‘DJ Cane’ — the proud blind man who keeps people entertained
“It’s DJ Cane, the baddest blind DJ alive.” That’s how 38-year-old Damion “DJ Cane” Rose starts his gigs before giving his audience a delightful musical experience.
Rose was born with glaucoma and lost his sight completely at age two. But, while growing up, he developed a predilection for music, which has shaped him into the disc jockey he is today.
But a blind man playing music at a party with his cane next to him has been a source of astonishment, over the years, for many, Rose told the Jamaica Observer.
“When I tell people that I am a DJ, it aroused their curiosity because they want to know how I do it. They always want to know how and what kind of music I play and all of that,” he said.
“On our computers we use what is called a screen reader. It speaks to you in whatever program you use and anything that is displayed on the screen, the screen reader will read it back to you. So, when I am in my DJ program and scrolling through and going to a song, the screen reader announces that, and I go ahead and use my keystroke to select that song and use the necessary keystrokes to play. And I can also cue that song in the headphones and bring it out at the appointed time.”
Rose told the Sunday Observer that he was always a lover of music, especially because he grew up with his grandfather and brothers who were all musicians.
“I would love to sit down and listen to them playing dem guitar and sing. But, in terms of radio, my grandfather used to tell me that, if you sit down and listen to the radio, you can learn a lot. And when I started, I got so hooked that I would ask them questions that nobody in the house could answer. I would sit down and listen to programs and, at that time, unlike now, when a disc jockey play a song, they would announce who the artiste it,” Rose recalled.
“I got hooked on music in such a way that I always said I wanted to be a musician in some way or the other. Then, growing up now, my cousins used to have their little sound in the community, and they used to play records. What they would do is that they would give me the mic to talk and I would talk while they played the records.”
Eventually his love for music grew stronger. But, as a blind man, he had put it on a back burner. It was not until about 2009 when he started acting on his dream.
“When the age of assistive technology came around, a friend of mine called me and said we now have technology that blind persons can use to deejay, and he introduced me to a program called Mixxx. You can use the keyboard to operate the entire program… you can play jingles and do all your mashups and all these things. So I use both Mixxx and Virtual DJ.
“I sat down for days and nights for about two weeks. I couldn’t sleep because I was dreaming about playing. I practiced and practiced and practiced until I got some level of confidence and I listen to the guys on the radio. Two of the greatest disc jockeys that I have ever listened to are DJ Marvin and DJ Wayne. Those guys are very good mixers in terms of beat-matching and all of those things, and I try my best to emulate them as best as I possibly can,” he said.
Soon after, he came up with the alias DJ Cane and registered his own production company – DJ Cane Audio Production.
“In my own words, audio editing makes me eat a lot more food than deejaying. In this time, a lot of people doing podcasts and stuff, so I have to edit a whole lot of podcasts. People reach out and make requests. I have had work from people in Africa, America and even Europe. To do one edit, it all depends on the length of the audio. Let’s say you give me a one-hour audio to fix up… I can probably finish that in 30 to 40 minutes,” he explained.
“People ask why I use DJ Cane and I say I am a blind man and my cane gives me direction. Walking with that stick, it make mi can do anything, so mi just use my disability to show people that this is my ability to do what I can do. So, when you hear DJ Cane, you are going to be curious and waa know weh him can do. That’s why I really gravitated towards that name.”
He started out by playing music as a resident disc jockey at Flavors Night Club for a Sunday night old hits party. From there, he told the Sunday Observer, he went on to work as a disc jockey for five years on a program called Entertainment Trail on Newstalk 93 FM.
Rose said, “I can remember that one of the biggest parties I played at was Senator Floyd Morris’s birthday party back in 2019. All of the big PNP [People’s National Party] dignitaries were there, like Peter Phillips, and they loved it. I play every type of music, but I prefer to play at the big people setting. As a selector, mi like build up. Mi can play from the 1940s come up and I like to play different segments. For young people parties, from dem start dem wah hear the dash out chune dem and that is not me. I want to teach while entertaining.”
He added that he was being booked for events as a DJ, but not as frequently as he would’ve wanted.
“I used to get gigs out in the country, mostly in Manchester and Clarendon. I have friends who would just invite me to play at a party and when I go and play and people see me, they say, ‘You know I want you to come play at my party.” So I build a little circle.”
But requests have got fewer since the novel coronavirus pandemic and so Rose has now ventured into online radio.
“I am on two Internet radio stations. One is called Zanj Radio, and I have a show on it called The Musical Altitude and it’s four segments of different genres of music. That is on Saturdays from 10:00 pm until midnight. And the other station is called UVC [ United Vision Connect] Radio, which is an Internet station that is operated by blind persons and it’s a worldwide station,” said Rose.
“Ninety-eight per cent of our disc jockeys have some visual impairment. I have two shows on it on Saturdays and Mondays,” he said, noting that he has not yet been able to monetize any of those programs.
Rose said he doesn’t shun the idea that one day he might venture into broadcast radio.
“I would love to do that but I don’t have the journalistic qualifications. I am just a rough learner. There are a lot of those people on radio, but if you don’t have the links, certain things won’t work out. And then I have a bigger disadvantage because I am blind. Dem a go wonder how me a go see fi do things. They would be skeptical, but I am open to it. If anybody even want to give me a one-day trial, I am up to it.”
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