long read ahead...

Heineken hosts a contest for DJs, for info about it, check out http://thirst.heinekenmusic.com/

the deal is, you send in a demo, 24 will be picked, the 24 winners will then be interviewed, and 12 eliminated, and then, those will compete in heats and so on...

today was my interview, and damn that was... odd. i wasn't nervous, i mean, ive had the luck to interview DJs myself, and after talking with guys like James Holden, Luke Fair, Satoshi Tomiie and whatnot, some dude from Heineken corp is not gonna make me nervous.

however, the setting did kind of weird me out. so i get called for 2:00PM. i arrive 10 minutes early, just in case. at the front desk, they ask to keep my ID in exchange for a visitor passcard. from there, i have to show it at this infrared sensor thingy to gain access to an elevator all covered in HT (Heineken Thirst) stickers. 5 floors up...

i'm greeted by 2 guys and 2 girls sitting in this loungey area, surrounded by screens displaying HT event videos, and 2 JBL monitors playing some house. i ask where to, they tell me to sit, that i will be called on. these are other DJs we start tlaking stuff, and i hear one of them has been sitting there since 10am, and hasnt even left to eat as he is form another city and came specifically for this, and is riding the bus.

i talk for a while, and finally, one of the guys who was being interviewed comes out and gives us some info on what goes down. i chill there for a while, and by 3:30, a bunch of DJs i knew were there and we were talkin shit and not really that bored. they interviewed us for a local music TV show, we were all a bit weird about going on live TV... made us do some promo for it.. "stay in tune with VideoConnected!!!"... we sounded like dorks....

by 3:45, i get called upon, and dragged all the way down a long room to an office.

long ass table. 4 people on each side, two at one end, and empty chair at the other, and a camera + a huge light staring you in the face. you then get a mic to hook on to your clothes, and they even made me spit out my gum. at this point, i was slightly tense.

looking to my right, i see a friendly face. Scoy, whom i believe is from canada, and now resides here as a DJ is a judge. he is a reaaally nice guy, ive been to his apartment and spun on his decks once, so at least i knew someone who was judging me knew what they were on about.

they asked me all sorts of things whilst listening to my demo, if any of the productions were mine, if i had any residencies, what are my musical influences, did i speak english... all logical stuff. and then, the weird things...

'what do you think of this country's youth?'

hrmm. not too bad. i blab off about the youth and the music they like and what not. then they specify, what do i think about today's youth, morally speaking?

fine, i blabbed off there.

'what do you associate the word 'heineken' with?'

was a bit weird, but i think i did ok.

'do you think the 24 contestants here are willing to give up everything to pursue music?'

how the hell would i know what they're willing to do. but i sort of tried to feel that out.

'how far do you plan to go with HT?'

err, of course, as far as i can. everyone wants to make it as far as they can...

they seemed to sort of dig the demo as they skipped through it. some bobbed their heads, Scoy did, so that's a good sign, IMO. i guess those odd questions were to try and trip me up, see how i'd react when put on the spot. they prolly want someone with a head on their shoulders since they are gonna be putting heavy promo on him.

so, nada, im done, step out, had some water, sat and chilled for a bit, and finally left. hopefully i made a decent enough impression to make the top 12.

wish me luck guys. if any of you are competing, make sure to post your stories here too.

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check out my guest mix for OndaSonora Podcast (aug.2009)

wow

You messaged me before leaving and I was thinking it wasn't a big deal thing. Like you hooked up with someone over there and they wanted to chat it up but no this actually looks like a big deal.

Hope it went well for you bro

I wish you luck.

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Hey good luck on this. It looks like they are not running it in every country, they had one here (Canada) last year but not this year. We had to submit mixes online by ftp first, and ordinary people plus judges voted on them. Then they had 2 or 3 playoff levels of competitions in some clubs to select a national winner.

There wasn't much paperwork or question-asking at all - looks like they are trying to get some marketing information from this event.

I got into the first round of competitions but as I use a laptop they wouldn't let me go further unless I switched to vinyl so I just stopped there. I was happy my mix got that far. Also the representative they sent over to my house in the beer van was super-nice

omg you were on tv!!!

i want inertia babies!!!!!1111111

give us an update whats going on?

