The Art of the Mix: A DJ's Journey - Lu Minier #0071

Transcript

[00:00:02.700] good morning good evening good night good afternoon sometimes it's easier for me to keep
[00:00:11.570] going than to quit life is real you know what i mean you have to go out there and put the work in
[00:00:18.300] and if you've never been in the pit at a nascar race do it the time you put in while no one is
[00:00:28.190] around will be what sets you apart when everyone is watching because a lot of times you'd be like
[00:00:34.640] oh yeah that's a cool little idea but once they really understand where you're coming from um
[00:00:38.720] the meaning behind it all in your heart what you really want to accomplish that's when people dive
[00:00:42.480] in they really get on board with it good morning good evening good night good afternoon whatever
[00:00:52.810] time you're listening in wherever you're listening from i still think it's so cool that somebody in
[00:00:57.590] another country can be right here in the room with us and stuff like that um just want to apologize
[00:01:03.410] for a little bit in advance we're breaking the nut we have two audio geniuses here with a fan
[00:01:08.950] running in the room and it's just it's just hot so you guys are going to get conversation with a
[00:01:13.330] little bit of backend noise. Oh, with the help of technology, we'll cut that out. You won't even
[00:01:17.990] hear it. We'll find an AI that takes care of that. But we do have Lou Minor, DJ extraordinaire. And
[00:01:24.490] when I say extraordinaire, Lou's story, I've watched him for 10, 15 years. He's hired me to
[00:01:31.090] do flyers at his events and publications and things that he has. And as a DJ, especially with
[00:01:37.910] everything trending in music genres every three to five years. Like you can't be known. I don't
[00:01:43.910] know if you can really niche down. So just to survive that for 15 years, um, we're both
[00:01:50.230] business owners outside of podcast guests and podcasters and lose on a call with one of his
[00:01:55.670] clients. And I said, you can come to my studio just so that we don't have any, you know, rather
[00:02:00.810] than you take it. And I don't want to record till after that's off your mind, but man, I got an idea
[00:02:05.210] And I'm like, OK, that's that's what it is.
[00:02:07.370] They're not buying a guy with some equipment that can play some music.
[00:02:12.400] They don't want to have to worry about audio at all.
[00:02:15.760] So you solve the problem of, you know, we'll start with what you do
[00:02:19.040] and we can get into the story.
[00:02:20.440] But one thing that you said, you said you had wireless speakers,
[00:02:24.680] battery operated in case they wanted music in this.
[00:02:28.600] Oh, well, we didn't even we haven't even thought of that.
[00:02:31.160] Yeah, it comes with experience.
[00:02:32.720] And well said, Tony, with the change of music trends over the years, especially the last even the last five years, let alone 10, 15 years, known you for a while.
[00:02:44.860] And and you will definitely not be in the business if you stay stagnant.
[00:02:49.680] You almost have to be a chameleon when you're a DJ because you always have to keep up with what's hot as far as music goes in the wedding scenes.
[00:02:57.580] There's always wedding trends that people are doing.
[00:03:01.120] um for example the newest one is like this really fast rapid photo op that uh couples want um
[00:03:09.340] usually the photographer will take pictures with the friends and family on the side they'll go to
[00:03:15.120] each table uh very like low key but it takes a long process of a long process but now uh it's
[00:03:22.560] a tiktok trend one of my couples saw it on tiktok said oh we want to do like really rapid really
[00:03:27.440] fast get it done in like a song or two um so in that case i play she's a maniac maniac the 80s
[00:03:35.480] song is really fast pace so so i get them going they all they'll go around the room and uh and
[00:03:40.840] do the photo op and uh and just keep it up with the music that's hot now and the uh and i've
[00:03:46.920] always been changing um the uh the way i perform too especially with um djs with musicians now we
[00:03:53.900] we're we're now integrating djs i was gonna i was gonna bring that i was gonna bring that in
[00:03:58.680] that's so that's one of the things we'll kind of quentin tarantino this one now you're doing
[00:04:03.320] fusions of the last project that you hired me to market was uh saxophone slash dj so kind of a live
[00:04:10.860] production yeah and i heard you talk through with a potential client about that before we go there
[00:04:17.220] i want to take a step back and just ask how many times did you just say i don't want i just want
[00:04:24.010] pack my gear up like is it a love of the music or what keeps you going is it just okay you're good
[00:04:28.590] at it and clients keep showing up yeah that actually sparked a new fire in me when we started
[00:04:34.850] doing fusions with musicians um djing alone is fine um and it's great but adding a musician
[00:04:43.010] just adds a different element of energy into the uh the atmosphere uh into the event and then thank
[00:04:50.230] you for helping me do the flyer and marketing for the event that we did at the diamond allentown
[00:04:55.110] we had a couple musicians come through and uh it's nothing like it in the lehigh valley where
[00:05:01.030] you had a dj play music alongside a violinist or saxophone player and a guitarist we had all
[00:05:08.610] three that day because we wanted to give the people a taste of what it's like um and if they
[00:05:14.650] like seeing that kind of entertainment um they could hire us for like their wedding their um
[00:05:21.290] sweet 16 a corporate event um and um thank you for putting that together on the flyer you you
[00:05:28.430] captured the essence of uh the live music i remember it like it was yesterday there was like
[00:05:35.550] a pink guitar i think like a teal saxophone and it was almost like a retro 70s not quite hippie
[00:05:42.870] almost like an upscale hippie vibe but it looked different it had colors that you don't see a lot
[00:05:47.750] out here it was on a black background so it was enough to pick up and say what's that and our
[00:05:53.530] brains know what the shape of instruments are since we're kids so i think it was super effective
[00:05:59.490] and now when you look back to say you did a prestigious event at the dime i mean almost
[00:06:04.870] every event you do now is a big deal it's it is it is um and just to add on to that design on the
[00:06:12.390] the flyer i love the simplicity of it because you could tell what it is from afar and so we
[00:06:19.350] um distributed that flyer on like um barbershops all the local businesses in the area and people
[00:06:25.570] who were just walking by they could see on the window like oh okay from afar this is what it is
[00:06:29.890] and if they're interested they will go up to it scan a qr code and whatnot um but yeah the live
[00:06:35.650] music and the events uh especially in the night life is not um a common thing is not you ubiquitous
[00:06:42.650] or around the area so we want to try to make it um like that and the start was there at the dime
[00:06:48.970] um unfortunately it didn't take off um so there is a a um a sad story there because the management
[00:06:57.430] um wasn't really uh actively trying to promote it um and i tried to follow up with them and it
[00:07:04.390] wasn't they didn't really follow up or had any interest in an event like that
[00:07:09.490] it was a success the manager was happy with the numbers we did bring in a crowd
[00:07:15.430] and and the bar did well it was a good attendance but uh but I think that it
[00:07:20.890] really they had other things in mind that's fine really listen happens all
[00:07:27.130] the time I build my whole business around it sometimes it's only three
[00:07:30.850] months six months a year sometimes for two months i join a team do some great work go from there cut
[00:07:38.610] a check and go from there it's a it's a it's it's i don't call it gig work because i've been blessed
[00:07:43.410] to have some some nice size projects but for the most part you proved it could happen like i'll
[00:07:50.410] tell you um i was just bringing him up one of my clients who's putting together a reality tv show
[00:07:57.500] for dominoes he hired a few professionals got it filmed kind of ran out of budget to edit and
[00:08:05.720] taught himself to edit i follow up with him i've been in touch with him over the year but you fast
[00:08:10.720] forward he's got as much gear as me if not more and he's getting into live streaming it not even
[00:08:16.640] cutting it so he's learning how to do the whole broadcast it's the sort of thing i feel that
