DJ Marjorie Gubelmann (a.k.a. Mad Marj) Spins Her Truth

Marjorie Gubelmann (Mad Marj)

DJ

What makes you feel like a grown up?

Bills.

Something you refuse to give an f about?

What other people think about me. This has evolved over time and has been essential to becoming a DJ. I realized that I was the only one who really cared—not other people—you have to do what you really want to do. 

Best thing that happened in the 80s?

Where do I begin? The 80s were an incredible time to be a teenager—the music, my friends, the naughtiness that we were free to get into (sans social media). It is the fabric of who I am today. I needed to go through it all.

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Spinning her truth: Marjorie Gubelmann, DJ

I have always loved music—more particularly, the way it makes me and others feel. I was that friend—the one always making mixtapes for everyone. In college, I was a DJ for the school’s radio station—it was just me in a basement, playing music, talking to myself and telling jokes. Even then, I went by Mad Marj. I definitely did not have a clear vision of what my career would be, but I never would have said DJ. DJ was a fun hobby—not something that sounded realistic or accomplished. 

In 2012, my friend (and Paper magazine editor) Mickey Boardman and I were having lunch and began discussing the rise of a number of female DJs. I nonchalantly mentioned that I used to be a DJ and before I could elaborate, he had decided that I should DJ his upcoming birthday party. My protests were futile and he told me I just had to do a fifteen-minute set. When the time for the party came, fifteen minutes turned into a few hours. I could hear people asking, “Is that Marjorie?” I came home that night happy and feeling so good about how it made me (and others) feel. I had been at those conferences—the ones where someone takes the stage and says, “If you’re doing what you love, it won’t feel like work”—and now I knew that was actually a thing. 

At the time, I was in my 40s and I was getting offers for some seemingly great jobs, but something told me to turn them down. I thought if I was going to pursue being a DJ, I really needed to do it right. After all, the technology had changed so much (it still changes all the time). I called a record company friend and said, “Don’t laugh and don’t ask any questions, but I need to go to DJ school.” He didn’t laugh and told me about Scratch Academy—and off I went for six months. In 2013, I got my first proper DJ job with Clinique. It took me a long time to say I was a DJ—it almost felt too good to be true. I was doing something I loved and I was getting paid and I was scared that if I said it out loud, it might vanish. I used to keep Mad Marj separate in my head, but now we are the same person.

There are so many different DJ styles, but my superpower is as a room-reader. I know every word to every song from the last thirty years and my job is to make you dance. I have gotten to travel the world, play so many special places (like the Sydney Opera House) and open for some amazing artists. In 2020, I starting DJ’ing at the Today Show. I remember Oprah was a guest and it just felt very surreal. 

I started streaming in April and honestly, I am not playing as much dance music. I am still reading the room, but I am playing more from the heart and trying to make people feel a certain way. Songs are memories and can transport us back to a certain time in an instant. Music is so powerful. I was nervous about how it would go, but my friend D-Nice told me I would feel the people there and he was absolutely right. I have friends from all over the world sign on and I have been able to make new friends. You do more talking than you would normally and you are seeing people respond in the chat. People are often thanking me, but I really thank them. It is mutually beneficial—people are there not to be alone. 

The advice I would give someone who is thinking about a similar radical change is to be smart, but give it a shot anyway. If I had overthought it, I don’t know that I would have done it. Luckily, someone dared me. Don’t be reckless—after all, many of us have responsibilities—but decide that you are going to at least give it a go for some amount of time. Just do it. For me, it all came full circle.