VividLife: DJ BrightLight Keeps His Eyes In His Lane, The Bigger Picture & Beyond

BrightLight: 'The Job I Do Now Is Night and Day From What It Used To Be.' From GoodKnocking, To Present Day, Paul Smith Talks 'Going Corporate' And His 10 Years Being An Entertainer.

During the Dec. 20th stream of VividLife TV, I was joined by DJ BrightLight to chop it with my long-time friend, dig into some of the normal chatter we get into as friends, and dig into his journey into being a creative, a content creator, and most notably a DJ.

You should recognize him, though. I'm sure of it.

He was the original DJ of Love Jones Thursdays, and 13 years ago he debuted on a little college radio show called GoodKnocking Radio.

As he mentioned on the stream: "I think it's safe to say that, with our partnership [at the time] with Full Moon Brand, to do Love Jones Thursdays, we pioneered bringing the 90's R&B vibe and R&B culture back to Tampa. I can safely say that."

As our discussion on VividLife TV dug in, it's the truth. I always preface that my growing disdain for hearing Tevin Campbell's "Can We Talk" has nothing to do with whether the song is good or bad, and everything to do with the fact that it plays at every event - and every event now has an R&B theme. As the hosts of Tampa's first R&B upscale party, you can kind of understand when I make my face and whisper, "Really...?"

But before BrightLight was spinning the R&B tunes at Foundation Coffee back in 2017, five to seven years prior, he was releasing an R&B playlist under GoodKnocking Radio called, "The Love Spell". It was his first true DJ assignment, a curated list of jams from contemporary tunes from Trey Songz, The Weeknd, and Chris Brown, to older songs ranging from Usher, T-Pain, Mya, and more. I remember signing off on the idea because it would make Brightlight marketable as a DJ, but what I didn't remember until speaking on it on the stream was that the three installments he dropped got upwards of 1200 downloads each.

A decent fill-in for an in-demanded DJ that, as of 2011, hadn't even touched a single deck yet.

AA: It’s safe to say, the DJ life chose you. By way of GoodKnocking Radio back in 2010, you kind of got pulled into being a DJ. What was that like at first? and how did you find your footing for it?

BL: When the inquiries started coming in for me at first [to DJ events], it felt weird. I think I've said this many times before, but at the time I didn't feel like I was doing anything with a Wow factor. I wasn't scratching. I wasn't mixing. I wasn't doing anything that was standout-ish. When I started doing it for Bulls Radio and for the School, it became referrals. And every event I did on campus, I would get referred to do an event off campus. So, the referrals just grew, and it helped me get my confidence and that was what helped me get my footing.

In 2010, when Paul Smith joined my radio show, GoodKnocking Radio, I gave him the helms of managing our music breaks - and maybe "gave" is a conservative way of explaining it. Our first show was a complete bomb, filled with filler words, lots of "umms", and the notorious mess up on my part of having a curated playlist that was dope, but not clean enough to pass FCC guidelines.

I leaned on Paul to be on the show because being around him for that year and a half as his friend, I always recognized and respected his taste for music. That night of October 24th, 2010, without any of us knowing, the DJ life grabbed Paul and he's seemingly not looked back since.

The next three years, known as what we call The GoodKnocking Golden Years, positioned us as entertainers. He was on the decks, and I was on the mic. And by 2015, my first fork in the road came about. With the option to choose to be a "Club MC" or a "Wedding MC", I leaned into the weddings - hoping to do more fulfilling events, connecting into deeper networks, and of course, taking a bigger bag. Brightlight would go on to collaborate with groups like Royal Heat, UME DJs, and get bookings across the Bay. Despite our two separate lanes, though, we've always maintained referrals and even hand-offs. There were times when the hand-offs, unfortunately, would slow down or eventually bare no fruit for one another.

But as friends, it's important to understand one's own individual contribution and your own path.

When BrightLight didn't have Alex Auguste to take the mic and do MC work and crowd control, it offered an opportunity for him to do what seemed uncomfortable at the time, but completely necessary.

BL: I was so bad at this. I would not talk [on mic] during any of my DJ sets.

AA: You did not, bro.

BL: I'd go in there and just DJ. Give them a good set, but I wouldn't say anything unless they asked me to make announcements. Then I watched other DJs interact, talk to the crowds...just talk. Even if it's just picking on somebody in the crowd or picking on yourself, a voice being heard just gives a clearer direction for the event. Now, with corporate events, even, I may say the same thing over and over, but I say it and you can see the reaction.

