August 26, 2024 • 35 mins
In this episode of “Inside the Oval” presented by Dignity Health, the founding members of the 49ers Amp Squad, DJ Amen, DJ E-Rock and The Les, shared their journeys to DJing, discussed what it takes to perform for a stadium crowd, shared the story on how the 49ers Amp Squad was created and more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the Inside the OBL podcast presented by Dignity Help.
I'm Brianna McDonald and today I'm with one of the
most turned up groups of the forty nine Ers, the
AMP Squad. Faithful, if you've ever been to a forty
nine Ers game at Levi Stadium, you definitely know the
AM Squad. They are the group of forty nine Ers
DJs that bring the energy to game days in the Bay.
(00:28):
In studio with me today is dj Amn, dj E
Rock and the Les guys. Thanks so much for joining me,
Thanks for having us now to start us off, what
does it mean to be a DJ for the forty
nine Ers Amsquad?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
This is DJ E Rock and for me, Man, it
means the world.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
You know, forty nine Ers football runs so strongly as
a tradition in my family. Like you know, I was
born a forty nine Ers fan. I remember sitting on
my grandmother's lap, you know, back in the day when
you know it was montanaa Rice and her streaming at
the tele Vision, you know. So you know, for me,
it's just it's everything, Like it's it's my family, like
(01:06):
common bond, it's everything that we talk about in the
group chat, like you know, it's it's it's such a
deeply rooted thing. So I mean, for me just in general,
means everything to me.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Yeah, I think it's a privilege first and foremost. Yeah,
we treat every set like it's our last set. We
treat every set like it's our first set because of
the excitement and the passion that comes with being an
am squad DJ. And one of the things that you'll
notice about all of us is that we are again
lifelong forty nine Ers fans and so we don't take
any of it for granted. And the level of excitement
(01:38):
that we bring in game days and for every forty
nine Ers home game, I think it means the world.
So that's that's what it means to me personally.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
What's up? And say, man, being a forty nine Ers
DJ is big. For the past probably twenty years, you know,
we've DJed everything you can think of, from opening up
Oracle Arena for break to doing the hottest nightclubs, you know,
basketball games, anything you can think of, we've all probably done.
(02:07):
But when you step into Levi's and it's about sixty
thousand people ready to rock, there's nothing bigger than that.
It's the biggest DJ gig we've ever done. You know
this this past year. We got to go to Vegas
and turn up, got to go to Miami and turn
up a couple of years back. And it's it's funny
because we could do the coolest things in the world
(02:30):
to us, the coolest gigs and jobs, but this is
the one job that our parents actually understand what we're doing.
It's like, no, it's like half your family's not proud
until you tell them you're a DJ for the forty
nine ers, and everybody's proud of you. Everybody talks about you.
All of a sudden, You're the coolest cousin on Facebook.
(02:52):
It's been funny. It's been funny.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
That's hilarious. How do you get from no DJ experience
at all to being the coolest cousin on Facebook? I want,
I don't know what the journey is like and how
did you get involved with DJing in the first place.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
I think for me personally, I had an older brother
that introduced me to hip hop culture, and I fell
in love with hip hop culture. You know, I try
to break dance and all that stuff when I was
a kid, and I spent a lot of time in
San Francisco, and once I walked into a record store
like a Meba or you know, any of those old
school record spots, it was just like it hits you.
The dopamine kick is crazy seeing all the records, and
(03:28):
you just want to collect everything. You want to have everything,
you want to play everything. So I just I just
fully fell in love with you know, hip hop culture
as basically a religion. It was like a religious experience.
So that's how I got into djaying. And you know
that was probably about twenty years ago, twenty five years ago.
(03:48):
So it's like I have never, for one minute ever
thought about giving up. And I think in the beginning
of your career, everyone's like, oh yeah, cool, everyone wants
to be a DJ, and then they start to notice, like, uh,
all this guy does is DJ. You talk about DJ,
think about djang, working on DJing, and then the gigs
(04:10):
start coming, and it's like a level up every year,
like you start doing something a little bit cooler, a
little bit cooler, and then before you know it, you're
like in tour on tour in Tokyo and you're DJing
and then everyone's like, uh, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I've never been he did a tour in Tokyo. So
that's a humble brag right there.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
But you've been to the DJ in the Philippines, right, yeah,
I've definitely j Yeah, we both we all did that
for me, like.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
You know, kind of like the you know, the same
route that that amen you know has traveled through, like
you know, I actually actually started DJing by accident, which
is crazy because, uh, it was just one random day
where I went to like our neighborhood swimming pool and
there are other kids in the community that you know,
(04:57):
would go also, and I met this one family, uh,
the sum Along family. They had just moved to Conquer, California.
That was where I was kind of like, you know, uh,
introduced to DJing. And I was like, where, I'm eleven
years old or something like that. But me and the
youngest sibling we used to play video games together. And
then I remember one day I went to their house
(05:19):
after swimming and then we were playing video games. I
don't know, I was like double dribble or something like that,
like you remember that, remember that.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
It's okay, it's fine, I'm proud.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
But while we're playing video games right next door, like
his older brothers were DJing they're cutting their scratching, and
you know, it was all this, like all these noise
I've never heard, like in person, like I've heard them
on songs or stuff like that. I'm like, yeah, like
are these guys scratching like right right next door. So
eventually I went from playing video games to going over
(05:53):
there and learning how to DJ and practicing. And I
was more fascinated with DJing than playing Tech Mobile you know,
as a kid. And eventually since then, like you know,
just like what Amen said, like you know, you start
kind of leveling up. I remember doing like small events
for like you know, my high school back then, or
like you know, it'd be like Christmas and like all
(06:14):
my cousins would be over and I'd put it like
a speaker like you know, out in like the living room,
and I would just start DJing because I had to
set up and everything. So I would just like you know,
end up doing all that. And then yeah, fast forward,
you know, I mean decades later, you know, here we are,
like you know, playing for tens and thousands, like sixty
thousand people, like you know, for our favorite football team.
(06:35):
So you know, it's definitely been a journey in one
hell of a blessing.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah for me.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Two things I would attribute my dad's love for music
is me having a lot of interest in music early
on in my life, and so that was definitely one
reason why I got into DJing. And then the other
one was I mean, I could remember attending middle school
dances and seeing the DJ rock the crowd and I
was like, wow, I really want to do that. And
(07:02):
so literally right after I think I was twelve years old,
I started to gain interest. There used to be this
record so called Rasputin's on his Spear in Boulevard and
I just go there, Yeah, yeahputing now I'm showing my
image action.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
I'm pretty sure Respute is still around, is still around?
Speaker 4 (07:19):
It is, yeah, on his sperion. But yeah, So even
before I got turntables, i'd go into the record store
and just start looking at records that I would eventually buy.
