On Djing...

yay! glad you're building up a crowd

had what might be my last gig of the year at my usual place the other week. the rugby boys were back again, they're a fun crowd and i got a few nice compliments after my set. my "big dick" track was medicine8's "big dick in the room" lol. last 45 minutes or so was just wall-to-wall classic hi-NRG, lime, tapps, etc., it's so much fun to play that stuff out

nice map

i had no idea re junkie xl vs solomon burke and i have had the 2cd buried deep for years.
gotta love well connected producer albums.

thanks jordan :). ahh donna i knew your gig was coming up soon! fun to think we were playing around the same time. your hi-nrg stretch sounds like a blast.

because this thread has more chatter re: djing, here's the live recording from the coney island bumper cars. I'm the first 35 minutes. The mic was just placed on the booth so you can hear the crowd and the ride operator making siren noises and telling people to not bring drinks on and some funny chatter ad the very end.

https://soundcloud.com/newyorkendless/bumped-my-ass-off-at-james-bday?fbclid=IwAR2WxrSRy5qCzhTflSI1hFdCaJVTy0s9tc6SQxImw0AOoRXHpQu70iEVZUw

"zorro"! hell yeah. pretty rad you got to play at coney island!

i recorded my entire set from last week but it's interrupted throughout by the host making announcements, gonna maybe excerpt it and throw it up on my mixcloud at some point

Zorro is so underrated...don't know how I didn't know that one till a few months ago. Considering how huge Hypnotic Tango is you'd think people would know more of their stuff.

Friend who I’ve worked with in the past opened a rooftop/club this Saturday and I just visited by myself to drink a couple of whiskeys and wish her the best. She was very stressed and told me that the light jockey didn’t show up - knowing that I know how to program and use that sunlite controller she begged me to stay and was happy to help. Place was full and it fits around 500 people and doing lights is honestly very stress free.

At some point the dj asked me to cover for him for a half hour… problem is it wasn’t my computer and had no idea how to interpret the unlabeled file names. Ended up having to play from a 2,000 folder filled with top 40 hits which isn’t ideal but it actually worked out great. Crowd was 30-ish and halfway drunk at that point so I guess I could have played mostly anything and gotten away with it.

Anyways went with 00s pop party music, last track the dj left was a house track so mixed “Calabria 2007” into “It Just Wont Do” both selections I was afraid to play because they’d instantly reveal if the people would vibe for a detour into this sort of thing or I’d need to improvise and change course - which would have been a trainwreck because again I wasn’t familiar with the filing system of this dj and had no time to explore.

Fortunately it went down great. Iirc Nina Sky “move ya body” next. Sean Paul “we be burnin”, Ying Yang Twins “Shake”, Eminem + nate dogg “shake that” and Mr Cheeks - “lights, camera, action”… there’s a couple of tracks I played in between that I can’t remember. Dj came back and seemed happy I didn’t make everyone go home.

I hate when I have to dj without my own files, it’s very stressful not knowing and having proper folders of where to look for.

I mean I don’t dj as a main gig, I was rather thrown into learning how to do it for emergency purposes, so this scenario happens more often than not.

I did fail terribly one night at a rock bar, thought the crowd would be into post punk and goth but apparently it was more of a jock rock vibe. Made some clients go and felt really bad about it.

"Calabria 2007" into "It Just Won't Do" would have had me as putty in your hands to be honest.

Glad to hear things are going well for you both map and donna rouge!

Tomorrow I am DJing at a charity event. It's the afternoon - 1pm-5pm - and there is another guy playing from 5pm til close. I'm not expecting my usual crowd of "post-work drinks" and my 20-40 yr old pals, and so I'm not going to be able to rely on the 00s r&b and 90s crossover dance hits that usually work for me. I've had barely any time to prepare, as I've been busy with work and then this week I've taken a chill that's led to me phoning in sick for work most of the week. I'm pretty nervous as I think it's going to be a bit out my comfort zone, but I was volunteered for it and it's always nice to do something for a charity cause.

