A Lesson In DJing With One Deck

I was ridiculously busy on Saturday.  Housework, studying, watching football, 2 hours of ironing, 2 hours helping my best friend move her stuff – lots of heavy lifting.  It got to 7pm and I was shattered, and still hadn’t had a practice mix.  I had no idea what I was going to play.  And then I fell asleep.

When I awoke, post disco-nap, I did my usual slightly nervous thing, finding any excuse not to go anywhere near my decks until I eventually forced myself, poured myself a glass of wine and pressed play.  I was absolutely on fire.  That practice hour was probably the best I have ever mixed – I was playing quite tough, kind of tech-house but tracks with personality.  My mixing was really good and my timing was spot on every time – plenty of invention too.

Then I arrived at the club and it was dead.  It soon became apparent that one of the decks outside was not working.  I resigned myself to not playing, got a drink and chatted to a few friends.

The DJ before me had given up but I decided to give it a crack anyway.  The right-side deck in the garden has long had problems of a sticky play button – but now it was totally unplayable.

So all I could do was play a few tracks and fade them in and out.  I tried a few different things before settling on disco – it made more sense as disco music is not quite so designed for mixing, and it has good musicality.

It didn’t really get much busier and the night ended early.  I waived my 4-figure DJ fee.  I doubt the headliner did.

Why was the night so quiet?

I don’t think it was the music.  Eli & Fur were a good booking, they should have appealed to those in Reading that go out clubbing.  There was no lack of effort in promoting the event.  External factors may not have helped – the Annie Mac night is possibly overshadowing other events in the town at the moment, the weather was cold and it was Mother’s Day the next day.  Town did seem quieter than other Saturdays.

However I think the problem itself is, I’m afraid to say, Zeus.

Personally I quite like the club.  It is one of the few places in Reading where promoters can run events that are not common-denominator banality music-wise.  Indoor has one of the better sound systems in Reading.  The garden is a good place to be during the summer.  I always have fun there.

But most of my friends don’t like it.  When I tell people that I’m playing at the Purple Turtle, they are interested and persuadable.  Tell people that I’m playing Zeus and they turn their noses up.  There isn’t much I can do to persuade people to come and see me DJ at Zeus.

Zeus does now have a lot of competition in the area from venues that people might go to instead – RYND, Purple Turtle, Sub89 (at least for Cubed nights), Coconut, Oakford, Milk, you could probably add Matchbox, Revolution and the new place, Treehouse, to that list too.  Several of those are new places, or newly refurbished places, and people always like the feeling of going somewhere new.  And clean.  Even the Oakford is rumoured to be getting a refurbishment this year.

Those places also look a lot better than Zeus.  To me, how a club looks is the least important factor.  But I’ve lived in Reading long enough, to know that people in this area like things that look nice.  Zeus looks tacky inside and a cross between a sauna and a bin shed outside.

Without a refurbishment and a relaunch, I don’t see how the house music type of crowd will start flowing back.  Zeus could concentrate on the drum’n’bass kind of side which is popular in the town and not very well catered for.

Or it could have a proper re-design, take out all the tacky elements in the main room, lower the DJ booth to the ground so the crowd can interact with the DJs without straining their necks, paint the outside, remove the weeds from the roof, perhaps expose the brickwork inside like RYND have done – you could even have some eye-catching edgy art on the outside – make it talked about.  The garden should be turned back into a welcoming garden – with the heaters switched on during winter, a clear and crisp soundsystem and decks that work.  And the name needs to change – who the hell dreamt up the name “Zeus”?

The space itself has plenty of potential – those of us that have been around for a while know that it was “the place” during the Mango days.  It might seem that I am being overly critical but it is only because I care and I want to see that venue do well.

Next up for me is the Purple Turtle on Friday night.

I’m playing midnight until 130am and will be playing good quality house music.  Perhaps getting a little techier towards the end.  And all the equipment works there.  It feels good, there will be a good little crowd of us and if you hate the music I play then you can always go in the garden or upstairs.

Come down and join us.

Knowing Your DJ Set Times In Advance

There are some annoying things about DJing.

Actually.  Let's get this right, there are some annoying things about promoters.

Firstly, I want to know what my set time is in advance.  I can perhaps understand if you are booking several international jet-setting DJs and are juggling around flight times, etc or their agents are being a pain in the arse, but if you are doing a local night in Reading there is no excuse for telling your DJs the night before, what time they are playing.