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You deserve to win simply because of your avatar.

Failing that- sleep with a judge

^^^ there was one reaaaaallllllyyy hot chick asking questions, so that might have been a great route.

i'll sum things up as follows:

- i didn't make the cut.

- there was a real dodgy feeling of how things were judged. one of the judges, who is a local club owner, apparently gave excellent scoares to many of his DJ friends. he only judged in the morning, didn't stay for the afternoon round, so they had to get someone to fill in. out of all the judges at the interview (about 9, give or take) there was only 1 DJ, and he was the only one asking music related questions, which totalled about, 3.

- they intended to pick 12 DJs, and did, but after they were done, they had 3 quite shit DJs in the cut, and had left out a few that should have made it. there was some arbitrary decision made, and they just up and added 3 DJs to the cut, making it a top15. apparently, part of this was to compensate for the judge previously mentioned.

- you were supposed to be able to get informed on why or why not you were eliminated, and whenever i e-mail te person who is supposed to take care of this, she makes up an excuse and keeps trying to stall me. she already once said, and i can quote her on it, that the music, at the top24 level, was just a 50%, and personality the rest, since they had already evaluated our technical skill by our demos and selected the best of the lot, the interview would decide whether or not we'd make it. (which is shitty IMO, since music should be like 85% and the rest personality. they should just make sure you're not a bumbling idiot or a crackhead criminal, and you should be good to go.) of course, heineken international cannot have some crazy mofo being featured in their press stuff, but still.

so in other words, i apparently made a really shitty impression. i guess they just wanted me to smile and say everything was great rather than actually have an opinion about what i was being asked. ah well, the contest will be really boring, i can already predict who will be winning each heat. in each oen, there are, at best: 1 really good DJ, 1 average-to-good one, 3 shit ones.

sucks, this thing had potential. even though it seems like quite a farse, i'll just have to take care of becoming 'popular' this year, and then, smile like a retard next year during the interview. i don't really care about winning, but the prizes are too good not to give it a shot.

on the bright side, a mate of mine made the cut (and is pretty amazed i didn't, since we've been spinning together since day 1, and have a pretty similar taste in records) but whatever, i'm rooting for him. if he wins, i know i'll get to use some of the gear and enjoy some of the prize money with him. hehe.

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check out my guest mix for OndaSonora Podcast (aug.2009)

and it continues...

just got a call from one of the judges. it was about my elimination inquiry. he said he was not allowed to disclose everything but told me the following:

- the woman i had spoken to was wrong, in a way. yes, i had already been selected on behalf of my demo, as it was one of the best of the entire lot. but it would be compared again for a final decision.

- i did a completely solid interview. (well, it's not like he'd tell me i did bad, i guess. he did however say that it's not what got me out).

- he said my demo was very well programmed, and very well mixed, but... the music was not energetic enough for them to select. that if judging by that demo, i had good technical skill, but would need to kick the energy up a notch to go for the finals.

well. i can see where that comes from. i sort of thought that could happen, as my demo, for the first half is sort of deep, slightly chilled. if you're interested, this is the tracklist:

1. Polychord - Mai Thai Night
2. Jeff Samuel - Digital Self
3. Trentemoller - Beta Boy
4. Dominik Eulberg - Potzblitz & Donnerwetter
5. Geoff White - Etsche
6. Dexter - Acid Lullaby
7. Kevin Mark Trail - Perspective (Cass & Tom Vox Mix)

the last 3 tracks are very danceable, and so is BetaBoy, but i guess the first bit had set a pace for the entire mix. i'm normally a german electro whore, but i tried not to go crazy for the mix and scare anyone with glitchy bleepiness, rather do something anyone could like, while still fitting my tastes. i guess i should have just banged it out for 30 minutes.

ah well. serves me right for toning it down then. i'll keep you guys posted anyways on the competition process with my friend who made it.

___________________
check out my guest mix for OndaSonora Podcast (aug.2009)

thanks for the update man sorry to hear that you didn't get into it hopefully your friend wins

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you can dance to deep stuff....

oh well best of luck to your m8... i guess they just want stupid people in music????
who knows...

buck it man, there will be other times where you will get to shine

Definitly wishin' luck bro, keep us posted man

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