[00:08:21.900] you build something and you prove it out once and then everything else comes yeah everything
[00:08:27.620] um doesn't always go according to plan the way you want to i got video content from it yeah you
[00:08:35.480] got content you got a flyer it was yeah it was good it was it happened and that way we have
[00:08:41.500] something to show for and maybe we could pursue it later down the road um but for those uh who
[00:08:47.280] are listening who try something it is not successful or doesn't lead into the trajectory
[00:08:52.180] that you want it to lead to um don't get discouraged um use it as a opportunity to
[00:08:57.960] learn from it and maybe pivot and go in a different direction or try a different area
[00:09:02.760] that could have been um the the factor that uh that didn't uh make it a complete success for
[00:09:09.780] the future it was success that day but it didn't continue um maybe it was because the the area
[00:09:16.260] maybe we need to try that in easton or yeah listen if it was a successful event by the numbers but
[00:09:23.940] didn't catch on it probably had nothing to do with anything in your control would have been
[00:09:28.340] any reason why it didn't kick off but that's what people don't realize with success how much
[00:09:33.460] luck is involved with it you know what i mean like i think of how many lucky breaks i've had
[00:09:39.820] or something where it's like you can't put it down to anything other than i was just in the
[00:09:43.760] right place in the right time and uh you know if if bringing music is a hard like music was gig
[00:09:50.460] work before there were designers everywhere i mean great talented musicians might make 150 bucks a
[00:09:56.120] night you know entertaining for a while and it's like it's not that it's not valued but now i'm
[00:10:02.300] sure you get this all the time well why don't we just put a spotify playlist on and let it rock
[00:10:07.740] like there's a couple do you get that there was a couple who came up to me and like i'm doing a
[00:10:12.940] wedding i'm just gonna put a spotify playlist and that's it and uh and it was actually uh one
[00:10:18.240] of my friends um is uh one of my friend's uh sisters getting married and um it's gonna be
[00:10:25.580] small wedding um but uh my friend was like don't do that hire a dj hire a dj i know guys names dj
[00:10:32.820] links um and so i got with uh with a couple and i asked them uh why they wanted to do a playlist of
[00:10:41.900] just music from a spotify or apple music and like oh we didn't we didn't we're not like party people
[00:10:48.440] we're not uh trying to make it into a big extravagant event and uh and i convinced them to
[00:10:55.120] to hire me uh and they also were low budget um and they didn't have a lot on their budget
[00:11:01.340] um so i worked with their budget as a family uh friend and i decided to um help them out and do
[00:11:08.740] the event um at a at a good cost and because i wanted to make sure that their event their wedding
[00:11:16.000] uh was a success it was memorable for the guests and um and just having a spotify playlist
[00:11:22.200] oh man it just puts a lot of stress on you especially if you try to do the free one and
[00:11:27.900] then you have ads playing during your wedding i couldn't imagine oh yeah that's imagine that
[00:11:32.480] would have been a disaster and and uh they're low-key people so i don't and i i reassured him
[00:11:37.840] that it wouldn't uh be like um like something that's uh like a coachella festival fest kind
[00:11:46.540] of thing or i'll keep it low key play the music that they want uh but also make the announcements
[00:11:51.060] um and and and keep it formal as a as a as a good wedding good event for them and um and i even had
[00:11:58.840] that for like sweet 16s too um especially um uh if they don't have the money uh or they they they
[00:12:07.500] went through the numbers and after paying the food the venue the photographer they don't have
[00:12:13.020] any leftover for the dj like oh we're gonna put on a playlist no and then once they pay the dj
[00:12:17.720] the guy who designed the invitation that did its job a year ago there's nobody's thinking of paying
[00:12:22.860] the the designer but no i did uh i learned that that quick i i don't do weddings for design wise
[00:12:30.120] um video when i just i i don't do it i will people have asked me i have but i don't all right all
[00:12:40.020] right it's uh it's it's a lot of stress it's a big thing and i think that you kind of have to
[00:12:45.880] have a reputation for doing that if i'm gonna make two to four thousand dollars and be booked
[00:12:51.180] out every weekend and edit with that pressure all throughout the week there's just so much that can
[00:12:57.220] go wrong that you know these are people's like wedding pictures like they it might be less now
[00:13:03.680] that everybody has hd video in their pocket like capturing the memories might be less valued but
[00:13:09.900] you know i'd love to edit i don't feel i'm the greatest photographer i'm into video i like video
[00:13:15.700] somebody tells me hey show up and make a video of our wedding we're gonna have a consultation
[00:13:20.500] like everything else there's a family friend with a low budget that's like look we don't got six
[00:13:25.300] thousand dollars for a wedding video but it's something we really want okay well can we not do
[00:13:31.380] three extra people and like not have a five angle kiss to edit up on 4k footage like there's always
[00:13:38.860] ways you can go back these cameras we're recording on now are like they were the shit when they came
[00:13:44.780] out but they're like 50 bucks you can get them off ebay they shoot 1080 60 you know a little bit
[00:13:49.900] about video it looks fine shout out to everybody looking at us on a tv screen bigger than uh 36
[00:13:56.140] inches you got like a 42 or 52 inch go in the comments and just go nuts tell me what size your
[00:14:02.600] screen your screen is i want to see something and most people view it on the phone so these cameras
[00:14:07.140] will go great on the phone but if you're watching on a 65 inch tv it might be uh a little choppy
[00:14:12.840] no do you know what it's bad when you think of uh i was uh watching i needed something to fall
[00:14:18.300] asleep on i'm going through and i was like okay carrie bradshaw i remember like i was way too
[00:14:22.980] young to be watching sex in the city but it was a show i watched and i asked chat gbt yo
[00:14:29.080] why is sex in the city so grainy like back then it was like 480 but not just that they said that
[00:14:36.040] was the style having grain added texture to your video so you go back you look friends all that
[00:14:41.380] stuff they had good cameras back then you know they had good lighting they could make it crisper
[00:14:47.300] but then when i thought that was intentional i'm like dude i'm gonna do it and i've shown up to
[00:14:52.100] video classes with those cameras i've made whole home movies on the cell phones um it's not it's
[00:14:59.420] not the tool it's it's the user i know a lot of photographers um and videographers that i've
[00:15:04.780] spoken to they said uh that is it's not the tool i mean it does help but the person behind the
[00:15:11.680] camera behind the turntables behind the bar whatever the wherever whatever position you're in
[00:15:17.480] yeah uh if you have to pick one or the other the expertise or the skill yeah you're gonna go with
[00:15:23.420] the expertise the expertise is the experience behind it on using that tool and you could i
[00:15:28.200] mean there's people out there making movies with iphones uh with just a camera phone and uh and
[00:15:34.220] and if you're using uh whatever tool you're using make it work um and just to backtrack
[00:15:40.260] No, it's limitations.
[00:15:41.780] Yeah, no limitations.
[00:15:42.940] See, what I think I get.
[00:15:44.280] No, I'm not going to cut you off.
[00:15:45.320] You're going to backtrack.
[00:15:46.040] Don't lose it.
[00:15:46.600] Oh, no.
[00:15:46.980] The original point was the whatever you're using, always provide the quality of service, no matter what tool you're using.
[00:15:58.460] Just like the person that didn't have a budget for the wedding.
[00:16:01.580] Just like someone who hired you for their event to design and market their event, but didn't have the budget in there.
[00:16:09.060] It doesn't mean that you're going to provide a less quality product at the end of the day because because you're I never put myself in a position where I have a big head and I don't get, you know, I don't get to that point where, no, I'm not going to do it because, you know, this is not in that league anymore or my ego is in the way.
