On Djing...

what a sweet thing for a stranger to say! good stuff map

that is a wonderful thing to hear from someone on the dance floor! i’d be beaming. i watched one of your set videos on your IG and SLC’s got some real cuties imho!

nobody really came to the record store thing except a couple ppl i told about it but i still had fun. i really like the tactile experience of playing records even tho they’re a pain to schlep around.

i went to a fun italo disco night here recently and msg’ed one of the DJs afterward to tell her i liked her set, she wrote me a kind message back. feel like i need to be reaching out more to DJs, just to at least say hi and say that i dig what they’re doing.

also it’s high time i recorded another mix, it’s been a while.

I've started being a lot more vocal to DJs I like in recent years, no one ever really supported/backed me or ever told me they liked my stuff (but years later I've heard oh your sets at x or y were legendary) and I want to kind of be the kind voice that ppl aren't hearing. I want ppl to know I'm listening to their mixes and what I liked about them, the bits of their sets that stuck out to me and made me put my hands up.

That's a great approach, constructive feedback can be really hard to come by.

Sometimes a mediocre night can be salvaged from one bright eyed and friendly person coming up to me and saying how much they love the music.

Made my debut appearance on Resonance FM this week, slightly unfortunately it was a bit of a last minute request so I didn‘t have time to record a selection of tracks tailored to the station, but still it was something I didn’t expect to happen.

https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/devils-dancers-11-july-2022/

nice!

Picture is of the show’s regular host by the way, I don’t look that fabulous!

nice! i didn't realise you were you. :)

:)

or i did and then forgot? v. poor memory!

Banging mix matthew!

Oof, tortured journey!

I'm playing at a festival on Sunday!!

Keith, I'm not sure you would have known unless you'd cross referenced other posts elsewhere on ILX.

Nick, alas not the record, but finally getting a USB deck has unlocked being able to play a few killer tracks I'd never be able to afford.

Charlie, awesome, have fun

Yeah, that ones like £400 or something iirc!

What festival are you doing dog latin?

Yeah, the USB deck cost about the same price as that!

gah so many random requests last night. i played the bad bunny song which has like a minute and a half of beatless zombie trap drift in it, and you all just like swayed there because it's your jam lol. someone asked for deadmau5. sorry dude i don't have any. i got a goth girl asking me to play ebm. i've been waiting for a reason to play cardopusher at the gay club, thanks goth girl! she even asked who the artist was.

my dj weakness is that i'm often in the mood to play songs that are kind of sad or just emotional and introspective, and i have a million of them. sometimes it's hard for me to feel the full-on party stuff.

also, i will always oblige the latina who requests dua lipa. last night she handed me a five dollar bill afterwards. classy!

hi folks! i'm temporarily de-lurking to respond to

my dj weakness is that i'm often in the mood to play songs that are kind of sad or just emotional and introspective

i'm the same way! i'm always looking for a way to force my mopey dance trax on a crowd.

i recently read a great blog post by dj joe delon on this topic and thought i'd share it here.
https://joedelon.substack.com/p/sad-bangers-live-renate-170622?utm_source=%2Fprofile%2F16571860-joe-delon&utm_medium=reader2

i have a dj gig of my own next week but will be focusing on %99 classic 90s house stuff and leaving my sad bangers at home!

oh wow thanks for sharing that post and blog.

so sunday was kind of intense but good. the weekend before a microburst ripped the tarp off the roof that was giving us shade, had to move indoors for the last hour. so i get to the gig on sunday and the tarp is still off, the owner promises to put it back on, i help him and a couple other guys pull it over the metal frame and tie it down in direct sun 100 degree heat, meanwhile they're joking about me looking like a nazi and the edibles i took before the gig are hitting harder than usual 😵.

what ended up happening was that about 10-15 of my regular crew all came, and i really worked on chatting with everyone and being friendly. an old friend dropped by and gave me a box of cds. it was all really positive and fun, i worked hard at it and was exhausted afterwards.

definitely struggling a bit with a thursday night gig til 2 and then up by 9:30, at least i wfh on friday and can fudge it a bit. i'm hoping to get another in-office job soon though and that's going to be even rougher, not sure how i'll swing it.

