.png)
Behind the Booth & Beyond the Beat With Deleasa | October Artist Feature
- SoundCheck Team
- Oct 1
- 4 min read
From cramped basements to stadium lights, Deleasa’s rise is one SoundCheck has been lucky enough to witness in real time.
Photo by Rebecca McDevitt (IG: @rebeccajeanlimitedphotography)
Jersey Roots, Big Dreams
Michael Deleasa grew up in New Jersey with music woven into everyday life. From cramped basements to small local stages, those early nights gave him the grit and instincts he still carries with him. SoundCheck has been following his journey for over a decade, watching him grow from those grassroots beginnings into someone who can command a stadium crowd with the same authenticity.
Before fans knew him as the DJ who could flip a room in seconds, Deleasa was carving out his own lane as a songwriter and solo artist.
Photo by Rebecca McDevitt (IG: @rebeccajeanlimitedphotography)
We remember those shows too — the ones where he was learning how to hold a room with nothing but his guitar and his voice. That foundation shaped the way he builds a set today: thoughtful, intentional, and with the same performer’s touch that’s been there since the beginning.
Now, Deleasa is the connector. The one who bridges anticipation with atmosphere, turning wait time into part of the show. We’ve seen him in every setting, from late-night sets in tiny clubs to the electricity of massive arenas, and the through line has never changed. It’s always been about connection, community, and creating nights that people carry with them long after the music fades.
The Accidental Beginning of a DJ
Like many artists, Deleasa’s career path wasn’t a straight line, it bent, curved, and reshaped itself in unexpected ways. His DJ journey began almost by accident while he was living in Miami and working on music.
“Sometimes when they were mixing, I’d just go in the back and mess around on this Traktor controller,” he told us. “It was super fun. From there, I thought, maybe I can start to do some after-parties. Then it escalated, brand partnerships, nightlife in New York. But it all started as a hobby."
Photo by Rebecca McDevitt (IG: @rebeccajeanlimitedphotography)
That “hobby” quickly became something bigger. At first, he was just blending funk records for hours, losing himself in sound and learning how to bend rhythm to his will.
Soon, he was throwing after-parties, playing New York clubs, and finding himself booked for brand events. What started as downtime curiosity became a second identity. And yet, he never abandoned his roots as a songwriter. That part of him carried into DJing, shaping the way he approaches sets. Each night has its own mood, its own story, its own curve of energy.
Crafting The Energy Curve
When we asked how he builds a set -how you take a crowd from that first drop into the night’s crescendo- his answer was both playful and precise.
“I put a bunch of songs on postcards, put on a blindfold, throw darts and that’s the playlist,” he joked. Then he shifted: “To be honest, it’s really no different for a massive room or a small room. The objective is the same, get people going."
"Whether it’s 50 people or 50,000, the goal doesn’t change"
Photo by Rebecca McDevitt (IG: @rebeccajeanlimitedphotography)
Sometimes that means leaning into local flavor. “If you’re in Boston, a More Than a Feeling remix could be a good move. If you’re in Jersey, you can’t go wrong with a little Bon Jovi.”
That adaptability is part instinct, part preparation. Deleasa has been known to swap out tracks after night one if they don’t land the way he imagined. He’ll layer new drum samples or textures before a set to boost the energy. And sometimes, the best moments are the spontaneous ones, the audibles he calls mid-performance when he feels the room shift.
It’s this mix of humor, instinct, and craft that makes his sets memorable. They’re never cookie-cutter, never rigid. You can tell he’s in conversation with the crowd, and that conversation shapes the night.
Two Cities, One Philosophy
Ask him about his influences, and he points to geography as much as genre.
“Miami got me more into house and tech house, more dance-driven, underground stuff,” he explained. “New York was more open format, playing everything. So now when I’m doing dance sets, I have to remind myself I can ride tracks out instead of mixing too fast.”
Those two energies, Miami’s pulse and New York’s eclecticism, collide in his sound today. His sets are rooted in house and dance, but they carry the elasticity of a DJ who’s played every kind of room.
That flexibility comes with perspective, too. On nerves, he laughed: “I wouldn’t say nervous. It’s more like excitement. If being so excited you could pee your pants equals nervous, then yeah, sometimes. I try to trick my brain and reframe it. I don’t get nervous, I just get really excited.”
His philosophy goes deeper than performance jitters. It’s about how he approaches creativity itself. “Focus on small steps,” he said. “Baby steps are steps. If you only look at the end goal, it gets overwhelming. But little wins prepare you for the bigger moments.”
It’s advice that applies far beyond DJing, and it’s what makes him resonate with fans who are creators themselves.
Fun, Future, and What’s Next
Of course, Deleasa is never all seriousness. Ask him to describe himself as a cocktail, and he answers without hesitation:
“I’d go with a spicy marg. A little flavor, a little spice. A classic. Everyone loves it, but it’s also not for everyone.”
Ask him about memes, and he lights up: “Any Hasbulla meme. I live my life in memes, I think in memes.”
But when he talks about the future, it’s all excitement. Right now, he’s experimenting with Latin house alongside longtime friend Dav Julca, incorporating live percussion into sets.
He teased a country remix in the works, dream collabs with Diplo and Jamiroquai, and even shared how kids inspire his creativity. “There’s just this raw honesty with kids. They’ll drop stoic knowledge out of nowhere, and it helps me see things differently.”
From funky experiments in Miami studios to rainstorms with live drums, Deleasa’s story is one of growth without losing connection. For those who’ve been following him since the early songwriter shows of 2013, it’s a joy to watch him step into his next chapter.
Catch Deleasa on tour with Jonas Brothers, Franklin Jonas, Boys Like Girls, and Jesse McCartney through the end of this year