And the deal with my parents was they'd get me
my first turntable, but I'd had to work for that
second one. So I started taking gigs. My first wedding
gig I was fifteen or no, fourteen, and I did
(07:42):
well wedding gig. I was an assistant for somebody, and
so that's really where it started, and that's where the
interest started.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I got to hear the origin story of each of
your DJ journeys, but I want to know the origin
story to your forty nine Ers fandom. What got you
wrapped up into this team and the love for this team,
because I feel like this team is the heartbeat of
the Bay Area. So how did you tap into that?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
You know, I mentioned it earlier that, like, you know,
I used to sit on my grandmother's lap. She was
a huge forty nine Er fan, like probably one of
the biggest I've ever seen in my entire life. And
you know that just kind of naturally, like you know,
was passed on to me, and then it was passed
on to my entire family, all my other cousins and
and you know, it became like our ritual every Sunday,
(08:27):
Like if we had nothing to do and nothing to
talk to, you, we can always count on watching forty
nine and football together as a family. And that was
something that was very I mean, it was just so
instrumental to to just our growth as a family like
our it was such a big part of our fabric.
You know that even now today, you know, in our
elder statesman.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Since we're talking about age all the time, some of us.
All right, I'll take it. I'm probably the oldest on
the on the squad.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
But now, like you know, our nephews are nieces there,
you know, the kids that are now like the next generation,
they're doing the same thing now, they're you know, following
like you know, forty nine's football the same way that
we did, you know, and you know, it's just a
very special thing. It's like our I don't know, it's
like I said, it's our common bond. You know, we
(09:19):
might not have nothing to do or talk about, but
we could talk about forty knit's football all day, every
day at the dinner table as a family.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Yeah, I think it's the same here. You know, uncles, cousins, aunts,
every you know. Growing up, if you were in the
Bay Area in the eighties and nineties, there was nothing
bigger than forty nine Ers football, and it was such
an exciting time in the Bay Area that like there's
(09:45):
no way you just couldn't get hooked, you know what
I mean. Everything was awesome about forty nine Ers football
back in the day. And I mean it's like I
remember being in San Francisco, listening to kf RC, listening
to Huey Lewis, listening all that stuff. I remember, you know,
being at gas stations and there's forty nine or like
the most amazing just merch and posters, and that everything
(10:10):
was just so cool back then, and it was almost
impossible not to be a Niner fan being around you know,
the four one five back in the day. So I
think that it was just so easy to be a
forty nine Er fan. And you know, the the dynasty,
the pedigree's it lives on to this day. That's how big,
(10:31):
you know, it was at that moment when when we
see Joe and Jerry at these games, we get shook,
like we freeze up, and it's because that means so
much to us as kids. I'm sure we're gonna get
into our favorite moments at some point, but one of
the moments that we had was during the pandemic when
(10:54):
there was no fans at Levi's, we still got to
DJ because they wanted the players pumped in between plays,
and so we would be in there djaying it would
be the it would be the players, the staff and us.
And one of the games I walk in, I set
up and just kind of like do the sound check
and all that stuff. And Jerry Rice walks up to
(11:14):
me to the DJ booth and he's like, hey, man,
play something, and I just started DJing and he's literally
just dancing. It's just me and Jerry and he's gigging,
having a great time, and like, these are like priceless
moments and to be a fan, like I said as
a kid in the eighties and nineties, and Jerry's sitting
(11:36):
there getting down and having a good time with all
the young cats that are out here now. I mean,
man is amazing from the bay.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
One of my earliest memories in just life is being
raised and born a forty nine Ers fan, and so
Sundays in the fall and the winter were made for
forty nine Ers football. That's literally what I did with
my dad and my brother, my mom on the couch.
So literally it's in our bloodline and January's we know
(12:04):
the run that they had in the eighties and nineties,
whether it was my parents hosting playoff games or Super Bowls,
or we were going to auntie's and uncle's houses watching
those games. That's literally what I remember as one of
my core memories. In life is forty nine Ers football.
During the playoffs, my dad would decorate the entire garage
(12:25):
with all of the memorabilia and everything that was related
to forty nine Ers in that garage, So it was
almost like his It was definitely his man cave. But
it was always a special time when we'd get those
get all that up in the garage, and then the
icing on the cake was when he'd put the flag
in the car on the car in the window, and
(12:46):
so that is tradition. Great, yeah, and one of my
earliest memories. And the love is that's where it started.
It's obviously still very much here.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Now take the listeners to the DJ booth at Levice Stadium.
Walk us through what a typical game day looks like
for an AM squad member.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
So a lot of preparation goes into it before the
game day, and we're working very closely with the Amazing
Game Day team with Laura Johnson, Toby Mack and the
rest of the crew. And then on the actual game
day we check in a few hours before we have
our sound check, and then there's a period in between
(13:25):
where we get to prepare even more and I call
that the lock in period. Where it's time to kind
of imagine yourself on that stage, getting ready to play
for the players and the fans, and so going over
your music, making sure all of your cue points are
dialed in, and then it moves fairly fast. You have
a few hours in between, but once you're in that
(13:45):
lock in stage, all of a sudden, it's go time,
and you know, you hear your name on the big
board and then here you go, right and after that,
it moves very quick. But that's usually what it looks
like from me in terms of the game day experience.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But I don't think a lot of people get to
see a lot of the preparation, like even before we arrive,
like you know, the the call within game, like you know,
going over music and stuff like that, and just like
even curating, like you know what we're gonna do, and
just you know, trying to figure out, you know, what
the what the game plan is, like you know, from
a music standpoint, like you know, a lot of not
(14:22):
a lot of people get to see like the early
on aspects, even if it's like a one minute or
two minute like scoreboard hit, like we've already planned for
that like three or four days, like prior, you know, so.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
Yeah, I think, Uh, Sunday happens and Monday morning, the
whole organization shifts to the next game, and it's it's
an insane thing, it and and uh, once that happens,
the anxiety triggers on me, and I start thinking, Okay,
the countdown has begun. There's six days to figure out
(14:54):
what's gonna happen. And you know we're only detailed for
as a whole for probably like minutes, right, but it's
like the whole week You're sitting there trying to figure
out in your head what are you going to do?
You know, how are you going to elevate this moment
and how are you going to bring something to the
table for the players most importantly, and uh, you know
for the fans, like we want them to just be
(15:16):
turned out of their minds for three hours or you know,
whatever the case is. And you know, I have a
longer drive. I come from the North Bay, so I'm
up super early Sunday morning to be here for the
call time. And the drive down is just like you know,
you're just thinking about it the whole time, and then
you know, we do the sound check and you get
into that moment in the locker room where it's the
(15:38):
lock in and it's very real before the game starts,
and you know, we do pregame, so we're we we
get a we start, you know, twenty thirty minutes before
the game starts, DJing and it you know, it's you
got to roll up your sleeves. This is not for everybody.
This is not for every DJ. This is the big
(16:00):
show that it's it really is the biggest stage. So
once you get up there, it's like, you know, you
kind of you just say a prayer and then you
just go to work. One speed go and and the
adrenaline is firing the whole time. If you know, I
have about an hour and a half drive home and
I'm still on it the whole way home. It takes
(16:22):
me a minute to come down. Like you know, Monday
comes and you're you're still tired from just like your
body just being so turned up.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Take me to that brainstorm you mentioned. It starts Monday
for a Sunday game. But when you're coming to that
decision of picking your set list, picking what music is
going to cater to the players, the fans, and also
what's trending at the moment. Take me through the basics.
How do you decide music for a game day?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
So, yeah, the process starts obviously with the scheduling, Like
you know, we go through the schedule. If it's your day,
you know, you have a few days to put together
whether you do pregame or you do the end game.
