Alex Nepa has been a DJ in State College since the early 2000s, and his reach has expanded with his very own company, Mint DJ & Events. His Penn State journey took him from a young computer science major to the talent and mind behind his own premier event group in town.

A Northeastern Pennsylvania native, Nepa said there were two colleges people in his hometown chose between: Notre Dame or Penn State. He chose the latter to continue his studies and began at the university in 1997.

Almost immediately after his arrival, he began DJing fraternity parties. The extent of his previous DJing experience before college basically started and ended with his knowledge of music. Everything else he learned as he went.

As a computer science major, playing events was just something he did for fun.

“I think I had the mentality of like, ‘Hey, this is some fun side-money while I’m in college, and, you know, when I graduate I’ll do the adult thing,'” Nepa said.

Back then, he never expected it to turn into a career path. He followed the path of his major for a few years post-grad, until he got fired from his job.

While that may seem like a roadblock to some, for Nepa, it became the launch point for his current career.

“Maybe I should go for this and not have a backup option. That way I’m forced to kind of make it work,” Nepa said of his logic behind making the change.

He began working for Local Motion DJs, which was owned at the time by Dan Myers, a prominent State College businessman who owns statecollege.com and our very own onwardstate.com.

Nepa worked with Myers for many years, and Myers helped Nepa build a business mindset beyond just being a talented DJ. The partnership ultimately led to Nepa buying Local Motion from Myers.

“He definitely mentored me there, and then it just led to the point where I actually bought his company and started my own,” Nepa said.

Myers himself was a DJ, “back in the day,” as Nepa claimed, but he was removed from the DJ world by that point, and he threw the offer out to Nepa.

Nepa took Local Motion and rebranded it into his very own Mint DJ & Event Group, and the rest was history.

Despite his love of running his own company, he is still a DJ at heart and works countless events for the company every year.

“I love being a creative force behind music,” Nepa said. “Being a DJ allows me to be like a conductor of energy for other people, to facilitate their moments and kind of be the soundtrack of their moments. There’s certainly a very genuine excitement I get from that.”

Mint has done an event for almost every bar downtown, and between Local Motion and Mint combined, Nepa has one of the longest DJ residencies with the Basement, formerly Indigo. He even met his wife at the College Avenue bar, giving it a special place in his heart out of all his venues.

He also does countless events for alumni, various Penn State organizations, and even events for James Franklin and the football team. He enjoys being a part of the culture and catering events for the exact niche group he is working for.

“I get excited by creativity. I don’t want the same old, same old,” Nepa said.

Between corporate, nightlife, and weddings, Mint is clocking in at just above 500 events in total this year, according to Nepa.

A big goal he had for Mint was to level up the typical wedding DJ experience. Most companies send out a DJ unknown to the customer the day of the event; Mint works differently. Nepa uses an agency model that allows you to personally select your DJ ahead of time.

As for his future aspirations for the company, Nepa hopes to continue growing his talent base.

“Right now, my focus is just to build that younger crop of talent that will run the next five years,” Nepa said. “I really see myself developing talent and kind of refining good DJs and professional hosts and helping them out with marketing and branding.”

He enjoys getting to work with the same places while also growing the client base.

“Clients are friends, and we develop relationships with them. There’s a lot of trust that they put in us to deliver, and all those puzzle pieces really make it pretty awesome,” Nepa said.

As for advice for future DJs, Nepa encourages hard work without losing sight of what’s important to you.

“The artistry in DJing is being a slave to the crowd while still being true to yourself,” he said.

To see more of Nepa’s work, you can check him out on his website or book with Mint here.