DJ Life Weave #?
One way to look at the whole DJing thing is whether you want to look at people’s fronts or backs.
Personally, as a bassist, I wanna see the backs of people. I wanna be making things happen without being looked at directly.
This is my issue with playing solo shows.
And I think this is a binary thing for a lot of people. You are either lead guitar, lead singer material, or you are bassist material.
I think sometimes we can all do both, but generally, I think you pick a main lane.
So, are you going to be a club DJ playing the big spinny decks and looking all cool, or are you going to be a mobile DJ party guy, where you’re elevating everything?
One of the things I tell people about being a bassist is that you’ll know when I mess up. You won’t know it’s me, but you will feel something not awesome happen.
And when I’m making everything better, you won’t know whats what, but you’ll know that everything’s better.
And this is probably a good way to decide, if you’re looking at being a DJ, which way to go.
Do you want to be the center of attention, or do you wanna push from behind and elevate?
I’m thinking about all this because I had a gig yesterday for a party for the first day of school for a bunch of graduating senior high school girls.
I knew probably a third of the people, and at a show like this, you have to be 51% for the parents, 49% for the kids.
I think I got the mix right.
Probably could have played more for the kids. But they weren’t there that long, and sometimes you have to pick one thing and go with it.
And if the parents are paying and booking, you wanna do right by them nine out of 10 times.
I think by nature, this has always been the kind of musician and performer I could more easily be.
But I also challenge myself to do stuff that gets you out of your comfort zone.
This is where my acoustic solo show lives.
Where you’re out there, kind of pants down, staring at the world.
The thing I like about stuff like this is, I struggle with my voice—my singing voice—if I don’t use it.
But if I use it, I get super confident and sing better, because I know when I’m doing well.
If I’m not into it, lots of pitchy awfulness.
This is all to say that when you’re trying to live a musical life, you have to have so many jobs.
So you’ve gotta kind of separate what works and what doesn’t, and go with it.
Working with bookers is good for me for DJing, but it’s not ultimately where I think the best shows and money are for me.
I’m trying to connect the dots with these party planners.
These kind of folks are who really help bring home the bacon, ends up with gigs that fit better, and happier JD and happier buyers.