Been Dj'ing a lot in Seattle!
Yoooooo it has been a minute since I have posted any new content on here. First things first, the new website has been getting way more traffic than my last site so that is a great step. I have been getting a lot of Indian DJ requests for events throughout the summer into next year. In addition, I have really been putting myself out there in the Seattle night life scene to try to get some more gigs and it has been working.
Back in April, I worked with my boy Alvin on an “End of Winter-Season Event” hosted at the Paragon in Queen Anne. It is a low key spot but has just enough space for it to be fun for a lot of people. The speaker system at the venue was shit and I blew the speakers like 5 times. After a some messing around with the set up, I was able to get it going for the rest of the night. T’was VIBES!
Almost a month ago on Thursday (5/9) was my debut performance at Q Nightclub. Now that sounds all glamorous but let me keep it real. Q was hosting this dj’ing competition to find their next dj’ing star. Essentially, they were looking for more dj’s who could be openers and closers for their future Field Trip events. So they set up this competition and asked dj’s to submit a mix. Out of a 100 + mixes they selected 9 dj’s and I was one of them.
Naturally I was super hyped about this because I love Q Nightclub. I have been there so many times as a patron, and I absolutely love the sound/vibe there. The idea of performing up there on the same stage as talents like Duke Dumont, Zhu, Maceoplex, Esta, etc. Thinking back on it now, wow what a cool experience. I will never forget this day even though it didn’t go as well as I would have liked.
Now to the competition part, my set was at 10 pm and I did a good job of inviting my squad. I would say 20 of the 50 people there were my crew. So I got up there at 10 and my flash drive that I prepped with my set didn’t work when I plugged in. Essentially, I had spent at least 6 hours in the days prior to the event to set up this flash drive to have all my music in order. Thankfully I had my back up flash drive, but the music was unorganized. I was able to recover, but again it not what I was hoping for. I was using some new equipment at Q and I wanted to focus on that rather than focus on song selection but everything changed on the fly.
I thought I did so-so. At one point I almost played the same song twice because of Flash Drive issues. Afterwards, all my friends said I did great and didn’t notice any hiccups. Me being anal, I thanked them for their kind words, but I knew, internally, I had made some mistakes. The most frustrating part was all the time I put into getting the flash drive set up. After my set, I went to the bar and bought a double gin and sprite and threw that flash drive in my drink and chugged it.
I didn’t win the competition, but I am still going to put myself out there and record the set that I was supposed to throw down that night and send it to the Field Trip crew. Maybe that changes/sways their mind and they might consider me for future events. The goal of the competition was to get more opportunities to DJ at Q, so if I can get to the same goal by sending in my set than it is all good.
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Now that I am over that rant I can talk about the other events going on. I was chopping it up with one of my co-workers and he also used to DJ a lot. I sent him my Funky House Mix and he really liked it. He told me he manages a DJ night at Bait Shop in downtown Seattle and got me a gig for Tuesday (5/21). This place was a low key restaurant that had a good Tuesday vibe. I had not played there before nor had I even been there but I was looking forward to it. My last couple of dj’ing events have been heavy in the house music so I focused on a more future wave, hip hop, R’n’'‘b vibe.
What seems to be working for me is sending my mixes to various promoters in the area. I sent the same Funky House Mix to a local promoter and he got me set up to be one of the dj’s for their weekly “Stayin’ Alive” Disco Event at the Orient Express in Sodo. It is coming up on June 9th, and I am super hyped. I have a really good set list for this and I know the squad will be out. We all love Disco and we all love the Orient Express.
