Love from scratch

Local DJs Faust & Shortee spin their wedding vows

While married couples tend to count their wedding among the most special events of their lives, wedding guests don’t usually have nearly as much fun. So when planning their non-traditional ceremony — to be held privately at the Crescent Room this weekend — betrothed beat-jugglers Bobby Bruno, 28, and Shannon Burke, 25 (better known as tag-team turntablists Faust and Shortee) made sure to make it memorable.

It’s appropriate that Faust & Shortee’s wedding will take place in a club, because the hip-hop cutting couple’s relationship began around a party. Shortee pinpoints the August weekend they got together in Virginia in 1995 by referencing a rave flyer. And Faust planned to propose at a New Year’s gig in Colorado, but since it was canceled, he popped the question at home on the eve of the new millennium.

It’s indeed appropriate that Faust and Shortee’s wedding be unique, because the couple share a relationship unique even among DJs. “I think it’s really hot,” says Z-Trip, who will serve as the wedding’s DJ and master of ceremonies. “Among other reasons, because they are DJs and scratch together. They have love of the same craft. It wasn’t like one was saying, ‘I gotta DJ,’ and the other one was, like, ‘I gotta go to the bank.’ They both have to do the gig. I think that’s a beautiful thing they get to do their couple thing across the world. Faust and Shortee — they can eat, shit, sleep DJing all the time and no one gets tired of the other’s thing. Also you don’t have to send your girlfriend to the mall while you dig [for records] for four hours. Those two are probably skipping along and throwing rose petals to the side while they go off to the record store.”

Faust and Shortee’s friend and fellow Citizenz crewmember DJ T-Rock echoes Z-Trip. “I’ve been married before, and I know that if the other person is not into what you are it really causes a major conflict,” he says. “So it’s good they have the same interest and are into learning still from each other. That’s just one less argument in the household.”

Some would say having to make a relationship work while you’re on the job can be highly stressful — both can be a full-time job. But Faust and Shortee have taken their work/life partnership to a new extreme: They’ve even booked a string of European gigs to coincide with their honeymoon. Rather than stressful, their teamwork only adds to their personal relationship, and vice versa.

“Creatively, since we produce and practice together as well as live together, we stay in sync with each other,” Faust says. “Sometimes playing together or working on a track together is just what we need to loosen up and have fun together, because doing something we both love keeps us close.”

From the start, Faust and Shortee have thrived by using their complementary individual skills and knowledge to improve the whole. “Besides the fact they’re both DJs/producers, they have always been a couple that sort of informs each other,” says Motomasa, part of Faust and Shortee’s Space Kadets Collective, who also married his DJ/production partner Eve this year (Faust and Shortee, in fact, DJed their reception at Karma). “When they first got together, [Shortee] didn’t spin but [Faust] did. So obviously [Shortee] learned about DJing from him. And, conversely, she had a musical side [as a trained percussionist] that informed him more. So it’s been a great relationship for sharing information.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Shortee herself. “We inspire each other and push one another to do our best,” she says. “We get ideas and gain understanding by listening and watching each other work and just by hanging out with one another. I don’t know if it’s because we’re involved romantically, although romance and love is always very inspiring. But more so because we live together and are around each other 24-7. Neither one of us would be the same if we didn’t meet each other. It scares me to think about how different things would be if I had never met Bobby.”

Clearly, Faust and Shortee have just scratched the surface of a lifetime of beautiful music.

Faust and Shortee tie the knot Sept. 8. Send your best wishes to citizenz@bellsouth.net.??