Pregame is a little bit more I'd say it's probably
a little bit more complicated than the in game process. Uh,
(17:09):
the pregame, you know, you want to cater to obviously
everybody that's in the stadium.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You have forty nine er fans.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Of all like you know, walks of life and ages,
Like you got someone that's been a forty nine er
fan since they've been born in like the fifties or forties,
and you have somebody that was just born maybe they're
two or three. You know, so you have to, you legit,
have to make a decision on when you playlist to
cater to a very wide spectrum of people. Also, at
(17:37):
the same time, like you know, when the players are out,
we want to make sure that we that we provide
a soundtrack that gets them amped up, that makes them
feel like okay, like you know, we're gonna we're gonna
get this dub like, you know, we're gonna turn this
up right here.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So you know, it's a.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
It's definitely a tedious process we do that, we turn
it into in game. In game improves it or they
say hey, let's do this, you know, we work collaboratively
with them, and then for endgame. I think in game
is kind of like, you know, it's very situational. You know,
situational awareness is very important to have because you know,
you're responsible for those moments or you know, to take
(18:12):
that next moment or to take that moment to the
next level, whether you're on you know, the losing side
of the ball or the winning side. You know, if
you're on the winning side, you still want to get
it turned up. And at the same time, you want
to reinspire if we're not necessary, if the game's not
going our way. So that's also, ah, you know, a
big thing. So that's kind of like how how how
(18:34):
that whole entire thing works. Yeah, two totally different instances.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Though.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
I think that the organization knows we're professionals, so they
do put it in our hands, but they do give
us really good input from the players, the coaches, so
when they're doing their practices. You know, they there's certain
music they want to hear. They kind of let us
know what that is, and then we try to do
our best to incorporate those moments. So if George Kittle
(19:04):
has a favorite song, we'll try to get that in
for them so that he's pumped before the game. And
you know, it's it's really cool because you'll see, you know,
if I'm djaying a pre game, like you know, you
might see Fred Warner just going crazy down there on
the field while they're warming up, and it's like you
everybody can see that we struck that chord, you know
what I mean, And you know it I have like
(19:28):
you know, NFC Championships, like Dbo's out there and he's
just turned and it's like, I know that I got
him there, you know what I mean. And that's working
closely with the whole staff to make sure that we're
you know, we're hitting those points. And you know, like
E said, it might be you know, a dance cam hit,
it might be a fourth quarter pump, and you know,
(19:50):
at that moment, I have to get sixty thousand people
on their feet, like at the press of a button,
So you know, that's all stuff that we really take
into consideration and we try to do our best to
knock it out the park every single time.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Okay, so now I've got to know what are some
fan favorites and then what are some player favorites that
you know that this is going to get the stadium
pumped up or like I know, I'm about a trigger debo.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Like you just said fan favorites, I would definitely say
whenever you play you know, a Bay Area anthem in
here from an e forty a too short obviously, you know,
a Niner gang like that gets people off their feet
from a player perspective, And what would you say is
probably like you know the most like you know Turnent
(20:36):
record that we play for the players.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
A man, I would say, when when we talk about
players like Deebo, they're very hip to what's coming out
in the moment. You know, new music drops for every
Thursday night West Coast at nine pm, and these guys
are listening. They're they're they're really paying attention. You know,
low Baby and and and all the southern the trap
(21:00):
stuff that really is just is just super turned. You know,
that's what these guys they want to hear it. They
want to be ready to rock, so you know we
have that and then you know, and it and it
goes back to the like the fans. It's like when
when you play that Journey song. Yeah, it's like, man,
when when yeah, when we were when we were at
(21:22):
the NFC Championship and we were down and Journey came
out and played don't stop believing that is that will
be a core memory for the rest of my life.
Like I could not believe the emotion that was in
the stadium in that moment and for us to come back,
Oh my goodness. It's like you can just see the
(21:44):
power of music in these games. And I think that
you know, that's that's partly why the AMP Squad exists,
and that's why we all work together to try and
create those situations where you know, we can get back
to the Bowl.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
And Coach love Wayne. By the way, let me beat Bill.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Yeah, Hey yeah, I mean yeah, if you play Little Wayne,
you'll you'll you'll definitely strike that chord.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
With Coach I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
I feel like, amen, you just spoke on it now
with the power of music and why the AMP Squad
exists and how you guys fuel the energy in that stadium.
But from that moment, I want to know what's been
the most rewarding part of your job.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
This whole thing has been rewarding. Like from the time
I got the phone call from E Rock to ask
me to join the AMP squad in the beginning ten
years ago, just every game, every trip we've been on,
just hanging out with the fans, doing I've done. I've
gone to other cities and done the fan fests. Like
(22:44):
everything's been rewarding. Everybody is family, and I've I've never
had a bad moment that I mean. That's why we
do this. That's why we get up early. That's why
if we're djaying and uh San Diego Saturday night, we'll
make sure we're in Santa Clara on Sunday morning, you know,
we go through. I've flown, like you know, we talked
(23:06):
about Tokyo earlier. I have flown directly from Tokyo back
here to San Jose and came straight to a game
and it was a raining game. It was ice cold
that day.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
I had.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
They had to get me handwarmers just like a DJ
and it was like, I wouldn't change that for the world.
I wouldn't miss that game. That's what it is all about.
And there there's just so many moments from you know,
not even just the Super Bowls obviously that's you know,
been so much fun those whole weeks. But I was
(23:45):
on my Instagram kind of scrolling through some of this
stuff because I knew we were going to be talking
about things over the past ten years. And I stumbled
across a video that it's E forty on the field
and he says, I made a new Niner anthem. I'm
a form for the first time right now. Amen, drop
that beat and it kicks to me. And I played
(24:06):
the Bang Bang Niner Gang in the stadium and it's
like it's like just seeing that just gives me chills,
Like those moments, and you know, we get to be
in the tunnels before the game, so we get to
you know, like see the players and all that stuff
and get super excited, and I know, like the Hall
of Fame games where it's like we're there's a there's
(24:28):
a picture on Instagram where Joe and Jerry are in
the they're in the tunnel and me and Me and
DJ Romeo are in the back like photo bombing them.
Probably like probably like three hundred feet away. We're nowhere
near them, but we're in the back of the photo
and it's like we were so excited to be in
that picture because it's so funny and that stuff means
(24:52):
the world to us.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Yeah, those moments are everything, you know, I think one
of the most rewarding parts of the job is you know,
is being is being on the same level as the fans,
you know, like feeding off of their energy, like you know,
I mean when you're when you're sitting there and you're
dropping a set, like you know, and you have like,
you know, a couple one hundred people around the gold mine,
(25:14):
you know, around that fan area where we're at, Like
you know, you're feeding off people that that love this
team as much as you do, you know what I mean.
And for me, it's just like it's everything. It's just
it's a different type of energy that that it's incomparable
to anything else I've ever experienced ever.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Yeah, plus one of what they've all said, and then
seeing the players vibe to your pregame set. So a
lot of the times they'll they'll hit to the players
and you'll see either Fred Warner or Deebo just bobbing
his head when you're playing a song. It's it's a
little validating to see them do that, like, Okay, I
think I I think I've made play it, have played
the right records here, So it's it's nice to see.
