The Anatomy Of DJing
This article scared me to write. For many reasons, really. The major, loudest reason is that the information here comes from mostly the decade I’ve spent being a DJ. While that’s not a short time by any means, in writing this article I had a bunch of imposter syndrome pop up. “What makes you think people are gonna want to read about this? What makes you think YOU have any value to add to this conversation?” etc, etc, etc. There was a lot. At the end of the day, though, I really, REALLY wanted to write this think piece. DJing is an art form and a way of expression that I love and have loved and I’ve wanted to talk about the way I think about it and approach it for some time.
As I said at the start, this article intimated the hell out of me. This isn’t intended to be a fool-proof guide or DJing 101-super-shortcut-to-stardom. This is one artist’s interpretation and thoughts on the craft, and his approach to it. I also don’t claim that this process is unique to me or that I came up with it. These are just the conclusions and approaches that I’ve arrived at for myself over many years of experimentation, rumination, making mistakes, playing around, and, most importantly, learning from those infinitely more skilled and experienced than me in the field. I hope it helps, or, at the very least, is a bit entertaining. Off we go.
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What Does A DJ Do?
On the surface, most people think of DJs as living jukeboxes. On a technical level, the mechanical skill that underpins the art form involves blending songs and pieces of music so that they flow seamlessly from one passage to another. This is the most basic interpretation of it and, in my opinion, misses a great deal of the magic and underlying mental skill involved in being a good DJ. At the core of a DJ’s skillsets is their taste, really. This is the thing that sets each of us apart and makes us have something unique to say with music. If I had to distill the work that I do when I’m DJing though, I’d break it down into three components, from least to most important - curation, education, and catharsis. Let’s talk about them.
Curation is the first foundation for crafting memorable sets. This is the process of packing a “crate”. For like 90% of the gigs I’ve done I’ve had a crate packed. This is essentially a playlist with songs that both work well together in terms of being blended memorably together but also that fit the theme or intention of the experience I’m trying to create. I’ll go into intention in a bit, just put a pin in it for now.
Education is a super important aspect of being a DJ. It’s a big part of the responsibility of the craft and the potential that exists within it. To be honest, this concept was one that I learned from one of my mentors, the very talented dubstep legend Joe Nice. The idea of using DJing to educate comes down to the fact that when DJing you have the opportunity to introduce people to new music and concepts that they might not have sought out or found on their own in an environment where they’re maybe more open to the experience. This is real. I’ve both used the platform to do this myself and also witnessed it be done to crowds live. One of the first shows I ever went to was a Skream show in Barbados. In the middle of a deep dub set, at the perfect moment, Skream spun into a Rage Against The Machine song. I was floored. At the time I noticed that a not insubstantial portion of the crowd had no idea what they were hearing but were into it. In that moment, their palettes had been expanded and their experience in life opened up a tiny bit in a way that’s unique to the craft.
Finally - catharsis. This, to me, is the most magical thing about this whole thing. It is the thing that made me fall in love with DJing as a whole. Bottom line - people want to be freed. Djing, dancing, movement. These are freeing things. The experience of doing a live set and experiencing one isn’t one-sided - it is a shared experience. The DJ and audience are on a journey together and, to me, it can be such a powerful, liberating experience. Understanding this and making yourself vulnerable to it can be very scary as an artist but it does make you much more capable of creating honest, emotionally resonating experiences.
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How To Think About Crafting A DJ Set
In this section, I’m not going to necessarily lay out a step-by-step formula for crafting a “guaranteed banger of a mix”. For one, I’m sure there are other places on the internet where you can find content like that. Aside from that, I’m not quite sure that that’s how I’ve ever thought about the art form, to begin with and, finally, by this point in writing this article I realize that I’m waxing mad poetic and not writing something that’s super dry and technical - so, there you go.
Intention
I start every set trying to anchor myself to my intention. The intention comes before even attempting to pack a crate. What do I mean by “intention”? Essentially, what is the environment I’m going to be playing? What’s the occasion? What’s the general vibe of the night going to be? These factors can sometimes limit or expand what I might naturally be able to do. I can do different things at a costume party on Halloween than I might be able to easily pull off at an upscale lounge night, for instance. Beyond those limitations/factors, there are also the aspects of what my brand is - what kind of DJ am I? What do I want to be known for doing? What sort of emotional experience do I want to curate for people? I think about all of these things before even beginning to pack a crate because, for me, it’s essential to have my intention set ahead of time. It IS my north star.
The Crate
We talked about the crate a few times earlier in this piece but now I’ll just set a few basic rules or things to keep in mind for when throwing your crate together. This is all based on the assumption that you’ve set your intention and it’s clear in your head. Okay, got it? Great. First up, is the acknowledgment that you think about your crate as essentially a virtual box of tunes. You’re not required to, nor should you aim to, play every single song in your crate over the course of your performance. Rather, it is a collection of tunes that are in line with your intentions. I usually pack two or three times as much music as the runtime of my set. So, if I’m playing for one hour, I’d have maybe 3 hours or more of music curated. At a minimum.
