Some people have a closet full of Christmas sweaters. Some folks get worked up over turkey and stuffing. For DJ P, born Danny J. Phillips, it’s the spooky spectacular that rocks his world. The veteran turntabilist is bringing his love for Halloween to Rain tonight for the Uneasy Halloween party, and “Thriller” won’t be the only thing he brings to the tables for the themed set.

It’s no secret that Halloween is your favorite holiday. What do you have in store for Uneasy Halloween with Z-Trip?

I manipulate a lot of Halloween sounds, a lot of Halloween theme based songs. It can go as deep as Ministry “Everyday is Halloween” … all the way to “Sweet Transvestite” from Rocky Horror Picture Show and I mix all that stuff with vinyl. … We’re definitely going to take a dirt road. It’s Halloween. It’s not going to be Britney Spears followed by Lil Wayne. [Laughs.]

How did Hell on Wheels initially come about?

I got the idea back in the day to do a mix tape based around Halloween. At the time I didn’t even have a sampler. I used my VCR—this was even before DVDs—so I took the movies that I had on VHS and I would watch the screen and pause it to where I knew when I hit the play button, the sample that I wanted would pick up. So, then I had to hit record in the machine and I’d have already a beat laid down, so in order to sample it, I would hit play and it would have to drop in, then I would have to stop it. Then go back and see if I got the volumes right and everything. It was a pain in the ass to put it bluntly.

Where did your love of Halloween begin?

I just loved it as a child. I loved scary movies—of course, I wasn’t allowed to watch them, but I’d sneak and watch them when the movie channel first came out. I was always intrigued by witches and goblins, I just thought it was really cool the way they would make someone’s head come apart on TV. [I] know that it was fake, but [I would] sit there and go, “How did they do that?” Of course, when I first saw that, when you’re a kid, you’re not thinking that it’s fake. It really freaked me out when I saw Friday the 13th for the first time and Kevin Bacon died. I was like, “There’s no way that dude’s alive. They killed him.” I turned the TV off and went outside.

Do you have an all-time favorite Halloween memory or something that sticks out the most?

Probably the first time my dad took me to a haunted house in my hometown and I had never experienced that. That freaked me out too, but it was cool. It was a lot of fun … back then I was probably seven or eight years old.

Are you and Z-Trip going to wear costumes Friday night at Rain?

I will be in a costume. … I’m sure we’ll figure something out. I would say it will be a team costume. As a matter of fact, it will be a team costume that a lot of people probably won’t get, but a few will. You had to be there to get it really. Some people might be like, “Oh, we’ve heard of this, but we’ve never seen it.”