Local DJ’s Self-Started Company Brings the Tech House Vibes to Peekskill

By Jordan Goodman

This Friday, Aug. 23 at River Outpost Brewery in Peekskill, a new local DJ organization known as Sundown Sessions will be bringing its band of tech house, Afro house and Latin house music with a stacked lineup of five DJs performing throughout the night. The event starts at 10 p.m. and continues until closing.

The main organizer of Sundown Sessions, Sebastian Uribe, aka DJ 4AM, has from a young age always had a close relationship with house music, a genre of electronic dance music. He started for fun at 16 with a beginner deck, and from there his aspirations of becoming a professional DJ grew.

“The whole EDM/house music community is honestly such a nice community…it’s the one time you get to enjoy music and embrace the weekend,” Uribe said of monitoring the culture of the modern dance scene.

Uribe organizes and curates his music library for each performance based on what fits the audience’s vibe. DJ 4AM likes to “take people on a journey” through his set, expanding his musical repertoire through mainstream hits and popular mashups, but also with entrancing deep cuts that are sure to fit like a glove on the dance floor.

“The way the crowd reacts to a song they never heard ever and they think it’s an appropriate choice, that’s a good feeling,” Uribe said. “For me, I kind of wing it. I can either play the mainstream stuff or songs that will make them fans of underground sounds.”

Uribe said River Outpost has been with him from the start, where he first started performing under the DJ 4AM moniker. He also was able to get gigs in New York City clubs this year, specifically highlighting the marquee opening for Bob Sinclair, one of his main house music inspirations.

Performing with an open format has worked for him in the past, monitoring the music and the crowd’s reactions to different songs, but he always manages to throw his tech house favorites into the set.

Sundown Sessions was started by Uribe only a few months ago.

“It was just an idea of mine where I’m grateful enough to have played a bunch of gigs locally…and I have a lot of friends who have talent, and because it’s hard to get bookings in Westchester, my goal was to use this ‘brand’ to showcase everyone’s talents,” he said.

Uribe added that he’s learned a lot from watching other DJs and networking with curators around the Hudson Valley, New York City and elsewhere. For Uribe, the networking process around Sundown Sessions involves a mixture of connecting with his local DJ friends, attending various performances to see what each one offers or even putting up a link through an Instagram story encouraging users to send in an hour-long Soundcloud mix for consideration.

“There was a bunch of guys that wanted to come in and I went off first-come, first-served,” Uribe said. “It doesn’t matter if they have five followers, it doesn’t matter if they have 500 followers. We’ll still give you a shot and showcase your talent.”

Putting together a roster of performers to present their skills at various events is something that evolves and changes between the venues. Uribe details that the people who send in the mixes are required to start out DJing tech house, but include unique spins on their sound so they stand out from the next user, based on the genre offshoots or deep cuts they bring to the table.

So far, the response has been more than Uribe could have imagined. He said it was a bit daunting to cut people out of the running, but assembling what best mixes sound and which performers will work well together is a free-flowing process. Uribe usually finds a way to make everything complement each other.

A Sundown Sessions event centers around tech house but includes a variety of other house styles within the lineup, and this Friday will be no different. The event will feature four performances from five different DJs.

Kicking off the music is AB, the DJ moniker of Austin Brown, one of Uribe’s closest friends. He started as a DJ the same time as Uribe, and no matter the crowd, space or environment, he’s always motivated to perform and curate engaging tech house.

Next up will be Robbie J, a DJ who specializes in mashups and live experimentation, including much more of the mainstream side of the genre, which keeps the crowd moving.

Then it’s Saucy, a Peekskill native who helped with the launch of Sundown Sessions, whether it was setting up speakers during early performances or reaching out to other curators. His mixes usually offer more from Latin-inspired tech house, which promises to lighten up the vibe, even if the crowd might not know every word.

Closing out the night’s festivities will be DJ 4AM performing a B2b set with BØN, which he hopes will bring the most energy out of the crowd.

All of the performers for this Friday’s event have previously performed at a Sundown Session. And while Uribe wishes he could include everyone who’s shown up to perform, this final session of the year will bring out the best from each DJ and end their inaugural season with a bang.

Uribe is looking forward to the future and is grateful that he’s been able to schedule six of events around New York, despite only starting a few months ago.

More information about Friday’s event can be found at www.riveroutpostbrewing.com/music. River Outpost Brewery is located at 5 John Walsh Blvd.