[00:16:35.680] i'll still do small events i'll do events where uh it's uh the the cost is less than what i would
[00:16:44.040] charge um but it's um but i'll still put out the same amount of um quality out there um because
[00:16:51.260] some people are not fortunate enough uh to pay for a hundred thousand dollar wedding or event
[00:16:56.280] and um dj costs get up to a hundred thousand they could uh yeah easily yeah they could go up to
[00:17:02.260] well well i should say overall so like you get lighting lighting oh yeah yeah overall that that
[00:17:09.760] would be that would be within uh then the food and cater uh that would be within that yeah it's
[00:17:14.380] not going to be like a coachella side it's just going to be about a hundred thousand we're going
[00:17:18.400] to have links we're going to have dancing mascots maybe maybe jeff basil's wedding uh the dj was
[00:17:23.900] paid around you know a hundred thousand dollars but uh but now in this um but yeah we we i personally
[00:17:30.540] put out the same amount of work and effort into smaller events as i do with bigger events um so i
[00:17:38.420] got one interesting to go on on that um i was at a convention in florida about selling video and
[00:17:45.920] the guy goes and he shows two videos one of them was just your basic flat kind of still told the
[00:17:52.620] story the other one the guy looks at you with the camera lights come out of his lens he's smiling
[00:17:58.420] it's like not the craziest special effects but you know like the template stuff we see where
[00:18:03.100] people's eyes turn terminator and uh he's like you know this budget on the right is like let's
[00:18:09.700] just say he said three thousand dollars he's like this one over here is 700 but we're not gonna
[00:18:16.740] color we're gonna shoot it in automatic and it's like well why would you give them less why would
[00:18:21.680] you devalue he's like we're targeting clients that don't know the difference or don't care
[00:18:26.580] i sit there on uh sometimes like these cameras actually have less grain sometimes than the
[00:18:33.220] cell phone and when i go and i put it up onto uh i'll watch it with my mom and she'll have like a
[00:18:39.840] she has a nice tv upscaling it to 4k and it literally looks fine you could see it feels
[00:18:45.900] like you're here with us you don't want it to be like too crisp and then the light on her face is
[00:18:50.340] also like it's it's i i prefer to do an audio experience anyway but uh the client doesn't know
[00:18:56.560] or care so if all somebody wants is music you know if all somebody wants is hey i want music
[00:19:06.140] to play i would ask the person with the spotify playlist like is it because they want control over
[00:19:11.120] the type of music like i'd kind of look down their genre of what they like and sell them the value of
[00:19:16.740] them not having to think about it yeah the um the clients um they usually want to be involved
[00:19:26.630] as minimal as possible when they provide like a spotify playlist they just um they just want a
[00:19:33.690] spotify playlist for their for their event no dj no band no musician um but they i we educate them
[00:19:41.990] on what it would look like with a dj with a musician if they were actively looking for
[00:19:48.870] um a dj for their event they may not know hey we do fusion as well with a musician uh we do
[00:19:56.190] all these kinds of um lighting effects uh enhancements we call them uh for the event
[00:20:04.280] because a lot of them they haven't thrown an event in their lives before they haven't had a wedding
[00:20:10.240] they haven't had a suite 16 before so they don't know what's out there and nobody that has has a
[00:20:16.380] wedding is going to go crazy on the uh i love that word you used the extremities or the enhancements
[00:20:23.760] the enhancements yeah because that's that's such a like i can tell the level of client you work with
[00:20:29.300] i mean we both came we know what the 2005 to 2010 club scene looked like out here and just
[00:20:37.680] everywhere in general you know and even like trying to enforce dress codes or you know we
[00:20:43.100] we're the only place with sports bars where you can't wear sports cats or jerseys yeah that's
[00:20:48.040] wild man that's wild the uh they try to push the dress code at a dive bar
[00:20:53.400] that's that's uh yeah that's not gonna fly with too many people well it's like look you can create
[00:21:01.020] the experience of something pristine you really can you can do the white box of purple bow people
[00:21:07.400] are going to pay fifteen hundred dollars more for the same piece of computer just because it's an
[00:21:12.260] apple and jobs knew that and knew how to sell that but when i'm buying something that solves
[00:21:19.400] a problem somebody comes to me and says hey i just need a logo i treat them way different if
[00:21:24.200] they come to me and say hey i need a brand all right so you've done some research you're not
[00:21:28.620] using that word logo most people think they need a logo but really need a brand and they're going
[00:21:34.000] to say logo but you just start to pick up things about clients like okay so are you the owner are
[00:21:40.420] you in charge i'm in charge okay that's who i want to talk to because if you're the owner
[00:21:45.740] i can tell you i'm i'm too busy to listen to anyone's sales pitch at least till august september
[00:21:52.580] i don't have the time to add things on to what we already have going on so so as soon as you're
[00:22:00.580] talking about you you saw serato come along you saw the push play come along you saw the industry
[00:22:06.380] change oh yeah let me tell you something about technology it is amazing how fast it's changed
[00:22:15.800] over the last six years ten years when i first started i was started with cds um so i remember
[00:22:23.450] i got a pair of cdjs because at the time i was around 17 18 i wanted to get a pair of decks
[00:22:32.770] and at the time the cdjs just came out and this is early 2000s around 2002 2003 and so i decided
[00:22:42.370] do i want to go the old school route and get a vinyl techniques or do i want to get these
[00:22:48.310] brand new cdjs so i got brand new cdjs all cds they had the cd drive in there
[00:22:54.650] um and that's why if you see me scratching i scratch kind of like backwards um against the
[00:23:02.530] needle because traditional turntable lists and djs would scratch on the other side because i
[00:23:08.510] never had to worry about the needle um so fast forward into the software then um serato came out
[00:23:15.470] I think around 2003 or four.
[00:23:19.970] And so before that, I had a mix by year.
[00:23:22.270] Everything was the CDs beat matching and how to figure out all this beat.
[00:23:27.890] This song is around the same BPM as the song.
[00:23:30.610] So when I first started,
[00:23:32.910] it was all beat matching by year.
[00:23:35.290] And then Serato came out and you could see the waveforms
[00:23:37.870] and then you could sync and do all that.
[00:23:40.070] And I don't use the sync button.
[00:23:41.990] There's nothing wrong with it.