(25:53):
But additionally, I think, uh, seeing the growth over the
past ten years with the M squad and where it
started and where it's become. It's now become this brand
in its own right, supplementary of the game day experience
with the gold Rush and the Niner noise and then
obviously with the forty nine ers brand. And so we
came to that first year not really knowing, you know,
(26:16):
what was going to come out of it. But now
here we are, year ten, there's so much to be
proud proud about. So I think the rewarding part is
seeing the growth over the past ten years and looking
forward to making it a special one this year.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
And let's all agree that it's actually not that bad
to be able to watch for United Football.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
For free, not a bad deal. Not on top of
all that, yeah we get to watch.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
The game and and and the DJ booth isn't a
great it's I mean, yeah, it's moved around the stadium
a couple of times each season. You know, we kind
of kind of changed things up or whatever the case is.
But every time it's it's it's one of the best
seats in the house. You get to sit there and
you get to watch everything. You know, sometimes we're on
(26:59):
the calm so we to kind of get behind the
scenes look of the production. So you know, it's it's
a It's one thing to watch it on TV on
your couch. It's one thing to watch it as a
fan in the seats, but it's it's a whole different
experience from the DJ booth.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Oh, by the way, you're playing the music in the
stadium too, so that's a fun part of it.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
You guys were talking about the Am Squad being a brand. Now,
how did the band get together? Like? Who is the
founding father? How did you start pulling the DJs in?
Speaker 2 (27:33):
You never heard that before Founding.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Father the Squad? Yeah, Like what is the history?
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Meg? Wait?
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Brief rest of all, he's going to use founding Father
from now on.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
I know he's getting my signature now, it's no longer
going to be founding members.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
He's gonna walk to the Team store right now and
get a Jersey made that, says founding father.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
We need a mount rushmore of the am squad in
Levice Stadium. I think that's necessary.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
We have enough members to probably make one now. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
So and even yeah past and president man So eleven
years ago, Uh, I got brought on here to uh
kind of help with the with the entertainment program.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
It was under different management than and I remember the
first thing that I was tasked with, you know, coming
from radio and and and nightclubs and stuff like that,
like I I, you know, people looked at me as
a person that naturally had relationships like you know with
you know, big small, middle.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Tier artists whichever.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
But the first thing that I was ever tasked with was, Okay,
we need to book somebody for the first game here
at Levi's. Who do you think it should be? And
I'm like, that's the first thing you guys are gonna
ask me? Like, yeah, I just want to DJ for
the team.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
That's it. Fast forward. Yeah, we ended up booking Snoop Dogg.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
So he was the first person to ever perform here
at Levi's when we h when we opened it. And
then a year later I was a coach to being
the sole DJ for the team. At first, I was
very hip to the idea. I was like, Okay, that's cool,
but I was actually getting very busy with traveling. I
was playing in Vegas at the time. I was back
(29:14):
and forth in and out of town. And then I
had this like idea, and I was like, you know what,
why don't we make this even bigger, like than just me,
you know, because I think that that if we were
to get like the best of the best, like the
people that you know are the best of what they do,
and that happened to be the biggest forty nine er
(29:34):
fans in the world, like this is probably it'll make
it that much even better and just bigger. And so
I pitched that idea to them and they're like, dude,
we're all for it. What do we call it. I'm like,
I don't know yet, but let me call the people
first and see if they're down. And that was probably
that's probably one of the most memorable days I ever had.
(29:55):
I remember at the time. First person I called was Amen,
and I was like, hey, I got this opportunity. You know,
I don't know if you'd be down for it. Like
I was like really downplaying it. You know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
If you'll be down for it, but I think, like,
you know.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
We could probably DJ a couple of forty nine Ers
games if we do this this thing. I don't know
what it's called, but are you down? First thing, he goes,
what are you do?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
You remember how you reacted to it.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
I mean, it's just a crazy idea. And DJ's weren't
some teams had DJs. Obviously he had done the Giants,
some of the Giants games, I had DJ some Sacramento
Kings basketball games. We all kind of like had experience,
but it wasn't It wasn't as commonplace as it is now.
And the forty nine Ers. You know, football is the
(30:45):
biggest thing. There's nothing bigger than the NFL and DJing again,
you know, maybe like the Olympics, but it's like, there's
nothing bigger than the fort and doing football. First of all,
Levi Stadium is the biggest venue in northern California, So
when someone says that to you, it's kind of like,
are you serious?
Speaker 3 (31:06):
It was weird for me to even say it, you know,
because being a lifelong fan, you just never really ever
think that you would ever be presented that opportunity, you know,
even for me to be able to put together this
this squad I called less you.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Know, same thing through the roof? Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Of course some down you know, at the time, we
had Miles Medina who was a world champion DJ now
doing very well for himself, you know, he he did
his thing here.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
We had Brandon Fox.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
What else have we had in the first squad Romeo,
We're still you know a part of the am squad?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Is that? Are we missing anybody that's that was the
original I mean it's been it's been ten years, you know. Yeah,
there's a lot of ten years.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
Yeah, we've had we've had we've had other DJs during
other seasons, but I think that was the original cast.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, and so yeah, But the the big thing was,
you know, to create a culture where one time brings
up all ships. And that's always been a big, you
know thing. It's it's it's it's I've always been big
on anything that I do is teamwork. Everyone, Like you know,
(32:12):
if one person elevates, the next person does too. If
everyone's doing what they have to do and everyone's elevating
even on their own time, it helps the team. It
helps the squad, you know, and at the same time,
like you know, it helps you know, the forty nine
ers brand, you know. But yeah, you know that's kind
of like how I came up with like the concept
(32:32):
was because you know, I knew I couldn't do all
eight games, you know, I knew that there would be
times where I wouldn't be able to make it. But
I was like, yeah, I'm gonna make this the super
team of DJs. That's the way I'm going to do this.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
And I think, going back to your question, breathe is
is that that's what makes the brand unique. Is it's
a team of DJs, right, and so not only very
well respected and renowned folks, but also really passionate about
this team. And so when you combine those two principles, Uh,
that's really what the Amsquar brand is comprised of.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
I can just imagine Iraq calling his Avengers.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
That's what it assemble.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Assemble. It's time to get together and pump up these
Bay Area fans. So what inspires you because it's been
ten years now, and do you still feel that same
fire from when you were making those phone calls at
the beginning.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
Oh yeah, it's it's probably even bigger.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Now, probably bigger now than it's ever.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
Yeah, I mean we're so invested. Uh, It's it's funny
because you know, we've had down seasons in the past
ten years, and you know, we've had we've had the
up the uptimes and it you know, sometimes from the
players to all of us, you know, we we take
it hard on ourselves, you know, if we don't perform
(33:52):
to you know, what we think we're capable of. And
it's it's one of those things is where it's like
the more the more we have invested to it, and
you know, like we've gone all the way, we've done
all the things, so it's like we're not stopping until
we finish this, right, and so every season it's just
(34:15):
like let's get to work. And I think I think
I'm way more into it now, invested into it now,
I have more fun now just everything it's and and
this season coming up that's that's starting right now, It's
like I genuinely feel like it's gonna be our best
(34:36):
season and this is you know, ten years in All right.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
That wraps up Part one of our podcast with the
Am Squad. Thank you for tuning In Part two with
DJ Amen, DJ Eerch and The Less is up next.
