08/06/2024
This is a long read but it's worth the time.
Take a breather and read though this slowly.
This is a big and lengthy post and has come from various conversations with people I have run into online and in real life and some of the questions they have asked. These are entirely my own personal thoughts and feelings about something I am very passionate about, no right or wrong, I just wanted to share my thinking, create discussion, and possibly transfer knowledge from my experiences.
𝗔 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰, 𝗗𝗝𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲...
Listen to music, all of it, consume it like a Phat kid in a sweet shop, try it all, all genres, all eras and remember, there are only two types of music, music you like, and music you don't like! Music is subjective so you will never please all the people, all the time.
Seek out the holy grails, find tracks that set you apart from the rest, curveballs, balearic belters, eclectic ammo, these will help you more on your long journey as a career DJ then any turkey teeth, instagram images if you are looking at being long in the game that is! If you are after your 15 minutes of fame and a life of reality TV, fake t**s and tans then go for the turkey teeth insta route.
Don't fake it (you won't make it), if you don't know a piece of music one of your peers has played, say so, discuss it rather than try and wing it, no one is judging you, except perhaps yourself. Prime example, when I worked in Potato Head in Bali, we bought Gilles Peterson over to play, and after his set Indonesian DJ, Dea went on, Dea is a massive digger and Gilles turned to me and said he didn't know any of his music and was genuinely blown away, so even the big boys in the game don't know it all, off the back of that set Gilles invited Potato Head to host a stage at his Worldwide Festival in Sete, France, an experience I am forever grateful for and myself Dea and Jonny Nash flew the flag on that!
Go down musical rabbit holes, discover the drummer from your favourite jazz album has created ten of his own albums, seek them out, listen and learn. With streaming sites and YouTube it is so much easer to access so much amazing music, use these tools and open your mind.
Remember, trends may come and go, but true class remains timeless, don't limit your music to whats currently 'hot' or 'on trend', be different!
Vinyl v digital debate, I honestly believe the ritual of buying an album, opening it up, handling it, putting it on the turntable, listening while reading the sleeve notes connects you more to the music, you have invested money, time, and energy into it. Of course its much easier to carry a USB and Digital DJing opens up a lot of different ways to play. For me, my vinyl / records are my private art collection, its the thing I can be tactile with, it also helps me connect the dots when I see certain musicians playing on other peoples music, you can't do that with an MP3. No right or wrong except there is a special place in hell for those who don't agree hahahahaha.
Be emotionally attached to the music, it it ain't moving you, it certainly won't move your dancers or listeners!
Remember music in the right context will always work, for example, hearing for the first time a trashy euro pop record being played in the frozen food isle of your local ASDA will sound sh*tty, but stumbling out of a club at 6am in the Balearics or Adriatics with the sun on your face and heading to a beach and hearing the same track will have a much different effect, and I guarantee when you hear the same track again in the ASDA frozen food isle you will be grinning ear to ear.
Take time to listen, REALLY listen, enjoy the experience, take the music in, in its entirety and as the artist laid it out, it is easy to skip through music, this is a good / bad habit from years of DJing, and owning and running record shops, binging / skimming through the music to see if it makes the grade, but there is something magical about taking time out, putting on an album and listening, uninterrupted and focussed only on the music.
I have an audiophile set up in my old bedroom at my Mothers house and when I visit I can close myself away from the world and really listen, I find it healing, inspiring and connecting. Doing this a few times a year allows me to reset as even a Phat kid can binge too much on music sometimes!
Be aware and understand the energy in the music, this allows experimentation and eclecticism, not everything has a 4/4 kick so feel out the breakdowns, areas in the music where you can transition in and out from, also 'space' in music and DJ sets is powerful and can work to your advantage especially when soundtracking sunsets. Shift tempos like gears in a car, move up and down on the journey. Life is not linear, nor should your DJ sets be! And on that sunsets note, remember, you are not the star of the show, that big yellow and orange ball of fire in the sky is, you have the honour of following her journey over the edge and putting her to bed, be mindful and remember sunsets have been happening since the dawn of time, and from my personal experience of chasing them around the world, there is nothing more powerful than watching this majestic act of nature so when you get the opportunity to soundtrack it, please bare that in mind. For some reason we are all emotionally connected to its power and I have seen the biggest and hardest men alive be moved to tears when the sunset and soundtrack are in perfect sync!
Back to the energy thing, many years ago I was touring UK and Europe with Roger Sanchez as his warm up DJ, and every night I would finish my set, hand over to Roger and study his set, I soon understood that he would play a lot of the same tracks but in the smaller, deeper sounding clubs, he would play the track in its entirety, smooth, long mixes, building tension and the groove and then when we hit the bigger venues the energy was different, shorter mixes, utalising the energy part of the track, doubling up copies of the vinyl to extend that energy and much faster transitions whipping the crowd into a frenzy, understanding and controlling the energy is key!
Over the years of DJing as a career I have transitioned from a club DJ to a sunset selector, it happened naturally and I completely aligned that with my journey of ADHD discovery. I loved clubs when I was younger, everything was there in one space that fed my ADHD, drink, party supplies, flashing lights, sound and crazy party people all fuelled my need for stimulus which is what ADHD feeds off, music being my first love and understanding that I could create these crazy journeys by stringing different pieces of them together to narrate the story of the evening had me hooked, and as I got older and hopefully wiser, I found 'good' stimulus from playing music and telling the story in front of the sun, removing all the 'bad' stimulus and leaving me in a harmonic state both physically and mentally, music has always been a healing force, and something I turned to in bad time, I guess I am trying to say your health, especially mental health is important, and needs to be looked after. Life on the road playing clubs a few times a week can have a negative impact, eating the pit stop fuel foods in bleak motorway service stations, or super rich hotel food, copious amounts of booze, no regular exercise, poor sleeping habits will all come home and smack you hard in the face if not regulated and kept in check... Look after yourself!!!
Rest your ears - very important if you a jobbing jock, in my days in Bali I was doing two, sometimes three sets a day, 8 to 12 hours of DJing, 6 days a week and it can take its toll, so having a day off and only listening to the sounds of mother nature is a good way to balance the pummelling.
Make sure your equipment is fully functioning and up to date, this probably applies more to Digital DJing, I played in Portugal a couple of years ago and had not updated my RekordBox software on my USB, so when I plugged in, I could only see the music files and had no way of quickly searching to find the tracks I wanted and also non of the playlist structures I had created, it made for an interesting evening of DJIng, I winged it, but it wasn't fun thats for sure! I always carry a spare emergency USB with a 'get out of jail' back up set of music in a separate location to my main USB incase of loss or theft, I also carry spare headphone jacks and even take another set of 'cans' if I have space in my bag when touring. The odd occasions I travel with vinyl for gigs I always carry my own slipmats and cartridges and needles, you would be surprised at how many shows over the years I have played where these have been in a bad state or non existent. And something which is so boring but so essential when touring abroad, have full colour scans of all your important documents (passport, visas, flight tickets, hotel reservations) saved to a USB incase of loss or theft.
Learn how to deal with people, as a self confessed geek and someone who is actually quite shy, its taken me a long time to learn, and I feel I am always learning about people, having to interact with the good, the bad, and the ugly takes skills, patience and humility, something I know in the past I didn't always have or understand. In a nutshell, don't be an ar****le, be nice, but don't be a pushover, stand your ground respectfully if the situation arises.
Thanks for reading, hopefully it doesn't come across as 'teaching your grandmother to suck eggs'...
