Tenacious would be just one apt word to describe the career of Jim Hopkins, the local disc jockey known for his classic disco mixes, contemporary house blends, as well as archival work and original music.
"I remember going to friends' houses as a child, said Hopkins. "I always wanted to raid their record collection." His fascination with records soon became a lifestyle.
Hopkins' fascination for mixing dance music goes back to the late 1970s. In those days, when Hopkins, now 46, was a spritely teenager in Sacramento, 12-inch vinyl discs were given exclusively to nightclub professionals. Mixing a tape meant either pressing pause or literally cutting reel-to-reel tapes.
As disco rose in popularity, Hopkins began DJing at Sacramento's Bojangles club at 16. "I remember doctoring my driver's license; it was totally obvious, but people let us in. It was a chicken-friendly environment."
Starting on cassettes in the disco days, Hopkins would buy 45RPM records, then pause a tape while recording to make his own extended mixes. He played for friends' disco parties, and extended his own re-edits. The enthusiastic response led him to expand his repertoire.
As technology caught up with his skills, his subsequent contract work for Hot Tracks and other music companies grew in popularity. Hopkins and a few friends formed Twitch Remix Service, which then became his current company, Twitch Recordings.
Before moving to San Francisco in 1991, Hopkins had already started working in studios with recording artists and producers, including sitting in on a few recording sessions with Sylvester. As music and nightclub scenes evolved, Hopkins found popularity in the San Francisco rave scene, and has toured throughout the U.S., spinning everywhere from outdoor events to cozy clubs.
"The reason I left Sacramento is that I was tired of playing top 40," said Hopkins. "If you played something (patrons) weren't familiar with, they left the dance floor. I was trying to go back and forth between new music and Top 40, but had enough. In the rave scene, these kids were starving for new music, not stuff on the radio. I got to do my thing, play what I wanted."
Never satisfied to rest easy, for the past six years Hopkins has also complimented his and other DJs' mixes by making strikingly trippy video montages (Look up vjjimhopkins on YouTube for samples). He's worked with The Crib, Gus Presents and The Endup, providing beat match imagery and visuals.
In between local and traveling gigs, Hopkins spearheads the Disco Preservation Society, a collective that archives digital versions of classic past-era disco mixes from fragile reel-to-reel tapes. Most prominent is 1970s DJ Michael Lee's collection of about 270 mixes from New York City and San Francisco's Trockadero Transfer.
To compliment these recordings, he also collects vintage visuals. "I like to find old magazines with ads for the nightclub events; Castro clones, hand-made graphics."
Twitch Recordings also offers services in audio and video preservation and conversion to digital formats. To add to this impressive array of talents, downloads and CDs of Hopkins' original music, as well as vintage and recent sets, are also available on his website.
Hopkins plays Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and every other Friday at 440 on Castro Street, and Thursday nights at The Lone Star Saloon, plus occasional beer busts there. "When I'm playing stand-up bars," he said, "I've got an age group of 21- to 70-year-olds. I try to mix it up and see what people are grooving to."
Whether it's a deep house or disco classics, when Hopkins is playing, you'll probably find it irresistible to resist the toe-tapping beats.
www.twitchrecordings.com
Jim Hopkins' Top 10 Summer Disco Classics
1. Hot Shot - Karen Young
2. Hills Of Katmandu - Tantra
3. Souvenirs - Voyage
4. Let's Start The Dance - Bohannon
5. Give Me Love - Cerrone
6. Vertigo/Relight My Fire - Dan Hartman
7. Over & Over - Disco Circus
8. Underwater - Harry Thumann
9. Magnifique - Magnifique
10. With Your Love - Donna Summer