Of course some DJs will just play the same set no matter what time they are booked.  Some DJs have their pre-planned and practiced set that they will not change no matter what.

I like to think about my sets well in advance.  I am sat here at my desk all day, listening to music and constantly coming up with ideas of tracks to play.  This applies to all of my life as I am rarely without music.  I am always thinking about what to play.

I don't plan my sets in detail but I do like to have a pool of tracks in my head that excite me, that I want to play and that I think might fit the moments.

The second thing that annoys me is short DJ sets.

It was fine when I was first starting out and nervous to be playing, to be playing just an hour.  But unless you are just bashing out the big tunes, then an hour isn't enough with the kind of music I play.

I have seen some promoters, two particular ones who are two individuals that I really like as people, offer 45 minute DJ sets.  How the hell can you create and perform your musical vision in just 45 minutes?  What do the crowd think about having such a schizophrenic line-up?

We all know why they do it, I am not exactly letting go of a secret here but the more DJs you book, the more people you have in the club as they will all do your promoting for you, at minimum by bringing their friends.  At least that is the theory.  I'm not sure it works - I promote more when I feel special.

I am a DJ.  Not a promoter.

I now refuse to play for less than an hour and a half.  If I am going to DJ then it has to be something special - I'm not interested in the merry-go-round.  I have to be able to do create something artistic - at least in my brain.

Thankfully I am working on a regular basis for two promoters that are well-organised and running decent nights with set times advised well in advance and where I can play for longer than an hour.

This coming Saturday 14th March, and then Friday 20th March.

Please come.

I think that is my promoting duty done.

DJing Sober

I was a little bit concerned about DJing totally sober on a Friday night straight after a long week at work, without even a red bull allowed.

So I took a flexible half-day so I could sleep in and then have a disco nap in the afternoon.

I slept in until 7am and had a 15 minute afternoon nap.

As has become my new plan, I practiced the first two tracks only, though I had an idea of what else I wanted to play.  It was quiet when I started – the downstairs bar had only just opened but it gradually started to become busy.

I played a lot of minimal to start – in fact someone told me that everything I played was minimal – though I like to think that I finished on underground house.  It was an opportunity to play tracks that I love that I wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to play.

I did get some good feedback, though one German guy questioned me on why I would play minimal.  I didn't see him again.  My good friend JP told me that he actually liked it - kind of hypnotic I think he said.  Especially this track by Cristi Cons - one of my favourites from 2014.

Fairly quickly I have worked out what the crowd there like – and that is punchy kickdrums – and basslines.

And when I played this monster by Enzo Sirasuga & Alexkid, people flooded in, and it was already quite busy.

I handed over a reasonably busy dancefloor to my hosts to take the tempo up a notch and then danced for as long as my tired, sober self managed, which was about 45 minutes.

So what was it like DJing totally sober?

Well pretty much the same.  I was still a little nervous beforehand and my love of the music carried me through any tiredness with a dose of adrenaline too.  I don't recall any mistakes, one or two mixes could have been tighter and I had less confidence when it came to being adventurous in my mixing style so there was more blending than I had planned.

I enjoyed it just as much as DJing drunk and managed to resist all temptations - and there were a lot of temptations.

Next up I am DJing at the Eli and Fur night on 14th March at Zeus, in the garden from 230am until 4am.

I won't be sober and I won't be playing minimal.  Well, maybe a little to bring it down at the end.

And I'll be back at the Purple Turtle every 3rd Friday until I get barred.

Exciting News!

I have exciting news.  I have a DJ residency!

I will be playing on a monthly basis at the Dark Matter Presents night, on the 3rd Friday of every month in the basement of the Purple Turtle.

This is like a dream for me, to have my own residency, once a month, where I can play to a crowd of regulars, playing new and old music that I spend several hours every day discovering and hopefully being an integral part of what I believe will be a successful night.

It means I have opportunity to play all the types of music that I enjoy – from minimal/underground house, to full-on techno, chunky house, deep trance, proper deep house, disco and electro.  Different set times should give me the chance to try different music styles, and hopefully some back-to-backs with Martin & JP.  It's going to be a hell of a lot of fun.

To be a part of something is far more rewarding than just playing an hour for a random promoter.  I really do feel the night will be a success, and will be talked about.  It does have a really good feel down there and of course, is delightfully free to get into.

It means when someone asks me when I am next DJing, I can say “3rd Friday of the month – come down, it’s free entry!”.  I have something to sell to people.

The first one is Friday 20th February.

