The art of creating music, especially the art of DJing, is all about having fun with what you can make. Maybe that ‘fun’ is found in an artist experimenting with different sounds as they work towards their next perfect beat, or maybe it’s in the way the crowd jams out to the final product. Whatever this means to an individual creator, Myles Daly, known musically as DJ Nimrod, takes having fun in his music career and runs — sprints, even — with it. The name “Nimrod” is drawn from the handle of an old Instagram account of his dedicated exclusively to pictures of vanity license plates and is a testament to the music he plays, which he describes as, “bonkers.”
DJ Nimrod is dedicated to taking his craft seriously — which, in his world, means being seriously unserious — since the very beginning. He began DJing as a joke to find the answer to an unsolvable question: “What the hell do DJs even do?” One of the first parties he played at took place a few years ago on New Year’s Eve, where he tested the boundaries of that question by pumping the party full of what he described as “crazy brainrot” music that ranged from Psy’s Gangnam Style to classical composer Claude Debussy to Cardi B remixes. Looking back, he knew he’d accomplished something that night, which he recalled was a blast for everyone there.
DJ Nimrod soon began to play at a sorority at the university he attended before transferring to Lawrence, eventually becoming their “resident DJ” after realizing he had a skill for the trade. Engineering electronic beats is what DJ Nimrod is pursuing as a major, so despite humbling himself with the title of “professional aux-haver,” he also admitted to creating “dope” electropop. He recalled that tipsy partygoers often tell him that his sets — though absolutely wild — create an infectious vibe at any function he happens to be playing at, including the ones he played after transferring to Lawrence this last Fall Term.
DJ Nimrod has done a number of shows at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house, including one earlier in the 2025 Spring Term. One of his most recent — and successful — gigs was at the Sustainable Lawrence University Gardens (SLUG)’s rave-themed “slarty.”
On Sunday, May 11, DJ Nimrod joined Eli Orion, who he clicked with after hearing people tell him that both he and Orion were “the same genre of white boy,” in performing at a club in Milwaukee. He likewise secured a slot at LUaroo.
As a lover of everything bamboozling, nonsensical and downright absurd, DJ Nimrod said he draws a lot of inspiration from the intensely unserious electronic duo 100 Gecs, especially their Boiler Room sets. He shouted out Boiler Room — saying he often is “so moved” by random musicians’ performances in this style — as a playing strategy he looks up to.
Though he hasn’t done a brainrot show since the one that started it all, DJ Nimrod hopes to one day bring that vibe to Lawrence, even saying, “I don’t know why I haven’t [yet].” He promised that he’ll,“get really annoying with it” — in other words, lean right into his style of musicking — when he does. With his spot at LUaroo, he vowed to “kinda go nuts” on his audience, which he did.
So, what the hell do DJs do? What DJ Nimrod came to find out about the answer to this unsolvable question is that it really is unsolvable; he considers DJing to be a special kind of artistry since the rigid rules that apply to most musician types are thrown out the window, meaning any direction a DJ might take is fair game. It’s safe to say that this is especially true for DJ Nimrod, whose chaos and creativity intersect to produce something really unique and reflective of his vibrant personality.