I did an "all requests special" last night, which was a) easy, b) interesting, c) odd, but d) well received. I did start adding some of my own choices in towards the end, though, for the sake of dancefloor fluidity. https://serato.com/playlists/Mike_Atkinson/strut-ya-stuff-request-special-20-10-202

"Calabria 2007" into "It Just Won't Do" would have had me as putty in your hands to be honest.

― boxedjoy

It helped that people were already in party mode and the place was full, but yeah it turned out to be a great starting one two punch. Didn’t really know what to follow it up with lol… should have kept that vibe going for longer…

"Destination Calabria" is one of my can't-go-wrong-with-this tunes. It never fails. Not heard the Enur 2007 version before; looks like it didn't cross over to us in the UK. Like it!

The Enur version was very popular in latinamerican countries when it came out. I like the original too but the Enur version has a more modern oomph that paired better.

Destination Unknown was also popular but I think that was mostly for the music video lol

They’re kind of the same song but the Enur version always sounded more fun to me.

IIRC there were two UK pop/dance tunes that sampled it last year, which were both in the UK singles chart at the same time.

Like “infinity” which has been remixed/sampled/revived every 8 years or so since 1989.

I was wondering if it has been revived recently and yeah it seems Willy William did a 2022 song with it that has like 100m streams on spotify.

Going to a rabbit hole to see what happened to Natasja I just found out she died in a car crash in Jamaica on June 2007 just around the same time as Calabria was starting to become a big summer hit. :(

Just checked: the 2022 UK hits were Nathan Dawe/Ella Henderson “21 Reasons” and Benzz “Je m’appelle”.

Yesterday was tough. I got to the bar which is never usually more than 100 people and it was RAMMED. Easily 200+ people there. And outside of my three pals who came to support me, just about everyone was in their 50s and older. Which is fine but it's a very different crowd. I had thought there would be a bit more variety in terms of the audience so I could still play some of the usual 90s/00s stuff I rely on but I very quickly realised that this wouldn't work at all. So I went Britpop, Motown and fake Motown for the first hour, then tried to keep it very wedding disco and relatively safe. Nobody was dancing because there was no room to dance, but I could see people singing along, shoulder-shuffling in their seats and giving me smiles. Which was really nice.

EXCEPT. This group of older men positioned themselves right beside me and pulled faces all afternoon. They were the types who were never going to dance or enjoy what I do anyway. Fred Perry shirts, tan leather shoes, serious gold jewelery. So my logic was: why should I try to win them over, and risk losing the rest of the room, when they're never going to be happy with what I'm doing anyway? One of them came over and told me - he didn't ask, he told me - that I had no clue what I was doing and should be playing Beatles and Rolling Stones. But by this point we had folk singing along to "It's Raining Men" and "Jump (For My Love)" so it was quite clear where the party was going. And in all honesty, I don't like 60s rock enough that I would ever want to hear it myself, so I don't have it on my USBs. He told me he was 77 and had had an aneurysm and wasn't happy with this "headbanging music." This was during Ride On Time. I just smiled and laughed, because what else do you say to someone who feels so entitled to their regular spot in the pub that they would prioritise their own taste over stuff that was otherwise working for the rest of the room?

He was relentless. A real moodhoover drain on my energy. Luckily the couple who were beside me cottoned on and made a joke that I should just turn my set-up to face the other way and actively ignore him. They were asking for Calvin Harris and Kylie as well which helped my mindset a lot. He then tried to argue with me by pointing to an older guy sat beside the speaker and saying it wasn't fair to "subject" him to that. Again I just smiled and nodded because the older guy was also smiling and dancing in his chair, and he was more than capable of moving away if it was too much for him.

As we were finishing up the charity afternoon he started moaning to one of the bar staff and saying how I was being disrespectful. She laughed and pointed out I had been playing all sorts of stuff all day and everyone else was having fun. Then - and I love her for doing this - she got up on a table and did a big thanks to everyone who donated money and prizes and then to me for giving up my afternoon and playing all day. I got a massive cheer for that! So: Old Aneurysm Nusiance, sorry but you're not the main character at this event. Nor am I of course, my role is just to keep the energy going as people get drunk and want to sing along to uptempo hits.

