As I’ve been looking at some articles online this week there are various ideas on this and it would appear that nowadays most producers get more dj work as a result of music they’ve produced and released, but I’m of the opinion that it takes years to get something of good quality after, much like djaying, lots of practise.

These days producers seem to get more gigs for the simple reason that they have a keener understanding of music, instruments, keys that work together, rhythms etc, and what is more likely to work on the floor due to the time spent in the studio honing skills over a number of years. Dedication to studio work,  quality track releases, networking, marketing and getting affiliated with the right labels and their music into the hands of the bigger established Djs might well assist in propelling a dj’s career forward to stardom, not to mention commanding the utmost respect on a worldwide basis as Djs, producers ,artists, PR agents and  labels and others in the music industry globally network via the internet every day.

Saying that, I have also seen and heard a few big name producers(who shall remain nameless) dj; that sometimes  have a terrible sense of track programming, bad technical skills and not performing as you would expect, due to the fact that as some have been at the top of their game for so long they get complacent, and give underpar performances, far from what paying punters at a club expect to see and hear.

I’m sure some of the local djs who never get to see the light of day; could do a much better job, but at the end of the day big clubs and big promoters don’t care once they get a big name in, tickets are sold, and  there’s a big queue going round the corner almost till the next town. It’s sometimes all about pound signs and big business nowadays!

I can remember back in the late 80’s and early to late 90’s when I lived in London how excited I used to get by just jumping on the tube from good old East London in Forest Gate and Walthamstow, with at least£60 to £80 minimum going to the record shops like Uptown Records in D’larby Street in Soho, Blackmarket Records in Soho Market Soho, Tower Records on Oxford Street and occasionally Blacker Dread Records Coldharbour Lane Brixton, hunting and searching high and low for the latest tracks both in house, UK Garage, UK funky, US House, and Dancehall Reggae.

In those days it was all about going into the shop, hoping I had reached early enough on a certain week to get certain 12’’ vinyl; and it wasn’t  gone like hot cake already, and carefully listening to tracks I’d heard on dare I say notorious but illegal various pirate radio stations, legal stations such Kiss FM, and BBC Radio 1.

Developing small but important relationships with who was actually selling the vinyl behind the counter was of prime importance, not deliberately but inadvertently as I was a regular in these shops, I got some music put by for me.

But to be honest to get the better stuff you had to be one of those big Djs already, known names.

I remember speaking to the legendary Danny Rampling face to face, the infamous Boy George all both cool people without attitude, they weren’t my mates but it made the rest of my day when guys like these can give you some of their time.

Obviously these guys had a bag with some 60 of the best tracks on vinyl put away, half of which they didn’t hardly had to pay for as they were promoting other dj/producer as well as themselves, by playing their tracks week in week out on the radio and at the clubs.

I even met the famous RNB Dj Ronnie Herel from Radio 1 who used to work in a record shop in Leytonstone East London back in the early 80’s,and to describe somebody like this as being at the top of their game still; is an understatement.

Going to the shop meant taking my time with what I selected out of about 40 tracks, making sure the mix or remix was right for the venue I was playing at and the mix I wanted. Sometimes I would buy just 6 from one shop and because one shop didn’t have a couple records I’d go to another in the area an hunt eagerly for them.

My points being when you bought vinyl, you bought with a history behind it, you had a tangible product, you went home to show your mates and even show off your latest singles, giving it a play and having a mix on the old Technics 1200’S, marveled in how warm the pressing was, the smell of the vinyl or the jacket album artwork. You were part of the social aspect where you met people and networked with the like minded ones in the record shops, where because vinyl was used it had more value.

The music; it would seem  had more longevity then than it does now; as we are more in the digital age where it’s easy to access from Dj blogs, music forums, specialist remix sites, and no reliance on record companies to release and distribute music.

I’m not saying that music today isn’t good as there are a lot of good producers, bands, dj/producers/artists; but it’s so easy to do now to a point ; that I wonder if that’s why there’s so much rubbish out there now.  Is it that quality control is sometimes less because digital technology is so accessible?

Well Dj wise I must say nothing much has happened, but Friday at my usual Dj spot was okay. I’m still not satisfied with the numbers though, supervisor said takings were slightly down, but if the customers aren’t there they just aren’t are they?

