Senior Theo Pearcy is on the rise as a disc jockey (DJ), having kicked off the school year by playing the Back to School Dance (BTSD). After visiting his older cousin in Oregon during his sophom
ore year, Pearcy grew his interest in the world of house music and DJing, even securing an invite to a party hosted by San Francisco-based DJ “D-Flow.”
“It was super inspiring to see the [energized] crowd and how much fun it was [on stage at the party],” Pearcy said.
Pearcy got his first DJ board shortly after the party with D-Flow, and began teaching himself the art of DJing. While learning, he adopted the stage name “DJ Cherry,” inspired by his mom’s maiden name.
Earlier in 2025, Pearcy played his first event, an Oakland party, where he was booed by the crowd after playing for an hour, but he took this opportunity to learn the differences between practicing with a DJ board in his room and playing for a live crowd.
“I was playing songs that I liked, but I didn’t realize that people go [to DJ events] to hear songs that they like,” Pearcy said.
Using this experience as motivation to improve his technique, Pearcy trained over the summer in order to bounce back at the BTSD. He was so motivated, even convincing his mom, Marianna Pearcy, to let him practice during a family trip to Hawaii, which was supposed to be a technology-free vacation. Theo Pearcy’s mom was hesitant to allow the DJ board on the trip, but seeing how passionate he was about DJing, she decided to let him bring it.
“In the hotel room, he was practicing a lot for the dance,” Marianna Pearcy said. “He wanted to have a wide selection of music so that he was ready to play what [the crowd] was excited about.”
For Theo Pearcy, a typical set takes around nine hours in total to build and practice. The BTSD set, however, took upwards of 30 hours to create, as he filled it with many different genres to ensure that everyone could have a good time. Despite the set being prepared beforehand, Theo Pearcy’s work didn’t end there. Onstage, he had to read the crowd’s live reactions and get a feel for the energy both during and after each song.
“If I play a song, and halfway through the energy starts going down, I [may] want to switch genres and [try to] bring the energy back up,” Theo Pearcy said.
While it may look easy, differing beats per minute (BPM) between songs poses a big challenge for any DJ looking to switch genres unexpectedly and in the moment. Matching one song’s BPM to another’s is key for smooth transitions, and DJs look for songs of similar BPM levels to blend next to each other without a seam. If two songs are far apart in BPM levels, DJs will slow down or speed up a song until the BPM is close enough to the next song. With practice, Theo Pearcy has been able to improve his song-pairing skills.
“It can be a little jarring to transition from two genres,” Theo Pearcy said. “Typically, I echo out of a song and wait a second, adding suspense, and then drop in [a] rap song.”
Hyped from the BTSD, Theo Pearcy is continuing to evolve as a DJ and looking ahead to the future.
“I might be doing Homecoming this year, and Outside Lands brings local artists, so I’m trying to get a spot [at Outside Lands],” Theo Pearcy said.
With Theo Pearcy’s growing talent and passion, he’s set out to continue performing both in and out of school, paving the way for other young Marin County DJs.
