Mini play by play about how it's been for me to get into Montreal's dance music scene

*->June
As many of you know I really haven't been in the scene here in Montreal very long and I've pretty much had to climb the ladder since I moved here last September. Sure, I had some experience Djing prior to coming here, but no contacts over here or anything to make getting gigs easier.

When I first got here I realized how inexperience I was with both big city club DJs and the promotion business. I started promoting just a couple of months after I moved here but it wasn't my style of scene really so I left that company and just went out a bit and met a lot of new friends. I wasn't really promoting myself as a DJ at this point, more just getting to know the real dance music scene in Montreal and practicing a lot with my neighbor who turned out to be a really good DJ as well. I wanted to see what I really liked about this city's club/edm scene before getting too deep into anything. You can also get to know people a lot differently if you aren't just going on about how you're a DJ from the beginning of the conversation

Then the hype started. One of the local Afterhours clubs (big late night, no booze club), Circus, started a DJ contest. Naturally my neighbor and I entered mixes both together and separately (By this point we'd decided to work on a back to back project). Mine was chosen to advance to the qualifications. They were held on a Saturday afternoon some time in February. I showed up with a bunch of my friends (old ones, new ones, ones that hadnt slept from the night before still partying). Got on to spin my half hour and had a really good time. I played some suprising unreleased remixes and some subtle bombs and managed to get a lot of the people who showed up to dance in the middle of this afterhours club in the middle of the afternoon with the lights on. That half hour was enough to make one of my friends organize a party at his loft that night, headlined by none other than me and my neighbor. Right after I finished my set, one of the residents of the club told me they'd be seeing me again for sure.

Loft party went well, got a lot of good feedback even though we were on a very ghetto setup that we lugged over and setup minutes before we got on. More and more people got to know me as a DJ and we got more people dancing I went back to Circus for the Quarter Finals, had a great time with my friends, played a fun set but unfortunately didn't get into the semi finals. It was however a great opportunity to play on a big big sound system again, this time on a thursday night with people in the club.

Then in early March Montreal got lucky... James Holden and DJ Koze came to play at a big concert hall here and we recieved an amazing party and a huge gathering of friends. As the night was ending at about 7 AM, my friend invited me to come spin at his afterparty. I just right then and there and went home to get my tunes. When I got there the DJ who played after James Holden, "Bender" from Mtl, was on the decks. we both ended up spinning all morning/afternoon with some other friends and DJs hopping on as well. It was a legendary afterparty and when I left at 5:30 PM, the party was still raging on.

March proved to be a pretty crazy month with events dragging me to the club(s) at least once or twice a weekend. I was promoting for a company run by a friend of mine who'd booked Booka Shade, and organizing an event of my own with some friends of mine at the end of the month. My friend sorted us out with this small club down in the Old Part of town to put on a friday night party with myself and my neighbor headlining. We had a great crowd come out and got about 80 people through the door. We then had a sick afterparty where the four of us who'd spun at the club that night raged on. It's the raging that really got me breaks in this city and all the free afterparties where I could just play whatever I want to make people rock out have been where I've really gotten people to hear the music. Sure, the demo's have been useful as well, a good way to back it all up. Overall though, been the live exposure that's been most useful, not the web promotion or online demos, but the word of mouth and the dance parties.

We had a couple more gigs may and June together as the same team, but really what we found was the venue we'd chosen wasn't really prime for any kind of succesful monthly. It's a bit isolated in the old part of town, nice area but touristy and far. We still got a decent turn out both nights but I could feel it wasn't going anywhere. The last gig I did in June with my friend Jeff Grosse from Boston was a huuge failure and we had barely 5 people show up. It was a big deal and I ended up losing some money on flyers and a bottle we bought for my friend, his birthday. It was lucky we didn't have to pay him any fee because I promote for his company. I decided that night not to plan any more nights at this club and vowed to keep working harder. It wasn't a huge test, but it was definetely an unfortunate speedbump.

ALl the going out and promotion did do a lot of good though and definitely got more people down with the sound and finding the demos. During these months I was also out and abut quite a lot supporting my friends nights and making new friends. We had saome really good times, which is what my introduction to Montreal's edm scene has really revolved around.

Gonna continue this later on as im off, but July and August are shaping up to be quite the adventures as well!

july->*

So after a really crappy crappy party, I had to keep my head up. Luckily I had a gig the next Friday so I was able to focus on that. I only had the full details of the gig 3 days prior so it was hard to promote it, especially since it was a terrace party that stretched from 6pm - 3am... We did manage to get some good friends who hadn't heard me spin yet. I played from 6-11 pm and played a very.. interesting set. When I started it was mainly older "folks" on the terrace and a different mood.. i had to adjust what i wa splaying, what volume and speed quite a bit to find a nice medium that worked for this particular venue.

Just as I had built my outdoor terrace sounds with no real dancefloor, it starts pouring rain and everyone comes inside! I was playing a great deep house track but it was apparent I'd have to kick it up a notch! Finished the gig, had a great weekend that was that!

Tomorrow I'm gonna be back spinning at Circus again this time just closing, from 6-10 am...

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Fortuna Favet Fortibus.

Last edited by Allied Nations on Jul-05-2007 at 19:28