INTERVIEW: DJ BRUNO

“If we can dance together, we can live together.” –DJ Bruno

When DJ Bruno (née Eddy Morency) had his retirement party last December, he had been DJing for more than 25 years. People of all ages, colors, musical tastes, and sexual orientations gathered to honor Boston’s Godfather of House. Even Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson gave him an award for his years of service to Boston’s music scene, naming December 22 DJ Bruno Day.

Why retire? DJ Bruno was about to lose his eyesight.

But something changed for him, that first day at Carroll Center for the Blind, when his teacher asked what he used to do.

“I told him I used to be a DJ, and he said, ‘Why did you want to stop?’” Bruno explained. “I got upset and was like, ‘What the fuck do you mean, I’m blind!’

And he said: ‘So?’”

BLIND FURY by Djbruno_Boston on Mixcloud

As a result, he’s learned to DJ blind, using Braille to organize his records, and still has a little bit of sight in his right eye—enough to get the crowd excited when he participates in the Hometown DJ Throwdown this Saturday at The Sinclair, a fundraiser during which Jackson (Boston) and fellow city councilor Leland Cheung (Cambridge) will face off at the decks. The lineup includes the award-winning DJ Leah V and DJ Nomadik of SoulKore. DJ/Councilor Cheung will spin trance music but what will Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson play when he DJ battles on Saturday?

“I don’t know!” admitted Bruno with a laugh. “I’ve never known that he can spin, that’s the funny thing. So it’s going to be very, very interesting.”

The benefit is in support of BAGLY (Boston Alliance of GLBT Youth) and Youth on Fire in Cambridge, both of which support homeless LGBT youth, typically kicked out of their homes after coming out to their parents.

Dance music has a long history of inclusiveness. In every way, Bruno embodies this legacy of love and acceptance in the Boston dance music scene.

In 1992, he and Armand van Helden started all-ages, after-hours dance parties at a club called The Loft. The after-party for the Hometown DJ Throwdown battle is the annual Loft Reunion at Machine where Bruno, Househead Pete and DJ Savuth will represent the club’s incredible history.

“The first time I heard house, I thought it was the worst shit. All these people were screaming, waving their hands in the air, and dancing—but they were all different types of people. Gay, drag queens, white, Asian, black. Everyone,” Bruno said.

“And, you know, I kept coming back, and I fell in love with it because of the emotional freedom it brings … The freedom to be whoever you want to be.”

DJ Bruno's Retirement Party | Jan Bloch Photography

Jan Bloch Photography

“You can be the worst dancer in the world, it doesn’t matter,” he continued. “You are automatically accepted because of the way it makes you feel. You can be 15 or 70 years old, and still be vibing. Throughout the years, I can count on one hand the amount of fights. It’s probably the only scene that’s so diverse and so non-violent.”

Picture The Loft years ago: late into the night, the distant beat of Masters at Work’s “I can’t get no sleep” gets louder as you approach. Inside, all kinds of people have their hands up, overtaken by the euphoric beauty of house music, forgetting their human differences, united.