One of Planet Earth's great DJs just happens to be from the tiny Greater Sudbury community of Dowling.
Trevor Mantysaari earned himself — and by extension his hometown — the distinction of taking second place at the Red Bull Thre3Style DJ World Championship finals in Santiago, Chile on Saturday.
The five-day Grand Final saw 24 of the world's best DJs getting crowds of 1,000 strong moving to the beat on the floor of the Vélodromo del Estadio Nacional in Santiago.
When the dust settled for the final day, Sudbury's Trapment had earned the wild card spot and the right to stand (or spin) tall alongside DJ JFB (UK), DJ Puffy (Barbados), DJ Beast Mode (Australia) and DJ You-Ki (Japan). It was Puffy who won the day, but Mantysaari found himself with a strong second-place showing — not bad for a guy from Northern Ontario.
On Dec. 14, early on in the world championship competition, Mantysaari posted a decidedly patriotic message to his Facebook page.
"I'm gonna make this short so I can focus ... The support is amazing, you are all amazing, I couldn't have gotten this far without my family & friends," he wrote. "I'm not doing this for myself, I'm doing this for all of you ... and of course for the greatest ... country in the world!"
Trapment earned his spot at the world championships back in September at the Canadian qualifier in Calgary, a competition he'd placed second at the year before, so he was hungry for the win this time around.
“I came so close last year, and even though I didn't place first, I feel like I did really well and there was a lot of love from the crowd,” said Mantysaari.
For those unfamiliar with Thre3style, DJs are tasked with blending three different genres of music into a 15-minute set.
The Dowling native is child of the 1990s and that often sees him incorporate some of that '90s sound — Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls, for instance — into his mixes.
“I like taking those cheesy songs and mixing them up in my own style,” he said.
Mantysaari has been working on his craft for about 15 years now, and has been taking it seriously for around 10.
“When I started out there was no YouTube or anything like that, it was just me messing around in my basement with records,” he said. “I started DJing house parties and bush parties and stuff like that.”
Even still, during that time, DJing was a hobby than anything, and Mantysaari was holding a steady 9-5 job at the Canada Revenue Agency.
“About two years ago, I went down to Las Vegas and spent some time with some friends in the DJ scene and just really tried to take everything in,” he said.
“That's when I decided to focus more on DJing and see where it goes. I quit my job and took a bit of a breather and I was happy. I realized that there were more important things in life than money, and that I wanted to be doing something I really enjoyed.”
He DJs at SRO on Wednesday and Friday nights, and does weekend sets in Toronto.
“People think I'm crazy for driving as much as I do, I'm on the road a lot,” said Mantysaari. “For me, I love it, that's my zen time when I can just let my mind unwind.”
To keep up with DJ Trapment, follow him on Twitter @Trapment, Instagram, and Facebook.