I was told the event was 1pm-5pm so I planned accordingly. Except, the Sunday night DJ who is there every week had actually said he wouldn't be in until 8pm. And of course not everyone left at 5pm. So I suddenly had three hours to fill. I was really winging it. I still didn't feel my usual fallbacks were right for the room or the crowd so I had to very rapidly figure out what I was doing. It was tough and challenging but I think I did well. The staff all came up for a dance to Smalltown Boy and You Spin Me Round while Old Aneurysm Nuisance sat scowling at them loving more "headbanging music." I'm really happy with how it went considering how far it stretched me from what I would consider my comfort zone.

I had a few drinks afterwards when the 8pm guy turned up. Another guy came up to me and said he remembered the night I first played there a few months ago. He was asking how long I did it and where else I do it, and he seemed sincere in his surprise that I don't play elsewhere and I've only been doing it in public since summer. It was exactly what I needed to hear after feeling like I spent a day battling complaints, even if it was only a handful of difficult punters whose opinions I don't put much value into. The two women working at the bar also came up to me afterwards and we were having a gossip about the day went and one of them said a lovely thing to me. She said that she likes when I'm in because I don't play to a crowd but I play for a crowd.

Tl;dr - you can't please everyone and I find it hard not to, but I'm learning to not care and other people are really enjoying what I do so I'm happy as it stands.

Oh and I forgot - I did end up playing The Beatles. But in a way that I knew would wind up the cohort:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtjoZxXA9Iw

(do not ask why I had this on my USBs)

Not tl;dr at all, I love reading dj tales like this. And although I lolled at the terms ‘moodhoover’ and ‘Old Aneurysm Nuisance’ we’ve all been through similar cantankerous bullshit. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah this is great bj. Would read your compiled dj diaries!

Just popping in to say that this is easily my fave olxor thread atm, thanks to all the frank, detailed discussion. So no tl;dr

Playing a 7 hour set sounds like a nightmare! There’s no way I’d be a able to make it without drinking.

Great story! I’ve been on the other end: hiring djs that play frequently at my bars/clubs and there’s more often complaints than compliments thrown the djs way, which I ignore 99.9% of the time. the occasional angry clients are more vocal, the happy people are dancing and having a good time.

The thing that happens every now and then are clients that offer money (100,200 dollars) to request a song which is usually denied because it doesn’t fit at all with the vibe. If it fits and the dj agrees I’ll give the money to the dj.

I might be very lenient as a boss and I have no problem with giving our djs drinks as long as their responsible with it and I have two djs playing. A couple of times I’ve been in the position to send djs home when they are clearly too drunk and making mistakes and paying the other dj to cover the rest of the night.

A couple of years back we always had open bar for the djs but nowadays the manager limits it to 4/5 drinks per night because the djs would drink a full bottle of tequila thru the night and it was… problematic.

dying at "headbanging music"

I will usually have a couple of drinks but in all honesty I don't really have time to be doing much else. Even though I'm using Rekordbox and a DDJ-400 controller I feel like I'm busy enough with cueing up what's next and chatting to people. I do find it helps steady my nerves, and a drink loosens me up enough that I can dance and relax myself, but I wouldn't want to make a mess of things and embarass myself.

A friend of my brother's has been DJing for a few years and notoriously ruined his first night playing at a well-regarded club in Glasgow by getting really drunk before it. I don't believe a good DJ has to be able to beatmatch etc and it's better to just soft blend than have the "galloping horses" effect of two tracks playing simultaneously at wildly mismatched tempos, which is what this lad was doing when he wasn't accidentally sliding the volume and crossovers about. I don't think he's ever really got the momentum back since it happened.

In my day job I'm still very much a people-pleaser but I don't find complaints bother me much. I'm always following a procedure/policy/rules so it's never truly a decision I've made. I might be interpreting it strictly or leniently depending who I'm dealing with but generally speaking a complaint from a customer or a client isn't something I'm going to feel bad about because I know I've done all I'm able and willing to do. Whereas I think what I find hard about the requests and the moodhoovers with this, is that when they react with disdain and uninterested to what I'm playing it feels very personal, like they're telling me my tastes and perceptions are worthless. I mean, I absolutely do not want to have the same taste as a 77 year old man who grunts his way through anything faster than 110bpm, but I don't like the idea that I'm making someone feel unwelcome and uncomfortable. But I cannot please everyone, I'll drive yourself crazy trying to, and there's no point in doing it anyway because it wouldn't be fun or worthwhile.

