Do you DJ / perform on a regular basis?

Verbal · Post by **Verbal** » Wed May 21, 2008 3:40 am

Do you perform and/or DJ on a regular basis? Are you local or do you perform in other cities?

I'm interested in hearing how you got to where you are now. I'd like to hear how you made a name for yourself and how you started getting gigs and how you get gigs now.

SuperBassMexican · Post by **SuperBassMexican** » Wed May 21, 2008 7:26 am

I'm still in progress. I haven't completed a first track in live yet.

abletoon · Post by **abletoon** » Wed May 21, 2008 7:48 am

my best advice to begin with is to play as many free parties as you can.
this will help get your name about and also put u in contact with other similar DJ's

theres 3 main ingredients to get asked to play repeatedly

1: have a good set that flows well
2: be a nice person
3 dont take yourself too seriously

eraanexact · Post by **eraanexact** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:32 am

I recently started playing out live just a few months ago, after having not played live for about 12 years (of course back then I was in hardcore bands and didn't know anything about electronic music).

I know having two other people in the band helps a lot, as they have other connections and we can pool our little collection of friends that can get us shows, etc etc.

Being nice and not taking yourself too seriously is a big plus as well! You'll get asked back and treated far better that way!

grizzler · Post by **grizzler** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:41 am

Just started getting some good live gigs.

I just DJ'ed as many parties for free as i could got my name about. Then people started to give me a little bit of money for djing which is always a bonus. But when contacting big venues noone was interested. Until oneday we sent a song into a local radio station and it was chosen for hottest record of the week. Combined with a club offering us our first big live set! People have started to get interested and its just starting to kick off !

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:58 am

I DJ/VJ private/corporate work. And although I realize that many of you would rather gouge your eyes out with a rusty spoon, for me it's fun, challenging, and I like making £200 an hour. It buys me time for the more fun things in life, and lets me spend time on more creative noncommercial work.

My advice - have fun, be genuine, do what's in your heart, be reliable and a nice person. Same as in most aspects of life!

And check your ego and 'look at me' at the door. You're a lowly DJ, for chrissakes, playing somebody else's music. Leave the ego to the musicians!

see the light · Post by **see the light** » Wed May 21, 2008 9:25 am

Playing live kinda worries me - i have the set ready to go, it's just my musical background is in Hardcore Punk around the Southcoast of the UK so moving into IDM/Glitch/Techno is foreign to alot of people within the 'scene'...i don't know many people involved in the live electronic side of things down here

Although i played an alldayer last year with just Ableton and Controller...not everyone quite got it which i found off putting.

pepezabala · Post by **pepezabala** » Wed May 21, 2008 9:46 am

You need to get in touch with people that organize parties/promote concerts/ manage other bands or acts or djs whatever.

You can also just go to venues and ask there how to get a gig.

You can make friends with another band/DJ whatever and they might let you do warm up at their gigs.

You probably have to play for free a couple of times until you get an invitation for a paid gig.

Verbal · Post by **Verbal** » Wed May 21, 2008 3:21 pm

hambone1 wrote:I DJ/VJ private/corporate work. And although I realize that many of you would rather gouge your eyes out with a rusty spoon, for me it's fun, challenging, and I like making £200 an hour. It buys me time for the more fun things in life, and lets me spend time on more creative noncommercial work.

My advice - have fun, be genuine, do what's in your heart, be reliable and a nice person. Same as in most aspects of life!

And check your ego and 'look at me' at the door. You're a lowly DJ, for chrissakes, playing somebody else's music. Leave the ego to the musicians!

Can you describe what you do more? And who you do it for and how you make 200/hour.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Wed May 21, 2008 5:37 pm

Verbal wrote:Can you describe what you do more? And who you do it for and how you make 200/hour.

It's weddings, corporate parties, birthdays, charity fundraisers, etc.. the kind of stuff that most youngsters with a closed mind wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. I'm kinda glad, tho... no competition! We're starting our own themed ticketed events this summer, which I'm really looking forward to.

I like the challenge of using Live to choreograph and perform the music, video, lighting and cameras with various MIDI controllers, do on-the-fly remixes/mashups, live percussion, etc, and I love getting paid to spin my favorite tunes!

www.partyup.co.uk

hacktheplanet · Post by **hacktheplanet** » Wed May 21, 2008 5:56 pm

As a DJ/PA, about twice a year, in Seattle/Anchorage/Chicago. In my band, about once a month in Chicago.

The DJ/PA stuff is ALL word of mouth and networking, built up over a few years and many, many beers. Right now, I'm practicing hip-hop/mashup DJing so I can play at bars here in Chicago and hopefully make a few bucks on the side. The band stuff is from our guitar player, who is good at networking, and has had lots of experience gigging before with bands for like 10 years.

djadonis206 · Post by **djadonis206** » Wed May 21, 2008 6:02 pm

I get to play house and tekno about once a month and indie rocker dance music about once or twice in that same month

I've been djing in Seattle since 1998 - I used to throw really big raves and club nights but that ended in like 2004 or 3 - can't remember

I don't really do much to promote myself because djing is a hobby and I treat it as such

It's a great stress reliever and I like to collect all kinds of bomb music so...

I'd love to play every weekend, but there's more important things in my life than staying out all night kicking it <- which is what I used to do

imagine playing 3 crackin' gigs and not remembering nam one <-- that was a long time ago and I'm not really in a position to go back to that

three · Post by **three** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:20 pm

my advice would also be to get into it small, playing people's parties or whatever. Assuming you get booked for a huge club, you're likely to bomb your first set there - just too much unfamiliar - and hurt your reputation.

I'm not trying to insult you, just saying that it takes some practice to learn to groove with the crowd and interpret what they're telling you. When everybody's just sort of grooving and chill, you need to be able to interpret if they're bored, or if they hope the track will never end.

One thing I should mention is that it's very hard to break into without knowing people in the scene. You need to know people who throw parties to get in with them initially.

HTH,

Chris