I do wonder though if all those students staying in for reading week last week was the reason or if everyone’s just skint after Halloween? Maybe both.

Anyway I must say that I read our colleague Debz’s blog and I must say that although I‘m not in a band I can totally understand this unhealthy perception people have of self-employed musicians, it is just a sheer unwillingness an close-mindedness for people not to respect musicians/artists of any sort because of what they do. As Debz said it’s our job, and we do have bills like everyone else.

To draw my own parallel I can remember earlier on this year I was doing a guys sisters birthday party and the guy’s wife heard me play and at some point cam out and asked me if they could book me, I said sure and asked for venue, time, how many people, usual questions.

I spoke to husband and wife shortly after that and was assured they’d be in touch.
As it went, I had to call them up, so when it came down to price and myself and the husband were negotiating, I could literally hear the wife shout out what £ for 3 hrs? I said yes, now don’t get me wrong I don’t charge much at all, not for where I live where people have less wages, but still I do need to live.
Well guess what? They then asked me if I could play for an hour later and I said no problem, as I didn’t mind as obviously I still didn’t mind money and had nothing else on then.
They said they’d get back in touch, when they hadn’t for a couple days I needed to know yes or know as I could be getting another gig.
Well, matey gave me the excuse they were on a short holiday and just got back but he forgot to tell me his wife got an inclusive package with the food laid on for cheaper? Eh? How’s that work?

Don’t know why people don’t understand that you quote them a price, it includes petrol, the time to set up the equipment (speakers), the lights, the taking down, not to mention playing exactly what they want.? And getting myself back home at stupid ‘0’clock.

Now, much like a band, or an engineer in a band or in a studio; it’s not rocket science but a professional skill that ‘s been learned and honed with years of practise; to set up quickly and use the equipment right and within it’s limits but for maximum impact on the floor or stage. They wouldn’t have a clue if something went wrong where to start and what to do.

My point being like musicians, like bands, I also have equipment to maintain especially as I’m a one man show particularly; and people seem to want the most for the least and for the life of me it annoys me something silly when they don’t think what I do is serious enough for me to want a certain amount of monetary value for my efforts and time as I’ve been doing it long enough to see myself as professional enough to warrant that. I like all of them have bills and a living to try and make.

I keep my prices low as it can encourage repeat business from regular customers; compared to bigger cities like London as I’m only in Bangor, but by god some people don’t respect the profession or musicians and the fact that this is also a job. If I had a rubbish PA I would understandably get complaints, so why shouldn’t I charge fairly and what’s due accordingly? Sometimes the ladies chat me up, and I get the erm..erm so what else do you do line? Lol

I’ve even had it’s okay mate I’ll go get a cd and use my wife’s stereo, ha-ha. I told him go ahead! The days of £60 jobbies are long gone.

Saying that I’ve just replaced my 4 year old DB PA and taken delivery of a brand new slightly expensive RCF PA this weekend. It may be cheese and toast for the next 2 months so I will make sure I take half my fee upfront for each gig to recoup my costs adequately, that way if they cancel I’m not totally out of pocket because of people’s ignorance!

 As a Dj myself though nowhere by a long shot on the level of the one I’m going to mention, I thought it is always good to see how other artists do their marketing, promote themselves and distribute their music in this digital age.

I came across this latest update about 3 weeks ago and just remembered that I saw an interview of him discussing his new album on Dj sounds show 2011.

The interview highlighted the legendary DJ Carl Cox discussing his new album reflecting different styles of new music he’s written across the genres of Drum n Bass, Vocal House, Dubstep, Latin and remixes of some of his new tunes by other artists which he’s dance floor tried and tested to make sure they work.

What’s good and different about this album is the fact that it’s released on a USB stick which will not only give buyers access to a bunch of new tracks but, updates on any upcoming release, behind the scenes look for the public at behind the scenes process of his track making and also any live shows where he djays, in other words an interactive experience.

According to Carl it moves away from your ‘traditional cd release of an album obviously or just the individual track downloads for customers and allows them to buy into the album and the experience’, and to see the many elements of Carl Cox who produces more than just techno.

Buyers have access to clips from Pioneer more remixes; they also get text reminders about what’s going on the site.