You can expect a discussion on passion and impact, celebrating
their ten year anniversary and their goals for the next
ten years of the AMP Squad brand. So make sure
you subscribe so you don't miss the second half of
(35:01):
this episode coming very soon and for more from Inside
the Oval. Thanks for listening.
Welcome to the Inside the OBL podcast presented by Dignity Help.
I'm Brianna McDonald and today I'm with one of the
most turned up groups of the forty nine Ers, the
AMP Squad. Faithful, if you've ever been to a forty
nine Ers game at Levi Stadium, you definitely know the
AM Squad. They are the group of forty nine Ers
DJs that bring the energy to game days in the Bay.
(00:28):
In studio with me today is dj Amn, dj E
Rock and the Les guys. Thanks so much for joining me,
Thanks for having us now to start us off, what
does it mean to be a DJ for the forty
nine Ers Amsquad?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
This is DJ E Rock and for me, Man, it
means the world.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
You know, forty nine Ers football runs so strongly as
a tradition in my family. Like you know, I was
born a forty nine Ers fan. I remember sitting on
my grandmother's lap, you know, back in the day when
you know it was montanaa Rice and her streaming at
the tele Vision, you know. So you know, for me,
it's just it's everything, Like it's it's my family, like
(01:06):
common bond, it's everything that we talk about in the
group chat, like you know, it's it's it's such a
deeply rooted thing. So I mean, for me just in general,
means everything to me.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Yeah, I think it's a privilege first and foremost. Yeah,
we treat every set like it's our last set. We
treat every set like it's our first set because of
the excitement and the passion that comes with being an
am squad DJ. And one of the things that you'll
notice about all of us is that we are again
lifelong forty nine Ers fans and so we don't take
any of it for granted. And the level of excitement
(01:38):
that we bring in game days and for every forty
nine Ers home game, I think it means the world.
So that's that's what it means to me personally.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
What's up? And say, man, being a forty nine Ers
DJ is big. For the past probably twenty years, you know,
we've DJed everything you can think of, from opening up
Oracle Arena for break to doing the hottest nightclubs, you know,
basketball games, anything you can think of, we've all probably done.
(02:07):
But when you step into Levi's and it's about sixty
thousand people ready to rock, there's nothing bigger than that.
It's the biggest DJ gig we've ever done. You know
this this past year. We got to go to Vegas
and turn up, got to go to Miami and turn
up a couple of years back. And it's it's funny
because we could do the coolest things in the world
(02:30):
to us, the coolest gigs and jobs, but this is
the one job that our parents actually understand what we're doing.
It's like, no, it's like half your family's not proud
until you tell them you're a DJ for the forty
nine ers, and everybody's proud of you. Everybody talks about you.
All of a sudden, You're the coolest cousin on Facebook.
(02:52):
It's been funny. It's been funny.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
That's hilarious. How do you get from no DJ experience
at all to being the coolest cousin on Facebook? I want,
I don't know what the journey is like and how
did you get involved with DJing in the first place.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
I think for me personally, I had an older brother
that introduced me to hip hop culture, and I fell
in love with hip hop culture. You know, I try
to break dance and all that stuff when I was
a kid, and I spent a lot of time in
San Francisco, and once I walked into a record store
like a Meba or you know, any of those old
school record spots, it was just like it hits you.
The dopamine kick is crazy seeing all the records, and
(03:28):
you just want to collect everything. You want to have everything,
you want to play everything. So I just I just
fully fell in love with you know, hip hop culture
as basically a religion. It was like a religious experience.
So that's how I got into djaying. And you know
that was probably about twenty years ago, twenty five years ago.
(03:48):
So it's like I have never, for one minute ever
thought about giving up. And I think in the beginning
of your career, everyone's like, oh yeah, cool, everyone wants
to be a DJ, and then they start to notice, like, uh,
all this guy does is DJ. You talk about DJ,
think about djang, working on DJing, and then the gigs
(04:10):
start coming, and it's like a level up every year,
like you start doing something a little bit cooler, a
little bit cooler, and then before you know it, you're
like in tour on tour in Tokyo and you're DJing
and then everyone's like, uh, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I've never been he did a tour in Tokyo. So
that's a humble brag right there.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
But you've been to the DJ in the Philippines, right, yeah,
I've definitely j Yeah, we both we all did that
for me, like.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
You know, kind of like the you know, the same
route that that amen you know has traveled through, like
you know, I actually actually started DJing by accident, which
is crazy because, uh, it was just one random day
where I went to like our neighborhood swimming pool and
there are other kids in the community that you know,
(04:57):
would go also, and I met this one family, uh,
the sum Along family. They had just moved to Conquer, California.
That was where I was kind of like, you know, uh,
introduced to DJing. And I was like, where, I'm eleven
years old or something like that. But me and the
youngest sibling we used to play video games together. And
then I remember one day I went to their house
(05:19):
after swimming and then we were playing video games. I
don't know, I was like double dribble or something like that,
like you remember that, remember that.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
It's okay, it's fine, I'm proud.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
But while we're playing video games right next door, like
his older brothers were DJing they're cutting their scratching, and
you know, it was all this, like all these noise
I've never heard, like in person, like I've heard them
on songs or stuff like that. I'm like, yeah, like
are these guys scratching like right right next door. So
eventually I went from playing video games to going over
(05:53):
there and learning how to DJ and practicing. And I
was more fascinated with DJing than playing Tech Mobile you know,
as a kid. And eventually since then, like you know,
just like what Amen said, like you know, you start
kind of leveling up. I remember doing like small events
for like you know, my high school back then, or
like you know, it'd be like Christmas and like all
(06:14):
my cousins would be over and I'd put it like
a speaker like you know, out in like the living room,
and I would just start DJing because I had to
set up and everything. So I would just like you know,
end up doing all that. And then yeah, fast forward,
you know, I mean decades later, you know, here we are,
like you know, playing for tens and thousands, like sixty
thousand people, like you know, for our favorite football team.
(06:35):
So you know, it's definitely been a journey in one
hell of a blessing.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah for me.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Two things I would attribute my dad's love for music
is me having a lot of interest in music early
on in my life, and so that was definitely one
reason why I got into DJing. And then the other
one was I mean, I could remember attending middle school
dances and seeing the DJ rock the crowd and I
was like, wow, I really want to do that. And
(07:02):
so literally right after I think I was twelve years old,
I started to gain interest. There used to be this
record so called Rasputin's on his Spear in Boulevard and
I just go there, Yeah, yeahputing now I'm showing my
image action.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
I'm pretty sure Respute is still around, is still around?
Speaker 4 (07:19):
It is, yeah, on his sperion. But yeah, So even
before I got turntables, i'd go into the record store
and just start looking at records that I would eventually buy.
And the deal with my parents was they'd get me
my first turntable, but I'd had to work for that
second one. So I started taking gigs. My first wedding
gig I was fifteen or no, fourteen, and I did
(07:42):
well wedding gig. I was an assistant for somebody, and
so that's really where it started, and that's where the
interest started.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I got to hear the origin story of each of
your DJ journeys, but I want to know the origin
story to your forty nine Ers fandom. What got you
wrapped up into this team and the love for this team,
because I feel like this team is the heartbeat of
the Bay Area. So how did you tap into that?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
You know, I mentioned it earlier that, like, you know,
I used to sit on my grandmother's lap. She was
a huge forty nine Er fan, like probably one of
the biggest I've ever seen in my entire life. And
you know that just kind of naturally, like you know,
was passed on to me, and then it was passed
on to my entire family, all my other cousins and
and you know, it became like our ritual every Sunday,
(08:27):
Like if we had nothing to do and nothing to
talk to, you, we can always count on watching forty
nine and football together as a family. And that was
something that was very I mean, it was just so
instrumental to to just our growth as a family like
our it was such a big part of our fabric.
