WHO Toronto DJ Mike Ryan is known for being the last guy standing. “I’ll play for as long as there are still people up for hearing one more awesome tune,” says the crowd-pleasing spinner, who’s been DJing just below the radar for nearly 10 years, but regularly posts his popular tech-house sets online. In the past two years, after playing for friends and then friends of friends, Ryan’s crowds suddenly grew to numbers demanding larger-scale, one-off parties. Amid a renaissance of word-of-mouth warehouse parties and independent fêtes, Ryan and local jocks Mark Baker and Joel Dubin (a.k.a. Drama Kings) decided to throw a summer series of sunny patio sessions. This Sunday at the Legion on Lakeshore Boulevard West overlooking Lake Ontario, they’ll launch the first of four gatherings tailored to a crowd looking for refuge from downtown’s desolate club row. “I’m currently focusing on making sure everyone is getting exposed to amazing music in beautiful settings. If you want to play records, you can’t expect anyone to be willing to just let you come to their club and play them; you have to throw your own parties.” Hosting eats and outdoor beats (pumping through a Dynacord sound system) bodes well for Ryan. While many DJs also busy themselves in the studio, producing music hasn’t exactly come naturally. “It’s frustrating and I don’t have the patience for it. [Instead] it gives me a great sense of accomplishment [when people are] still dancing when the sun comes up.”

WHAT Tech, minimal and deep house, with “a weakness for rich, well-produced vocals that don’t get too preachy or too annoying,” says Mike Ryan. “Kaskade and Dennis Ferrer are the kings of vocals for me — they can do no wrong. When I get to play for a long time I’ll start bringing out the old gems, the progressive and vocal house classics from a few years back. So much fun.”

WHERE June 15 Sunday Dance Party Series Part 1 with Mark Baker and Joel Dubin as Drama Kings and special guest Mike Gibbs. The Royal Canadian Legion (1395 Lakeshore W). $5 at door, and featuring “Legion-priced drinks!”

FAVOURITE RECORD OF ALL TIME The Aztec Mystic, “Knights of the Jaguar.”

FAVOURITE RECORD RIGHT NOW Röyksopp “What Else Is There?” (Thin White Duke Mix). “Just when everyone thinks there’s nothing left in them and there’s no possible way that they can party a second longer, I drop this tune and everyone goes nuts every single time.”

FAVOURITE WEBSITE RIGHT NOW www.netvibes.com. “[It’s] my news aggregator. It lets me read all my feeds from Beatportal, Engadget, Gawker, New York Times, The Globe and Mail, Facebook, Gmail, Flickr and a million other things all in one spot. It’s a time-sucking vortex.”

WHAT IS YOUR MOST SURREAL DJING EXPERIENCE? “This past New Year’s Eve party at a farm near Castleton, Ontario. I was watching the snow come in through a barn door while I was playing and reflecting on how awesome life can be. It’s all quite surreal; we bring round discs to dark rooms and spin them around on machines that coax loud sounds from them. People jump around and dance and then we turn off the spinning machines and we all go home. We do it all again seven days later.”

DIGITAL OR ANALOG? “I can’t decide. I’ve got mountains of vinyl and I came really close to getting rid of the entire analog set-up in favour of my CDJs a while ago but I never did, and lately I’ve been going back to vinyl and even buying some hard-to-find tracks from fellow music freaks on discogs.com.”

WHAT IS VITAL TO YOUR DAILY ROUTINE? “The one thing that I absolutely must do every single day is brew myself a latte — a double espresso (Balzac’s beans) with a single pump of homemade vanilla syrup. I have my own machine and it is complete overkill but it makes the best espresso and amazing micro foam.”

WHAT GLOBAL ISSUE CONCERNS YOU MOST RIGHT NOW? “The fact that we’re hurtling around in space at two million kilometres per hour and nobody seems to give a damn.”

WHAT IS YOUR RING TONE RIGHT NOW? “It’s an elevator muzak version of ‘The Imperial March’ from the Family Guy episode ‘Blue Harvest,’ the hour-long Star Wars–themed season six premiere.”

WHAT IS THE LAST GREAT FILM YOU SAW? “Some movie about a guy who likes to drink other people’s milkshakes. How rude. [There Will Be Blood.]”

WHAT ACTOR WOULD PLAY YOU IN A BIOPIC? Adam Sandler.

WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW AND WHY? “I haven’t read a book in forever, but I like to read The Guardian on the weekends as well as Dwell magazine.”

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