Unleashing The Treasure Dragon: One DJ’s Journey In Los Santos

The Beginning

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Zelda, also known as DJ Treasure Dragon. Join me in discovering her experience as a DJ, making a name for herself in Los Santos, and her overall journey as a DJ.

Zelda, or Treasure Dragon, has been DJing for about three years. She is a part of DJ Spooky Entertainment. Zelda started DJing accidentally when trying to get a job at a local strip club. They needed a DJ, and she said she could try it. Zelda was intrigued by how the music made people’s bodies move. Not only is she into different music styles, but she is also interested in how music affects people on a deeper, more intimate level, and she loves it. Zelda began with shows booked through word of mouth but then went to school for her therapy work and moved to us here in Los Santos. When she finally moved to Los Santos, she did not mean to pursue it as a career; she did it for fun with friends and explored it privately in her therapy practices.

It was not until the day she and her sister Liv were goofing around going to Brimstones Brewery to dance that the owner Silky Valentino let her use his decks to play around, and he loved her impromptu set. He told her she could play anytime and would even pay her for it. But of course, lovely Zelda did not take any payment and continued playing there. But in a sense, he did pay her because she got to play at Brimstones, which allowed her to be heard by DJ Spooky of DJ Spooky Entertainment and signed her as an official DJ in his company. Silky Valentino and DJ Spooky have been her biggest supporters and motivation throughout her journey. They encouraged her to keep going whenever she felt like she was not good enough. And Zelda felt like that often, as if she did not belong or was not enough because of the huge talents in the city. But they have opened all the doors in her music career and held them open when she was scared. “My music and my career would not exist without these two men and their companies, respectively!”, she shared. They are the reason Treasure Dragon music exists as it does, and she says she is eternally grateful to them and everyone that works with them, “I cannot thank all of them enough!”. 

Opportunities kept coming, doors opening all around her, with people asking for her specifically to come to play for them. Since she was not even pursuing her career as a DJ back then, it is quite amazing hearing how many bookings and gigs she got while just playing at Brimstones Brewery. They would hear her play there and then request her to play for them, so getting gigs was not a problem. Treasure Dragon never had any expectations either when going to gigs. It did not matter if it was one person or one hundred people watching; just the fact that someone asked her to play was amazing. “It’s a win for me,” she said.

Family and Friends

“The people that love me will always be there for me” is her own words, her family and friends will always be there watching her play, supporting her, and being her inspirational rock. She has her three siblings, Liv, Cam, and Carson, and her best friend Bruce, who does Scream-O-Grams, which you pay for with tips. They pushed her to do more things, from exploring herself to helping her find the creative things she could do as a DJ and an artist. “I’m very fortunate to have them,” she shared. Making her friends and family smile and dance is everything to her.

Her best friend Bruce says that her journey has been an epic climb. She started so small at a local strip club and then just “rocketed up the mountain” when she started booking gigs and big events and shows. They were requesting Treasure Dragon to play specifically. Bruce truly is her best friend. He says she looks happy, does great, and is awesome to watch. He chose her as his family. He feels as close to her as she feels to him. He also revealed that Poutine’s pizza and sour candies are her favorite food.

Feelings

The Treasure Dragon tries to evoke anger, sexuality, fear, and honesty in all her shows. The parts that society makes us deny. She studied sexual and emotional therapy as well as trauma-based. She wants to help people explore those feelings we would usually deny and help us get to know ourselves. Her favorite thing about DJing is connecting with her audience and letting them open up and explore themselves more intimately. Her least favorite being she is not skilled enough to do everything she wants to do. She says, “I could do so much more if I had the knowledge.”

Inspirational People

There are many people she idolizes and looks up to, and here are some of them and why.

Vapors has been a huge inspiration to her; the way he puts together beats is amazing and inspires her to want to try new things. She was extremely happy when one of her sets inspired him. She also had the opportunity to work with Mando, who she says is talented and impressive with how he mixes and puts together tracks. “His brain is impressive” is a quote from her. Zelda was also able to help Dante Gravina, who she thinks is amazing with how he can stretch his abilities in such a great amount to make incredible things. Jason Tanners, according to her, “He’s just FIRE FIRE FIRE,” he plays all the music she likes, his acoustic stuff is great, he has “dripping talent,” and she does not believe he is real and has “sold his soul to the devil.” She also looks up to DJ Baja Blast, or Zalena, since it is so visible that she wants it. And last but not least, Brick makes great music. Everything he makes is better than the last thing, and he is just incredibly creative, and she hopes he gets signed at KOKORO soon. 

She takes inspiration from them and looks up to them and their work.

Performing

Through her journey as a DJ and performing around places, she has gained a huge confidence boost, and she knows what she wants to see in the world through this and how she can help contribute to that. And if something ever were to go wrong during a gig, she said it is all part of her interesting journey, like if the lights went out during her performance, that would be a fun story to tell. “If everything went perfect all the time, that would be boring.” Even if her audience is bored, she closes her eyes, breathes in, and gets lost in her music. If no one else were into it, she would be the only one to please. If we played with the thought of her being famous worldwide and having the opportunity to do a tour, she said it would be awful without her family. She is so close to her friends and family that she feels she cannot do anything without them. They are her rock, her inspiration, and she will have to take them with her if she ever was to do a tour. It would be especially hard without her sister Liv, who is the most important person to her. And she says she definitely would not be where she is professionally or spiritually without Carson, Cam, and Bruce, though, and as she said, “I am because they helped me.”

Extra

She has never explicitly competed in music but was in Miss Los Santos as a runner-up. And her talent during that was meditation. She does meditation and spiritual healing as part of her therapies. Her motto is to be “Zen as fuck” as she described herself.

The best advice she received was, “Not everybody is gonna like it, but what’s important is that you’re proud of it.” And the best qualities she believes a DJ or a musician should have is being able to look at yourself with an eye for change, self-criticism, a desire to change, and the courage to step out of your box even though other people might not like it. Have a willingness to evolve!

She got a gig at a Wild West Rave that requested wild west-themed music and was unsure if she would do it. She is indigenous, so she decided to bring a set that was all indigenous artists and music but was very, very, very, very scared about doing it. She almost backed out, but Bruce managed to convince her to do it, and her other friends and family were there and told her not to be afraid of who she was. She felt great after playing and allowing people to explore the sides of them they were scared of. She thanks Bruce, who was present at the interview, but her other family members also helped convince her to do it. Jason Tanners and Dante Gravina gave her a huge talk which she said was nice and gave her enough confidence. She is very fortunate for the people she has in her life.

Something about her music she wishes people knew and understood is that her sets are very sexual and designed to be that way. It is not to exhibit porn but to let everyone express that side of themselves since many people do not get to do that. She wants to give that permission to everyone and let them explore themselves in their most vulnerable position.

The awe-inspiring tale of Treasure Dragon is the journey of a DJ who has transcended boundaries and ignited the flames of self-expression in the hearts of countless souls.