DJ Forrest Houston
Photo by: Reggie Chapa PhotographyDJ Forrest Houston found his calling at the age of 10 when he noticed that the DJ at his aunt’s wedding was playing the wrong songs, causing guests to evacuate the dancefloor for all the wrong reasons. Worse yet, Forrest knew what to do – not that the fifth grader’s advice was heeded.
“He wouldn’t play my request, ‘Send Me An Angel,’ and that always stuck with me, because everyone would have flocked to the dancefloor,” says Forrest.
In 1998, all grown up, Forrest began training as a DJ, and a year later started his own company known today as Xceptional Djs + Photobooths. After thousands of gigs at parties, weddings, corporate events and the hottest nightlife spots around town – and with his status as one of Houston’s best firmly cemented – Forrest decided to make a very special New Year’s resolution for 2019: go “all in” on music production.
And so far, so good. In addition to heavy promotion and publishing a book (Mobile DJ Handbook: Techniques, Tips, and Strategies for Growing a Mobile DJ Business), he produced “Release feat. Jaycee,” a chill track Forrest warns may put you in “an intentional trance” while listening; and “Terminator,” created to “get you back on your feet and keep moving no matter what life throws at you.”
Forrest will celebrate the October release of his latest song, “Level Up,” a “trap-EDM-hip hop hybrid track” featuring Anarchy Armada Records rapper Dezi Dior and produced by Ace Devine, with a party – and everyone’s invited. Forrest and Dezi Dior will perform live, and Something New Dance is choreographing a special routine featuring seven local dancers you’re sure to recognize if you hang around the city’s dance scene.
With all this and a five-track EP titled Rise soon to come, Forrest still hasn’t lost sight of the lesson he learned as a kid. “My songs are all designed to help my fellow DJs move dancefloors worldwide,” he said.
The “Level Up” Release Party will be October 10 from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. at Social Beer Garden.