I said that I wanted to do one set a month this year and this suits me perfectly.  I don’t want to be doing random hour-long sets in the garden of Zeus in the middle of winter for 2 drink tokens where I subsequently end up spending £50, not to mention the time spent downloading music, burning CDs and the fuckers that stole my headphones – twice.

I am going to be much more choosy in the sets I accept.  I don’t need to do the two drink token sets any more – I will still occasionally do one but only if there is something really appealing about it.

On that basis I agreed to play for AudioEdge on 14th March.  I think I have the last set in the garden – and will be playing for more than an hour.  Which I like – hour sets are pointless – how can you build an atmosphere in an hour?  Other than playing big tunes – which I don’t always want to do.

Plus the night has good headliners in Eli & Fur, it should be busy and I simply think I will enjoy the night.

See you on 20th February.  You know it makes sense.

Final DJ Set Of 2014

I cannot say that I was particularly up for DJing after a 6 hour journey back from Hull, arriving home to find no electricity downstairs, no lighting upstairs, a freezing cold house and no internet.  I was not amused.

However a few drinks and a practice mix with my very good friend, JP, I was motivated once more.

I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be very busy, and so it proved.  It was the antithesis of a sardine tin.

I took over from my aforementioned friend at 11pm to play to myself, initially, and took it down from a tech-house sound to more of a rounded house sound.  A few people arrived, however I decided to notch the tempo down a bit and play some deep house (the original kind, not the chart stuff), before bringing it back to house – it was a practice in warming up the crowd as it was totally pointless to bang it out to 15 people.

When I finished, I received a fair few compliments, people liked my music.  Which doesn’t surprise me.  I can tell my confidence in my mixing is growing too.

I then had a second set in the garden, a rather cold garden, again following a tech-house set.  As I had a few potential dancers, I continued to keep the music upbeat however as soon as the garage music inside swiftly ended, my potential dancers went inside never to return, and I was just playing to a handful of shisha pipe smokers – or in reality – just to myself.  There was no competing with the indoor warmth.

So I changed tack and drifted towards some minimal, playing this below beauty.

I then decided to go into my own world and just play some Villalobos tracks, and as soon as I had cued up the first, the bouncer came over and gave me the throat-slitting sign, which I presumed was my signal to cut the music as opposed to any particular upcoming danger to my wellbeing.

I enjoyed it and people enjoyed my music which is more important.  It was a practice in playing to an empty room which is no bad thing - playing to an empty room is far more difficult than playing to a full dancefloor.

Next up I am back at the Purple Turtle which will be interesting as it falls in my detox month – provisionally Friday 20th February though still to be confirmed.

See you there and please follow my Mixcloud/Facebook pages – there will be a new mix out soon.

Purple Turtle Aftermath

It’s been 3 months since my previous DJ set.  I was a tad downhearted about the situation but at the same time not overly fussed – my recent priority has been studying as opposed to DJing.  DJing costs money, needs a lot of preparation and brings a hangover – totally incompatible with trying to study JavaScript.

Part of me was wondering why I was bothering to try to be a DJ, I even vaguely considered giving up the dream - yet I spend all day listening to new music, dreaming of playing and what reactions certain tracks would get.

So I couldn’t refuse the offer to DJ for two of my absolute most favourite people in the whole world.  Let’s face it – if it weren’t for Martin & JP giving me an opportunity and still believing in me, I would still be scratching around trying to persuade someone to give me a set.

And it was in the basement of the newly-refurbished Purple Turtle.  The mixer still didn’t have any missing knobs, the CDJs worked (2000’s no less) and the soundsystem was more than decent enough for the venue.  Things worked!  Other clubs take note.

Martin & JP did the first hour – I remember the times that I used to go support them but couldn't stand their music.  I was most impressed and a tiny bit surprised at just how underground their music was.  I was planning on playing some techno but I couldn't follow 120bpm underground house with Marcel Dettmann.

So I started my set with some proper deep house – I like to plan and practice my first two tracks to make sure I have that confidence boost for the rest of the set – I had two different beginnings planned, I wish I had had a third!  I didn't even practice my more underground music.

The rest was off the cuff – a fair proportion of the tracks I had played when practicing during the week before – a few I had played back in August.  But there was no plan as such in place.

There was quite a crowd of dancers that JP & Martin had built up – I did lose a few after a while so decided to dig out a little 80’s surprise in the below form:

 

I followed that by the deliciously dark After Dark by &ME – one of my favourite tracks of the year.

