OCTOBER 2014 | BOROMAG.COM | 47 as Select puts it. However, due to “personal issues that got in the way,” Select eventually began booking his own gigs while working odd jobs to supplement his income. He met Alexandra—a librarian, and music lover in her own rite—when he was twentyeight during a gig at the now-closed Z-Bar on 13th Street and Avenue A in the East Village. Within two years they were married and had their daughter Julia. At about the time he began courting Alexandra Select decided to cut out all other work and focus solely on his DJ career, strictly supporting himself, and eventually his family, by playing music at New York bars and clubs through the wee hours of the morning. “It’s a hard balance,” Select says of being a family man while maintaining a full-time DJ career. “A lot of people are not able to do it because of the ‘wild side’ of the business.” He’s proud he was able to sidestep the nightlife pitfalls of the job and says that, because of conflicting schedules between he and his wife, his daughter always had a parent present, with Select at home during the day and his wife there at night. He’s always done plenty of one-off shows, but for two decades Select has financially relied heavily on residencies, first at Z-Bar, where he spun three days a week, and then at Fáilte on 29th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan—a job he got on a recommendation. Fifteen years later, he’s still DJ-ing at Fáilte on Friday and Saturday nights, arriving home just a few hours before he has to be at Queens Comfort for his Sunday Brunch residency. The new regular gig began this past spring, not long after Select and his wife had dinner there and noticed the turntables that are always sitting at the end of the bar. He got owner Donnie D’Alessio’s name that day, but debated if he should approach Donnie and offer his services without provocation. DJ “It was gnawing at me for a couple weeks,” Select says. “But I went in and told him I could do some soul sets because I know it’s an eatery. He said, ‘No, no. Let’s do some Ramones, some New York Dolls…’ And I said, ‘Yeah! I love it. Punk is my roots.’” Save for a Labor Day weekend vacation day, Select has DJ-ed every Sunday Brunch since. “We think exactly alike,” he says of D’Alessio, denoting they are always on the same page regarding what music to play. As it turns out, the typical brunch playlist is not completely punk rock. Select might start off light at 10am with a Louis Armstrong 45, “Northern Boulevard Blues,” and find his way into his soul catalogue. But by about noon when the dining room is at full capacity and at least one person from the waiting crowd on the sidewalk has crossed the street to document the scope of the mob on Instagram, the Clash’s “Rudy Can’t Fail” or the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop” will likely add to the reverie that is Sunday Brunch at Queens Comfort. “I didn’t know what might work there,” Select says of the restaurant, “but I knew something would work.” After thirty-five years in the DJ business, his instincts are clearly intact.
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