The DJ Takeover sponsored by Level Up is a program for listeners to discover their favorite artist's favorite artists, working to foster connection to the music and makers inside and outside our city. For the entire hour, we go down the rabbit hole of stories from their past, experiences of the present and goals for the future.
Enter two guys, a yin and yang personified: Dylan Mentzer (DJ Greyhound) and Asher Gray.
Mentzer loves phone calls and, in fact, calls Gray “every day of his life.” Gray, a texter, picks up “one of every five calls.”
Mentzer is Gen Z. Gray is a millennial who has seen literally every era of High Dive
Mentzer is the self-proclaimed “meanest DJ ever.” Gray reported that “Dylan told me I need to start being meaner,” before adding that he “tries to be nice” as a rule of thumb.
They do share one true love: dance music — an auditory soulmate connection resulting in a DJ duo like no other, Milwaukee’s Club Ritual.
A match made in Minecraft, the Club Ritual partnership began in the midst of the Pandemic. Mutual friend DJ Chad hosted a virtual “Minecraft Rave” in which the two both performed independently. Mentzer had been a fan of Gray’s work since he was in high school. He later admitted that when he was a teenager, he composed a handwritten letter to Gray, praising his work. The two hit it off and have been sharing dance music all around the city ever since.
But why DJ together? Why keep this duo together for four years and counting?
Gray appreciates working with someone younger to keep his finger on the pulse, saying, “I think it's important for people that grew up in a different era to stay in touch with culture when you’re a musician.”
Mentzer appreciates that the two add depth to their music by shepherding each other's technique. “I have context for everything that I do,” he said of Gray. “I have an encyclopedia at my disposal.” He also feels their age gap is a rare privilege. “I think we lucked out.”
While they share a taste in music and the craft of DJ’ing, the two have found success because of their deep friendship. It's clear they have fun playing together, and that makes all the difference when performing live. That and when one of the two (Mentzer) falls victim to a slipped disc and needs to massage his back on a tennis ball mid-set, someone else (Gray) is there to hold down the fort.
Now for the question that’s on all our minds: Do performing DJs want to hear crowd requests?
“No” is essentially what I gathered from the boys.
So, please keep your requests to yourself when Mentzer and Gray bring out the tennis ball to perform with Julio Cordova on Nov. 8 at Cactus Club. Before that, you can tune in to their In the Mix feature on both 88Nine and HYFIN from 10 p.m. to midnight this Saturday, Nov. 1, with DJ Queen Meabh leading things off from 9 to 10 p.m.
