Anyways, here where I live the deep/tech house scene isn’t very big so gigging has been a bit slow for me lately.
Even though deep/tech house is what I love the most I do like other genres as well, melbourne bounce for example (aussies I know, but it’s not as over-played over here )
I’ve mostly been profiling myself as a deep & tech DJ, would it be wise to start profiling myself as a more mainstream house DJ as well?
And wouldn’t that compromise my rep as a deep/tech DJ?
As long as you enjoy the music you play (or the money you make off it) and have enough time to dig in different genres, I don’t see a problem with playing various types of gigs. If you’re worried about ‘selling out’, you could always use different aliases.
I literally do the same thing. I play bounce when I do local gigs and all that fun stuff but when I do clubs in downtown Chicago I play strictly deep/techno. It depends really though.. I’ve done a club in Indianapolis where I started out with deep, then moved into bounce to test the waters and got a huge response after that. I’ve also closed out main rooms here in Chicago in which my buddy wold tell me to just close out with my bounce shit. I wouldn’t worry about being so strict, because being a DJ has no boundaries.
e/ As long as people know what you spin and that you know how to spin it accordingly, then you should be ok.
when im doing a full night i always travel between genres and i try to get to certain genres at certain points of the night. Because of their energy level.
Keep in mind while the songs might fit a specific genre, you are dealing with CROWD of people and not everyone of them wants to hear dubstep or electro.
Its possible you play some deep-tech here and there and the people appreciate the set even more because now they wont get burnt out on it
You live in North-Holland and you say deep-techhouse is not big? What?! Every club in Amsterdam has Deephouse dj’s atm and the festivals in North-Holland are mostly Deephouse as well.
Well yeah, that’s Amsterdam. I live in the northern most tip of North-Holland, and there’s not so much here…
I like what Kwal does though, and I think I’ll do that as well. More mainstream stuff in my hometown and whenever I go to Amsterdam or even Alkmaar I’ll try to play deep/tech.
Feeling you bro, alhoewel het in Groningen nog een stuk erger is als je geen producer bent, I’m actually playing loads of popsongs that would make most DJTT’ers shoot theirselves. However, for me that’s the difference between gigging weekly and gigging barely if ever at all.
When I first started spinning, I really couldn’t get gigs because I was so focused on one genre. I wrote an email to the top local club dj in my area asking him to give me some pointers on how to get more gigs. Well what do ya know he actually emailed me back a week later. His biggest advice was to play all kinds of music. Here’s what he said
“If you are looking to be a famous dj/producer than stick to one sound, but if you want to be a popular area Dj then play all kinds of music, you will eventually settle into the sound you want, but be diverse at first.”
That advice definitely worked for me, and now after a few years of playing all kinds of dance music I have eventually gone back to the disco and house music that I wanted to play originally. But I am not afraid to take on a gig of a different flavor, maybe hip hop and trap, or some dubstep. BE UP FOR THE CHALLENGE of mixing different music, it will make you a better dj, and will help you discover your sound.
The way I see it is why limit yourself to a genre? I mix ghetto funk into glitch hop, into trap, into dubstep, get some house and breaks in there.
Music is music and being a dj doesn’t really specify a genre to me. Producing is a whole other ball game tho, I have seen some people get seriously butt hurt when a big artist changes there sound or tries something new lol.
)