i love regular sleep, beginning when night begins and ending when morning begins, so so much

don't know what that's like

lol last night i had an extremely polite request for "treat me like a slut" by kim petras (i played it). two very entitled sorority girl types wanted to hear fergie or "something like that." i don't have any, also i'm not your human jukebox so no ("gotta jump back into the mix, sorry!")

another thursday night down. playing at this gay bar is kinda tough for a number of reasons. not very many people come on thursday nights and the people who do are really random. so i'm all over the place trying to throw out hooks and whiffing it. still feel pretty stretched by requests. i guess it's just adding one song at a time right? on the list for next week: more bad bunny songs and "bartender" by t-pain lol.

I double decked last night with my friend who actually makes a living from this sort of thing, does festivals, gets played on the radio, etc. So, no pressure then. It went so, so well. No fuckups and plenty of dancing. I synced almost the whole of Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” acapella over a remix of “Praise You” that has a long instrumental midsection, so that was peak moment.

recent victories at my restaurant/bar gig:

1. playing Artie Shaw's "Indian Love Call" (1938), old lady maybe in her 80's walks slowly by my station with a cane, stops and says "good song" then keeps on going.

2. last night there was a party of 5, one of whom was an adorable girl around 3 years old. she was ROCKIN OUT to Rickie Lee Jones' "Woody And Dutch On The Slow Train To Peking", it was great.

3. the new bartender is a SHARP who loves Bonnie Raitt and The Skatelites, among other fine acts

lovely stories sleeve, this kind of thing feeds my soul.

last night: a gaggle of young ones screaming along to rihanna/calvin harris and britney. less soul feeding tbh but i have to admit those songs sound amazing played ridiculously loud.

oh mike, that break my soul / praise you mashup sounds like a lot of fun

i put an end date on my sunday tea dance for the last sunday in august. getting burned out with 2 weekly gigs and my day job. the sunday one had to go - less pay, more work, difficult management.

way to self-care, I approve

map, "Break My Soul" was mashed up with the Purple Disco Machine remix of "Praise You". I've also mashed it up with "Vogue", as the Queens Remix of BMS is a bit too abstract for my crowd, and it goes just as great over the Deep Dish extended mix of Sandy B "Make The World Go Round". The Praise You and Vogue mashups can be found on my recording of last week's set: https://www.mixcloud.com/miketd/strut-ya-stuff-live-recording-friday-12th-august-2022/

US DJs: has LF System "Afraid To Feel" landed over there yet? It's been #1 on the UK pop chart for the past few weeks, and it's been my biggest current floor-filler for the past couple of months. Reworking an obscure 1979 Philadelphia International cut by Silk called "I Can't Stop (Turning You On)", it skillfully oscillates between mid-paced and fast tempos, to powerful effect.

My other big one is Piero Pirupa's "We Don't Need" (big in Germany), which remixes "Another Brick In The Wall" at 125bpm. Last week, as the oonst-oonst-oonst bit kicked in, the whole dancefloor cheered.

not heard either of those but i’m not a great barometer for what’s popular here lol

map, good lookin out for yourself

pleased with my happy hour set from last night, had a good-sized crowd turn out for it. veered from disco to italo to house, all my usual business, ended my set with “goodbye horses” obv. speaking of purple disco machine, played their mix of kylie’s “magic” which sounds fab on good speakers. feel like i’m getting more confident with the CDJs. really gotta book myself some other gigs tho, this party’s fun but i’d like to play more than one set a month.

mike t-diva, listening to your mix now. Transition from "Miss You" to "I Can't Go For That" was ace, but there's many good ones in here.

oh i didn't realize pdm did a remix of "magic," i'll have to get that. he's reliably good imo.

what is big at my club? the new beyonce (got a request for "thique" last night), "about damn time" by lizzo (there's a good pdm remix of this i always play). bad bunny. dua lipa. ratchet-y cunty hip hop is usually a hit, megan thee stallion, doja cat, cardi b. i love "bodak yellow" because it's half of 125 bpm so you can mix it easily with tech-y house at that tempo. it's in its "played out" stage at this point though.

