Its something i’ve been wondering since majority of DJ’s i’ve met in my local area have come from somewhere else in the music scene, myself i’ve been in several ‘rock’ bands where i’ve played drums, and a pop band that I played keyboards in.
Do you have any professional musical training? Myself i’ve got Rockschool Grade 8 drums, RGT Grade 5 guitar and ABRSM Grade 3 music theory. I did music technology at college so I ‘had’ to do them as part of my course, other than the drums I did that up to grade 5 outside college, then did my grade 8 inside college.
I still consider myself more of a musician than a producer or even a DJ as its what i’ve done more!
I’ve taken classes at the Royal Conservatory of Music. I have my grade 8 in piano, and my harmony I exam. The harmony is really helpful when mixing, because I can how hear keys better, and which songs will work well with each other. Also great for live mashups.
I’ve been a drummer nearly my whole life. Was in a handful of bands, but started to play with EDM because getting a group of people to coordinate is a lot more difficult than to work on things on my own the way I want to do it. I enjoy this a lot more.
This is almost identical to me, I decided to leave the band scene because working with the other people in the bands I was in was getting VERY difficult and put a strain on my friendship with them (I dont speak to any of them anymore). EDM for me gives me something that doesn’t have a time limit, I can produce to my hearts content, and the structure doesn’t need to be dependant on what other people think.
We are identical. I couldn’t agree more. I can literally do whatever I want, how I want, and at a pace I see fit. I’m glad I did those bands though. Taught me a lot about music you can’t learn in school. Plus I can come up with some awesome drum beats now on my computer. Stuff I wish I could physically do.
Man we are all too similar when it comes to this! I’m glad I did the gigs because they were with some of my best friends at the time and I loved gigging all over the country, but recording was the bane of my existence! As far as i’m concerned when I record a band the drummer along with my opinion as the producer decides how the kit should sound, my ‘bands’ thought differently!
I’m really trying to bring live elements into electro house eg live drums bass and even a guitar through a synth but it’s really hard to get it sound “right”
I played guitar and sang in a rock trio for about 8 years. What we really lived for was the live gigs. We never recorded anything more than basement demos but we must have played at least 500 gigs. I quit because of ‘‘creative differences’’. The bass player and drummer were starting to sound way too much like classic rock ressurects. I like classic rock, but as a songwritter i like it a little grittier, and simpler. I had a hard time seeing my, mainstream ill admit it, compositions turned into epic prog rock anthems with never ending lead bass lines and drum fills. I quit the band and decided to go solo. I was very happy with playing solo, but having nobody to bounce ideas off of made me lose inspiration.
I then started DJing for some local rappers. I totally gave up production because i had a very hard time going from a very “organic” songwritting workflow to sitting in front of a computer screen and programming beats… so i just concentrated on mixing for a few years.
Just recently gave production another go, and i think i’m starting to develop something here!!! I’ve always been a songwritter, so this makes me happy
I’m doing the exact same thing at the moment dude, i’m looking at using some of my percussive instruments as well as my kit to put into making some new tracks, I’ve not tried putting any guitar in but its something i’m interested in working on in the future.
I’d love to do a live set with a Roland TD-9K set up play a beat live, record it into a loop record, keep it playing. Then move to my synth set up and load some patches in and play some notes, then go into traktor to put some acapellas over the top and just jam!
Something like chase and status… I’d love to get fairly big… Play a session for a while and mix in my own song then pick up my bass and play some mental bass line on it with a live drummer and an mc or singer over the top… But I guess you need to be bigger for that stuff
