resindency!

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

resindency!

so the other night i was asked to take on a residency at a new club thats opening in the legendary hess villiage (hamilton)! im pretty pumped about it, but i had some questions for all you experienced resident dj’s.

the thing is, hess villiage is litterd with a mass assortment of clubs and genres, ranging from top40, hip hop, and the type of house music they play on the radio. so that makes for some tricky competition, for my self as a dj and the bar especially for brining in numbers! whenever im down there (hess) i always here somebody complaining about the music at one bar or another, so how can you win really?

those genres arent not realy my style to be quite honest, though i do enjoy some good hip hop from time time time, and there is a ton of great indi tunes that i wouldent mind playing as it usually gets good response from the crowds!
bloc party, metric, mgmt always cause riots at this one club i goto on weekends.

anyways, what are you guys playing everyweekend that almost anyone will go nutty when you play it?

i still want to play dirty electro house maybe some dubstep, but im worried about the general publiuc.

how do you guys go about mixing songs/genres that you dont really like into “your” set?

what are some of your experiences? good and bad…

i had a plan to play everything under the sun from open till about 1230/1 or so then killing the dance floor with some more grimey, get your ass to the floor remixes. but im affraid to scare the customers away! i dunno..:roll_eyes:

the main question is, has anyone been asked to dj at a new club? and how did you handle it? after all the sake of the business is depending on you knowing what people are going to want to hear, right?

2

Yeah, I think you got it right there. Find a club that plays what you want to play and pester them. You can’t really expect to start dropping dubstep somewhere that’s expecting something else if you want to keep the gig.

3

If nowhere else is doing the indie thing, Id go for that, thats what I do, we’re the only place that plays it in our town,

Tunes that get everybody going at the minute for me, is the likes of MGMT, Bloc Party, Kings Of Leon, Ida Maria, Vampire Weekend, and some indie classics, Strokes, Killers, Libertines

Can’t fail :smiley:

4

Dude the only thing I can tell you is, its up to the crowd man. feel them out. Here in guam its all about top 40 and radio hiphop. the radio dj’s here are also the club dj’s.

I play at this club on the row and the style “was” radio hiphop. at first, of course, I had to play the crowd. Once the dance floor is hopin you, can pretty much experiment with different styles. BUT be careful.

Later on in the night I put a tight ass break beat track that…well…it just fit. Low and behold the chicks dug it! and if the chicks dig it, your golden. after that tried a little house. some of it worked and some didnt. watch the floor man. If it aint a house club then you really cant play your “set”, well not yet anyway.

Stay unique, smooth, clean you’ll be good

peace

5

I got the exact same thing goin on! I play in a club where all the locals are really just into chart music, especially hip-hop. Now I can’t stand 95% percent of this stuff. I find it really hard to come up with good mixes with that kind of stuff as I just can’t listen to it for more than 30 seconds.

As a result I’m kind of forced to play it safe and just do a few backspins, quick fades and the like. Nothin mad creative!

Just got offered a gig in a different club in the city centre but again I have no idea what style of music the locals there want. I reckon this is the hardest bit about gigging by a mile, judging what the locals are into and then adjusting what you play to suit that. It ain’t always easy.

6

Did the person ask you to DJ at the club after hearing you play? If so, they probably like your style of what ever you were doing. They may be wanting to start a night of Dubstep, Indie, House or whatever you were playing.

I just recently got asked to DJ a club that is opening in 2 months. They asked me at the club I am resident at right now. Kind of a no-no to talk about so… I… will… stop.

7

In my mind, if it’s your residency, then feel out the crowd. If you’re playing good stuff they’ll stay and drink if it’s not what they want to dance to. Have a request list out. You don’t need to play off of it, but if you keep records, after about a month you’ll have a really good idea of what the crowd wants to hear and can act accordingly.

