Oneworld is one of the best known, and longest established, entertainment and promotions companies in the Cayman Islands.
And founding member DJ Craig Urchyshyn is keen to find young torchbearers to take the profession into the future.
While still very much active on the DJ scene, along with fellow disc jockey Mark Cummings, aka DJ Natural, he wants to ensure that upcoming generations follow in their footsteps.
“We are now working on that follow-up generation after Mark, and this can be as young as preteen to in their 20s, even early 30s,” says Craig.
“What we are really looking for is interested and motivated younger individuals who are Caymanian, or have the permanent right to remain in Cayman, and are specifically interested in becoming a professional disc jockey.”
TRAINING PROGRAMME
Oneworld is offering a DJ training programme, with the caveat that the successful candidates remain with the company once trained.
“While I never want to distract anyone from developing other ambitions, especially scholastic ones, there is room for full-time career DJs within Oneworld,” says Craig.
“That is really the most important role we need to fill moving forward, continuing to do so from generation to generation.”
WHAT’S INVOLVED
Not only is a love of music important for the job, but also enjoying helping people have a good time.
“It’s the love to help people celebrate life and its many events, and help them to feel alive,” says Craig.
“But that’s just the start. You then need to develop the skillset, which is essentially developing beat-matching and mixing skills as well as knowledge of all types of music.”
This takes time, with all great DJs starting out by spending a lot of hours at the decks, both at home and in public.
“Once a DJ develops the skills and experience, they are ready for professional deejaying, which is where things like conduct, timeliness, preparedness, technical knowledge of equipment and sound, and the general understanding of presenting a high-end level of service comes in,” Craig explains.
“There are a lot of extremely talented DJs out there, but they don’t always get called back if they are not true professionals.”
He adds that it is also important for a DJ to be articulate and competent at public speaking. But for those successful in the field, the rewards are high in terms of getting paid for a job that they love, flexible hours and being involved in celebrations and other good times.
“You literally get to ‘play’ for a living, but that said, it does become work and if you don’t take it seriously then others won’t take you seriously either,” says Craig.
CRAIG’S PATH
Having arrived from Canada, working as an assistant manager at a restaurant called Bed, Craig fell into deejaying when the house he lived in had a set of turntables and a box of records left by friends.
He started playing music when friends came over, then began deejaying at Bed in the evenings.
Within a couple of years, Oneworld was formed, and Craig soon began deejaying at other venues such as Obar and Bamboo, and deejayed and produced most of the Mardi Gras events at Kaibo.
“I was co-founder and initial DJ for Calico’s full moon parties, and then DJ Natural and I, along with Eden Hurlston as DJ and conga player, became the resident DJs on Fridays in the Ritz-Carlton Silver Palm Lounge for more than a decade,” he says.
DJ Natural is now a resident DJ at Sandbar, including Boogie Nights there.
Keen to give back to the community, Oneworld has also deejayed for countless charity events on-island.
Since his last fun personal promotion of After Dark Thursday at Bacaro, pre-pandemic, Craig now focuses on private functions, but plans to appear at some of Cayman’s most well-known events to keep his hand in the public arena.
“What I most love about it is helping people celebrate,” he says. “My reward is in knowing I helped with that.” DJ Craig can be followed on social media at DJ Craig Oneworld or Craig Oneworld.
This article originally appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2024 issue of What’s Hot magazine.
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