Decompressing at Octoberfest -

I highly enjoyed the Octoberfest concert starring Desiree Ragoza and her husband DJ Ragoza. That event was perfect for students to destress and have some much-deserved fun. I have been to concerts before, but nothing like this. It was something I will never forget because it was such a fun and amazing experience. After Desiree was done playing her guitar, she came and danced with us. I stayed the entire length of the concert and enjoyed myself so much. The concert provided a break where students didn’t have to worry about homework or midterms that were coming up in a few days' time. It was just a time where students could relax and enjoy a Friday night concert. I was happy I decided to go to the concert, and if I had the opportunity to go to something like that again, I definitely would. - Samantha Robinson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Desiree and Brandon Ragoza.

Desiree and Brandon, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
It all started with our first date in January 2020. We had just met on Facebook dating, of all places. Our first date went so amazing that we knew right away, that we were soulmates. We got married less than a month later without any hesitation. Our family and friends were shocked! We were able to laugh about it because we knew that we had something special and that everyone would see that eventually.

When we met, we were both doing gigs locally. But then the world shut down in March of 2020 and that brought all of our gigs to a screeching halt. We spent a lot of our downtime practicing our separate crafts. But one day, we decided to jam together, going back and forth with scratching and guitar shredding. We posted a video of it on Facebook and got some amazing feedback. This gave us the idea to start putting a show together that blends both of our passions together in a fun, energetic, and memorable way. We both have over 20 years of experience in our fields, so when we started to bring all of that experience together, we had so much fun because everything sounded so powerful. We landed on the name “Team Ragoza” because not only is it our last name, but that was a hashtag that we would use on our pictures together and our fans would often use that hashtag in their comments so we went with it.

As the world slowly started to open back up in 2021, we started doing as many gigs as we could. With the help of our amazing friend and manager, DJ Nicki Nell, we played a wide variety of gigs and really got a chance to test out our “Husband & Wife, Guitarist/DJ Mash Up Duo” concept. We played at weddings, corporate events, local concerts, raves, and nightclubs and we even played at a vineyard. Every single crowd was really into what we were doing, even though they were all very different crowds. So that further confirmed to us, that we had a very special concept.

In 2022, things have continued to evolve for us and we’ve been able to do gigs all around the country. Plus, our new relationship with Bose is another blessing that has opened the door for us to play at festivals and DJ expositions as we represent their brand and amazing products.

As our concept continues to grow, we are looking forward to an amazing 2023 with many dates already booked in different cities throughout the US and we hope to take our act international soon.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There were certainly a few curve balls, but the biggest challenge was waiting for everything to open back up in order for us to get publicly recognized. But in the midst of it all, it gave us a massive opportunity to really perfect our concept.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We are a husband and wife hybrid guitarist/DJ duo who performs high-energy sets at a variety of shows and events.

We specialize in making every event memorable and fun.

By putting our talents together, we create a unique musical experience with the perfect blend of remixes and mashups with live guitar elements while creating a bond with the audience. Our performance is what we take the most pride in.

What do you think about happiness?
Us being able to not only have this incredible career together but to be able to have such an amazing marriage and share experiences together. Being able to pursue our lifelong passions together is all we could ever want while being able to share them with the world.

Contact Info:

Website: www.teamragoza.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teamragoza/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeamRagoza
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TeamRagoza
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/djragoza
Other: www.visualsoundprod.com - VoyageKC

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Desiree & Brandon Ragoza. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Desiree & Brandon below.

Desiree & Brandon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
We currently work full-time together doing what we love together. Our concept started at a time where it seemed like it would’ve been impossible to make a full-time living with everything shutting down (2020). Both of us had a numerous amount of years of experience under our belts in our profession of being a DJ and guitarist, Once the lockdowns began, that was when we had decided to play together and just see where it would take us. And luckily, with the accessibility of the internet, it made it easier to showcase our concept together to the world, even though we couldn’t physically be around people at that time. From there, we utilized that time perfecting our craft together, forming the shape of what we were about to be, and became the power couple hybrid performance duo that we are known as, “Team Ragoza”. Currently, we travel around the country performing state to state, create online content, as well as run a DJ school known as EvolveDJs.




Desiree & Brandon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As individual artists, both of us have had many years of experience in our craft, despite growing up in country towns that had no real culture for the professions.

Desiree Ragoza has started playing guitar at the age of 3 and has performed with many notable artists throughout the years such as Ted Nugent, Living Colour, Dickey Betts, Barry Goudreau (formerly of Boston), Jeff “Skunk’ Baxter, Devon Allman, Sammy Hagar, Foghat, Jennifer Batten, Vinnie Moore, and Marshall Tucker just to name a few as well as opening for Slash at the G-Taranaki Festival in New Zealand in 2010. She has also performed for 3 years (2011 – 2014) with Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson IMMORTAL World Tour as the lead guitarist. She has also been a part of a few local bands for a few years, but has diligently been performing as a solo artist and has done other tours such as “Jane Zhang’s “Bang The World Tour” in 2015, The Blue Moon European Tour with Linley Marthe, Stacey Lamont Sydnor and herself (2015), and The Legacy ” ft William Hall (2016-2017). Desiree currently has 3 albums under belt with some singles being released over time.

Brandon Ragoza (DJ Ragoza) started DJing at the age of 14 years old. He would DJ at house parties and events for family and friends throughout high school before catching the attention of local Hip Hop and R&B artists where he would soon be booked as a show DJ. His reputation as a DJ continued to grow steadily as he played at countless nightclubs, bars, concerts and private events throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut. Later on, he began to post videos of his mini sets and routines on social media and these videos began to circulate rapidly which opened up opportunities for him to DJ in many different states across the country. He is well known for his 3 regional wins in DMC as well as his 2nd place win in the US Finals of the 2022 DMC. But, he is especially well known for his edits and mashups that are being used and recognized all across the globe, his radio mixes, and his high energy style of mixing.

With our combined experience, we try to provide entertainment in a way that hasn’t been done before. We try to give our audience a performance that not only takes them on an emotional journey with a high energy vibe, but also to give them something that is relatable by showing them the power of what it feels like to be in a loving, supportive, and caring marriage and how much joy we feel being able to enjoy what we love to do together.


Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
We hope to be able to share our passions together with the entire world, travel the world together, and make people happy by taking them on the biggest emotional musical journey that they’ll remember for all of their lifetime. We both have no plans in stopping with our passion in music, it’s so deeply rooted in us that it’s one of the things in life we can’t live without besides each other.


What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding thing of being artists is simply just the fulfillment, freedom and joy of being able to express ourselves while also being able to make others feel happy. We love what we do so much and we are so grateful to be able to take what we do and be able to do it together. We don’t have anything that ties us down to prevent us from doing what we want and live for in life because we are willing to do any and all of what it takes to be able to do the very things we are known for together.

Contact Info:

Website: www.teamragoza.com
Instagram: TeamRagoza
Facebook: www.facebook.com/teamragoza
Youtube: Team Ragoza - CANVASREBEL