David Swirsky, the owner and DJ for Expressway Music in New York City, began his musical endeavors at age six when he began playing guitar and learning songs from Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. By the time he was eight, his parents and their friends asked him to DJ their events and parties. Swirsky attended Syracuse University, where he DJed campus events and wrote songs for his band, which garnered a lot of radio airplay. He has been in the music and entertainment industry for over 31 years, and has a passion for pleasing people and creating unforgettable experiences for his clients. Swirsky graduated from Great Neck South High School in 1980.

Sarah Sun: When did you attend Great Neck South High School? What was your most memorable experience?

David Swirsky: I attended South High from 1977 to 1980. In terms of memorable experiences, there were a lot, but the most memorable is probably sports-related. I tried out for the basketball team in 10th grade. I was a good player, but I had a terrible tryout, and I didn’t make the team. I was determined to do everything that I could do, and I went back the next year and had a great tryout. I not only made the team but also became co-captain. With the basketball team, I learned that I did have perseverance, which is what really separates a lot of people. You don’t necessarily have to have the most talent, but if you keep trying, you can succeed and succeed well.

SS: Was there a teacher at South that particularly influenced you?

DS: Yeah, there were a number. There was an English teacher named Bill Biel who was also my neighbor growing up. We lived a block away from Lakeville, which was my elementary school. He was a very interesting guy. He kind of looked at the world a little bit differently than the rest of us. We played golf together. I think I had my first beer with him. He instilled in me that there is definitely more than one way to look at anything. He was always very filled with opinions, but he gave all sides of an issue, and that stayed with me.

One day we walked into his class and there were these letters on the board: C, O, I, K. He didn’t even talk about it; there was just this gigantic word, COIK. And he taught the lesson and nobody was listening because they wanted to know what COIK meant, and the next day, he goes, “I know a lot of you have been wondering what COIK is,” and he said, “it means clear, only if known”. He was an English teacher and taught us that if you can clearly communicate your thoughts and feelings to others the more likely you will get what you want in life. That always stayed with me.

SS: You’ve been in the music and entertainment industry for a long time—did you always want to be a DJ? What inspired you to pursue a career in music?

DS: The year I was born, it was like the music Renaissance. I was born in 1962—two years later, the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan. I had particularly young parents; my parents had three kids by the time my mother was 22 or 23. She played guitar, and there was always music playing in the house. The memories I have as a kid were a lot of the Beatles. My brother and I shared a room early on, and we played the Beatles’ records over and over and over again, jumping on our beds and singing along. We started to learn every single song that they had and both decided to take guitar lessons, my brother at five, and I think I might have been six. It’s funny to look back at it now, but we wanted to be one of the Beatles. We thought you could just grow up and be a Beatle. Well, it turns out there were only four of them and they weren’t looking for applications. When I got a little bit older, I said, wow, you can’t just be a Beatle, but I definitely wanted to do something in music, as did my brother. We wound up doing that and we took different routes.

SS: You’re the owner and DJ of Expressway Music DJ’s. How did you build up the business, and what did your career path look like? How did your passion for music inspire the process?

DS: DJing is not rocket science but when you do it a lot, you get very good at it. So again, it’s that perseverance thing. I knew that music was the right thing for me, so I stuck with it. Growing up, my uncle used to collect records. He had thousands, and when he moved, he left the records in our house. I went through every one of those records front and the back—I would look at who wrote what song, who published what song, going from one record to the next. I didn’t even know why I was doing it at the time, I just loved it.

So, the DJ business is a little bit of a different kind of animal than a lot of other businesses. It’s not a nine-to-five business. It has a lot of self-motivating and self-starting because especially when you’re beginning, you have no gigs, and you’ve got to make those gigs happen. You have to get up and give yourself a schedule. When you’re in a DJ business, you have to do the marketing. You have to meet people and make them remember you and then you have to run the business and continuously get these gigs. And, you have to be excellent at what you do!

What I had going for me was when I was in college, and even after college, I worked in a family business. I went to Syracuse University, and after class, I would drive to my grandfather’s office and warehouse and I would work in different divisions. I would work in the warehouse. I would work in payments. I would work in collections. I would work in sales. It had nothing to do with music, but it was kind of like going to business school. Afterward, in my 20s, I helped my father start a business and had that experience. I am very fortunate to have had a background in music and business growing up.

SS: You’ve performed at many events and venues—what is the best part of bringing that musical experience and joy to others?

DS: I’m a people pleaser first. So, my company does weddings, corporate, Bar Mitzvahs, Bat Mitzvahs, etc. Say we’re doing a Bar Mitzvah. There’s a family there who have people coming from all over. They want to have a really enjoyable, festive time to celebrate their son or their daughter coming into adulthood, and you can see in their eyes how much they love their kids. I want to make it the most memorable day or night of their lives. For me, I get the most pleasure making people happy and having a great time.

SS: What are some of your most memorable performing experiences?

DS: I’ve got so many. I’m going to give you three, but I have hundreds. There was a group in the 60s called The Mamas & the Papas. They did a song called California Dreamin’. They were a very big group; there were two men and two women in the group and they had a lot of hits on the radio. One of the lead singers was Denny Doherty, who put on an Off-Broadway play called Dream a Little Dream, and it was their story. I was asked to be the DJ for the opening night. I went there—I grew up on that 60s music—and I looked out over the crowd and there were all my musical heroes in the audience. While I did get paid for that gig, I would’ve done it for free!

We also do many karaoke DJ events too, and sometimes nursing homes hire us. I get to see older people get a spark in their eye when you’re playing songs from yesteryear, and they stand up from the wheelchair or their bed and they’re singing along. It really moves me.

There’s also an experience I had during a holiday season last month, doing a very straight-laced buttoned-up corporate event and a guest came up to sing “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield. All of a sudden, the guests, from the mailroom workers to the CEO, break into a conga line around the room, and I’m thinking to myself, this is what I’m doing this for. It’s those moments that happen spontaneously!

SS: You also create your own music, which covers a variety of genres. How would you describe your music?

DS: Swirsky.com is my songwriting website. I’m a real melody person, and I like feel-good songs, although I do have a number of sad songs I wrote. Before I went into the DJ business fully, I thought that I might want to be a professional songwriter, such as for a record company or a publishing company. I found it a little too isolating for me—I like to be with people more—but I did wind up writing a lot. I would say my songs are meaningful and melodic.

SS: How would you describe your creative process?

DS: I like spontaneity. I know songwriters who have a specific time that they write, or DJs who plan the event before they even see the crowd. DJ-wise, I have such a vast knowledge of a lot of music and have been DJing for so long, that I am very comfortable going to any type of crowd and making it happen and getting people on the dance floor and not leaving. Songwriting-wise, I don’t know how the melody comes to me, but when it does, I’ll pick up my phone and record it and then take it from there.

SS: What advice would you give to high school students, young musicians and artists, or anyone in the process of figuring out themselves and their future?

DS: I would say do not be too harsh on yourself. You’re going to make many mistakes, and it’s really how you correct the mistakes that matter the most. Also, you can’t have enough compassion for people. Be good to people, and surround yourself with people who get that.

SS: What are you working on now? What’s next for you?

DS: I feel like I’m always cognitive of improving how I am as a husband and as a friend. Professionally, I love to work. I love my clients. I love the people I work with. I like to work with like-minded people, where there’s kind of a mutual admiration, and we all have the same goal of giving people the best event that they could possibly have. So it’s just always improving as a person and getting better as a husband, friend, DJ and business person.