 

Much of the rest of my two-hour set I went into house-mode, quite jacking at times with some glimpses of musical recognition for the crowd – and I managed to sneak in some warm-up Sven-style techno, including Get Together by Gary Beck – my favourite tune of the moment.

I am really happy with my mixing – I do recall one reasonably bad mix, though it was more a case of a bad timed fade – the 2000’s do seem to be easy to beatmatch on.  But apart from that I thought I showed more confidence and ideas than previously – cutting tracks and teasing the crowd occasionally, dropping out the bass, playing two tracks in full at once with different EQs, etc.  I tried things that I normally only have the confidence to do at home.  And they worked.

There was a second set too though lots of beer had flowed by this point.  I sent it about as dark as I thought I could get away with.  Overall I played for probably not far off 3 hours.  And loved every single minute of it.

Nobody told me to turn it down, nobody told me to turn it up, nobody asked me to play Prodigy - though one girl did tell me my music was boring.  I told her I love boring music.  I did have to tell one rather hard-looking dreadlocked dude that there was no MCing tonight.  He gave me a short glare but I stood my ground.

Being self-critical that I am, I do feel that I tried to play too many of my favourite tunes and too many differing styles of music though I am probably being overly harsh.

I wanted to see what people would dance to – and they would dance to pretty much anything – minimal, techno, dark and light music – though particularly the more jacking style of house music that a large proportion of my music was.  I even flipped a couple of tracks into reverse for a bit – they still danced.

I think probably because I haven't played for 3 months and I had so much different music to play, I did find it more difficult than usual to stick to one style - the lesson I learnt was that I need to work on my set-building technique - something quite glaringly obviously to me when put together with just how brilliantly JP & Martin had put together their set.

Hopefully there is not only the potential for the night itself to be a regular occurrence, but also for me to play for them again.

I know I am biased but I really think something special could grow down there.

If you don't already then please do follow me on Mixcloud and/or Facebook to make me look more popular so I get more bookings ;-)   And more importantly please follow my friends at Dark Matter to find out when the next event is.

That should be enough arse-licking to get another set ;-)

I Didn't Have A Title For This Blog Post But I Do Now

The last time I DJ’d I was shocking.  I properly train-wrecked at least 3, probably 4 mixes – granted I was off my face, I couldn’t even see the decks at one point and I still had a fair few compliments (or platitudes) but I was pretty miffed with myself.

Saturday was time to make amends.

I did have a few questions in the run-up though:

1. Am I actually any good?

2. Will I ever make any progress?

3. Do I actually love it enough to keep going?

Due to my previous mess-up, I practiced more than usual, I was well-prepared, focused and perhaps most importantly – sober (bar a couple of beers).

The night was a hard house night, but I was in the house-orientated garden, playing at 230am after Samuel El-Calor who I expected to play a few BPM faster than I usually would so I decided to play quite dark and techy to begin with at a rather fast paced 126BPM (well it is fast for me anyway), starting with Alan Fitzpatrick’s Skeksis, and moving onto this monster remix from Maceo Plex:

The first 4-5 tracks of mine were rather dark in nature and I don’t think the crowd were especially into it so I switched to some very danceable house music, dropping the BPM to 124, such as this bouncy beauty that Sven has been hammering:

I had three goals in mind whilst DJing, firstly to have fun, secondly to make sure the promoter, JP, told me that he loved it, and thirdly to get the hot Spanish girl that was sat down to dance (I assume she was Spanish – her tan looked real and she had one side of her hair shaved short, which is as Spanish as paella, at least it was in Ibiza last year).

All three goals were achieved – she danced, I had a hell of a lot of fun and danced the way through my set (or at least bobbed up and down at the beginning) and JP loved it enough to sing along with me to this below track – which was the peak of my enjoyment.

Thankfully I did really well - one of my best sets.

It being Zeus it wasn’t without a hitch – the play button on one of the CDJs was sticky and would therefore pause the track occasionally, it only happened whilst cueing up at first thankfully, but it happened repeatedly during the above track – perhaps it disagreed with the lyrics.

So I have answers to my questions:

1. Am I actually any good?  I can be as long as I practice and can see the decks.

2. Will I ever make any progress?  Probably not but having fun and playing good music is what matters.

3. Do I actually love it enough to keep going?  Hell yes.

I am not exactly being overloaded with bookings this year so I have no idea when my next set will be.  Most important to me right now is getting a new mix complete and uploaded, but if any promoters are reading then I am available.

Please do follow my page for my latest music discoveries and various other titbits.