Additionally they are able to stream music, not need an Internet connection and the USB stick is individually coded for the buyer so it cannot be downloaded onto or shared, basically it’s your key to everything Carl Cox.

For the buyer’s additional interest avid fans have access to the entire digital catalogue, his global radio shows and exclusive interviews, additional album remixes; exclusive sets from Ibiza, behind the scenes footage and his album performed live.

All this is offered to the buyer for £20,it’s a no-brainer.

I guess what Carl Cox has tried to do hear is create something tangible rather than just the normal downloading and sharing and to add more value to his product which the consumer, avid listener, other Djs etc will take more pride in looking after, especially in this digital age of distribution where there is so much music available that is often forgotten after the next month when the next hit is made by another Dj/producer/artist is around the corner.

There may already be other artists doing this but, I must say every stage of this product seems to have been designed to give the consumer maximum value

I must say  this is what I call forward thinking!

Do you think that if every producer or any artist making music implemented the above methods that it would boost album sales more; or possibly encourage more consumers to not just buy in to their product but the whole interactive experience itself? Would it work or be sustainable?

I haven’t got much interesting to say in this blog as my  gigs normally don’t run all weekend, and I’ve been busy with the university assignments.

As usual I djayed last night Friday night and what a pleasant surprise it was, much busier than last last week and managed to keep them till about 12 midnight. The few that were left danced till I stopped playing at 12.30.

A fairly mixed group of party people were there with a few new faces and some students thrown in for good measure.

Not everyone wants the party and cheese on a Friday as they are so used to being greeted by commercial electro, Dutch and dirty electro on a Thursday and a Saturday.

I played the usual light chart, some 90’s dance, and some electro at which point I was asked to change to what I’m supposed to play.

What was surprising was those that weren’t into the chart and party stuff had no choice but to stand and look at those who loved it, at least they were still buying drinks so manager was happy.

I kept changing it but at one point I wondered how long would it take to warp mark all those tracks in Ableton live for remixing and mashing up on the spot? Maybe I’ll start trying to prepare the electro in live 8 and attempt to use the laptop and do some remixing and mashups on the spot as Sat night is all dance.

As it’s not a specialist night is it practical?  We made more money this Fri than for the last couple.  Well at least I’m versatile. Job done.

Musically what’s happened this week? Well, not that much but I did wonder on Wednesday night if things could get any better or any worse for a Wednesday night djaying.

There were about 20 people in the place where I dj, by about half 9, a few students, who bobbed to some party tunes, with a few older people hugging the bar, but I got the impression that it just wasn’t going to happen. You know we’ve all had the odd gig when you know for some reason beyond our control it just isn’t going to happen. Due to the forthcoming Halloween night coming up last weekend, the students had many other options, not to mention it was chucking it down.

I had some fliers done for me and handed out by a friend, though the students were interested, and took the time to say to the person handing them out that they weren’t sure they were going out at all dude to rain, and I suspect saving up the pennies for Halloween.

I felt like I was playing to myself last Wed because by 11 it was dead, I felt more tired doing nothing than mixing and cutting tune to tune.

I don’t even want to talk about what it’s paying on a Wed, that’s another matter, and I think it’s taking the p….

Maybe I should just do a prepared hour mashup in ableton, get the controller out, rinse and repeat, be much easier. If the customers aren’t around they just aren’t.

I how practical is all this when you have no customers to go to all that trouble just because it can be done and the manager isn’t even advertising? God knows I’ve tried. Should I look at going to another very recent establishment that has more specialist nights and I can play the music I know that rocks and where it’s a guaranteed crowd or stay where it’s safe and regular?

May be I’ll start doing some preparations with the controller and introduce it tonight, maybe it might get people’s curiosity going.

They’ve just spent the money for Halloween; let’s see what happens tonight.

On a more positive note, I take delivery of my new RCF pa next Friday replacing my DB’S, so I’ll get in some more mobile work again and keep on paying those bills!

Rant over!

As I have been thinking up ways to tweak my subject ideas for my essay which involves controllers; it lead me to thinking that; though I use both a Denon Mc 6000 controller (for small gigs) and sometimes my Pioneer cdjs and serato to play out at the bar/club. Should  I use the APC 40 , Ableton Live 8, as I only play a certain genre of music to students?

Djaying vs Performance vs creativity and practicality?