In my opinion, whatever you do, take risks. I spin at a club where, all night long, you hear the same two styles of music (and they are both loud and heavy). And I come on and in 45 minutes can move the crowd through all these different feelings and emotions. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But you adapt. Even when I kill a floor I don’t kill the room, they just go to the bar.

Just follow your gut. You’re the DJ, so DJ :wink:

8

As some advice I would say ‘be prepared’.

If you are not familiar with the club and the punters music tastes then go with a lot of styles that you can use if required.

As an old pro, and I emphasise the word old over pro, I have found that it is quite rare to be able to go to a club and earn money just playing the music that you like. Sure the top name Djs do it because the punters are expecting it, but most, what I call ‘resident Djs’ will have to tailor the music to the crowd.

As mentioned previous requests are a good indication of what they are looking for and a keen eye on the dancefloor to guage reaction should be paramount. I’ve seen far to many Djs heads down creating beatiful mixes with smiles on their faces not realising that the floor is emptying as they carry on oblivious of the reaction they are getting. The phrase ‘club goers vote with their feet’ is very true.

I would also say ‘be nice to everyone’ - The bar staff, cloak attendant, punters, manager…EVERYONE!!

You want to create a friendly amiable image of yourself that will pay dividends in being asked back on a regular basis. People prefer dealing with nice people…I bet you do.

Good luck :wink:

9

yea, i guest djed at the owner of the clubs other “winter club” (i call it winter club, because its dead in the summer because of hess village, and thats when all the hotties like to hop from bar to bar, in the nice weather:roll_eyes:slight_smile:

but thats, my predicament! its a new club, starting fresh in a thriving bar hotspot! should i do what every other club on the street is doing or should i target the people who are sick of the same shit?

10

new club you going to be fine since no one been there so its gonna be surprise for people what music you play and if there are other dancing floors so if people dont like you music they would go to the other room or something. But i have read good advices that people said watch the people

11

play whatever you want, but keep it as broad as possible at first, and pepper your own desires with those of the crowd.

glad to see there are some other canadians on board with the digital thing. Not that i’m all over the city or anything, but i’m definitely one of the only regular dj’s in halifax that is playing strictly with midi, and not with ableton. i assume hamilton is also a serato run town.

MGMT - kids (soulwax remix) always fills the floor, even when competing with last call.

12

My 1st question would be…who is going to promote this night? Is it going to be inhouse, where the owner is going to get a street team litter the city clubs with flyers to the new club or are they going to bring in a promoter to help? Or do they expect you to promote it? You need to know these things to know what the crowd is going to be coming in.

Sorry if I threw a wrench into this, but I would be stoked to be a resident dj, but I would want to know who Im playing for.

13

I just got a residency confirmed for a clubnight every friday. (thegardenclub.co.nz) Woo!!

The best thing about it is… Its a Dubstep Club Night! Fuck yeah! So I basically can play what I want (within reason). Makes it easier on the DJ side of things. The thing is I’m also going to be doing the promotion for the night, so its going to be some hard work :eyes: on that side to get people in.

IMO ‘genre’-themed nights can be good like that beacuse people know what to expect and you dont have to fuck around as much finding what style people want to hear, perhaps you should propose something like this for an Indi type night as you said that seems to do well?

14

Word midian. when we started i was in a similar predicament. hmm should i play crap remixes or should i just go hard? In the end i decided i’m in it for the love not to be a jukebox so came to a bit of a compromise, and i think i came up with a good format for the night. I will play 1 repeat 1 cheesey remix pretty much at the start and half an hour of reasonably accessible tunes, then i start my proper set at 11 ish, when the crowd has built up to about 50-100 and a few drinks have gone down. My “town set” gets progressively phatter as the night goes on and by the time my brother goes on at 1 ish, the crowd is total putty in our hands, and the last few times has been totally packed out (something like 300-350 upstairs, and 100 ish downstairs)
Obviously ya gotta have a few backup tunes just in case but basically do what ya want they’ll either like it or not dude. peace