You know that even now today, you know, in our
elder statesman.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Since we're talking about age all the time, some of us.
All right, I'll take it. I'm probably the oldest on
the on the squad.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
But now, like you know, our nephews are nieces there,
you know, the kids that are now like the next generation,
they're doing the same thing now, they're you know, following
like you know, forty nine's football the same way that
we did, you know, and you know, it's just a
very special thing. It's like our I don't know, it's
like I said, it's our common bond. You know, we
(09:19):
might not have nothing to do or talk about, but
we could talk about forty knit's football all day, every
day at the dinner table as a family.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Yeah, I think it's the same here. You know, uncles, cousins, aunts,
every you know. Growing up, if you were in the
Bay Area in the eighties and nineties, there was nothing
bigger than forty nine Ers football, and it was such
an exciting time in the Bay Area that like there's
(09:45):
no way you just couldn't get hooked, you know what
I mean. Everything was awesome about forty nine Ers football
back in the day. And I mean it's like I
remember being in San Francisco, listening to kf RC, listening
to Huey Lewis, listening all that stuff. I remember, you know,
being at gas stations and there's forty nine or like
the most amazing just merch and posters, and that everything
(10:10):
was just so cool back then, and it was almost
impossible not to be a Niner fan being around you know,
the four one five back in the day. So I
think that it was just so easy to be a
forty nine Er fan. And you know, the the dynasty,
the pedigree's it lives on to this day. That's how big,
(10:31):
you know, it was at that moment when when we
see Joe and Jerry at these games, we get shook,
like we freeze up, and it's because that means so
much to us as kids. I'm sure we're gonna get
into our favorite moments at some point, but one of
the moments that we had was during the pandemic when
(10:54):
there was no fans at Levi's, we still got to
DJ because they wanted the players pumped in between plays,
and so we would be in there djaying it would
be the it would be the players, the staff and us.
And one of the games I walk in, I set
up and just kind of like do the sound check
and all that stuff. And Jerry Rice walks up to
(11:14):
me to the DJ booth and he's like, hey, man,
play something, and I just started DJing and he's literally
just dancing. It's just me and Jerry and he's gigging,
having a great time, and like, these are like priceless
moments and to be a fan, like I said as
a kid in the eighties and nineties, and Jerry's sitting
(11:36):
there getting down and having a good time with all
the young cats that are out here now. I mean,
man is amazing from the bay.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
One of my earliest memories in just life is being
raised and born a forty nine Ers fan, and so
Sundays in the fall and the winter were made for
forty nine Ers football. That's literally what I did with
my dad and my brother, my mom on the couch.
So literally it's in our bloodline and January's we know
(12:04):
the run that they had in the eighties and nineties,
whether it was my parents hosting playoff games or Super Bowls,
or we were going to auntie's and uncle's houses watching
those games. That's literally what I remember as one of
my core memories. In life is forty nine Ers football.
During the playoffs, my dad would decorate the entire garage
(12:25):
with all of the memorabilia and everything that was related
to forty nine Ers in that garage, So it was
almost like his It was definitely his man cave. But
it was always a special time when we'd get those
get all that up in the garage, and then the
icing on the cake was when he'd put the flag
in the car on the car in the window, and
(12:46):
so that is tradition. Great, yeah, and one of my
earliest memories. And the love is that's where it started.
It's obviously still very much here.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Now take the listeners to the DJ booth at Levice Stadium.
Walk us through what a typical game day looks like
for an AM squad member.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
So a lot of preparation goes into it before the
game day, and we're working very closely with the Amazing
Game Day team with Laura Johnson, Toby Mack and the
rest of the crew. And then on the actual game
day we check in a few hours before we have
our sound check, and then there's a period in between
(13:25):
where we get to prepare even more and I call
that the lock in period. Where it's time to kind
of imagine yourself on that stage, getting ready to play
for the players and the fans, and so going over
your music, making sure all of your cue points are
dialed in, and then it moves fairly fast. You have
a few hours in between, but once you're in that
(13:45):
lock in stage, all of a sudden, it's go time,
and you know, you hear your name on the big
board and then here you go, right and after that,
it moves very quick. But that's usually what it looks
like from me in terms of the game day experience.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But I don't think a lot of people get to
see a lot of the preparation, like even before we arrive,
like you know, the the call within game, like you know,
going over music and stuff like that, and just like
even curating, like you know what we're gonna do, and
just you know, trying to figure out, you know, what
the what the game plan is, like you know, from
a music standpoint, like you know, a lot of not
(14:22):
a lot of people get to see like the early
on aspects, even if it's like a one minute or
two minute like scoreboard hit, like we've already planned for
that like three or four days, like prior, you know, so.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
Yeah, I think, Uh, Sunday happens and Monday morning, the
whole organization shifts to the next game, and it's it's
an insane thing, it and and uh, once that happens,
the anxiety triggers on me, and I start thinking, Okay,
the countdown has begun. There's six days to figure out
(14:54):
what's gonna happen. And you know we're only detailed for
as a whole for probably like minutes, right, but it's
like the whole week You're sitting there trying to figure
out in your head what are you going to do?
You know, how are you going to elevate this moment
and how are you going to bring something to the
table for the players most importantly, and uh, you know
for the fans, like we want them to just be
(15:16):
turned out of their minds for three hours or you know,
whatever the case is. And you know, I have a
longer drive. I come from the North Bay, so I'm
up super early Sunday morning to be here for the
call time. And the drive down is just like you know,
you're just thinking about it the whole time, and then
you know, we do the sound check and you get
into that moment in the locker room where it's the
(15:38):
lock in and it's very real before the game starts,
and you know, we do pregame, so we're we we
get a we start, you know, twenty thirty minutes before
the game starts, DJing and it you know, it's you
got to roll up your sleeves. This is not for everybody.
This is not for every DJ. This is the big
(16:00):
show that it's it really is the biggest stage. So
once you get up there, it's like, you know, you
kind of you just say a prayer and then you
just go to work. One speed go and and the
adrenaline is firing the whole time. If you know, I
have about an hour and a half drive home and
I'm still on it the whole way home. It takes
(16:22):
me a minute to come down. Like you know, Monday
comes and you're you're still tired from just like your
body just being so turned up.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Take me to that brainstorm you mentioned. It starts Monday
for a Sunday game. But when you're coming to that
decision of picking your set list, picking what music is
going to cater to the players, the fans, and also
what's trending at the moment. Take me through the basics.
How do you decide music for a game day?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
So, yeah, the process starts obviously with the scheduling, Like
you know, we go through the schedule. If it's your day,
you know, you have a few days to put together
whether you do pregame or you do the end game.
