I’m about to embark on some live gigs. Been offered a shot somewhere, but they usually play their music in a “jukebox” style playing classic ‘hits’ and indie tunes etc.
They said they’re happy to let me DJ properly. However, the venue has obviously attracted a ‘certain’ crowd with their past sessions and tunes. I’m just after advice on what to do.
I prefer to mix what I call proper music. By that I mean songs I like, such as Justice, Tiga, Proxy, Wolfgang Gartner, Fake Blood etc. However, will I have to give in and play more popular and commercial songs as a set to get established first, and then begin to switch over/draft in my type of music?
Not sure whether to stick to my principles and miss a chance or sacrifice my musical style for now in order to get regular gigs. What would you advise?
it’s a big moment in a DJ’s career when this decision is made. however, even the biggest DJs give the crowd what they want, they just have a lot more flexibility. for this situation, you’re gonna have to play the stuff that they normally here for the most part. but this doesn’t mean you can’t toss in one of your favorite tracks once in a while. see how the crowd responds to the change, if the floor clears when your style of music drops, then picks back up when it goes back to the “regular” music, you may be out of luck man. there is a chance that the people there want to hear something different (at least some of them), it’s really a guessing game until you get in there.
you could try going the spot and spending an evening vibing out the place. see what kind of tracks people seem to respond to most, see if you have any remixes of the songs that people seem to dig, that kind of thing.
Good advice. I been there a couple of times, and they seemed to just churn out ‘guitar’ music, one track after the next. However, when it got later, they began to put more commercial dance tunes on, like classics and ‘of the moment’ hits.
May try and contruct a guitar music sampler, as well a commercial dance sampler. Give both to the venue and see what direction they’d rather me take as, ultimately, I wanna keep the venue happy to get regular paid gigs.
My aim is that once I establish myself on my local DJ circuit, I can then maybe infiltrate one of the venues with a night of my musical taste, giving me a chance to DJ ‘my’ music as I’ll have the previous gigs behind me then to better judge where to go with it all.
Looks like it’s David Guetta and the likes for me for now then. That sucks! That’s life though, so I shouldn’t whine about it and just get on with it!
Been through this before. Established myself on the underground DJ through winning comps, etc, circuit in my city, but gigs were often ill attended, which meant little or no promised wages. I was playing house of all types (whatever style suited the night).
I took the plunge and started DJing EVERYTHING. Commercial house, R&B, garage, hip hop, deebee, indie, cheese, etc. Now I get regular, well paid gigs. Fair enough the music isn’t exactly the my ‘ideal’ liking, but beggers cant be choosers and it’s a whole lot more fun mixing/playing R&B to a packed dance floor, than underground house music with a half filled one.
