Words by Nathan Quevedo
Photos by Tom Price

Meeting the man who likely has the biggest draw at The Partisan was ironic.

It was during happy hour on a Wednesday. There were two other people in the bar. Including the bartender.

Patrick Sullivan — aka DJ P-Sol — said it was the quietest he’s ever seen the place. He’s used to Friday nights where the bar is at capacity and he’s given free reign to spin whatever he thinks the crowd wants. And they don’t take it for granted.

“I enjoy coming to Merced,” says Sullivan. “What most traveling DJs will tell you is that small markets don’t take the DJ for granted. Merced and the Partisan definitely fall into this category. The crowd comes to party.”

Sullivan, who lives in North Hollywood and is a full-time DJ, grew up in Merced and currently has a once-a-month residency at The Partisan.

A few years back he won the Myspace /BPM Magazine “Stylus in the Rough” DJ contest. (I know, MySpace is so two years ago and everyone’s on Facebook now, but it’s still pretty damn impressive considering there are roughly 270 million people on MySpace.)

The prize package included DJing at some of L.A.’s best parties and opening up for the town’s best DJs, including Z-Trip, Steve Aoki and DJ AM.

"Places peak real fast, but they drop just as fast,” he says of the scene in L.A., which he describes as fast-paced but at times lackluster. “I love the industry and hate it at the same time. There have been countless times I come home from working at 3 in the morning and ask myself why I do this. Why do I work for the sleaziest, shallowest people in the world?”

He’s seen his fair share of shallow and sleezy down there.

“I have done a few dive bars in L.A. that violate every code in the book from smoking inside, (over) capacity, ceiling hanging, patrons and employees doing drugs off the bartop,” he said. And he said there’s plenty of competition in SoCal.

“With the technology now, everyone is a DJ — there are a lot of nonDJs DJing,” he said of the folks he refers to as “Microwave DJs.”

“They all suck but if you know the right person, you’re good to go. They’re taking cash out of my pockets.”

Despite his love/hate relationship with the L.A. scene, there’s always something going on. “You can do a party on Sunday night, and if it’s good, people come out. You can find a party any night of the week,” he said.

He also has a pretty impressive client list, including: Scion, The Sacramento Kings, Red Bull energy drink, Rockstar energy drink, Def Jam Records, Adidas, Playboy, NFL, Vitamin Water and Vapors magazine, among others.

Sullivan started spinning records in his teen years and realized it was for him.

“I got into DJing in the mid-90s here in Merced with the few local hip hop DJs in town, practiced every day and night, and pissed my mother off as she had know idea what in the hell this DJing stuff was,” he said.

He moved to Sacramento and opened a record store, Twelves, on Broadway. Unfortunately, it was right at the dawn of the digital age of music. “Record stores are pretty obsolete in general because of the digital music industry,” he said. Though he thinks there will always be a place for record stores, and that Amoeba Records will be “the last one standing.”

The Partisan sees his residency as an asset.

“P-Sol is a rare and significant find as a DJ. He combines technical mastery of the gear, a broad and eccentric taste in music, an intuitive ability to read the crowd, and an approachable sensibility; and this all melds to give the audience a personal experience,” said Joey Essig, The Partisan co-owner. “This is not just his job — he is an artist and this is his craft.”

When asked what the most influential DJ was, the first was DJ Jazzy Jeff. “He’s still on top of the game,” he said. Other DJs he’s into now are the Beat Junkies, DJ Craze and DJ 8-Trak.

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