For January I tried planning my set. Literally from the first track to the last, I planned it at home, made sure all the tracks sounded like they should be mixed into each other, and made sure all the tracks I desperately wanted to play were in there.
It sounded good. It worked. But I didn't enjoy it as much. It kind felt that I had taken my creative freedom away and turned my DJ set into a factory line assembly job - do part 1, then do part 2, etc, etc.
February was my sober DJing month. Normally the most difficult set, but with being unemployed and hence not having done a full week of work beforehand, there was no need for alcohol to help me power through. In fact, I stayed an hour longer after my set than I did in January.
We had quite a cosmopolitan, European crowd that night and I was stood at the front after, feeling very proud of what has been created. It was a busy night, and the crowd were loving the music - even my minimal techno.
March started disastrously by leaving my suitcase with music and headphones on the train when I arrived into Reading. Thankfully First Great Western managed to return my suitcase and it was game on. Except by this point I was pretty damn drunk, and slightly internally raging - never a bad thing to have emotion going on when you are doing some form of musical expression.
Myself and Martin were going to attempt a back-to-back, but we decided against it after just two tracks each as our styles were way too far apart for a warm-up. I think it might have worked were we doing the last set - or if we had practiced and found a common groove.
So instead, I did an hour or so, Martin did an hour or so, then I came on and did 20-30 minutes before our headliner - though it could have been longer as I didn't really have too much concept of time by then. Apart from one mix, somehow I held it together despite my insobriety.
I also eschewed my normal minimal and played a more underground house sound instead, a bit like this track by Unknown Artist:
I miss playing house music. I suspect that next time I do the warm-up, it might be more house-orientated than minimal. Not that I have any intention of planning it!
Unfortunately we have booked two headliners next month so I will not be DJing (or maybe that is fortunate depending on your view) - you'll have to wait until 19th May to catch me next.
