By Eleni Economides
Staff Writer
Summertime in the Greek Isles. You and your significant other emerge from the Mediterranean—salty and wet, shoes in hand—and make your way through the sand to the beach bar. It’s 6 a.m., and you’ve been dancing all night.
Maybe it’s the weather, maybe the company, maybe the refreshing swim—but somehow, the party isn’t over. At the bar, you see DJ Dimitris Mykonos, headphones wrapped around his neck, hands in the air and a smile on his face, awaiting.
DJ Dimitris wants to be your inspiration to keep on dancing.
Of course, murky Bay waters aren’t the Mediterranean, and most Bay Area bars close at 2 a.m., but that doesn’t matter to DJ Dimitris Mykonos, who mixes dance music with European style. His turntable style is as joyful as what’s heard at parties in his homeland, Greece, and he recreates the feeling for the Bay Area dance music scene.
“It’s Mykonos-style,” says DJ Dimitris, 40, who took the name after the Greek island that was famous for all-night clubs and swanky, soulful house music before Ibiza became the happening spot.
Born in Athens with the surname Tsichlas, DJ Dimitris Mykonos is the son of a classical pianist who was an honorary professor at the Conservatory of Music in Geneva. He always had a heart for music.
“My father used to put me on top of the piano while he practiced,” says Tsichlas during an interview at this Oakland apartment. “If he stopped playing, that was the only time I would wake up and cry.”
Perhaps his musical awakening was in 1983, when he first heard his all-time favorite song, the Chi-Lites’ soulful “Bottoms Up,” which he still plays.
“When I heard that song, my heart started beating so fast. It created this whole deeper connection for me,” says Tsichlas, who opened his birthday set at Ruby Skye in San Francisco this year with the song.
“A lot of DJs do it for the money, the drugs, the fame and the girls. It was never about that for me. Every track I listen to comes straight from my heart. What made me happy at 17 hasn’t changed at all.”
Tsichlas began DJing in Athens when electronic sounds and mixing were born. Before he knew it, he was working the most progressive nightclubs in Athens. In 1991, he met his first wife, a Bay Area woman who was vacationing in Athens. She brought him to Oakland, a city he has called home ever since.
In 1993, he began training as an X-ray technician. He eventually got his license, abandoning what he loved most—music. But he couldn’t entirely turn his back on it. At parties, seeing other DJs spin, he’d talk about his old days in Athens: “The bug was eating me alive. When I saw DJs, I knew I could move the crowd more than anyone else could.”
In 1998, when Dennis Wang, founder of PleasureZone parties, asked Tsichlas to DJ at a small house party, he jumped at the chance. Wang knew there was something special about his friend. “From the point I first heard him, I heard something different. Dimitris speaks for himself, his charisma and energy are behind his music, and he plays unlike any other DJ,” says Wang, who made Tsichlas the resident DJ at PleasureZone parties.
“What I heard that day uplifted my soul. It’s his choice in music. It makes you happy, feel sexy and alive,” says Wang.
Tsichlas gathered a small following of devoted fans that increased dramatically when he started playing around the Bay Area, including at Ruby Skye, which was named the fifth best club in the nation this year at the dance industry’s Winter Music Conference.
Ian Griffith, 32, who has photographed and taken videos of Tsichlas’ parties since he started working in the United States, says his Web site for Tsichlas gets more than 1 million hits a month.
“He has such an incredible ear,” says Griffith. “His choices are exceptional and what he plays is on the radio a year later. He has wisdom in his field, he understands his crowd, and he’s not just a DJ. He’s a show. He has so much expression and he reads his crowd. He knows what they want and gives it to them.”
In 2002, Tsichlas began sending his mixes to Los Angeles’ Thump Radio on KBIG 104.3, which plays his sets from midnight to 3 a.m. daily. The show has a huge audience.
San Francisco’s ear didn’t get a full dose of DJ Dimitris until he began to play for Bay Area dance station Energy 92.7. Trevor Simpson, the station’s mix show coordinator, says, “I’ve known Dimitris for 3 1/2 years, and his track record made him perfect for the station. His music, his stage presence, and the charisma he brings to the overall experience make him hugely popular.”
Tsichlas’ birthday party at Ruby Skye in January proved it. By 10:45 p.m., the club was full and the doors were closed. Nearly 2,000 people swayed and jumped to the beat of his music.
One of Tischlas’ biggest fans is 60-year-old Bob Levenson, who brings his wife, son and daughter to party with Tsichlas.
“He’s changed me because music was wonderful when I was dating in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Then it disappeared. Now Dimitris plays, and he is sponsoring great music all over again. It’s better than ever before. He’s seamless at mixing, a good artist and engages the crowd,” says Levenson.
Tsichlas says house music is the best example of the good direction dance music is heading. It’s the culmination of the best of Levenson’s era and the technology of today. He says, “House music is freedom. With house, you can bring a track back with new, beautiful flavor and sound. House music is the rebirth of all musical styles of the past, whether it’s the ‘70s, ‘80s, or ‘90s. I’m just the messenger.”
Tsichlas, who often performs wearing Greek soccer jerseys and hats, has made the Greek community proud, bringing Greeks together to celebrate a true ambassador of their culture.
Mike Giapitsoglou, who has known Tsichlas since 1993, says, “Dimitris is a true patriot of Greece, and what’s better to represent the culture than with music? It’s a great tool. Dimitris is an honest person, and he unites the community in San Francisco and makes them proud to call him their own.”
