With over 15 years of experience providing entertainment for events, Milwaukee Airwaves knows that professionalism and customization are paramount. They make every event memorable, understanding that their clients’ needs and preferences come first. Whatever you want your event to be, Milwaukee Airwaves will make it a reality. They are true music lovers with an eclectic ear. We had a chance to sit down with Alex and hear more about what makes Milwaukee Airwaves so special!

The Interview

What’s your adult beverage of choice? I don’t drink. Coffee!

What’s your junk food of choice / guilty pleasure? I love ice cream.

Do you have a favorite animal? My dogs. I’ve got a blue tick hound and a mutt. She’s just a shelter dog that we rescued. Her name’s Molly and his name is Theo.

What’s the best trip you’ve ever been on? Scotland for two weeks and that was awesome. I love Scotland, I just think it’s amazing. It’s so beautiful.

What music makes up your favorite playlist? So it’s funny because we play very happy music for people and very happy music for weddings but I really love, not depressing music but, sadder music. Music that has emotion. So for me, it’s a lot of folk, singer-songerwriter kind of stuff.

What’s the best concert you’ve been to? My wife and I argue about this all the time, I think the best concert we saw was Volcano Choir at the Pabst, which is like a Bon Iver band. It’s like a side band he does.

What do you like to do with your family in your spare time? I just like to relax, hang out. We spend so much time throwing parties and high energy events that when I’m not doing that I just kind of chill.

Why are couples drawn to your business?

We provide a genuine experience. We’ve gotten rid of a lot of the older style of DJ’ing that maybe felt a little cheesy or hokey. We like to work with our couples and be collaborative, so we’re very receptive to any do’s or don’t play that they want. When you pair that with our ability to work with other vendors and being accessible and willing to help other vendors working that evening, I think it just makes for a very seamless experience.

What style or type of weddings are the best for you?
We can do all styles. We’re happy to tailor events to specific couples. I always say that if a couple has a specific style, the more they share with us, the better we can fill in the gaps. It’s a long day of music so even if they give us a hundred songs, that’s not anywhere close enough to fill the day. So I guess the best style of couples for us are couples that are willing to work collaboratively with us.

When you sit down with a couple for the first time, how do you start the planning process?

I like to start at the beginning of the day and work through a timeline. If they have one from a caterer or venue or they don’t even have one, we can just kind of verbally think through the day. For us, we’re very detail orientated and work progressively as the day goes on. A lot of couples think it’s just playing music that the DJs do and we’re involved in a lot more than that. Knowing what the plan is for the entire day is very helpful.

What is your favorite venue in town for a party?

Haha, Ivy House, of course! Yeah, obviously I love the Ivy House, there’s a bunch of benefits just from a DJ perspective. Having the audio built in, having the audio both inside and outside without having to set up or tear down anything is very ideal. There’s a lot of great venues in Milwaukee though, and there’s plenty of beautiful spaces that have benefits for people. We love the Black Swan, they’ve got that beautiful lakefront access. We love Turner Hall because it’s kind of a classic, Milwaukee space. The Art Museum, the Grain Exchange, there’s just so many great venues. The Pritzlaff down the street… I think any venue that matches the couple is a great venue for them.

What are the benefits to hiring you as a professional DJ rather than trying to do it yourself?

I think what’s obvious is that it’s one less thing for you to worry about. I mean, your wedding day, as corny as it sounds, it does fly by. Even my wedding day it was over in the blink of an eye and having to worry about what song is going to play next or the feeling the music is or is it too loud is just another thing on your plate that you shouldn’t worry about. I also think, as I’ve said before, that it’s just so much more than playing music. It’s checking in with catering and seeing whether food is on time or going to the best man and prepping him for his speech. It’s those things that happen behind the scenes that are so much more valuable than just picking the song that’s playing at the current moment.

What’s the best thing about working with Milwaukee Airwaves?

We’ve got a great team. I love the team we have, I love the group of guys that work for us. I also love who we work for and I love working for Tyler and Ramsey. Y’know, we work very hard and we work a lot of hours and events but we have a great time doing it. I think that pours over into our work, I think people genuinely enjoy what we’re doing. It’s just a great atmosphere to be a part of.

How many people are on your team?

There are 22 DJs that work for Milwaukee Airwaves. If you factor in the Ivy House team, we’re a team of roughly 35 people.

What services are available for your couples?

We do all kinds of stuff. We’ve started to kind of spread our wings a little bit and take on some bigger production stuff as well. Obviously, we do all the DJ and emcee work, we provide uplighting, we can do slideshows on projectors. We can do custom lighting experiences. This summer we’re doing a night sky lighting experience at Best Place for someone where the whole ceiling is going to be lit up like the night sky, so that’ll be a pretty cool event. We also do pin spot lighting and anything that is lighting in the aesthetic sense.

What questions do couples forget to ask you?

I think couples come pretty prepared since there is so much information online like “25 things to ask your DJ”. Also, typically couples know someone who got married recently. It feels like people move in bunches, right? All their friends are probably getting married at the same time. Couples are pretty thorough. I think the biggest thing couples maybe don’t think about is how realistic it is for their timeline. Making sure you’re not rushing through your day just to get the logistics handled, just to knock out those tasks and instead actually enjoying the day as it comes to you. I try to remind people not to rush.

Favorite event trend you see for weddings this year?

I think it’s like the willingness to be unique, the willingness to try something new, to kind of put tradition to the side. Some couples are willing to embrace some of the quirkiness that is in their relationship and are willing to share that and show that to their guests. I think that’s very cool.

What’s one thing every bride and groom should know before their wedding?

Even though it feels incredibly stressful leading up to it, even though it feels like you’re pulling your hair out, there’s all these tiny little details that you’re never going to get done, it will get done. It will be amazing. And even if every little thing is not perfect, it’s going to be such an amazing day with all of your friends and family dressed their best and feeling their best, it’ll be magical, no matter what.

What makes Milwaukee Airwaves stand out from your competitors?

I think it comes down to our team. I always tell our couples whether I play Bruno Mars for them or another DJ company plays Bruno Mars for them, it’s still Bruno Mars. That doesn’t change, right? So, it’s the lead up, it’s being accessible, it’s the response time, the emails and phone calls, having a venue where they can come talk to us and we can meet face to face. All of those things really add up as you go through the experience.

For more information on Milwaukee Airwaves, please check out their website. Also, you can call them at 414-326-8273.

For more examples of our wedding work, please check out our blog!