I ‘ ll think about more of this next week.

Hope your  gigs go well this weekend people:-)

What else? Apart from the chasing up of paper work and only just discovering 3 other music sites with Dj Blogs to acquire some meaningful info and formulate some of my own ideas, I also had to fill out those pesky De minimis forms, Employment Forms again, etc. I did mine but have to get my employer to fill  it out. Hope you’ve all got yours out of the way, so it doesn’t come back to haunt you. Oh wait; I also had to phone up my former University to enquire if my credits had enough merit on their own to claim for my APL, only to be told that  yes you got a few credits but though you passed it can’t stand as you didn’t do year 2. (-: Well there was a reason for that it’s called not studying enough and  not being in to it.1 It was a BA in English Language which comprised Linguistics and Phonetics,yuch, never again. Well I guess that’s why I’m here now aren’t I?  I don’t regret  it, do what you love first and it’s never a chore, but a labour of love.

I guess by now you’ve gathered it wasn’t an entirely straight-forward week for me right? Well life isn’t and I guess if it was it would be pretty boring.

If I digress now and backtrack to last Sat, I did something completely spontaneous, when I was off Djaying; and that was go with a friend to see her lad and his band playing in the Galeri in Caernarfon for Battle Of the Bands or Brwydr y Banddiau. Just trying to get in some of my Welsh while I can, not that I know that much.lol!

The night began about 7.30 and I must say it was refreshing to listen to some music completely different from what I normally listen to and play.
The Galeri used their own PA, which was ok, nothing exceptional as it was a small gig, and the engineer was did quite a good job of manning the big desk in front of him controlling the sound and lighting for the stage. I found it could have done with a little more bass, but rock, grunge, Indie pop is more all about guitar riffs,drums and some vocals isn’t it.

All the bands performed three songs each,and I believe when we went into the auditorium there was a band called Chalfwa, which was a sort of boy band comprising of one lead singer, 2 guitarists and the drummer. I kid you not the drummer looked about 14 seriously but very talented, The lead singer also played the guitar and really led with his band clapping along with him.
Another band called Wildfire was a sort of a pop band with a girl lead singer, and while I couldn’t understand the Welsh Language I could feel some emotion from her screaming, she kind of reminded me of Bjork on steroids if I could say that, but it was a very energetic performance and had the crowd really going.

At this point it was clear to see that of course each band had their followers in there supporting them, so much so that the standard practise of the night was for the 14 to 17 year old mostly girls to rush from their seats down the auditorium stairs in droves, an jump up and down and dance to the individual or favourite bands they were supporting. I must say it reminded me of when I was a very young teenager of 14 going to school fairs, and jump up and down and shake my head in a somewhat silly manner to ACDC (Back In Black) and Joan Jett(I Love Rock & Roll) back in the day. I didn’t have much hair then and still don’t now, mind you, I normally had to ask my mother for 2 paracetomol tablets when I got in.
How times have changed. A rocker I hear you say? Au contraire, just an 80’s kid with a liking for that along with reggage, pop, hip hop and anything in between. A Caribbean mix you could say.

The 80’s rock was classic, melodious, and very vocal. Some of today’s rock has some similar musical influences, but that 80′s era had a special sound. Guns n Roses, Bon Jovi, Deff Leppard, Judas Preist, AC/DC, Ozzie Osborne, and even earlier ELO (Electric Light Orchestra), Rush. Dam it, now don’t get me started !:-)
After all, I would definitely say some 80′s and 90′s  rock was definitely an influence on the young bands on Saturday, and  I’m sure more recent bands such as  the Red hot chilli Peppers played a part.

The other groups on were Ayes, another boy band playing Indie and pop in a similar vein. These guys played as well as most of the others, very kind of melodic and clean. The standards of the night were very high and the judges must have had a hard time deciding who should win,however I’m sure the reaction of the audience of roughly 300 in the auditorium was taken into consideration.

The last 3 bands respectively were called Plastic Cup Politics which was sort of Pop/funk and modern rock rolled into one, and Vintage Magpie from Bethesda a close knit village just outside Bangor.

