Chess Hubbard has many irons in the fire. She's a familiar face in the DJ booth of many Chicago clubs including Funky Buddha, Subterranean, and Schuba's, but she also finds time to moonlight for Rockstar Games while working her way into the world of music production.

Hubbard has been working professionally for about two years, so she has plenty of experience but is still new enough to the DJ game to remember what it's like to struggle in the trenches while getting club managers give you a break in the booth.

Gearwire's Joe Wallace caught up with Chess, AKA DJ Mother Hubbard, before a set at Funky Buddha to get her take on getting your foot in the door, what gear she uses, and how she promotes herself. In the first of a three-part series, Chess Hubbard offers some advice to those who are curious about DJing clubs and parties, but don't know where to start.

Normally we'd start things off with the in-depth gear talk, but DJ newbies would probably skip that and listen to this first anyway, so Gearwire dishes up the "getting started" dirt first on this one. Stay tuned for the technical stuff.