Don’t. Plan. Entire. Sets. I have a not-inconsiderable amount of social anxiety and so, when I first started doing gigs I would meticulously plan out my sets. In my general experience, this has been a bad idea that actually can result in WAY MORE ANXIETY than not doing it. I’ll get into why later. To be honest, the only situation, in my experience, where planning a set out from start to finish is both necessary and also doesn’t carry with it a huge amount of risk would be large-scale festival environments where the lighting and visuals are advanced enough that the visual team needs to be in-sync with the artist for maximum impact and the crowd is way more open to literally whatever experience they are given.
The Energy/Time Relationship
This was perhaps the most important technical thing for me to learn about DJing. There is an inherent relationship between the passage of time and the energy and focus of an audience. Good DJs understand this and play with it in interesting ways. What is this relationship? Honestly, it’s stupidly simple but it comes down to a couple of things - the energy of music versus the audience’s physical energy and ear fatigue come to mind as being the most important aspects of this relationship to me. On average, a one-hour DJ set can run the gamut of anywhere from 30-40 songs on the conservative end. This is a lot of sonic real estate to cover.
I’ll break it down really simply - the more hyped, aggressive, or busy a song is, the more energy it has - cool? This is a generally accepted statement, I think. By beginning to think of the energy levels of the music in your crates as a resource, it will change how you structure your sets. I promise. As time passes in your set, as people dance, they’ll likely begin to get a bit tired and need a bit of a break from movement. Aside from physical tiredness, there’s the idea of ear fatigue and boredom. For the average person, variety in a DJ set is what keeps it alive. Without some sort of meaningful evolution and change (this can sound different depending on the environment and genres), people will become bored. The same is true of low-energy music as well, by the way. Without some sort of a rise, the energy of the night and the crowd’s experience won’t make it past a certain threshold.
How should this information direct your efforts as a DJ? Movement. Plain and simple. Your set has to breathe. Imagine a bell curve plotted out by the energy of the music you play over time. That’s it. That’s the basic principle anyway. You can and should play with that curve but, for me, that’s what it boils down to. I try to set energy levels, rise to a height, stick around there for a bit, then come down to give people a break and sort of “reset” their ears and systems for another rise and payoff later down the road. This breathing and movement of your set is what creates engaging experiences, in my opinion. I would caution anybody reading this in trying to turn it into too exact a science, though. This is more of a loose framework that I’m aware of and keep in mind in the back of my head.
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Vulnerability, Crowdwork & Flexibility
We’re almost at the end of my thoughts on this whole thing. If you’ve made it this far, you’re a trooper and I appreciate you. Let’s talk about vulnerability for a minute. When I use that term I mean opening yourself up to having an experience on par with or even exceeding that of being in a crowd. As the curator and architect of the experience, you’re going to be creating from the most honest place when you’re locked into the emotion of the moment. This sounds really airy-fairy I’m sure but trust me, this works. On a deeper, more psychological level, if you’re up there having fun, moving around, and getting lost in the moment, it is THAT much easier for people in the crowd to loosen up. On a subconscious level, people take their cues from those around them and, as the DJ, if you look like you’re having the time of your life, which you should be, then the people experiencing your work are going to want to be a part of that. It makes it easier for strangers to let go of insecurity and inhibition.
Crowdwork and flexibility are key elements to tying up the art of DJing. What is crowdwork? It’s essentially the ability of a DJ to manage the experience and tailor it to the audience. Flexibility is intimately tied to effective crowdwork. The term flexibility here refers to your ability to pivot, adjust and change direction on the fly based on the unspoken feedback being given to you by the audience. This is the primary reason why planning out a set explicitly is a bad idea generally. I tend to plan my first three to four songs just so that I can get into a groove and then, from there, I’m winging it. When you plan your entire set out explicitly you fall into the trap of overcommitting to a vision that may or may not resonate with the crowd that night.
Don’t worry, I’m going to give you a little bit of a technique for crowdwork that I regularly use. You’ve gotta keep your eye open for the “sparks”. What do I mean by sparks? People. Generally, in every crowd, there’s at least ONE person that’s a spark. If you’re lucky you can sometimes spot one little group or several. Nevertheless, these are the people who are maybe a bit more extroverted and uninhibited, or maybe they’re really into the music, or really needed a night out. Regardless, they’ll be the people who show up WANTING to dance and have a good night. They’re committed to having a good experience. You’re going to want to lock into them.
Because these people are like sparks, lights, they draw others to them. You’ll notice that radiating out from these groups, the people in proximity tend to start moving and dancing more and more. This effect can cascade and lead you to a full floor that’s moving. By focusing on tailoring a good experience to the sparks you can give yourself the best chance of igniting the entire place. This is much easier and effective in my experience than trying to cater to every single person which, let’s be real, is kind of an impossibility anyway.
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Well. There it is. Having gotten to the end of this piece, I’m actually really glad that I tackled it. I have no real idea if any of this is useful or helpful but God, I really hope at least some of it is. There’s so much that goes into effective DJing that I know that I didn’t touch upon in this, and probably countless other things I’m not even aware that I missed out on, but when it comes to the fundamentals and what I think philosophically of the art form, this feels like my definitive thoughts around it. Thanks for reading my ramblings. Keep being creative, keep making art, and keep exploring yourself.
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Written by Colony (@itscolony)
