In 12 minutes, Sebastian from Parramatta proved he was the best DJ in the world

2 hours ago 1

Sebastian Mastro had exactly 12 minutes to prove he was the best DJ in the world.

Known by his stage name “DJ Beastmode”, Mastro sported a broad grin as he stepped up to the biggest stage of his career, the DMC Open World Finals in Tokyo.

According to Mastro, the competition is the “DJ Olympics”. And, this year, he won the gold medal match.

Sebastian Mastro, aka DJ Beastmode, in Parramatta where he was raised, has just won an award for best DJ in the world.

Mastro’s flowing set in Tokyo thrummed with the influences of the cultures that surrounded him growing up in Parramatta in the 1990s, stitching together thumping Arab drums, ’90s hip-hop and afro/dancehall.

But how did a kid from western Sydney, who spent his youth stacking shelves for Woolworths, find himself there; hat backwards, fingers twitching at the ready?

He describes a youth of retail work, of saving up and stolen moments on his older brother’s decks, of obsession and ambition. And, most importantly, of “hustling”.

“You have to have tough skin to be in Parramatta. And the hustle definitely shaped how I approach things, wanting to be different, stand out,” he said.

“When you’re from western Sydney, you’re trying to prove yourself … there’s always that divide between western suburbs and eastern suburbs, like: who’s better?”

Mastro worked as early as he could, first behind the fryers at McDonald’s, then at the freezer section of his local Woolworths, saving every cent for his own deck.

It took him nearly a year to buy the equipment and it wasn’t long before he was impressing people. His prodigious talent was immediately recognised at a record store he was interning at, where the owner would pit him against big-name DJs who would walk in.

“He loved bringing these guys in, and he would humble them real quick,” Mastro says.

His early progression was absurdly quick, coming third in the NSW DMC competition at 17 (“I had to be snuck in because I was underage”) then winning the state and national competitions all in a handful of years.

Mastro has played at major nightclubs and festivals for more than 20 years. He has been on TV and at major festivals, performed at events and nightclubs, he’s done radio shows and tours and he has supported major acts.

His early years battling other DJs eventually spilled out into major label mixtapes and chart success. Multiple releases went gold and platinum.

This all came in the mid-2000s, when DJing wasn’t as accessible and ubiquitous as it is now, but also when Sydney’s nightlife was a thriving beast.

“It was the golden years,” he says. “When you saw a DJ, it was like, ‘Oh wow, this is the DJ.’ We were taken seriously.”

There was a precision to his performance in that Tokyo nightclub in late October. Every beat, every switch, every piece of music slipping into the next. With a steady confidence, Mastro nodded as the music filled the space.

“I didn’t practise. I didn’t need to,” he says.

He was a performer in complete control of his powers, reaching into the depths of his talent, and calmly executing.

But it wasn’t always like this.

Mastro compares his old style to the Marvel Comics character the Hulk: he would “just come through and smash everything”.

“I used to be all about high-energy. I was like a Gatling gun, just shooting everywhere. Even if it was low energy, I was trying to make it high energy because I wanted the reaction.”

A string of narrow defeats in DJ competitions culminated in a loss in a 2019 bout called the Goldies, where he realised he had taken his high-energy approach too far.

“I went full beast mode, doing the craziest stuff on the turntables, but it didn’t land, and I lost.”

Mastro considered giving it all up. But, this year, something changed.

“This was the first year I didn’t feel I needed to prove myself. I was going to have fun,” he said.

Mastro said every rung he has climbed has been on the back of over-delivering, of “smashing” his way there, to justify being there, to prove he’s more than his roots.

He’d spent 20 years determined to prove a kid from western Sydney belonged in these heady spaces, but it was only when he himself accepted that he belonged there that he finally won it all.

“No one can argue it. I’ve gone up against what the world produced as the best from every country, and I won.”

The Sydney Morning Herald has a bureau in the heart of Parramatta. Email [email protected] with news tips.