The brain-damaged kitten from Washington, D.C. that couldn’t walk straight probably never expected to become the name of an aspiring Elon University student disc jockey.
Sophomore Jay Cutler, also known as mash-up artist DJ Tippy Kat, saw this kitten in an alumnus’ apartment while at a club swim team meet in D.C. last spring. Soon, this kitten became his team’s mascot.
“A couple weeks after that, I started getting better at making music and I started DJing club swimming parties regularly,” Cutler said. “People were like, ‘You know what, you should be the mascot for club swimming.’”
When Cutler began making music, he was harsh on himself and didn’t want to show it to anyone. Similarly, his friends weren’t initially receptive to the music he was mixing together on his Macbook Pro.
“Eventually I got over that and showed it to my friends and they were like ‘Uh, this isn’t that good’,” Cutler said. “They were brutally honest and I needed that. I was like ‘OK, I need to make this better.'”
Mitch Plummer, a Class of 2011 graduate who also goes by Mitch Mash, was the one who got Cutler hooked on DJing.
“I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes out with,” said Plummer, who identifies himself as a mash-up artist hobbyist and not as a DJ. “Being in school, he has a lot of time. It's the best time to cultivate this hobby and talent and passion.”
Cutler has a strong online support system of other established DJs, according to Plummer. Through websites such as Turntable.fm and SoundCloud.com, he is forming connections impossible in the past.
Currently majoring in sport and event management, Cutler never thought he’d get back into music. He quit playing piano after 11 years, but the musical experience behind the keys has helped Cutler.
“As long as you have a basic understanding of keys, pitch, tone, stuff like that, you can do pretty much anything you want,” Cutler said.
And the constant practice has helped his skills, too.
“I’ve heard all of these songs hundreds of thousands of times,” said Tyler Oberle, Cutler's roommate. “They’re like the soundtrack of my life.”
Oberle has lived with Cutler since they arrived at Elon. According to the roommates, the pair has a neighbor who does not appreciate the loud music through the thin Kivette Hall walls, but Oberle has enjoyed watching his friend grow and develop his DJ skills.
Cutler has shown growth as well. His latest track, ‘Slam Mitch Five,’ was recently featured on popular music blogs such as Dirty Mexican Lemonade (DML.fm), a site founded in part by Elon sophomore Conor Ambrose.
From that, he got a lot of new followers, and other DJs are now asking to collaborate with him.
Despite Internet success, he said he does still feel some resistance from home. “My parents are like ‘Is this distracting you from your school work?’” Cutler said. “They’re like, ‘You’re here to go to school,’ which I understand, but I think everyone needs a hobby.”
But Cutler’s parents have plenty to be proud of. He spearheads Campus Kitchen at Elon and will lead a service trip to Washington, D.C. during spring break to help feed the homeless.
When it comes to music, his friends have cut the criticism and are now impressed with what Cutler has produced with just a computer. He’s interested in playing bigger shows, but the lack of additional equipment is holding him back.
“For something like Tap House or West End, I’d definitely want to rent higher-end equipment, and I don’t think I can find that around Burlington,” Cutler said.
After Elon, he hopes to work for the Washington Capitals in a management role. Even hockey-rink side, that DJ experience could come into play.
“A group came down here to play at the Fat Frogg recently,” Cutler said. “One of them is the official DJ for the Charlotte Bobcats. The DJ industry is getting really broad with what you can do with it.”
While DJ Tippy Kat may be mixing tracks alone on his computer, DJs, just like the music they’re mashing up, require a process of collaboration.
“You can not learn enough about what you do as a DJ,” Cutler said. “We all learn from each other. We all talk to each other.”