Pregame is a little bit more I'd say it's probably
a little bit more complicated than the in game process. Uh,
(17:09):
the pregame, you know, you want to cater to obviously
everybody that's in the stadium.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You have forty nine er fans.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Of all like you know, walks of life and ages,
Like you got someone that's been a forty nine er
fan since they've been born in like the fifties or forties,
and you have somebody that was just born maybe they're
two or three. You know, so you have to, you legit,
have to make a decision on when you playlist to
cater to a very wide spectrum of people. Also, at
(17:37):
the same time, like you know, when the players are out,
we want to make sure that we that we provide
a soundtrack that gets them amped up, that makes them
feel like okay, like you know, we're gonna we're gonna
get this dub like, you know, we're gonna turn this
up right here.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So you know, it's a.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
It's definitely a tedious process we do that, we turn
it into in game. In game improves it or they
say hey, let's do this, you know, we work collaboratively
with them, and then for endgame. I think in game
is kind of like, you know, it's very situational. You know,
situational awareness is very important to have because you know,
you're responsible for those moments or you know, to take
(18:12):
that next moment or to take that moment to the
next level, whether you're on you know, the losing side
of the ball or the winning side. You know, if
you're on the winning side, you still want to get
it turned up. And at the same time, you want
to reinspire if we're not necessary, if the game's not
going our way. So that's also, ah, you know, a
big thing. So that's kind of like how how how
(18:34):
that whole entire thing works. Yeah, two totally different instances.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Though.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
I think that the organization knows we're professionals, so they
do put it in our hands, but they do give
us really good input from the players, the coaches, so
when they're doing their practices. You know, they there's certain
music they want to hear. They kind of let us
know what that is, and then we try to do
our best to incorporate those moments. So if George Kittle
(19:04):
has a favorite song, we'll try to get that in
for them so that he's pumped before the game. And
you know, it's it's really cool because you'll see, you know,
if I'm djaying a pre game, like you know, you
might see Fred Warner just going crazy down there on
the field while they're warming up, and it's like you
everybody can see that we struck that chord, you know
what I mean, And you know it I have like
(19:28):
you know, NFC Championships, like Dbo's out there and he's
just turned and it's like, I know that I got
him there, you know what I mean. And that's working
closely with the whole staff to make sure that we're
you know, we're hitting those points. And you know, like
E said, it might be you know, a dance cam hit,
it might be a fourth quarter pump, and you know,
(19:50):
at that moment, I have to get sixty thousand people
on their feet, like at the press of a button,
So you know, that's all stuff that we really take
into consideration and we try to do our best to
knock it out the park every single time.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Okay, so now I've got to know what are some
fan favorites and then what are some player favorites that
you know that this is going to get the stadium
pumped up or like I know, I'm about a trigger debo.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Like you just said fan favorites, I would definitely say
whenever you play you know, a Bay Area anthem in
here from an e forty a too short obviously, you know,
a Niner gang like that gets people off their feet
from a player perspective, And what would you say is
probably like you know the most like you know Turnent
(20:36):
record that we play for the players.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
A man, I would say, when when we talk about
players like Deebo, they're very hip to what's coming out
in the moment. You know, new music drops for every
Thursday night West Coast at nine pm, and these guys
are listening. They're they're they're really paying attention. You know,
low Baby and and and all the southern the trap
(21:00):
stuff that really is just is just super turned. You know,
that's what these guys they want to hear it. They
want to be ready to rock, so you know we
have that and then you know, and it and it
goes back to the like the fans. It's like when
when you play that Journey song. Yeah, it's like, man,
when when yeah, when we were when we were at
(21:22):
the NFC Championship and we were down and Journey came
out and played don't stop believing that is that will
be a core memory for the rest of my life.
Like I could not believe the emotion that was in
the stadium in that moment and for us to come back,
Oh my goodness. It's like you can just see the
(21:44):
power of music in these games. And I think that
you know, that's that's partly why the AMP Squad exists,
and that's why we all work together to try and
create those situations where you know, we can get back
to the Bowl.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
And Coach love Wayne. By the way, let me beat Bill.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Yeah, Hey yeah, I mean yeah, if you play Little Wayne,
you'll you'll you'll definitely strike that chord.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
With Coach I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
I feel like, amen, you just spoke on it now
with the power of music and why the AMP Squad
exists and how you guys fuel the energy in that stadium.
But from that moment, I want to know what's been
the most rewarding part of your job.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
This whole thing has been rewarding. Like from the time
I got the phone call from E Rock to ask
me to join the AMP squad in the beginning ten
years ago, just every game, every trip we've been on,
just hanging out with the fans, doing I've done. I've
gone to other cities and done the fan fests. Like
(22:44):
everything's been rewarding. Everybody is family, and I've I've never
had a bad moment that I mean. That's why we
do this. That's why we get up early. That's why
if we're djaying and uh San Diego Saturday night, we'll
make sure we're in Santa Clara on Sunday morning, you know,
we go through. I've flown, like you know, we talked
(23:06):
about Tokyo earlier. I have flown directly from Tokyo back
here to San Jose and came straight to a game
and it was a raining game. It was ice cold
that day.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
I had.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
They had to get me handwarmers just like a DJ
and it was like, I wouldn't change that for the world.
I wouldn't miss that game. That's what it is all about.
And there there's just so many moments from you know,
not even just the Super Bowls obviously that's you know,
been so much fun those whole weeks. But I was
(23:45):
on my Instagram kind of scrolling through some of this
stuff because I knew we were going to be talking
about things over the past ten years. And I stumbled
across a video that it's E forty on the field
and he says, I made a new Niner anthem. I'm
a form for the first time right now. Amen, drop
that beat and it kicks to me. And I played
(24:06):
the Bang Bang Niner Gang in the stadium and it's
like it's like just seeing that just gives me chills,
Like those moments, and you know, we get to be
in the tunnels before the game, so we get to
you know, like see the players and all that stuff
and get super excited, and I know, like the Hall
of Fame games where it's like we're there's a there's
(24:28):
a picture on Instagram where Joe and Jerry are in
the they're in the tunnel and me and Me and
DJ Romeo are in the back like photo bombing them.
Probably like probably like three hundred feet away. We're nowhere
near them, but we're in the back of the photo
and it's like we were so excited to be in
that picture because it's so funny and that stuff means
(24:52):
the world to us.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Yeah, those moments are everything, you know, I think one
of the most rewarding parts of the job is you know,
is being is being on the same level as the fans,
you know, like feeding off of their energy, like you know,
I mean when you're when you're sitting there and you're
dropping a set, like you know, and you have like,
you know, a couple one hundred people around the gold mine,
(25:14):
you know, around that fan area where we're at, Like
you know, you're feeding off people that that love this
team as much as you do, you know what I mean.
And for me, it's just like it's everything. It's just
it's a different type of energy that that it's incomparable
to anything else I've ever experienced ever.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Yeah, plus one of what they've all said, and then
seeing the players vibe to your pregame set. So a
lot of the times they'll they'll hit to the players
and you'll see either Fred Warner or Deebo just bobbing
his head when you're playing a song. It's it's a
little validating to see them do that, like, Okay, I
think I I think I've made play it, have played
the right records here, So it's it's nice to see.
