Nick Arnold sets up the next karaoke song at the Court'n House in Eau Claire. Nick appears at the Court-N-House every Thursday and at O'Leary's Pub every Wednesday.
Links:
Check out Shawntown Productions to get info on booking and pricing.
View Nick Arnold's bio for pictures and appearences.
Local disc jockey lives life one karaoke song at a time
By Matt Werlein
werleimt@uwec.edu
The atmosphere was light and the crowd jovial as they sipped drinks and watched as wisps of cigarette smoke twist to the ceiling. Red neon lights illuminating brands of beer cast slight shadows on the local residents and students who crowded around the bar. At one corner of the bar sat two large stereos, a laptop, sound equipment, a small television prompter and multicolored strobe lights.
At 9 p.m. sharp on Friday, Sept. 15, the voice of the disc jockey rose above the pandemonium and announced that karaoke for the evening had begun.
For 26-year-old Nick Arnold, a DJ with Shawtown Productions in Eau Claire, the job provides an opportunity for him to show his creative side.
Because of his knowledge of computer programming, he said, he is able to offer something most DJ's don’t.
Arnold wrote the computer program for his music program, which includes the speed of the music and musical selection choices.
He said another aspect that makes his program unique is that the music never stops playing.
“There’s no dead air,” Arnold said.
Even though he said most people don’t notice the difference the non-stop music has made between gaps in time while performers are getting ready to sing, Arnold said it’s still a good thing.
“It keeps things hopping,” he said. “It sparks memories between the music. I just think it’s very beneficial.”
Arnold began his routine, as he does every Friday evening, at the Wigwam Tavern, 314 E. Madison St., by inviting the first person who had turned in a slip with his or her musical selection to come up and sing.
As the evening unfolded and the patrons came up to sing their selected melodies, Arnold himself began to get into the music, at times singing along with the individual.
Throughout the course of the evening, as the strains of music by Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and other performers filled the air, Arnold mingled with the patrons, cracking a joke here and there, answering questions about songs and, occasionally, participating in a duet.
He said he looked for a job as a DJ because he needed the money.
Arnold attended UW-Eau Claire but left after two years because he couldn’t pay the bills. He took a year and a half off before enrolling in a technical college, from which he graduated with an associate degree in computer science.
Arnold said he wanted to find a job which made him happy and working in an office for a company wasn’t something he said he wanted to do.
“A job you don’t like is like hanging yourself with your own tie,” Arnold said.