It was clear from the first moment of the call I had with David J to discuss his upcoming DJ set at the 2nd Annual Goth Winter Gala at Tracks on January 10th that his life has been completely dedicated to music. Having spent more than four decades in the music business as both a member of the legendary goth bands Bauhaus and Love + Rockets, along with spending the last quarter-century spinning records as a DJ, J’s career has been full of artistic expression.

I recently spoke with the man about what fans can expect from his upcoming DJ set, and how his goth rock past helped pave the way for his DJ career to flourish—a career that began in the late 90s.

According to J, “I started DJ’ing properly in the late 90s, and I had a residency at the Viper Room in LA. That was a great experience. It was suggested to me that I should DJ by my wife at the time, and I kind of poo-pooed it because, at that time for me, what I had in mind as a DJ was house DJ, electronic, techno, that was happening then. And I knew I could not do that. But, what I could do was be a selector, and that’s what I love to do.”

He continued, “So, I was in LA and met up with one of the guys that ran the Viper Room and I told him about this, and he said, ‘Well, we could give you a spot if you’d like to try out.’ And I did, and it went really well. And I got confident to do that, to be a selector type DJ and just carried on. Word got around that I was DJ’ing and I started getting offers to come here and there, and I did. And I’ve just carried on doing it, I love doing it.”

As with any creative endeavor, J had many influences when it came to what he wanted to accomplish with this outlet. He said that above them all, there stood one man. “In my past I’ve had some very influential DJ’s; primarily John Peel of the BBC is a huge influence on me and so many of my peers and beyond.”

However, not only was Peel a major influence on J’s decision to become the DJ he currently is, J made it clear that he was also a huge influence on the success of Bauhaus in the early days. “He really liked Bauhaus and he invited us on to do two sessions for him. He played our first single ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ which was a real surprise, because, at the time we were all sharing a house; it was a bit like the one in the TV show ‘The Young Ones.’”

He said that one night while listening to Peel, “There was one moment where we were all listening, sort of in the background, and it dawned on us that what John Peel was playing was our single. Which was just an incredible experience for us. We had just recorded the follow-up single, which was a track called ‘Dark Entries,’ it was pre-release but we had copies with us. So, we decided we’d just drive down to [the station] when Peel was on because it was always live, and we’d go to the broadcasting house in London and give him our single. No invitation, we just went down. We walk in at about 10 pm and the secretary was there and we said ‘We’re here to see John Peel.’ She asked if we had an appointment, and we said ‘No, but he played our record two nights ago. We’d like to get the new single to him.’”

He continued, “She said to hold on a minute and she called his producer, and we got notification that we could come up. So, we did. We were ushered through, told to keep everything down, and all the lights were down low. He beckoned us to come in and sit down, there’s a big couch in the back so we sat there. And he was just live on the air playing records and he eluded to the fact that he had some group there with him and that he’d played our record the previous week and said ‘It looks like they’ve got a new one for me.’ And he played it. Then he shared his very good red wine and we drank that out of BBC paper cups. We hung out with him for the rest of the show.”

Between the influence of Peel and the fact that J sees himself as more of a “selector” in his role as a DJ, I wanted to know how he builds his set for a performance. “My technique for doing this is, it’s all seven-inch singles or 45s and I’ll have a pool of these records and I’ll start pulling them out just using my intuition and taste in that moment and I put them all on a bed—which is often a hotel bed—and I’ll lay them all out. And I know what I’ve got for 90 minutes, I’ve got about 30 singles that will make up about 90 minutes. So, I’ll just select those 30 and arrange them in a sequence.”

J claims the sequence is just as essential as the songs themselves. “But what comes into it is, I think about the endings of the songs and what does that suggest in another track. And if it’s not that, it’ll be a theme, it’ll be some sort of theme that’s there if you want to look for it. It’s also a little bit of a ride, so it’s got to move somewhere.”

During our conversation, J made it clear that moving the people of Denver with his music was of such importance that he made it his first show of the year.

“I’ve DJ’d in Denver many times and other areas of Colorado; it’s one of my favorite places to spin. And I’m really glad that my first gig will be in Denver because I really feel for the people in Denver. We’ve cancelled and postponed on them for so many times now with Bauhaus and Love + Rockets due to circumstances … well … out of our control really. And when I say ‘our’ I’m not talking about everybody in the band. The last one was when we were on the Jane’s Addiction tour, that totally imploded because of Perry Farrell’s meltdown; we were added on to Denver and I was so delighted about that. I mean, Bauhaus, we cancelled three times. And it’s one of our strongest markets, we love playing Denver, the crowds are always great. I was really gutted when that happened. As a little compensation, there’s this gig, my first gig of the year.”

The passion J has for music is palpable. From the thought put behind his setlist to the love he has for introducing people to music they’ve never heard before, I can’t imagine his set at the 2nd Annual Goth Winter Gala as being anything short of brilliant.