Sunday DJ Ramble
Someone has asked me before how I get to all this stuff.
And this is not a LinkedIn-style pat-yourself-on-the-back post. Just trying to set up the fact that it takes work. A lot of people want to do it, and they don’t want to do the work.
Obviously, that is as old as the hills. Everyone knows that old thing.
But I would also say, if you want to DJ, like, that’s what you want to do, there’s so much cheap stuff out there that sounds so good.
You could buy a Mackie speaker for under $200 on Craigslist. You have a computer, and then for $150 you could find some ratty old DJ controller that maps perfectly to djay Pro.
And you’re on your way.
You spend a weekend watching tutorials and you’re a DJ.
So basically, you have no excuse. Not that there are ever any excuses. But it’s never been easier.
If you’re a person who wants to be a DJ, the world is your oyster. There are so many places that want a DJ.
I used to put ads on Craigslist saying “DJ available” in the community thing, and people would call you. Somebody wanted me to do their pool opening from like 6:00 to 7:30 on a Friday night.
But look, those are the kinds of gigs that you have to take at first. Or every friend wants a DJ at their whatever. Keep the shit in your car and do it.
It is the easiest thing. It is the shortest path to being out playing.
And what I mean by that is, you can get up and running instantly.
And if you’re streaming, you can just take somebody else’s Spotify playlist and arrange it by BPM, and you’ve got your whole thing planned out.
You can even learn how to just use your crossfader and it’ll mix the music in time. And you can just have a bunch of random tracks, and it’ll work.
There’s just no excuse. And the one thing you can depend on in the world is that other people who want to do it will not do the work.
When I did my Europe trip with all the electronic people, after we came back they got to know us and were like, “Oh, you play guitar. You sing.” That takes years.
But you can get to 80% of being a DJ in a matter of days. The other 20% is like anything else. That’s the razzmatazz. And you have to be able to pick good music. But I would assume that anyone reading this can pick the music they want. Like, you can put a playlist together.
And the cool thing about DJing with Spotify is that once you put that playlist together, you can keep growing it, because it’ll eventually start suggesting really good stuff if you work with it long enough.
Old and tired, like I was? (I was getting old and tired of not being the kind of musician I wanted to be.)
Change it.
And DJing was hard. Like, so much harder.
But now it’s real easy. And you can do it with a trip to the pawn shop on your lunch hour.
Modern man, or the modern woman, or whoever, you’re out of excuses.