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Spot on JOOF!
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
I’m a DJ first.....
The subjects of my blogs get dictated by what’s on my mind, or gets trigged by something I’ve read or been asked in a club or interview. A regular question I get asked, is why I don’t play some of my productions in my DJ sets when I play out? I’m from the original breed of DJ’s, the days when DJ’s were DJ’s. With any job, the best way to learn your skill is to work from the bottom up, this way you get a true understanding of what’s involved with the job. ‘Back in the day’ I used to play the whole night at a club, starting from when the doors opened until the end. Playing this way gave me a true understanding of how an evening works. It’s a skill in itself transforming an empty dance floor into a full one. You have to open the room correctly, keep the volume lower and play the right music until you get that magic feeling when to get the people on to the dance floor, this is by far one of the most skilful things a DJ needs to learn. This is only the start of it, you need to keep those people on the dance floor and keep them interested throughout the evening. Often this involves going through a whole range of music to try and create a musical story. Take them deep, and then suddenly take an euphoric moment that will blow the crowd away. We often have a fun moment, by playing a few oldies that everyone will reminisce too. But like anything, give them too much of something for a sustained period and they will soon tire of it, the initial impact has worn off.
So this takes me back to the original question, why don’t I play my own music? As I’ve now explained, I’m a DJ first and my DJ head gets into work mode when I arrive at a gig. In today’s ‘DJ’ world all DJ’s pretty much bang things out for 2-hours at the same level of intensity, because most of them aren’t true DJ’s, they have created a fan base due to productions and been thrown into the DJ circuit. So instead of me banging it out for another 2-hours and losing the crowds interest, I get a feel of the dance floor by watching the crowd, my DJ instincts tell me exactly where to go musically. This is when I see my CD wallet as tools to create the correct vibe on the dancefloor, maybe to calm things down, before I start to create my journey (This is most cases!). Unfortunately a 90 min set often doesn’t give me enough time to allow me to get to a place in my set to play my own stuff, as the first 30 mins is taken up taking control of the dance floor again. I know exactly where to place my own productions but often don’t get time to reach there. It’s not that I don’t ever play my own tracks, most of you know I often play the odd one, or road test new ones. I also don’t want to blatantly self promote myself at clubs or on my radio show. I want to express myself musically and show my skill as a DJ using my music as tools thus creating a magical experience on the dance floor.
Being honest I haven’t 100% played what I truly wanted the past few years. Changing times of the scene heading more commercial have made it difficult for me to do my job properly. I LOVE starting my sets with deep and dark twisted progressive music, this is where my heart is really at. But if I did that at most of the gigs I play, especially playing after some Euro Trance DJ’s I’d end up clearing the dance floor. So I go back into DJ mode and use the correct tools to keep the dance floor busy. I’m starting to prefer playing at clubs, especially when I can play longer sets such as my recent visit to 1015 in San Francisco. I had a pro DJ open up for me and then played for 4 hours…you have no idea how great it feels digging deep in to those tracks I really love. I’d much rather have heads down on a dance floor than hands in the air, too me this is a better vibe and more rewarding to me as a DJ as I know my passion is shared. This is part of the reason why I’m starting my own JOOF nights (next year) and agreed to take on a residency, this enables me to do the job in hand and also bring new talent along with me. Exciting times ahead J
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Last word:
Loads of people know my views on the DJ mag poll, especially after my rants of the past few years, so you are asking my view on it this year. Well go back and read my original blogs from 4 years ago and I pretty much predicted what would happen. It’s now become a great filter system slowly squeezing out the serious specialist DJ’s, so it’s a chart of the commercial marketed DJ’s. If you want some commercial music, then go and see one of the guys in the chart and have some fun. If you want some more serious stuff, then go hunting and find the specialist guys. No one is better, it’s your call what music you like, things got easier because you have a chart to find the most popular on.
What gets on my goat is that I KNOW what goes on in this industry, after all I know how it works after being in it 25 years. I hate trophy holders blasting thanks emails saying ‘thanks for all who voted for me this year’, when in fact they (and marketing guys) voted for themselves??! Unless you’re one of the big guns, the only way to get in that chart is to fix it for yourself. Harsh words I know, but it’s the truth. If anyone wants to confront me with this then lets set up a lie detector test before we start. There’s a predictable pattern of DJ agencies and their DJ roster in regular placing each year, doesn’t take much to work out how this happens.
I promised no more rants, so I stop there. No it’s not sour grapes before I get attacked by forum bashers. I don’t want commercial gigs, I don’t want to be a super star DJ, so the chart has no purpose for me.
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That’s it for me this month, keep an eye open for my new: compilation for Iboga, new single ‘JAWA’ (parts 1 & 2) and also new John 00 Fleming & The Digital Blonde EP ‘Sunburn’.
See you again soon!
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^ JOOF explains it very well in this blog. I have much respect for truly passionate dj's like him. What are some of your guy's thoughts?
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