[00:23:43.990] but that's just how i learn i just ride the tempo yeah you gotta get in the field the tempo pitch
[00:23:50.330] pitch blend i've had a few masters on different topics we had alany on the podcast he's uh alany
[00:23:57.830] jay's the most viral character artist in the world i think he just passed like 12 million he's got
[00:24:04.130] like close to 700 some million views on one of his most popular episodes and he came in and spoke
[00:24:11.230] about the art of speed charactering and how it was very much practicing strokes and he still puts
[00:24:17.070] this stuff out on his social but it's practice drawing a circle you have to do it a thousand
[00:24:21.650] times and it's like he's taken principles of martial arts and applied them to characters so
[00:24:28.350] when you see people like um you know there's actually it's funny my coach will bring up djs
[00:24:33.970] i trained jujitsu i don't know if you knew but shout out to exalt jujitsu evan robinson
[00:24:38.490] decided he was going to be a dj um now when heaven decides something within a year and a half later
[00:24:44.830] it's fully incorporated it's exists there's a commercial building attached to it but you know
[00:24:50.510] he had a gym in a jujitsu gym and says you know i'm going to get some dj stuff now he has djs in
[00:24:57.050] the area reaching out to him saying do not charge less than 100 150 an hour you'll ruin the game
[00:25:04.680] you take somebody who's paid their dues and knows people i think part of a lot of the
[00:25:09.780] arts like uh you know how tied in with hip-hop djing is and things like that it's like
[00:25:15.480] you're in a group of mercenaries like i love all the club owners i still work with and i'll tell
[00:25:21.640] them like you guys are mercenaries 35 instead of 45 for an event that says 15 at the door
[00:25:29.860] i'm not in that like we can't we can't fight over ten dollars you couldn't you can now these djs
[00:25:36.950] back then were like guns for hire um they would just pick up any event any gig um no matter what
[00:25:43.710] the cost was and a lot of it sometimes was even for free just for exposure um the club owner would
[00:25:50.390] tell them um so and promoters would also um pay them very little because they have to get their
[00:25:57.870] cut to um but yeah going back to the technology of the early days i'm glad the software came out
[00:26:05.330] especially now they have stems where you can separate the bass line with the vocals and
[00:26:11.390] instrumental you could have an instant instrumental right off the bat uh before you had to actually
[00:26:17.410] purchase it separately for sure acapella instrumental no you could do with any mp3
[00:26:23.530] file now that's awesome now these dj softwares are so advanced um that you could take any mp3
[00:26:29.710] file as long as it's a good quality mp3 file uh put it on your deck and instantly just grab the
[00:26:36.950] acapella from it or take it out leave the bass line and the drums um there's four parts melody
[00:26:44.150] drums uh bass line and uh vocals um some softwares can only do three but uh but yeah technology has
[00:26:52.470] gone to that extent uh that that advance um and back in the day it was so hard uh just to even
[00:27:00.990] beat match a song without the waveform software i think that barrier of entry stopped people from
[00:27:06.730] even doing it oh yeah do you think serato or sync button or any of this stuff kind of made it too
[00:27:13.430] easy for people to get into the game or oh yeah it made it more accessible for the average person to
[00:27:19.630] get into djing and uh beat match and and learn the uh and learn just how to uh mix the song
[00:27:30.820] uh with the technology is so much easier and um and it's just a tool um those guys who have been
[00:27:38.840] i call them classically trained um they no matter what the software doing to get the laptop can
[00:27:46.320] crash they'll still be able to uh keep the party going with uh with maybe a vinyl record or a cd
[00:27:53.320] if they have cdj's it's popping a cd uh until the laptop reboots um or beat match i remember in this
[00:28:00.860] one situation where i was switching with another dj i was at the club and uh the for some reason
[00:28:06.940] his um his usb wasn't connecting to the controller that we were using so i had my laptop facing the
[00:28:15.140] audience so the screen was like facing the audience um i had to like set it a certain way
[00:28:20.080] and his laptop was on the other side and so we're like okay ready let's uh switch over no no it's
[00:28:28.280] not connected like oh great so i had to go around choose the next song come back around no waveforms
[00:28:33.820] i'm not seeing the laptop and i had a beat match by ear and uh and so if i didn't grow up in that
[00:28:40.660] era where i had to learn how to beat match by ear sure i would have been screwed i would have been
[00:28:44.560] train wrecking like crazy and we did that for like 10 minutes and it couldn't he couldn't get
[00:28:48.880] it working for like 10 minutes i had to do that three or four times and people in the audience
[00:28:52.980] like looking at me all crazy like what's he doing running around now you gotta look super calm so
[00:28:58.240] we we made it work and uh and that's one of those things where technology has has made it easier
[00:29:04.580] but it also handicapped uh some of the djs because if they're put in a situation where
[00:29:10.060] uh it fails um they don't have anything to they don't have the skills to rely on to um
[00:29:17.580] to beat match by year or keep it going if you don't got like a couple of these
[00:29:23.360] just in your pocket that disappears really quickly yeah it's funny i did a i did a reel
[00:29:30.280] the other day i got some action on it i said don't never lend loan one of these out it's like
[00:29:35.120] hanging out later you never get it back yeah yeah they started making whole lighter lighter
[00:29:40.460] leashes based off that sort of thing but it's insane i mean even if you think back then i don't
[00:29:45.900] know i don't i haven't been in a club nightlife but i can't imagine people smoke cigarettes like
[00:29:51.160] that not like they used to i've seen like cigar lounges they they've been coming up they've been
[00:29:57.780] popular i know there's some in writing i just i'd have to i'm sure if i would go to a lounge with
[00:30:03.500] 40 50 there'd be plenty of cigarette smokers i just i don't know if that's a generational thing
[00:30:08.120] like i can see people vaping at clubs but i'm not even going to talk about nightlife i've only been
[00:30:12.680] to like people my age uh my kids don't talk about wanting to do it like that was all there was to do
[00:30:19.780] when we when we came up with it but you know you have a new barrier of entry people have always
[00:30:24.520] said that design i think any creative industry is similar um i just i think that with djs the
[00:30:32.560] fact that there is like you said jeff bezos wedding picking songs very specific that probably
[00:30:37.360] that guy was probably on research for three to four months or some yeah you got to do due diligence
[00:30:43.660] man especially with those big bigger events you have to do your research uh especially with
[00:30:48.400] multicultural events too i do a lot of those um um family came from dominican republic i'm first
[00:30:53.640] generation here in the u.s so i know a lot of latin music so uh the company i work for they
[00:30:58.900] usually have me on these multicultural events um not only with um couples who are from latin america
[00:31:05.540] puerto rico um or dominican republic uh couples from they have family from russia from italy
[00:31:13.020] from uh from haiti too i know a lot of soca music in uh in bollywood uh play bollywood music uh had
[00:31:23.240] many events where um half the family were hindu um so i play a lot of like music typically that
[00:31:31.460] has heard from uh india um and uh so i love doing that with like uh you remind me i was in an uber
[00:31:40.700] the other day and it was a gentleman i believe he was from morocco he's moroccan and you know i
[00:31:47.560] asked him what kind of music does he listen to and he's like you familiar and i said well i bartended
[00:31:52.200] for years at a arab establishment we had a lot of middle eastern weddings persian things like that
[00:31:57.980] of like persian percussion yeah um it doesn't sound anything like that or what could we and
[00:32:04.100] just the fact that he's talking with someone about music he loves that's like if i went to like i
[00:32:09.620] don't know germany's a bad example is hip-hop's big out there but you know like i go somewhere
[00:32:14.060] and they're like oh you know and they name like an american rapper like you know naz we're like
[00:32:18.700] really into not and i'm like this would be i think that's like just an our area thing that's where
[00:32:24.320] the research comes in for uh for musicians or djs or anyone involved in that kind of event
[00:32:30.460] uh couples who are from morocco or from the arab nations um the last event i've done i helped out
[00:32:38.540] with like sound system because not only do i do dj i do like production work lighting sound systems
[00:32:44.200] for events for bands and uh they wanted for for that couple um half the family was from
[00:32:52.380] a nation over by iran i think is iranian and uh and a lot of their music is acoustic
[00:33:01.020] um so they had a some musicians there a lot of percussion acoustic a violin
[00:33:08.900] like finger drums percussion or with a stick yeah mostly finger drumming um like congas or
[00:33:16.900] okay and um a lot of his background music uh no no like drums per se no like typical like 808 beat
[00:33:28.100] yeah no that's what i'm talking about that's what i'm talking about it's more it's it's uh some of
[00:33:32.640] these younger guys do throw some some uh 808s to them and stuff i'm trying to think we're gonna
[00:33:37.320] shot you know you know dj teal teal haddad no i don't know dj oh man i'm not sure he's really