Yeah, the PDM remix of "About Damn Time" is fab, up there (if not better) with their remix of Dua Lipa "Don't Start Now". It may not be high art, but DAMN it's effective.

My other big one is Piero Pirupa's "We Don't Need" (big in Germany), which remixes "Another Brick In The Wall"

i'm amazed they got permission to release it.

I know, right? There’s even an Oliver Heldens remix.

Turns out it took him three years to clear the sample.

Prydz cleared that song too for “Proper Education” a while ago, it seems PF aren’t crazy difficult with that.

just some more fun stories i guess...

i was sort of worried because last week i was finally not having it with a woman who has been annoying with me about requests in the past. first she came up and did her weird control stare at me - i said 'HI SO GREAT TO SEE YOU!!!" obviously very sarcastically, and she said "oh, sarcasm, ok." a few songs later she came back to the booth and asked me "are you having fun???" and i replied "not while you're in here!" she humphed off. i was worried she was going to tell the manager and before my gig last night i thought i might not be asked to come back.

not so!

to begin things last night, after some people made requests and i played them and then they left the floor, the manager came up to the booth, put a $5 bill in the tip jar and said "play whatever you want! just keep doing that! it's awesome!" i was not comprehending him for a minute, thinking he might be playing with me, until i finally said "OK, that's what i'm doing, thank you!" i continued to play what i wanted for the night and people responded well, i had a group going off to 'the rumble' by roisin murphy at the end which was gratifying.

he came back up to me later to chat, was very complimentary in many ways, told me i was their best dj, that i 'carried' myself 'well' and more. he told me that the woman from last week DID complain to him, that she had actually gone IN THE BOOTH in front of my controller at one point when i was using the bathroom and he had to chase her out. he said 'if any of these drunk white girls make requests you can tell them to FUCK OFF" lol. he also told me that the bar has been sold for more condos quelle surprise and won't be around longer than a year.

i hadn't been putting the tip jar out because idk it felt like i was inviting something i don't really love (playing requests), but i had two other people throw me $1 just because they liked me last night, so i will keep putting it out.

i said 'HI SO GREAT TO SEE YOU!!!" obviously very sarcastically,

omg legend

i don't often get requests when I DJ, for whatever reason (probably because there's usually never any dancing at my happy hour, or maybe i just give off a "don't bother me" vibe behind the booth or something lol). the most memorable one for me was at my old gig before the pandemic, this twink came up to my booth *repeatedly* during the evening to tell me that he was an up-and-coming musician, and he begged me to play one of *his* songs. i could kind of tell off the bat that he was gonna be a thorn in my side but i held my ground and politely, smilingly, refused his request. 

a little while later the bartender comes over to me and hands me a drink, saying "those two bought it for you" - he points to the bar and i see the guy sitting there with his hag-slash-manager. i walk over there to thank them for the drink, and she continues the assault:

her: "could you please one of x's songs? it'd fit in really well with what you're playing, i promise!"
me: "well, i kinda have my own thing going here, besides, because of my setup i don't really have a way to play it anyway..."
her: "he's on soundcloud and spotify!"
me (lying): "oh, i'm not able to connect to wi-fi in here"
her: "i also have it on CD!" *pulls out CD*
me (telling the truth): "i don't have a CD player on my laptop, sorry!
"her: "well, could you--"
me (lying again): "oh, sorry, gotta change the song, brb!"

then i just retreated back to the booth. a little while later the bartender comes up to me again telling me that "someone" requested that i play a specific song by x. at that point i'd had it and was just like "man, they've been bugging me all night, tell them it's not happening." didn't hear from them again all night.

after my gig i listened to one of his songs on SC (he gave me his card lol) and it was, as i predicted, not something i would've voluntarily played anyway. hope he found a bigger-name DJ than me to give him his big break.

what an awful person. it sounds like you were unfailingly polite and professional about it.

haha I actually can't connect to wifi at the bar I play in, thankful for that although I have never endured such an onslaught of hustle

and yeah, well played