Six minutes and 14 seconds. That is how long it took for us to come up with the idea to DJ, find a mentor and create a brand.
On a random Saturday morning after a sleepover, we headed to Starbucks as per our weekly routine. Sitting at our usual table in the corner, our conversation stemmed from what Mia’s mom told us earlier that morning. “You guys should DJ,” she said. We then talked it over for about five seconds before deciding it was a good idea.
Lila pulled up the Voice Memo app on her phone and we spoke into it, laying out all of our ideas. Our logo could be one of our drawings from our favorite round of Tee K.O., a random Jackbox game we found when looking through Lila’s Nintendo Switch on a night of boredom. Our name would be Split as a reference to one of our iconic inside jokes and our mentors would be the only DJs we know, the infamous YAYI MUSIC duo.
“Sure I guess [we could mentor you guys],” YAYI MUSIC DJ Edgardo Gomez said. “I do not see why not.”
After weeks of mixing on our computers, we got our first real board in March 2025. Gomez and his partner Orestes Talavera came over that same week and we immediately bonded with them. Throughout the next couple months, the two of them became not only our mentors but also our friends. We would hang out multiple times a week as we learned how to mix tracks and use our board to its fullest potential and became somewhat of their legacy, stepping in to fill their shoes as the DJs for Miami Palmetto Senior High’s biggest events once they graduated.
Gomez and Talavera taught us not only how to expand our business, but our horizons as well. Through them, we developed new skills in mixing and networking, while also forming new bonds with people we likely would never have met otherwise. Being a part of the music world introduced us to a sphere of others who value the impact of music as much as we do.
Nothing quite compares to the feeling of standing behind the booth and watching a room full of people dance to the music you are playing. When, at our first big gig, we looked up from our board to see a sold-out auditorium bopping their heads along to our mix, all we could think was “We did that.” We never thought we would be able to make so many people happy by doing something we love so much ourselves. Knowing each gig we work is a win-win for everyone involved makes the job more rewarding than ever.
Now, having spent months DJing together, we cannot imagine having it any other way. Mia says almost every setup day that she would be miserable doing this alone. We spend hours after school watching rehearsal after rehearsal together, weekends curating setlists and planning out our mixes and events standing behind the booth as a unit. On setup days, during long rehearsals and even while doing the most mundane tasks that you are simply obligated to do, you grow a new respect for the person you are with, being not only friends but also business partners. You get to navigate a new world with someone you trust at your side. A real business is never easy, but running one with your best friend is an experience we would not change for the world.
Music holds the power to not only connect people, but to link moments and memories. The memories of our journey live through songs, like us associating the “BRAT” album with when we were just starting to learn, “In My Head” by Chris Lake with when we started to improve, “Reasons” by Black Circle and Bobbi Fallon with our first big event, Panther Prowl, and “Addicted” by Zerb and the Chainsmokers with our most recent event of Mr. Panther. Now, every time a song we have played comes up on our notorious “Just Split It” playlist, we are immediately transported to the first time we played it for a crowd. With every gig, there is bound to be new songs that we will reminisce about for the rest of our career.
Split will always be more than just a DJ business to us. We have put time, work, money and love into our brand in a way most businesses cannot compare and it has given us back even more. We are forever grateful for how it has brought us closer to both music and each other in a way that will resonate with us every time we hear something as simple as an intro to our favorite track.