A lot of screaming form Plastic Politics is all I could remember as my attention began to wane a bit, but Vintage magpie comprising of 2 girls one on keyboard and the other as lead singer, with boy drummer was excellent! What a voice, very dynamic she couldn’t have been more than 15 I’d say, very poppy sound.
I’m not a rocker so don’t know who to compare her too, but saying that I’d definitely compare the last band of the night I’d particularly come to see; Dinosaur Garden as a cross between The Red Hot Chilli Peppers and The 80’s band Nirvana. Apparently this is the description the editor of Kerrang magazine once gave them!

They were by far the best band of the night with the lead vocal singer with a voice that lent itself to their grungy style adequately, with some grungy shouting thrown in for good  measure. The engineer rode those levels on the mixing board like riding a bike, very smoothly, though I ‘m sure he had a job to keep the vocals in check a couple times, but it was so clear. The lead and only guitarist of the band, 17 year old Laurence Fazakerley was awesome with some exceedingly energetic, original riffs, chorus lines and melodies, it didn’t take 2 minutes to pick up on that 80’s influence. Very professional, smooth and good presentation, and he was running up and down the scales effortlessely  with some riffs on the guitar, the young girls were screaming with delight. He even used one of those Boss Guitar pedal boxes, to produce a sick as in good phase effect on certain parts of the guitar riffs, but I didn’t catch that on video as I only decided to run down among the screaming girlies at last minute for fear of being overun,while filming with my phone.I couldn’t get in that close,but hey I was only using an old Nokia N95.The energy was fantastic then and for the whole night, audience included!

Subsequently after that, results were announced and it was a tie between Vintage Magpie and Dinosaur, so as Laurence form Dinosaur Garden didn’t speak Welsh and the other band did, a Radio spot was given to Vintage Magpie and a free days recording session at Colywn Bay Studios.

In the past I’ve seldom gone to a live gig,let alone a Rock gig; as I’m not a Rocker as such, so it  made a  refreshing change for me to just sit down,listen to and  really appreciate some live music, in it’s entirety instead of just playing music to other people as I normally do every week.

I  think I nearly wrote a book here, but thanks for reading people.

Firstly I djayed at Yates last Wed, Dj workshop on Fri evening, then Djayed Friday night again at Yates, afterwards rushed down to the Embassy nightclub at 12.30 in Bangor to see the Scratch Perverts (especially as I hired my cdjs to them). In Yates, while I was glad to be on my Denon Mc 6000 controller, my enthusiasm waned a bit when I saw that by 10.30 Yates was still quiet.

Some of the students came out but weren’t really on the floor for that long, some came in groups drank all the yager bombs and absynths you could throw at them and on to the new night club. You might think it’s the music but I must beg to differ.

They seemed to have a good time with the cheese and party. Now this supposed to be a student night, yet the only advertising done by the management was a small flier at the bar saying dj playing 80’s, 90’s 00’S. Bear in mind that this, along with the football a few weeks ago and various other promotions were on the flier/card.

Now for the life of me, why in gods name would the manager there expect good takings behind the bar? This is beyond me. Commonsense would dictate that it needs to be on a flier on it’s own and given out regularly, and not just some insignificant, little flier that you can’t even see let alone hand out to people in town. Hand out? They’re not even doing that. If it’s not promoted how the hell do they expect to make money especially as other clubs have a similar music policy on a Wed?  I’m thinking of charging them to print something decent and I’ll promote it by myself. It can’t be fair to expect the dj to take care of the tunes, the atmosphere and crowd and the bar not think of advertising, especially a big chain like Yates. I’ve learnt form past experience that managers think they know what’s best for their establishment but this is never entirely true.

The other problem is that the younger crowd are so used to getting hammered with the Electro and Dance on Thursdays and Saturdays, that that’s all they want.  It’s just been 3 weeks on but it needs to be addressed because no mater what I play, it won’t happen if no one knows about it. Innit?

I think I might try offering my dj services elsewhere playing what I like electro and old skool hip hop, and keep the cheese &party for the weddings and birthdays.

Rant over!

On another note, as mentioned above I went to see the scratch perverts straight after Yates.

To continue in the potential theme of my essay, the plethora of toys both old skool and new skool was awesome, close to the traditional way of djaying with new technology alongside.

