This week’s WNUR Streetbeat DJ in the hot seat is DJ Sangre (real name John Pappas). This senior came to Streetbeat four years ago with no experience and has now rocketed from apprentice to music director.

Listen to one of Sangre’s sets from 2002:

As music director, Sangre listens to and selects newly arriving music, then adds it to Streetbeat’s music library. He also maintains the radio station’s relationship with record labels and does other administrative work.

Sangre heard about Streetbeat at a WNUR station meeting and was enticed by the opportunity.

“They said that I could learn how to DJ for free,” Sangre said. That was all he needed to hear.

Sangre came to Northwestern from Denver with a love for trance music, which has strong roots in the city. He first got involved with WNUR in fall 2004 as an apprentice on the progressive trance show, and by spring quarter he had secured his own hard trance show.

However, things changed for Sangre during March of his sophomore year.

“I said to myself, you’re living in Chicago, the birthplace of house music,” Sangre said. “So I went to Frank Q at Gramaphone Records and said, ‘Make me a house DJ.’ He gave me 40 records, I bought 10 and from then on I’ve been a house DJ.”

Sangre plays house music on his show, The Fringe.

“I like all house, especially local Chicago acts and anything with disco vibes,” Sangre said.

Sangre is also a fan of hard rock music and was the lead singer of a rock band called “Infinite Zero.” However, house music is his true passion, Sangre said.

He’s also an avid dancer and occasionally enjoys going to raves. He can usually be found dancing in the DJ booth.

“Unlike many DJs who can’t dance, I got into DJing because I loved dancing,” Sangre said. “Now I mix the dance music how I want it to sound.”

The “DJ Sangre” moniker holds two meanings: “sangre” stands for energy, blood, and life — “everything the music should make you feel,” Sangre said — and also references the time he spent in the Sangre de Cristo Mountians in Colorado.

DJ Sangre spins exclusively vinyl. He said his main music sources are “Gramaphone Records and online stores having going-out-of-business sales.”

Sangre has headlined shows at Smart Bar in Chicago twice and often plays Streetbeat parties. He said his most memorable set was his very first public show, Streetbeat’s “Eat It 2” party during his sophomore year. He ended the show with an air-guitar solo.

“Thirty of my friends walked into Shanley [Pavilion] just as I came on and started screaming my name”, said Sangre. “From then on, the show was amazing.”

Sangre said WNUR Streetbeat is “an inclusive place where anyone, even someone with no experience can learn to DJ.” He also mentioned that he loves the Dominick’s truck drivers who listen and call into his show.

Sangre is currently working on a documentary about Garth Gaskey, the president of the Polar Bear Club of Milwaukee. As always, he will be cranking out funky tunes on The Fringe, which airs Monday nights 9:30-11:00 PM on WNUR 89.3 FM.