Honolulu Weekly

It’s not every day that your visions become reality. Consider DJ Willis to be one of the lucky ones.

On the decks and in the promotion game, Haltom’s musical exploits have helped restructure the current state of techno and house as we know it.

Credit the forward thinker for the Global Dance Festival coming to Hawaii and the creation of the underground night spot Asylum.

“There are only so many places to do what we do so you really have to do it yourself if you want to make an impact. That is where Asylum came in,” said the tech/house specialist. “We opened Asylum for the fact that there was no where we could really do our thing and not compromise what we wanted to do.”

“The freedom that I have there to play what I want and people enjoy it is what makes me happy. That is why I got into DJing in the first place. It was never to play music I didn’t like just to make money.”

The self-taught, self-inspired DJ has only been in Hawaii for four years but firmly believes that tenure in the game is one thing, rocking the crowd, with the intent of leaving a mark, consistently is another.

“What matters most to me is what’s coming out of the speakers not how long you’ve been doing it,” he said.

The best thing about it is this DJ is far from done. He has his sights on sharpening his skills as producer and reaching out even further because in Willis’ world not everything is possible, all is possible and within his grasp.