The Scratch Perverts were superb to say the least and their stellar performance shows that they did their research and homework because one could not be faulted for automatically thinking the crowd was going to be treated to a night of DMC level scratching antics, which is what they are known for. I saw another side to their flexibility, skills and professionalism with the awesome DUBSTEP, DRUM N BASS show. I heard some different glitchy, dirty dubstep with filthy basslines designed to shake all the fillings out your mouth, that I hadn’t heard before which was overall was a mixture of almost breakbeat and dubstep and some tidy re-edits of some familiar tracks.

The energy levels couldn’t be any higher as they smoothly and swiftly drop mixed tune to tune, and played with their Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol X1 for beat mangling.

While one of the djs was using Technics 1200,one of which I hired out also, the other was on the cdjs, and I virtually didn’t hear one mistake from either all night.

Now both Djs worked well together, but I asked myself if the fact that one was using Traktor Scratch a DVS (Digital Virtual Scratch) with the vinyl decks, if it helped to make the performance so seamless or could he have done just the same spinning on vinyl decks, without some beat gridding,use of virtual sample decks  and the control of a few cue points?  Traktor is awesome but each to their own.

Being I the business for as long as they have, skills are honed and are near flawless but the question for my essay raises it head again.

Does all this innovative, available technology make it too easy for djays?

Where does the lines between originality and creativity blur? How else apart from years of practice with traditional methods of djaying could this type of performance be executed?

Forget decks. Remember the days of the 8 tracks and 16 tracks on a Reel:-)?

Anyway as they say “needs must”, bills to pay and all that, you know how it goes.

To say that I had matchsticks under my eyes is an understatement given my early journey, even with a coffee. lol! I’m not one that can sleep on trains, some of you can but I’d rather not wonder if I’ve missed my next stop.

We were given a lot of very necessary and important information to help us proceed with various parts of our assignments and I was literally recovering from some exhaustion that week  and the previous week,( we in the music people know about that) and as I feel a bit fresher today I decided to give some thought to the subject matter of my essay.

I haven’t quite decided but as a Dj in the industry, albeit on a small scale I thought that as I normally trawl You Tube, dj forums and music forums, and seen two sides of the coin, coming from both a vinyl and cdj background, it might be interesting to discuss the much debated idea of the controllers or controllerism replacing the traditional way of djaying; ie your bog stand 2 vinyl decks and a mixer. As far as my Dj tools go, I own a Denon controller (which comes with Traktor Le and Virtual Dj but I’m using Scratch live with it as that’s what I’m used too). I’m not a controllerist, not yet anyway:-) I also own  Pioneer Decks and mixer, which I use with Scratch Live and additionally got Ableton Live 8 and Apc 40 controller.

In the Dj world today major players such as Vestax, Pioneer, Scratch Live Native Instruments, Denon, Allen & Heath, and to a lesser extent Reloop and American Audio, and many more all have released awesome bits of kit, both in direct competetion with each other, some better than others, with different levels of functionality, performance capabilities, Dj/ Hybrid Production capabilities.

But the question I wondered is when is it enough? How far do all these manufacturers need to go? Does it really make a dj’s job any easier or is it a victim of it’s own success?

I guess it depends on how you look at it? It, like anything else has it’s own pros and cons. As Djs and to and extent producers we all like that tactile feel and control of twiddling knobs and some people say controllerism takes away the art of actually djaying because it’s not vinyl as the old skool purists like, some say it depends on the style you play, others say technology has moved on, move with it or get left behind!

Food for thought!

On another note about 3 weeks Bangor has very recently and successfully opened a state of the art night club and recently had legendary Drum n Bass Dj Fabio, along with a local Dj Sound System playing Dub Step and Hip Hop and while he did smash the floor I didn’t get the impression it was as busy as it could be. Whether that’s because I went in between 12.30 and 1.30, or not enough bass heads in the club I’m not sure. I thought that although the club would bring enough people and revenue from outside Bangor as well as put it more on the map musically, Bangor is still slightly behind as far as clubs are concerned; in styles of music played by djays or allowed to be played and what the punters think of as good music. If this is the case are some of the specialist nights and commercial nights enough to sustain it, given the profusion of wine bars and other club that we already have?

It plans to hold band nights soon and it seems as if a lot of thought has been put into music nights and specialist bands,as it’s still relatively undisclosed to the public, but I will be debating and exploring more about this in the next few days to help me decide which topic is best for my essay.

Practice and Enjoy Guys