by: Madelin Eckart, Contributing Writer

After his disc jockey professor passed away two years ago, Johnathon “Zebo” Gust received the opportunity to return to Columbia as a teacher in hopes of educating, inspiring and giving opportunities to students, like his professor did.

Born in Waukegan, Ill., Gust lived across the Midwest, from Michigan to Wisconsin, before coming to Chicago in 1998 to attend Columbia. Originally a film and video major, he went into the music business to pursue what he instinctively knew he wanted to do in the future.

“Ever since I was little, I wanted to be a DJ,” Gust said. “I always enjoyed listening to music and playing it for people. When I was in high school I started to learn about rave and DJ culture and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

Within the first week of college, he purchased his first set of turntables and started practicing in the dorms. Intrigued by older technology, such as records and turntables, he loved the vinyl format. He wanted to be able to make dance music himself. Originally inspired by house music, his tastes evolved, encompassing a little bit of everything.

His first big gig was at the Chicago South Expo Center in Harvey, Ill., opening for Mixmaster Mike at a rave called Fuse 2. Three months later he bought his turntables. He has since played festivals like Lollapalooza, packed weddings, shows with Justice, and everything in between. Gust was highlighted in Newcity’s annual Music 45 issue as one of the top artists in Chicago, alongside Kanye West and The Smashing Pumpkins. He traces a part of that success back to Columbia, where he was encouraged to carry out his passion for music.

“I had an excellent teacher, Johnny Summerset, and he really got me to think outside the box of where I was with Deejaying. I found out two years ago that he passed away and I went to Columbia to let them know if they needed another DJ, I would teach. They kind of waited for a few years and once the class finally got big enough that they needed more teachers, I came to teach Club DJ I,” Gust said.

In the class, students learn entry-level skills, such as, beat matching, mixing, scratching and how to work with equipment from vinyl to compact disc players, microphones and computer software. In his sets, Zebo uses Serato (Scratch Live), which allows DJs to keep their full music library on their laptop, see and control the tracks they are playing on the screen, while also still using vinyl on the turntables. He teaches this and other methods in his class.

“I feel like some other teachers teach straight out of the curriculum, but he teaches us what we want to learn,” said Andrew Kostro, sophomore music management major. “It’s cool to have a teacher that actually does this for a living.”

Graduating in 2002, he felt he was taught real world skills about the business, versus learning straight out of a book. He wants to follow in those footsteps.

“That’s one thing I really appreciated from Columbia was the honesty that came with it,” Gust said.

The Columbia Urban Music Association will hold a DJ panel on Oct. 28 where Gust, among others, such as Niena Drake and Brett Morisson, will have a meet-and-greet with students and speak about their experience in the industry. Vice President of CUMA, Rae Taylor, an arts, entertainment and media management major, is in Gust’s class this semester and is excited to be taught by someone she respects.

“Zebo is teaching us how to be amongst the greatest,” Taylor said, “He’s top-notch and is just a really well-rounded DJ.”

Gust spins six nights a week at clubs like the evilOlive, Butterfly Social Club, Empire Liquors, and Subterranean. He hopes to show his students the reality of Deejaying as a profession and help them get to where they want to go. His most crucial piece of advice to them is to practice as much as they can, so they will have that eureka moment, where everything they are learning clicks.

“I want to push the next generation of DJs up because I feel like some today don’t have the technical skills,” Gust said. “They just want to be rockstars and get people to come out and party. I want people to take the art of Deejaying seriously, not just getting up there with an iPod and play one song, then fade out to another. I want the DJ culture to be preserved.”