[00:33:43.100] into premiere like he's an actual dj but he also plays traditional syrian music like in in a band
[00:33:50.720] uh for some of the weddings and stuff that i did but you know when i see him on social he's
[00:33:55.840] scratching the premiere and i'm like oh like you just love that it's like a modern take on
[00:34:00.540] on that kind of music and that's that's great the couple i worked with they wanted more of a
[00:34:04.720] traditional uh music from that area and uh and very little vocals maybe some chanting here and
[00:34:12.100] there um but uh nobody thinks that at eight nine when the older folk go that you have to have a
[00:34:17.980] backup for the 20 to 23 year olds that are still hanging around the yeah the wedding we we uh that
[00:34:23.920] that's what we would say we'd say once we switch to american music start cleaning up
[00:34:27.620] it's when the older generations leave the grandma start packing up her her belongings and stays says
[00:34:34.060] bye to everybody and leaves but um yeah you got to keep you got to play something for the younger
[00:34:38.280] generation too and that's another thing about um about the music and our event space is you
[00:34:44.600] have to really know the crowd you have to work the room and and uh almost almost being like
[00:34:49.360] stereotypical so so as a dj you would like look at the room and you would see look at the age look
[00:34:56.600] at the race look at like a lot of factors and variables involved in like what kind of music
[00:35:01.100] and uh and you kind of like play to the crowd and see what works what doesn't pivot where you need
[00:35:07.240] too and uh that's why i love doing these uh multicultural events because i try to find a
[00:35:12.680] little pocket of of music that people get into and i like i like to do blends and remixes of
[00:35:18.600] some songs like i have a michael jackson song that's like a salsa so it bridges the gap between
[00:35:24.560] uh between the the americans and um your latinos uh so that's a good song to kind of like coast
[00:35:32.820] into and then go from and go into your like classic sasas uh and i love part of what i
[00:35:39.220] love doing is to uh make everybody have a good time even if they don't understand the music
[00:35:45.600] they may not understand the lyrics they may not understand um uh anything about it except for the
[00:35:53.120] fact that it has high energy they could feel it they feel the energy they they know it's if it's
[00:35:59.500] a good if it's like a high dance song or if it's a sad song um the energy is there so that's kind
[00:36:05.580] of universal with music right um so you don't think no matter what the tools are you think a
[00:36:10.700] thousand years from where there's still going to be people in charge with picking the music and
[00:36:15.120] being responsible for the energy with ai i i was at uh applebee's like a couple years ago and i saw
[00:36:21.980] like this little kiosk thing on the table says you know your your mobile dj pick your pick your
[00:36:27.600] choose your dj and i'm looking at them like yeah we're gonna be out of business
[00:36:31.200] so and i imagine with ai it's gonna be uh there's way to the point where where djs uh will be
[00:36:38.740] obsolete but there's i believe that you think a computer could read a room that's where i was
[00:36:45.880] gonna get to i believe that a computer won't be able to pivot the way uh a human dj uh musician
[00:36:53.300] our band leader uh is able to to pivot and uh engage what the crowd is feeling and uh the ai
[00:37:01.040] may be able to pick songs it'd be great at mixing and blending um but improvising it can drive
[00:37:08.160] it could read it could be hard for them for ai to like improvise on the spot like dj gpt read the
[00:37:15.280] room just scanning temperatures biometric scans okay i think i'm gonna play and then if it would
[00:37:20.580] hit we'd be like oh shit we thought there was some sort of soul in humans that connected and
[00:37:26.100] brought people together so that's it's interesting i always like to say
[00:37:30.300] guests i bring on we're not searching for the whole success just the fact that you're still
[00:37:36.180] doing it is a success but there's so many cross things and people can have a good experience
[00:37:42.020] listening to one episode you know and i'll steal this from diary of a ceo you get one free man i
[00:37:47.720] better not see percentage of non-subscribed that came back like they can tell if people are watching
[00:37:54.080] your content and not subscribing so definitely subscribe but the one thing everybody has in
[00:37:59.500] common is like they've learned a set of skills or experience that can move them from one thing to
[00:38:05.640] the next that improvising i got into live streaming now i only have a few under my belt but i'm paid
[00:38:14.380] as a consultant in this area to set all this up for people and do stuff it's like i didn't just
[00:38:22.440] decide i if i would get into dancing i wouldn't be able to six months later unless it was some
[00:38:27.280] very specific niche dance i just haven't danced my whole life but solving problems not having the
[00:38:33.720] tools that you always need not panicking we were streaming live from reggae fest yeah you think
[00:38:40.040] it's hard to control the dog and the fact that we had to pause the episode for footsteps you think
[00:38:45.040] that's hard to control you got people drinking there's fights breaking out like yeah i mean with
[00:38:50.040] ai is very linear um so being dynamic and and switching um your direction of where you need
[00:38:57.300] to switch it's going to be hard either in podcasts uh you know um ai could be in podcasts ai could be
[00:39:04.340] in djing um could be in many things but i use a i use a i dj on my spotify but it knows me though
[00:39:12.180] it knows me okay so it plays like the only time i do it is if i need to lock in for half an hour
[00:39:18.220] yeah and i look and i see four songs in a row i'll play them in my head and sometimes i just
[00:39:23.500] hit play and let those rock oh it's great for that situation yeah yeah if i if i have no time
[00:39:28.840] to think about what i want to hear i just want to know i want to hear something good yeah you can
[00:39:33.340] hit dj and it'll be like it talks to you which is kind of weird they'll say this is stuff you
[00:39:39.700] were listening to in 2023 that couldn't hit at a wedding with mass people but i think on a small
[00:39:45.120] scale maybe that'll be something they seek out as people's dj like if you go to an event let's say
[00:39:51.220] i'm going to a concert or here's one and i've been a futurist on there so since we're live we'll post
[00:39:57.520] this up and we'll put it out there 10 years from now five years from now if entertainment and
[00:40:03.180] music is still a thing companies pay crazy money for what music you listen to i know it's happening
[00:40:08.380] now but the dj ai is a new within the last year if i can have five years of what people listen to
[00:40:15.400] and didn't hit skip on like spotify has always been a numbers business not a music distribution
[00:40:21.220] the artist i mean even dj software now has ai included even the uh the one i use by um dj
[00:40:27.640] algorithm dj pro by uh algorithm um it has an auto auto mix feature in there and it's amazing
[00:40:35.060] um i utilize that for like ceremony or during dinner um when i have to step away and i use that
[00:40:42.720] to auto mix but when dance floor opens up all manual and uh for for ai in that kind of
[00:40:49.360] circumstances is amazing and um and but there's always going to be a demand for the nostalgic the
[00:40:58.680] classic you know people uh would want to see a dj spin vinyl records matter of fact um i did an
[00:41:06.200] event and the after party there was a dj spining spinning vinyl records because the client wanted
[00:41:12.760] a dj not to use a laptop not to use anything but yeah vinyl and to get that uh that distinctive
[00:41:20.660] sound that only vinyl can can produce uh same thing 10 years 15 years down the road where maybe
[00:41:28.280] ai has taken over the industry but there's also going to be a couple that'd be like you know what
[00:41:32.400] i like how they did it 50 years ago uh with an actual person and they used uh i think 90s early
[00:41:39.100] 2010s was the best era of recording i think that we got great i think the art of recording
[00:41:47.500] 50s 60s to be because the artist like in order for you to be somebody they were even getting
[00:41:54.100] you in the studio for you had to be so damn good and when you're that damn good i've been an audio
[00:42:01.160] engineer for somebody that damn good you gotta let them be comfortable and they can't tell them
[00:42:06.780] get closer to the mic it's like look you pay me here to do your thing you push the buttons like
[00:42:11.180] just like earlier when we were talking about technology and how accessible it is for someone
[00:42:16.180] new to be a dj now same thing with artists um singers rap artists hip-hop uh even musicians
[00:42:23.440] who play instrument only it's easier for them to do it now than back then i read an article where
[00:42:29.080] david bowie back then he'd do a take just do it one take a lot of his songs that you hear
[00:42:34.980] on the radio especially his hits were done in one take um now artists is i'll be surprised if they
[00:42:43.570] could do that now uh in one there's there are some there are some that's not a lost art doing
[00:42:48.930] stuff in one take you know what gets you good at one take when you got to pay for studio time
[00:42:53.470] yourself yeah i remember the one time in fact we got one hour let's do let's cram as many songs as
[00:43:00.990] possible yeah no no i think i paid for i was like you said it's what hour uh fifty dollars an hour
[00:43:06.730] all right here's 75 set a timer hour and a half late boom move through that cut it boom i'll take
[00:43:12.170] the edits i'll edit myself i just need to record it and i pretty much one take to my second album