(25:53):
But additionally, I think, uh, seeing the growth over the
past ten years with the M squad and where it
started and where it's become. It's now become this brand
in its own right, supplementary of the game day experience
with the gold Rush and the Niner noise and then
obviously with the forty nine ers brand. And so we
came to that first year not really knowing, you know,
(26:16):
what was going to come out of it. But now
here we are, year ten, there's so much to be
proud proud about. So I think the rewarding part is
seeing the growth over the past ten years and looking
forward to making it a special one this year.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
And let's all agree that it's actually not that bad
to be able to watch for United Football.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
For free, not a bad deal. Not on top of
all that, yeah we get to watch.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
The game and and and the DJ booth isn't a
great it's I mean, yeah, it's moved around the stadium
a couple of times each season. You know, we kind
of kind of changed things up or whatever the case is.
But every time it's it's it's one of the best
seats in the house. You get to sit there and
you get to watch everything. You know, sometimes we're on
(26:59):
the calm so we to kind of get behind the
scenes look of the production. So you know, it's it's
a It's one thing to watch it on TV on
your couch. It's one thing to watch it as a
fan in the seats, but it's it's a whole different
experience from the DJ booth.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Oh, by the way, you're playing the music in the
stadium too, so that's a fun part of it.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
You guys were talking about the Am Squad being a brand. Now,
how did the band get together? Like? Who is the
founding father? How did you start pulling the DJs in?
Speaker 2 (27:33):
You never heard that before Founding.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Father the Squad? Yeah, Like what is the history?
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Meg? Wait?
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Brief rest of all, he's going to use founding Father
from now on.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
I know he's getting my signature now, it's no longer
going to be founding members.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
He's gonna walk to the Team store right now and
get a Jersey made that, says founding father.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
We need a mount rushmore of the am squad in
Levice Stadium. I think that's necessary.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
We have enough members to probably make one now. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
So and even yeah past and president man So eleven
years ago, Uh, I got brought on here to uh
kind of help with the with the entertainment program.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
It was under different management than and I remember the
first thing that I was tasked with, you know, coming
from radio and and and nightclubs and stuff like that,
like I I, you know, people looked at me as
a person that naturally had relationships like you know with
you know, big small, middle.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Tier artists whichever.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
But the first thing that I was ever tasked with was, Okay,
we need to book somebody for the first game here
at Levi's. Who do you think it should be? And
I'm like, that's the first thing you guys are gonna
ask me? Like, yeah, I just want to DJ for
the team.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
That's it. Fast forward. Yeah, we ended up booking Snoop Dogg.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
So he was the first person to ever perform here
at Levi's when we h when we opened it. And
then a year later I was a coach to being
the sole DJ for the team. At first, I was
very hip to the idea. I was like, Okay, that's cool,
but I was actually getting very busy with traveling. I
was playing in Vegas at the time. I was back
(29:14):
and forth in and out of town. And then I
had this like idea, and I was like, you know what,
why don't we make this even bigger, like than just me,
you know, because I think that that if we were
to get like the best of the best, like the
people that you know are the best of what they do,
and that happened to be the biggest forty nine er
(29:34):
fans in the world, like this is probably it'll make
it that much even better and just bigger. And so
I pitched that idea to them and they're like, dude,
we're all for it. What do we call it. I'm like,
I don't know yet, but let me call the people
first and see if they're down. And that was probably
that's probably one of the most memorable days I ever had.
(29:55):
I remember at the time. First person I called was Amen,
and I was like, hey, I got this opportunity. You know,
I don't know if you'd be down for it. Like
I was like really downplaying it. You know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
If you'll be down for it, but I think, like,
you know.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
We could probably DJ a couple of forty nine Ers
games if we do this this thing. I don't know
what it's called, but are you down? First thing, he goes,
what are you do?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
You remember how you reacted to it.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
I mean, it's just a crazy idea. And DJ's weren't
some teams had DJs. Obviously he had done the Giants,
some of the Giants games, I had DJ some Sacramento
Kings basketball games. We all kind of like had experience,
but it wasn't It wasn't as commonplace as it is now.
And the forty nine Ers. You know, football is the
(30:45):
biggest thing. There's nothing bigger than the NFL and DJing again,
you know, maybe like the Olympics, but it's like, there's
nothing bigger than the fort and doing football. First of all,
Levi Stadium is the biggest venue in northern California, So
when someone says that to you, it's kind of like,
are you serious?
Speaker 3 (31:06):
It was weird for me to even say it, you know,
because being a lifelong fan, you just never really ever
think that you would ever be presented that opportunity, you know,
even for me to be able to put together this
this squad I called less you.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Know, same thing through the roof? Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Of course some down you know, at the time, we
had Miles Medina who was a world champion DJ now
doing very well for himself, you know, he he did
his thing here.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
We had Brandon Fox.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
What else have we had in the first squad Romeo,
We're still you know a part of the am squad?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Is that? Are we missing anybody that's that was the
original I mean it's been it's been ten years, you know. Yeah,
there's a lot of ten years.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
Yeah, we've had we've had we've had other DJs during
other seasons, but I think that was the original cast.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, and so yeah, But the the big thing was,
you know, to create a culture where one time brings
up all ships. And that's always been a big, you
know thing. It's it's it's it's I've always been big
on anything that I do is teamwork. Everyone, Like you know,
(32:12):
if one person elevates, the next person does too. If
everyone's doing what they have to do and everyone's elevating
even on their own time, it helps the team. It
helps the squad, you know, and at the same time,
like you know, it helps you know, the forty nine
ers brand, you know. But yeah, you know that's kind
of like how I came up with like the concept
(32:32):
was because you know, I knew I couldn't do all
eight games, you know, I knew that there would be
times where I wouldn't be able to make it. But
I was like, yeah, I'm gonna make this the super
team of DJs. That's the way I'm going to do this.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
And I think, going back to your question, breathe is
is that that's what makes the brand unique. Is it's
a team of DJs, right, and so not only very
well respected and renowned folks, but also really passionate about
this team. And so when you combine those two principles, Uh,
that's really what the Amsquar brand is comprised of.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
I can just imagine Iraq calling his Avengers.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
That's what it assemble.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Assemble. It's time to get together and pump up these
Bay Area fans. So what inspires you because it's been
ten years now, and do you still feel that same
fire from when you were making those phone calls at
the beginning.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
Oh yeah, it's it's probably even bigger.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Now, probably bigger now than it's ever.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
Yeah, I mean we're so invested. Uh, It's it's funny
because you know, we've had down seasons in the past
ten years, and you know, we've had we've had the
up the uptimes and it you know, sometimes from the
players to all of us, you know, we we take
it hard on ourselves, you know, if we don't perform
(33:52):
to you know, what we think we're capable of. And
it's it's one of those things is where it's like
the more the more we have invested to it, and
you know, like we've gone all the way, we've done
all the things, so it's like we're not stopping until
we finish this, right, and so every season it's just
(34:15):
like let's get to work. And I think I think
I'm way more into it now, invested into it now,
I have more fun now just everything it's and and
this season coming up that's that's starting right now, It's
like I genuinely feel like it's gonna be our best
(34:36):
season and this is you know, ten years in All right.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
That wraps up Part one of our podcast with the
Am Squad. Thank you for tuning In Part two with
DJ Amen, DJ Eerch and The Less is up next.
You can expect a discussion on passion and impact, celebrating
their ten year anniversary and their goals for the next
ten years of the AMP Squad brand. So make sure
you subscribe so you don't miss the second half of
(35:01):
this episode coming very soon and for more from Inside
the Oval. Thanks for listening.
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