Violinist joining me while playing my gigs…Odd request!?
So I got a mail today…from a lady called Ilse, who is a violinist.
She has asked me if she can play along side me at some of my gigs this season and the coming one.
I am pretty flattered…she subscribed to my Youtube Channel and MSGed me on SoundCloud.
However, the stuff I play is pretty damn hard…and I am not really able to picture her being able to really do much during my sets.
She seems pretty good…having worked with some BIGASS names.
Paul van Dyke Carl Cox, Kanye West, Above n Beyond, Midnight Oil, Judge Jules etc
I think she might have the wrong idea of the style of trance I play…I dunno.
We have seen a local Duo here called EMP playing their live set with Violinsts.
But it was part of their friendship circle and the tracks were written with violins in it. So playing it live worked really well.
I mean…they can plug their violins into a pedal-board and work it much like a guitarist.
See Super Evil. This is Broken Toy playing Live with our mate Arno on Guitar.
It works!
What do you Psytrance fans think about this? I ask you…as you will be able tell me whether this is something you like\want\could listen to.
Its not the process of how we will do it…thats easy…its about whether it will fit to my style.
I could see her doing it to 1 or 3 of the tracks…but not contiously.
A club here in Dallas actually had an “electro” violinist come in. He had this lit up neon violin and played with the DJ. I did not go, but from the Facebook videos I saw, he and the DJ were rocking it.
Its been a few month, but I’ll see if I can find a video.
I have no qualms with jamming with her…just want to hear from the Psyfans here…whether they would enjoy the violin over the style I play (its pretty damn specific).
BUT…I also play a range of Electro these days…maybe it better suited there?
Thing is, I don’t play Electro at the kind of parties she is wanting in on.
Maybe she could help getting me into those bigger Electro parties.
I am keen to check it out as always…just wondering and would like to hear some opinions.
im not the biggest psy-trance fan here, but i think anything with a violin gives me eargasms. One of my musical influences is Emancipator and they make some funky grooves, although not trance.
to me sometimes its a hit or miss, it depends on the crowd.
I’ve heard a violinist here in before that played with a hip hop dj. As long as the violinist isnt trying to over power the music in general its ok. I love violins but when they are trying to compete with club speakers and they hit those high notes O_O
I think thats ok to experiment but she knows that you are not a producer? Maybe shes used to play with producers who alredy thinked of violins in their music.
My fear is that you could loose your freedom of chosing any track to play next, you can start to do pré-planned sets all the time. Or keep on playing the same tune that she rocked with the violin all the time…
If you are planning to produce a Live set or something less flexible then a freestyle set, i think it would work. She needs to be on key and to add some drama atmosphere to your fullon night.
All the Movie Makers of the horror genre put Violins on their soundtrack, it has to mean something right?
I don;t play clubs etc. Only big festivals and I play an hour.
So I have a playlist of brand new tracks prepared. So there is no choosing the next track etc. I play my current favs.
They put me on at a specific time and the crowd knows what they are gonna get from me…style wise. Its not a case of keeping the dancefloor interested…they are lapping it up!
So its more a case of …can the violinist keep up with me…and will she fit in…without overdoing it and making it sound SHIT!
violines can impact so fu**ing heavy on the listeners emotions, can be awesome!
but i don’t know if an full hour of violines+psytrance would be something i would enjoy all the time, maybe it would be nicer to have parts with more violine action and parts with less, but hey, thats the tweaking i’m speaking from ^^
i guess you will find out at the jam or the first gig that you souldn’t miss since you got the option now
I saw this accomplished to more worldly/house beat.
They would alternate in like a 50min : 10min rotation. They would build up the beat to the violinist then break it down or into the decks. I’m guessing it was rehearsed even though the club was saying other wise.
I would guess it would be best to make it clear to the violinist on exactly what style you are playing. Would be nice if it works out.
A pretty awesome duo here in Aus are Dysphemic & Miss Eliza,
we had them on a night where we usually have a blend of every style, and his heavy dubstep/dnb/psy sort of style played so well with her violin..
Granted she was the sort to use effects etc over herself, but they are building up a pretty heavy rep over here in the producer/dj/live performance category that everyone seems to NEED to make it these days..
Since you always have an pré-planned set seems that what you need to do to avoid that problem is to prepare.
Why dont you send her some tracks names that you used to play so she could show you what would she do to improve the flow of the track?
Explain to her that psytrance is a genre alredy full of effects and instruments and you are afraid that one violin more could be too much. It’s all depends on the track and on your mixing style…
How do you like to play? Do you cut off the long breaks to keep your floor pumping like me? Sometimes when I know that a big break is coming I just mixout to the next track, if I think that a break would lower the energy of my set at the wrong time.
If you like to do that maybe there will gonna be no room for your violinist…
Plan a jam but send her some tracks first…
You do pre plan your tracklist, then there will be no need to her jam for improvisation.
She needs to prepare too before you two jam together, or it WILL sound like shit and you two will get nowere at the first meeting.
Yeah…this is why you have a jam session before hand.
I know exactly how to work it (have done this sort of thing before), but my question is…WHO LIKES IT?
Some folks prefer to have a track play (as it was written) and dont like the DJ to muck around with it too much. Some like to hear the mashup and work done by the DJ.
Some say…(Top Gear reference)…that the Psy DJ should not be the feature…that the music is the feature!
So yeah…what I am looking for here is opinions on whether they would like to hear something like this or whether they would rather just have the music as is.
Me…I like to mash it up and remix on the fly etc. I put bits in and take em out all the time. So it could throw her etc.
I think the best would be to have a jam session, hear what she can do on her instrument and then let her hear what I do during my sets.
Then work out a sound or riff that would work nicely on a specific few tracks…and expand from there.
I am not into having it going on for a whole hour.
I wonder if she likes to do distortion and Drop D on that violin…