[00:43:17.330] i mean obviously we could stop and do stuff i didn't one take the whole thing but every song
[00:43:23.870] i had every verse memorized it was already an album i had put out i wanted to re-record it
[00:43:28.890] with new energy oh you're an artist you're a rap artist back then yeah oh i didn't know that
[00:43:34.310] now i put a video out with my buddy about like uh mental health and just like a little story
[00:43:38.950] thing we put together like i did it and i was like well if i do it it's not going to be corny
[00:43:42.790] yeah but some might think it's cringe or whatever i don't care i was wearing this
[00:43:47.670] i literally am rapping with a hoodie with this logo in arts walk about for me it was uh sobriety
[00:43:54.230] the verse the verse was about sobriety but i when i write i don't do like uh like i'll speak to a
[00:44:02.050] demon like for me alcoholism but i won't call it thing i won't say it has to have a drink i won't
[00:44:07.930] do like i think that if you keep it general somebody who maybe struggles with something
[00:44:12.430] else can be like oh i overcame somebody struggles with depression oh it's about depression
[00:44:16.730] can you try to do it as many songs as possible within that time frame in the studio no this was
[00:44:22.950] this was 10 15 years ago when i did it all and look at this now and i'm not paying anybody for
[00:44:27.930] studio time no no no this was before i had a studio this was in college this was in the dorm
[00:44:32.790] room there was a producer shout out to b lee he actually produced a few people that are going on
[00:44:38.570] to be actors shout out to mdc matt chua he was there that day when uh we did reggae fest he was
[00:44:44.570] working something and he stopped by on the mic but can you imagine having open mics people stopping
[00:44:49.690] by starting it and you got cameras going trying to record it you're working hourly you gotta
[00:44:54.690] reason why i didn't do it this year like it was a great experience but then you had stuff and not
[00:45:01.090] just that you got friends texting you hey it sounds like shit over here and i'm like oh shit
[00:45:06.270] okay redo the thing so i would never again like i would run one and make sure everybody else stays
[00:45:11.570] comfortable but i wouldn't you had like the same work ethic as um as like tupac uh one of the
[00:45:17.550] videos i've seen where he's like trying to cram in as many songs as possible because he knew for
[00:45:21.550] that especially on that level i think it was uh interscope records i think he was at or universal
[00:45:26.410] one of those big records if you weren't adding to the energy he kicked you out yeah he's he crammed
[00:45:32.170] out like three or four songs an hour maybe more um and uh you had that same work ethic when you
[00:45:38.510] didn't have your own studio and that's uh and uh yeah that's with technology now artists could be
[00:45:44.810] in different states now in different time zones and they'll uh they'll put their verses together
[00:45:49.370] back then that's right around when i dropped out you had to be all in the same room to make a song
[00:45:54.410] especially if it's a collaborative uh song we were doing our jam sessions back when uh before corona
[00:46:00.790] before zoom google hangouts came out in like 2009 10 and i was like this is the future this is video
[00:46:09.770] chat and it was like you had to download a client and had somewhat of a decent computer wasn't as
[00:46:15.110] accessible but if you did if four musicians did that it was the only thing that had music in sync
[00:46:21.010] so we had a keyboardist over here and we literally would do jams i'm sure it sounded better now in my
[00:46:26.550] memory than it actually did back then but i've always been kind of a futurist looking at what's
[00:46:32.090] coming up with this next they're they're going to be talking about the the vibe coding um it's
[00:46:38.290] connected with a guy i want to get one of the first vibe coders on not i want to get all i
[00:46:42.510] got to do is figure out when and he'll be sitting right on that screen over there from san francisco
[00:46:47.470] but uh can you explain what vibe coding is yeah coding without knowing code using special new ai
[00:46:54.600] tools oh so so you're asking like gpt or ai hey i want to code um i want to make this program and
[00:47:01.800] it codes for you yeah oh nice i want to make this program here's the bare minimum boom does this
[00:47:07.360] work before you even connect stuff so you still have to use code logic you still have to have the
[00:47:12.100] tenacity of a coder okay and a lot of traditional coding like like and i feel you if i have a
[00:47:19.000] doctorate or an engineering degree you know in code or computer science i don't want some kid
[00:47:25.700] that doesn't know code to be able to oh man watch out anybody who's getting to it your job is going
[00:47:31.380] be taken over by by uh by a vibe by a vibe code no no you you still need human input okay they're
[00:47:37.940] gonna make apps that build apps but to make the wild stuff this stuff is very left or right like
[00:47:45.160] it can't figure things out like if i'm standing here and i say change the background it may not
[00:47:53.360] know this is the background or it'll change all of this because this is here rather than just this
[00:47:59.640] and the background okay so you have to tell it like the space outside the green line you have
[00:48:05.260] to think in a way that is finite that can't be and that's counterintuitive to the way that we
[00:48:10.520] speak on a podcast the way we speak as humans so ai won't be able to replicate uh the creativity
[00:48:16.780] and uh the direction that you want the project to look it just does the work um and yeah that is
[00:48:24.520] that is great that's great but um but it will never replace uh the the creativity part i mean
[00:48:31.140] once again no it'll never have a soul it won't yeah people people don't know what creativity is
[00:48:36.100] creativity is not i made a cool logo with a crown or anything like that creativity is oh i've
[00:48:44.080] troubleshot this long enough that if i tried this battery and this is a true story anyone listening
[00:48:48.920] And before we got this going on, I'm recording on my cell phone connected to an AC adapter.
[00:48:55.500] I wasn't sure if it was the camera or the battery.
[00:48:58.160] And I've concluded that one of my batteries just didn't charge.
[00:49:01.680] Had three of them on the charger.
[00:49:03.080] Didn't charge.
[00:49:04.040] I got nothing to do.
[00:49:05.300] We got cameras laying all over the place.
[00:49:07.120] Don't give up.
[00:49:07.400] We're already running late on time.
[00:49:09.500] We'll not lose.
[00:49:10.300] You don't give up on anything.
[00:49:11.520] As long as the battery dies, the camera is at a down.
[00:49:16.780] It just fell off the tripod.
[00:49:17.900] no doesn't matter you keep going that's happened and that mentality will take you far i remember
[00:49:23.940] many many instances where uh i would be in a situation where i would think man this is uh
[00:49:29.800] it's very discouraging and uh it's unsuccessful or i fell down and i thought i couldn't get up but
[00:49:35.660] if you have that mentality like you know what i'm gonna learn from this i won't lose next time it's
[00:49:40.420] just a learn and move forward so i love i love that uh that you bring that kind of energy to
[00:49:46.220] anything that you do um you've been on jamal knight's show no no i haven't been on that one
[00:49:51.780] i've followed him jamal's great and i've been i saw a couple of his episodes and um and yeah he's
[00:49:58.360] uh i've seen some of the guys local here that's been on and uh i always always enjoyed uh hearing
[00:50:05.120] jamal that that energy that he brings i've seen him at the dj cafe i don't know have you been to
[00:50:09.880] like the dj cafe no my buddy evan's telling me about checking it out i've seen you at the dj
[00:50:15.040] cafe that's where they set up the little battles anyone can come in that's right it's like uh it's
[00:50:19.700] like my my buddy johnny quest he organized it with uh mike nice mike nice is also hosting uh
[00:50:26.380] the dj cafe the international dj cafe i should say because it's in multiple states multiple
[00:50:31.360] um towns and the uh i love the premise of it it's pretty much like karaoke but for dj word
[00:50:38.620] it's like spoken word exactly djs yeah man you gotta and i think it's important to have that
[00:50:44.540] sort of community because like like you said barrier entry's so low i just started i mean
[00:50:50.280] i've been doing videos for years people don't realize you could find stuff 10 years ago that
[00:50:55.100] has my tag in the director i just didn't say i was the video guy started doing videos commercially
[00:51:01.120] out here and it's like i can't make money on branding and digital marketing than offer video
[00:51:08.380] at a hundred dollars a video like you just can't you can't you gotta work on your value you gotta
[00:51:14.140] respect the market that already exists because who's going to not pay a hundred dollars for the
[00:51:19.560] guy with talent versus the guy, like, especially if you're going to, like you said, even with low
[00:51:23.840] budget clients, we give them the best. I don't always give them the best. I give them what they
[00:51:28.300] need. I'll talk them out of like, uh, and you get that from sign companies. Somebody comes into a
[00:51:33.680] sign company says, how much is it going to cost to make a sign without thinking? I tell them a
[00:51:37.920] million dollars million. What? You can't be serious. You joke with me. Yeah. I'm thinking
[00:51:41.900] we're going to go with diamond Ruby encrusted. We're going to use real emeralds for this. No,
[00:51:46.140] no, I don't need all that. Okay. So what's your budget? Like always started a million dollars and
[00:51:51.920] bring it down. If somebody says, well, I don't know, I don't have a budget. What does it cost?
