What in life remains constant?… Nothing. Sheldon Hanson aka DJ Hitman is someone who for 35 years has been to many places, seen many things while doing what he loves.

From the jet-black stereo speakers that can’t be ignored, and the jungle of wires to the many gadgets, among that there is someone who’s seen the game change. Back in the day he would’ve been aside endless stacks of vinyl, now it’s a MacBook with a never-ending playlist.

“What I will say now, what’s interesting is we no longer have those distribution outlets that we used to” he explains.

The music industry was very much different in the past.

Before the advent of the internet, the music industry had a lot of gatekeepers. If you wanted your music to blow up, the typical way was to get signed to a record label, who would then distribute your music to various DJs and the mainstream. 

“The younger folks nowadays, sometimes I’ll get a request at a party that’s a song from YouTube that was released maybe last night or last week” Hanson says.

This is definitely a far cry from how it was before the internet, anyone can make music and get it out there nowadays. As Hanson is a DJ, he has to just go with the flow.

Just like the music industry had evolved, so had Hanson’s working life.

“I just found myself gravitating towards helping folks in the community and it ended up over time becoming into a full-time job as a social worker”, he expresses.

Hanson has always liked working with people and his career choices are a great reflection of this. Whether it’s social work or DJing, what he does is what he genuinely enjoys doing.

He started DJing professionally when he was 12, yes twelve. He had been DJing full-time for a couple of years before transitioning it into a venture for Fridays and the Weekends, and at that point he was and still is a social worker. 

However, being a DJ has parts that are less ideal in comparison to the life of the party.

Hanson plus an assistant just pulled up to the venue and it’s like 3 hours before any resemblance of a party can even be noticed. There is just a whole collection of burly devices that someone needs to carry to the station. Then there’s the nuances of how everything needs to be set up to make the party right, and a lot of waiting.

“I’ve been DJing for so many years now that for me it’s just you know it’s just second nature”, Hanson expresses, “I’m able to just go with the flow.”

After all that, they can now get the DJ station ready to–well wonderful, the extension cord isn’t long enough, and they don’t have any more cords. And when it finally gets lit, they aren’t able to forget that they’re working.

With working as a DJ, and everything, in a general sense Hanson is doing the same thing throughout his life.

At the same time, his experiences and the life he lives on a deeper level continue to morph and evolve. There’s a lot to see and a lot of depth in those 35 years (and counting) of passionately DJing.

“You name it, I think I’ve pretty much done it” he says.