The Job I Do Now Is Night and Day From What I Used To Do. - DJ BrightLight

But Brightlight is far gone from the days of the mic just laying on the corners of his decks. These days, he's even far gone from setting the vibes in local Tampa clubs as well. Instead, his recent ventures have included corporate events, which he and I talked about extensively during the stream.

AA: How have you maintained the collaborative spirit with other DJs while also still being competitive - because it is still a market nonetheless - but being competitive without beef, friction, and callous competition, as I would call it?

BL: You know how you have that meme where it's [the highway exits]? On this side, it says 'Club DJ', where you have drama, you fight with people, get paid late, stay out late, don't get anything of the social aspects. [Other Side] 'Corporate DJ': easy, fun, free drinks, free food, new places I've never seen before. Sign me up. I hit that turn and got right off on that exit.

AA: You actually nailed that pretty well.

BL: When I meet DJs in this space, none of them ever meet me and say, 'Yo, I'm DJ BrightLight. I DJ here and I have a residency here.' I don't meet any of that. It's more like, 'I'm DJ Brightlight, can I hear you? Oh, you're great. And you're good on the mic?...I tell every DJ I work with. I'm not here to take this gig from you or take your job. I'm just here to help and so that when we get done, they can say 'He filled in great for you'.

Also growth.

Nightlife is taxing on the body, but not very promising to the pockets. And even when it is, it's at such a high cost that hardly ever feels sustainable. I remember long nights with BrightLight - we've had many of them. As a night owl, crawling into bed on any given night at 4:15am isn't unchartered territory. But when you add in the being on your feet for four to five hours, the drinks, and the long ride home, it's a completely different ball game.

And then the promoters may decide to take it back to 1991 and say that they've got cash for you instead of just paying the invoice you sent.

If they want to get really freaky, they'll take it back to 1961, and hand you cash and say they're short and "you'll get it on top of the next gig". A level freakier, they'll take it back to serfdom and feudalism, and promise you potatoes from next year's harvest because somehow, the event didn't sell well.

I've been at that level of disappointment before - once, Thank God - so I can only imagine what BrightLight and the many others like DJ BlackHaze, DJ Tayy, DJ Don Fresh, and the many others who came up doing Tampa events.

It isn't nuanced to that particular group of DJs that hit the scene between 2011 and 2015, either. It's generally a universal structure of the club party model, which only adds to how shocking it is that every club event across town and the nation is now centered around 90s R&B.

Respectively, though, it's likely every DJ meets that fork in the road where they get to decide. DJ Don Fresh (who also was GoodKnocking's resident DJ from 2013 to 2015) now plays as part of a live band on top of spinning for weddings in the Fort Myers area. DJ Tayy went on multiple contracts DJing on open waters with Carnival Cruiselines, and DJ BlackHaze is almost exclusively booked for private events like weddings and corporate events. Sooner or later, you just have to see the bigger picture.

In the years working alongside UME DJs, BrightLight said he's seen what the bigger picture can look like, and what "more" can be as a DJ standing alongside DJ Ron Mic.

Since working with DJ Ron, there's been not only an increase, but a stable and structured amount of homecomings, corporate events, and gigs coming forth. Since 2006, Ron's Universal Music Entertainment has specialized in dance floors, lighting, photography, videography, phot booths, and more. While the repeated notion of corporate events continued during our conversation, BrightLight and I should have mentioned that corporate events can really be defined as any B2B gig, where a business - whether it's Macy's, Victoria Secret, or Tampa Bay Downs - may book a DJ to either host an internal party, like a holiday party you may attend in December or just booking a DJ to have music during a sale in the actual retail space itself.

Working behind the scenes with Ron opened up BrightLight's eyes not only to how much more goes on behind the scenes of successful events, but he also mentioned that Ron's levelheadedness and ability to manage being an entrepreneur, a father, a husband, a coach, and a DJ all in one is admirable as well.

When it comes to balance, outside of being a DJ, if I know him well enough, BrightLight likes to enjoy time just being Paul. He's a gamer, who will regularly stream his gameplay on Twitch, and has taken up flying his drone to catch some pretty good aerial shots from Florida's Gulf Coast Beaches down to South Florida's Atlantic Coast.

The full interview with DJ BrightLight is now available on YouTube. VividLife TV will continue streaming again weekly on Wednesday nights at 8:30pm starting January 3rd, 2024. So, 'til then, unless otherwise. You'll catch the next stream next year.

VIVID LIFE TV: DJ BRIGHTLIGHT (Full Stream)