On Djing...

I keep meaning to give this a listen, but I’m so bad with audio interviews… any transcripts around?

I played two Grateful Dead songs last night at the restaurant/bar, 1st "Alabama Getaway" and I noticed a dude at a table close by was real into it. Later when things really got going (it was packed for a good hour) I threw on "Shakedown Street" and he and a buddy applauded after it ended, that's a first for me!

no transcripts unless he puts it on youtube and it's automatic. don't think soundcloud does that.

so the bar i was djing at, the oldest gay bar in slc, closed in january without any notice. apparently the owner wasn't able to purchase insurance. eventually they forfeited their liquor license. i thought they were gone for good, and i was trying to get booked at other gay bars with no luck.

well, three weeks ago someone told me they had an 'opening soon' sign up. lo and behold, they were bought by a new owner and opened up a week after utah pride. i talked to the new owner today. she is totally amazing. has a small successful accounting firm and bought the bar because her queer daughter experienced her coming out process and a lot of growth there. she has already done major renovations on the bathrooms. they needed it so bad. the previous owner, who i never met over the course of two years, was by all accounts a stingy asshole. anyway, the new owner is not like that at all. so, so competent and determined and driven in a 'mama bear' kind of way but very humble. i'm pretty sure i made a good impression, she definitely made a good one on me. she was telling me that all the bartenders she hired back had good things to say about me, but not so much the other djs. it's looking up for me there i think, as far as djing goes, and weekend slots are definitely on the table. nothing set in stone yet but the last saturday of this month has been tentatively offered to me. i just have to meet the young woman she has put in charge of marketing, who apparently likes young-person dance music and maybe has reservations about having an older dj there on saturdays, which fair enough, that crowd is young af. i have a little bit of a clue as far as what young people are listening to (i think?) but i want to hear from her what kind of thing she's envisioning and hopefully get a playlist from her. obviously i have my strengths and my own ear and all that, but i'm also flexible and would welcome the input. to be back there under new, excellent ownership? the place has such a good, storied feel even though it's seen a lot of shit and has been treated like shit by past owners. i'm really excited and heartened. it's been a tough few months without djing for a bunch of reasons. i thought i was ready to give it up. so glad i sent that first message when i saw they were reopening.

best of luck!!

sounds promising <3

strike while that iron’s hot!! <3

well i'm booked for 6/29 (a saturday, and their saturday crowd is nuts). it sounds like they want to have two or so djs that they book at least monthly and then leave room for up-and-comers, which is really good to hear. so if all goes well it's looking like a possible regular monthly gig. which is great because weekly was a grind. now i just gotta beef up the playlist and start listening to dance music again lmao. i spoke to the woman doing marketing today, i'd never heard kim petras, arca, cobrah, etc. called "gay noise" haha. but i like that kind of thing generally, trans artists doing cool cutting edge stuff, and i have and have played a fair amount of it, easy to lean back into it a bit. i'm gonna have to do some searching for a lana del rey club mix lol. time to bump the "club vocal mix" thread again.

serious question, where does one get decent-quality files of contemporary dance tracks like the ones you mention? I have no idea how that works, is this stuff on e.g. Bleep?

most of that stuff i'm able to find on beatport

for major label artist remixes i've used us.7digital.com before. but beatport has gotten better about licensing more of that kind of thing ime.

i've thought about joining one of the digital dj 'record' pools which i'm sure have a lot more of that kind of thing too but none of them are hi-res last time i checked. idk i might just cave in and do it, it could make my 'getting tracks' life easier.

The Cedric Gervais remix of Summertime Sadness should do wonders for your young crowd, map.

hey yeah thanks! that one's in my library already, i was just checking it out the other day. ldr, still not a huge fan, but i'm excited to see how she works with my crowd.

really happy that the person doing the bar's events has a through line on what the bi and queer young women there are listening to - she gave me an inspo playlist and there was some good stuff on there. a lorde deep cut ('ribs') that i think would work really well at the right moment.

anyway i'm there this saturday, with a possible friday night too depending on need. i've been grabbing a lot of new tracks (thx slsk, look i'm broke at the moment, please no one sue me). especially 70-90 bpm 'trap' type things. i couldn't find my usb stick on saturday night and after panicking briefly i realized it was a good excuse to get my laptop set up with the controller.

feeling really grateful for the chance to come back to it with more supportive bar ownership.

i think my first track is going to be 'got til it's gone'