About Good Vibrationz

Courtesy of:
North Hawaii News
March 28, 2002

Two DJs make their music mobile

BY MA'ATA TUKUAFU - NORTH HAWAII NEWS

Without knowing each other, Wendy Neubauer and Clark Kucera were living parallel lives. Neubauer and Kucera, owners of Good Vibrationz mobile DJ music and karaoke entertainment, both received their degrees in communications while opening part time businesses as mobile DJs.

DJs Wendy Neubauer and Clark Kucera take their music everywhere. They provide lighting, state of the art sound systems and a huge selection of music for parties, luaus and more.

"I started out independently just for fun," said Kucera. "I got interested in lasers and was doing light shows for my friends, setting them to music."

It became such a hit that eventually he started doing lighting and special effects for fraternity parties at California State at Fullerton. "Then they contracted with me for an entire year of parties, and that was when I really became a DJ," he said. Kucera purchased professional equipment as an investment and by the end of the season the entire system was paid for. "I was so happy doing what I loved doing," Kucera said. "I was listening to music, playing with lights and hanging out with my friends."

Kucera DJ'd part time for five years and graduated from college, a personal goal he met by carrying 18 to 20 units per semester. Shortly after, he moved to the Big Island in early 2000 after his brother told him that the mobile DJ business would do great here. "I met Wendy two months later through a mutual friend," Kucera said. That is when they started talking about working together.

Born on Oahu and growing up in Northern California, Neubauer's love of music was influenced by her father. "I was fortunate because since I was a little girl, he provided us with every genre of music. I was always making tapes for friends to listen to," she said. After graduating from college, she started a mobile DJ business as a part-time venture. "I invested in equipment and marketed myself by doing flyers and passing out business cards," Neubauer said, who is also a communications major with a minor in marketing. She added karaoke to her business when it first came out, after her father who was going back and forth to Tokyo, introduced her to it. "I started doing corporate events and found that I enjoyed it a lot” she said.

Neubauer set her sights on making a move to the islands and wanted to make her business a full-time venture. Moving to the Big Island in 2000, she said, "Hawaii feels like home. I have a real affinity for the islands."

After meeting, Neubauer and Kucera found common ground and knew they would be complementary while working together. "We're now a couple personally, but we were friends and business partners first," said Kucera. The couple makes their home in Hawi.

In addition to the mobile DJ business, both worked on developing a graphic design company they named Kucera Design and Productions. "Small businesses are our clients," said Neubauer. "We do web sites, business cards, give-aways, T-shirts and more." Though they are still developing some aspects of the company, they are kept busy by their clientele, who are predominantly from the West Coast.

Good Vibrationz is hired by resorts, conventions, corporations, incentive groups, wedding parties and local residents for luaus and parties. Quotes for events are done on a case by case basis, depending on the venue size, what the client wants, lighting needs and the length of time. "The beauty of our business is that we both DJ and MC (master of ceremonies,) so we can both go to separate events on the same day," said Neubauer. "We have all the equipment and lighting to set up at two locations."

A very important part of Good Vibrationz service is reflecting what their clients' wishes and needs are. "We take a lot of time in advance of the event to find out what our clients are looking for and what type of ambiance they want to create," Neubauer added.

They have event attendees form Congo lines or kick lines or do fun dances. "We're interactive if the group is receptive to that," said Kucera. Or if a group wants soft music throughout dinner, they can play that, too. "We get to meet a lot of interesting people and sometimes people introduce us to new music."

Keeping abreast in the DJ business is important to both DJs. They read magazines to maintain quality and find out what is on the cutting edge. For the future, Kucera said he would like to move from CDs to digital music. "Right now we cart six to eight cases of CDs to parties and events. Along with our equipment that's about 600 pounds total," he said. Moving to digital music would knock off several hundred pounds of weight and allow them to put all the music onto a computer. "We would have to take only the computer and a mixer to events. Anyone requesting a song will only wait two seconds, versus thirty. We type in the first two letters of the artist's name, and immediately we have the song.”

Although they own the highest quality sound equipment and play great music selections, Neubauer explained that there are other components to being good DJs. "You have to be personable, gregarious, quick, and know what is going to motivate the crowd.

"It is such a rewarding experience to bring music into a situation and have everyone's face light up."

Both Kucera and Neubauer hope to start doing inter-island events soon, especially places like Molokai and Lanai. For further information, Good Vibrationz may be contacted at (808) 889-1332 or www.goodvibrationz.com.