MUSICIAN.
GUITARIST.
DJ.
ENTREPRENEUR.
Dan Morrell is a Chicago musician, guitarist, songwriter, and DJ. He came up playing guitar, then built a DJ career under the name DJ Smurf, becoming a pioneer of Euro and Progressive music in the Midwest. From campus DJ to B96 intern. From B96 intern to first place at the Super DJ Spin-Off in Las Vegas. From the decks back to the guitar, writing and performing originals as Dan Morrell.
From guitar to DJ Smurf
Dan started on guitar. The instrument never really left, but in the late 1990s Chicago was loud with a different kind of sound, and Dan picked up the decks under the name DJ Smurf. He was early on Euro and Progressive house in the Midwest at a time when the rest of the country was still figuring out what those words meant. Mix CDs got passed from car to dorm to club. Off the Wall Europa. Progressive Series. Euro Daddy. Bass Beats and Melody. The Mixmaster Throwdown crew formed in 1997 and the catalog has not stopped since.
B96 Street Mix, 2001 to 2011
From 2001 to 2011 Dan's mixes were heard across Chicago on the B96 Street Mix. Over 1,100 dance mixes aired to a weekly audience of 1.3 million listeners. In 2001 he took first place at the Super DJ Spin-Off in Las Vegas at RA Nightclub (now LAX) inside the Luxor. He served as the Chicago Bears' exclusive DJ for multiple years and ran warm-up sets for the Chicago Bulls and the Luv-A-Bulls. He played the Halloween Bash and the Jingle Bash at Allstate Arena for over a decade, opened for Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, Black Eyed Peas, LMFAO, Rihanna, Run DMC, and LL Cool J along the way, and toured with the U.S. Armed Forces in Japan in 2009.
DJ plus live guitar
The guitar never really left the picture. In 2007 Dan launched the DJ plus live guitar concept at B96 Summer Bash at Toyota Park in front of 50,000 fans. That format now defines his performance sets and runs through every Bass Beats and Melody record. He writes, produces, and performs original music. Most recently the original "Let Loose" appears on Bass Beats and Melody 2026, with live guitar by Dan Morrell and live drums by his son Daniel Morrell, age 12, who performs as Daniel Digs In.
Beyond the turntables
Beyond DJing, Dan has built an empire of businesses under the Mixmastered umbrella. Recording studios. A record label. A print shop. Acoustic panel manufacturing. Studio hardware. A SaaS platform. Each one started because the existing version of that thing was not good enough. The full list lives on the ventures page, but the short version is that Dan has spent three decades figuring out how to build the room, the record, the gear, and the platform from scratch.
Based in Chicago
Dan still works out of Chicago. The studio is online and ships work worldwide. Bookings, press, and any other inbound goes through the contact page. The latest mix sits on the music page. The full back catalog lives on the discography page.