Thomas Jebson also known by stage name Westman is a 19 year old student at Salford University, studying acoustic engineering. Despite being a hard working student he also has a passion for DJing, and would like to pursue a DJing career in the future.
Toms passion for DJing started when he visited his older sister in Ibiza, one of Europe’s biggest music scenes. Following his fascination Tom began to put his passion in to practise when he was given his first set of decks at the age of 15. Tom was exposed to house music at first with Ibiza being heavily dominated by the genre at the time, although as he slowly progressed and began to feel comfortable he eventually drifted away from house and found his feet in drum and bass, hence where his passion lies today.
“I saved up and bought my own speakers, lights… and started charging to DJ at all types of functions. I carried this on for a few years until I eventually reached a point where I really wanted to focus on a specific genre as I understood this was the only way to develop a proper career in DJing.”
Q: Is drum and bass a genre you want to stick with throughout your career?
Yes, I think after experimenting with many different genres I have finally found a genre which suits me, and I am best at. So, unless there is a drastic shift in taste I will probably stick with it for the rest of my career.
Q: Do you hope to start producing your own music?
Yes. It’s something that I always put off for not having enough time to devote towards it, but I need to realise that it will always be the case and I just have to start doing it. The main issue is the barrier of entry through the extremely high standard of knowledge needed to do it and it often becomes frustrating when you can’t put your ideas to paper and everything sounds awful. I think the key is persistence and I hope that I’ll be able to overcome the initial hurdle and start properly producing this year.
Q: In this day and age and the impact of social media there has been a huge rise in amateur DJs, how will you try to make your mark on the scene?
As a result of the large amount of bedroom DJs it has become very hard to distinguish yourself from the crowd. Consequently I’ve decided the most efficient way will be to start organizing my own Drum and Bass events. This is because if you’re successful in doing this and start to do bigger and bigger events, you can start to book more well-known DJ’s and therefore, as it’s your own event, you can put yourself on the line up and support them. This then helps with your publicity and lets you network with people already heavily involved in the scene.
Q: Where would be your ideal venue to perform?
It would be a dream come true to ever play in any of the venues I went too in my early raving days such as Printworks or maybe even an Ibiza based club such as Amnesia.
Q: How do you balance trying to pursue a DJ career with University work?
In short, pretty poorly. I often prioritise whatever needs my current attention however this often gets me into situations where I haven’t effectively planned for future workload and it all piles up and I have limited time to complete it. This often leads to a lesser quality of work submitted which I feel regretful of.
Q: What can people expect to see from you in the future?
I hope that within the next few years I will be running a fairly successful events company whereby I’m supporting some of my favorite DJs and have somewhat of my own decent social media following.
With the venue bouncing all night long it is undoubtedly said that Valhalla’s first event was nothing short of spectacular, leaving the crowd with strong hopes that there will be more to come from these upcoming DJs in the future.
Jessenia Jay 