also has a turntable tonearm patent to his name. And in my opinion, his knowledge of faders is untouched. In fact his knowledge of every facet of the DJ industry is just breathtaking.
I was contacted by Pioneer DJ to give a reference. After a solid chat with his new boss Lars, I summed it up by saying this:
“If I was in a position to start a DJ gear company, Drew would be my first hire.”
I think that should say it all.
Yes, that’s a signed Tony Alva board. I treated myself for my 50th birthday in LA.
SUMMING UP
So here’s to one of the DJWORX family, and one of my closest friends. I’m so proud of you Drew. Let’s see how long that lasts when I destroy all of your products in the harshest reviews ever written — purely in the name of impartiality you understand. And keeping you grounded of course.