[00:51:56.660] Let's diamond. I'll show up with the drones. I'll scratch on drones. My, my, I'll be on a cloud like
[00:52:02.600] Kirby and my drones will scratch from here, but that's going to cost you, you know, the, the
[00:52:07.260] training, this stuff. And I think when you educate clients and let them know they can make the
[00:52:11.540] decisions is they'll go and talk to their spouse on what's in the budget what's not but now they're
[00:52:17.700] not gonna go be like you know what we didn't really need that uh green foam you know we paid
[00:52:22.380] we're honest with them they we we try to really understand their vision on uh on what their
[00:52:29.860] expectations are and look at the venue too because some of the lighting may not work at a venue so
[00:52:35.760] So we're not trying to upsell them to get intelligent lighting and this kind of lighting, cold sparks, because they want that rustic feel, especially if they're at a bar and venue.
[00:52:51.240] It's going to take away from that.
[00:52:53.520] So we look at the color.
[00:52:55.140] Yeah, we try to look at the venue, see what their expectations are, what kind of vibe they want to go for for their reception, and go from there.
[00:53:05.760] and make decisions on what to suggest that will complement their vision
[00:53:12.160] and make it a success because we don't want to give them all this stuff,
[00:53:18.720] make a ton of money, but we're not in it for the money.
[00:53:22.210] We're in it to make sure that their vision is what they expect
[00:53:28.570] and to get the most out of their event for their guests and family.
[00:53:33.790] um so so i really try to get to know them ask them questions see what their um what their
[00:53:39.790] background is like what what what kind of events they've been to before um to gauge uh to ask what
[00:53:46.510] what worked uh what what they've seen uh in the past events that they want their their new their
[00:53:53.150] event and um and go from there and and that's where we get to the point where we suggest this
[00:53:59.050] will work this will look good this won't look good yeah once they trust you as the expert and
[00:54:03.330] the value and and and and money and that's secondary um first is is giving them exactly
[00:54:09.930] what they want um and going back to um given give building up value and um and going back to like
[00:54:19.970] the dj cafe is a great community where we could help people who are just starting uh to mix and
[00:54:27.830] uh and perform to kind of cultivate that kind of skill in them and to help nurture that skill
[00:54:35.930] and to help them build value so down the road they could charge two three four thousand dollars
[00:54:42.270] an event uh for bigger events um if they want to um but you got to start off like at five hundred
[00:54:49.150] dollars eight hundred dollars an event i think there's a there i think what's been able to allow
[00:54:53.710] me to move in a couple different like a respecting the game but like you said if you got no reviews
[00:55:03.040] no case studies but you got the same dj mixer and you think that gets you the four thousand dollars
[00:55:09.380] that that guy gets that guy's probably could be charging seven thousand but he's still trying to
[00:55:14.740] work with people it's just sometimes it's like guys i'm so busy when i tell you that right now
[00:55:20.280] doing this podcast i missed at least three client interactions for whatever reason that's how it's
[00:55:25.020] been lately uh working on fixing that problem whether it be through ai or hiring somebody but
[00:55:30.940] everybody deserves the time when it's their time to do it so i always what my clients tell me
[00:55:37.420] nowadays is charge enough that you're going to feel comfortable doing this yeah i get mad at
[00:55:42.930] the cheap time you know time is something that is everybody knows it can't be replaced
[00:55:49.580] uh it's the most valuable thing that's why the government when they try to punish you they use
[00:55:55.660] time because time is something that uh you is invaluable in many instances uh so take that
[00:56:04.500] seriously and put your energy and efforts into um using your time wisely either either to educate
[00:56:10.840] yourself um calls with clients educating others investing in others um in the dj community that's
[00:56:18.220] why i love what johnny and mike nice is doing because they're using their time to make sure
[00:56:24.540] that these up-and-coming djs have a place to shine and learn from each other and network
[00:56:29.520] and uh it's great what they're doing in lehigh valley uh much respect and shout out to to mike
[00:56:36.380] nice and johnny quests um and uh it's even jamal was there he uh and got to veterans not just not
[00:56:44.860] just like new djs but veterans too they'll they'll come through drop a set and i mean i'm not a dj
[00:56:51.160] and that's not something i plan on learning sometimes i'm like man my mind like this would
[00:56:55.500] be a crazy mashup i'd love to learn the tools i love listening to just dj mixes sometimes more
[00:57:01.020] than listening to produce songs because that's the way my mind works i like to blend things i
[00:57:05.920] like to see symmetry between stuff so like you get like uh some of these newer djs taking an old
[00:57:11.360] michael jackson and throwing it in with phil jackson and chopping up the i can feel it feel
[00:57:16.280] it i'm like yeah that's that's dope like that's that's dope and at least they created like i can
[00:57:21.940] tell when that person's in their flow and they're moving their stuff they're transferring energy
[00:57:27.760] it's not just pushing a play it's not just pushing a button the dj the dj brings the people brings
[00:57:34.140] everything and i just uh i wanted to take a look i thought it was great what they were doing down
[00:57:39.040] there if you want to shout out some information on the the dj yeah i believe as well as like your
[00:57:44.280] socials and stuff we're going to start landing the plane yeah i believe they do it like the last
[00:57:48.140] sunday of every month um at the uh the democratic uh club in in bethlehem um and uh they also have
[00:58:00.450] done it at uh what was that place uh the wooden wooden match that's what i heard so they they've
[00:58:07.450] on an event there uh but yeah follow them on things like international dj cafe on their
[00:58:13.750] instagram or facebook um johnny johnny quest um dj mike nice if you look him up um follow them
[00:58:22.650] they'll they'll give you the schedule of their their dj cafe and um it's great it's great for
[00:58:28.390] for someone who's uh just started or someone because there's no judgment zone as far as i
[00:58:35.250] no no judgment no judge they'll give you uh i don't know 15 20 minutes uninterrupted you do you
[00:58:42.410] if you mess up that's fine continue mixing afterwards other djs will help you uh kind of
[00:58:49.610] give you tips and tricks on on how to uh mix better and it's all about bringing us up um we
[00:58:57.730] need that in the community and especially in a uh and nowadays where a lot of guys are more
[00:59:05.290] closed in um and they're no they don't share as often as they used to uh and i'm talking about
[00:59:12.250] knowledge i'm talking about even music too i'll swap music with someone if they like what i played
[00:59:16.750] oh i love that mix um or that that uh that edit can you share it i'll gladly share the edit no
[00:59:22.870] you don't have to give me anything i'll love to share it and uh we're like exploring human
[00:59:28.290] connection through djing man yeah yeah the music the music is the glue that that uh brings us
[00:59:34.470] together then uh afterwards we kind of network talk and uh and and just uh talk about everything
[00:59:41.170] you know it could be just uh personal struggles uh with with the music industry and djing or
[00:59:47.830] um it could be uh equipment too like we talk gear we're really we're really like uh i'm i'm
[00:59:54.790] especially a nerd when it comes to like sound and lighting so we talk about that as well podcasters
[01:00:00.370] uh for what do you mean like uh five mics like because i've actually done groups like this for
[01:00:07.630] public speaking it's called toastmasters is there something for podcasters where
[01:00:12.150] that remind me of like drink champs uh i love what they do and it's a bunch of people
[01:00:17.370] um some of them are more like host and uh and and some of them are like the artists with their