It's borderline psychotic than anyone could think that they should actually get to tell you what music you should play. It's like if you turned up at a baseball game and fuckin moaned at the coach to let you play. Just fuck off, you're not a baseball player and you're not in this game!

I get free drinks on Fridays, when I’m playing 2 to 2.5 hours. It’s always 2.5 pints while I’m playing, then I’ll finish the other half while I’m packing up. My rule is never to exceed 3 pints while playing, no matter how long the set is. That seems to work. (Also, any track longer than 3 minutes gives me enough time for a piss.)

xp to boxedjoy, I subscribe to the “pleasing all of the people some of the time model”, so I’ll never stick with a genre longer than 20 mins. Cross-genre transitions are fun! (NB I love immersive hypnotic sets too, but I’m playing a bar.)

same. I'm not trying to keep people on a dancefloor, I'm trying to complement their food & drink experience. different vibes!

love yr story there boxedjoy and I would have been bobbing in my chair if I had been there

finally getting back into the groove tomorrow after a 3-month break. first I took a month off for my birthday, then I threw my back out right before the October gig and canceled. so it's been since early August. it's probably gonna be pouring rain, this is why the Chet Baker and Julie London records stay in my rotation crates.

time to mask back up with the N95s as well, I just got over COVID and have no intention of getting it right away again (which has happened to numerous people I know)

sorry for spam, but here's a video i took that i like. i think boxedjoy turned me on to this one. thanks boxedjoy.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Czw6LPriahw/

In all my time as a DJ I haven't found a way to turn down idiot requests without coming off as a grumpy asshole.

My friend and I had a room full of people bopping around to Amapiano and Afrobeats slammers on Saturday, and these same couple of people kept coming up asking for Taylor Swift because "It's our friend's birthday".

By the third time, I was ready to tell them where to go, but I just kept saying "Sorry, we're not going to play that". They weren't getting the hint, just kept going "Pleeeeeease". It was ridiculous

Vinyl-only helps with that.

I was liked Stirmonster’s suggestion (in this thread?) to say, “I’m sorry, I’ve never heard of them”, not matter how well known the request.

lol I gotta try that sometime

i don't mind coming off as a grumpy asshole but i wouldn't exactly recommend it.

for people who keep pestering me when the answer is clearly 'no,' i tell them that if they have a problem with the music they need to talk to the bar staff, who thankfully back me up. i've had to say 'this conversation is over' a few times and just get into an ignoring contest. it's kind of amazing to me how much this gets on this type of person's nerves - they're clearly used to their relentless bullying tactics working.

You can say “if you really cared about your friend you could have done the homework to find a place that will play Taylor Swift”. Then follow up with my quote I think I already mentioned which is to say you know where you can hear Taylor Swift? Any where else in the world.

oo i like that, ice cold

when i DJed nearly every house and apartment party in college, one classmate of mine would come up to me, without fail, and ask me to play some hip-hop. she would always do this when the room was packed with people dancing and having a great time.

once, she said to me, “no one is having fun” and i looked at the room, motioned to 40 people dancing vigorously, and said, “maybe you need to adjust your idea of what fun is.” she never said anything to me about my deejaying ever again.

(this was in an apartment that perhaps dan selzer can recall, above the old video store)

tbh I don't even remember an old video store!

My Oberlin DJ career can be summed up as...music director of WOBC, so plenty of that. I did an "electro-funk/space disco/proto-techno" night at the 'sco that nobody was at, and I DJ'd a "rave" in the South lounge which I think was still daytime. I played old electro and Paul B. Davis played "new" electro. I also gave a history of techno lecture to a very questionable techno exco that took place in Zeke. And I manned the lights most time Morgan Geist played techno to an empty 'sco.