[01:00:24.310] friends but it's hard to like yeah it's the way you envision it um similar to uh the uh dj cafe
[01:00:32.090] bringing it uh together as a community i i think that's something that would work maybe live uh
[01:00:40.290] maybe that'll be that work have you ever seen like um artists or the show like kill tony as
[01:00:46.190] it's like a comedy i'm familiar with the format i don't watch it so i follow a lot of comedians
[01:00:51.570] so i know what kill tony is but yeah that that might work for podcasts as far as the format
[01:00:57.090] because they'll have like a host and then they'll have random people just come in
[01:01:00.510] even early kill tony that was well produced and that was yeah they'll give those comedians
[01:01:05.950] uninterrupted minute to do their their uh now you got a whole show and stuff i'm just yeah let me
[01:01:12.630] let me not let my brain go down that way that may be a a new endeavor for you man next season you
[01:01:18.230] have a open podcast with a random guest come through do like a 10 minute 15 minute interview
[01:01:24.730] boom next one next one like rapid fire or even just like i like the focus group aspect yo dude
[01:01:30.310] pull the mic a little bit closer stay in that warmth i'm not telling you my bad okay if i can
[01:01:34.690] command the voice like that that's great now i'm here tickling the faders it's going to be a good
[01:01:39.190] interview it'll close out are there any other like socials or closing thoughts like if you could go
[01:01:44.050] back to when you decided to go analog or you know with the whole social media that that's been that's
[01:01:52.400] been very um very instrumental uh and it's in in a success of of what i do and and as far as like
[01:02:01.220] other people too and in our industry it just it's a great gateway for us to show our talent to
[01:02:08.160] clients and um and a lot of times when we do on consultation calls they say oh we saw your
[01:02:15.080] instagram we saw your video on youtube that um you do this kind of work i love the setup because
[01:02:21.140] not only do they hear us they see us but they also will know what the presentation looks like
[01:02:28.080] the setup the lighting um and and we'll showcase like moments at these events um they'll look at
[01:02:35.060] the video oh i like how they how they did that or it will generate ideas for them for their own
[01:02:41.180] events um i love how social media does especially with stories to the stories and reels um uh and
[01:02:48.200] that's another uh great thing about technology is the the social media aspect of it it helps so
[01:02:55.160] many people out um in our industry uh to to showcase what we're about uh i know earlier
[01:03:03.180] in the days like djs would do mixes and they would like showcase and do like short reels
[01:03:08.360] transitions uh do wordplay now wordplay tone play um and have the 360 cam so they'll they'll change
[01:03:16.100] the angle for on them and then change it for the reaction of the crowd um that's pretty that's
[01:03:21.640] pretty uh a nice uh nice story or format that they do on on social media um but back then early
[01:03:30.020] 2000 we didn't have none of that a lot of it was like word of mouth um and and i love the fact that
[01:03:35.720] we could now download reliable mp3s i could tell you a story back then when i first started uh djing
[01:03:43.340] and one of my first weddings i was like maybe 20 21 years old and this is a time where napster and
[01:03:50.420] limewire was out we could download music uh on those um p2p those yeah p2p those those kind of
[01:03:58.520] software um to download music and it was always um something where it was they would do a soldier
[01:04:06.180] bore you yeah because it was like oh am i gonna get a virus or am i actually gonna get the song
[01:04:11.340] and i remember the one writing where i downloaded the first dance song and i downloaded it off the
[01:04:17.240] limewire and i listened to like the first couple seconds i'm like okay this is a song got it uh
[01:04:22.780] But the thing is, when I played it, only the first minute of the song was audible.
[01:04:29.460] The last two minutes was just mute.
[01:04:32.360] But on the file, it says it was like a three-minute song.
[01:04:35.060] No, you've got to listen to it all.
[01:04:36.120] So that's the thing with downloading music from that time, that era, it's unreliable.
[01:04:42.840] It could be a completely different song, or it could be just like the first couple seconds of the song,
[01:04:48.040] and then the rest is just mute.
[01:04:49.780] So that was the learning curve.
[01:04:52.080] I will never do that again.
[01:04:53.240] And now all the music I get is from Apple Music, from reliable DJ record pools.
[01:04:58.640] Yeah.
[01:04:58.840] I mean, for the people that stuck with it, it makes the world easier to do stuff.
[01:05:03.120] But it doesn't, like I was just with a, you know, client wants to use ChatGBT for a logo.
[01:05:09.020] That's great.
[01:05:09.540] We can get really specific, but it doesn't make less work or less time.
[01:05:13.460] Anybody out there that knows how to show me how to just put a prompt in.
[01:05:16.480] And if you send me anything that looks janky, isn't vector, can't be used for actual commercial application, then save your time.
[01:05:25.800] But if AI is to the point that you could just get a good print ready vector logo, cool.
[01:05:32.780] When we get to that time, it's going to be so difficult to use that I don't know, figure it out.
[01:05:37.900] I can't predict the future.
[01:05:39.480] I started talking about AI earlier on the podcast when ChatGPT first came out.
[01:05:44.480] I said this is going to scale stuff.
[01:05:46.040] i'm using it for podcast things the whole world's going to be using this it's going to be just like
[01:05:50.360] how we talk about microsoft excel we're going to talk about chad gbt and it like when semi-viral
[01:05:57.300] i think that one had like 17 something thousand and then one of them had like
[01:06:01.730] like a hundred thousand with like 30 some thousand likes talking about ai but i'm like
[01:06:06.790] that'll be a different podcast like there's the the mystical of what ai can potentially do and
[01:06:14.370] all the propaganda is selling those like we got this thing in a box that can just read the room
[01:06:20.410] and make a dj stuff and you buy it and it's like it might be close it's seeping ar seeping into
[01:06:26.010] every industry that i know of um except maybe the farm industry and i mean even that i don't know
[01:06:33.030] if that's it is it's super in the farm industry and it was 10 years ago because i know farm is
[01:06:40.250] like heavy heavy and labor but i'm sure they'll just call it machine learning no robots that will
[01:06:45.090] do the the heavy lifting of the hay and even even simpler even simpler let's get a reading of how
[01:06:50.530] much water the plants need before we put how much water sprays out so yeah it's just sensors from
[01:06:55.590] here there's literally a we got to end on this because i was baffled and this is the thing like
[01:07:00.410] how you connect through people through music i've connected to an entire life outside of people who
[01:07:06.310] normally are where i come from by having the design conversation that client we were talking
[01:07:12.130] to before i've tasted some of the best steak in the world working on an account with them so it's
[01:07:17.390] like i um you gotta stay with the human factor you gotta stay with like what is it that that
[01:07:27.370] takes me and puts me out there why am i getting better at this you know i just think it's
[01:07:34.250] important to remember it's that music it's the connection it keeps you grounded keeps you
[01:07:38.930] humbled you stay with the game you you grow from there but they called machine learning machine
[01:07:44.870] learning 2015-16 like they've been training this stuff for a while but hey do you have any socials
[01:07:52.230] or anything like that that you want to drop um yes find me on instagram dj links um on uh instagram
[01:07:58.870] and i'm usually on there and same thing with facebook i try to keep all the platforms the
[01:08:04.830] same so it's easy to find me so dj linx and um yeah add me and see what i'm about and uh yeah
[01:08:13.550] reach out if you need a dj for your event cool thanks you so much thank you talking second off
[01:08:19.170] mike but i'm gonna kill it man thanks so much thank you for listening to another episode of
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