Your inspiration.

There used to be a radio station in Montreal that played live feeds from various clubs each night in the midnight – 3am slot. It was awesome. It was music I never heard on mainstream radio (dance music on the radio was still quite rare in the early 90’s) and I wanted to be a part of it all.

So I went out, bought some gear, bought some music and tried to put it together – then started counting the days until I was old enough to work in a club.

Good question!

Early 90’s for me, copies of mixtapes were the main introduction in to house music and DJing, it was so exciting and fresh for me. Also there was a lot more crossover in terms of music played, less genre defining back then – Sasha on the same bill as Mickey Finn for example. Sasha’s Universe 92, G-Spot and Eclipse tapes along with Renaissance Mix Collection 1, also Pete Tong’s Essential Selection and Essential Mix (particularly Danny Rampling), Ministry of Sound Sessions Masters at Work mix (when the actually released ‘proper’ mixes), DJ mag & Mixmag and a couple of years later, who can forget Tribal Gathering 1996, Carl Cox dropping ‘Born Slippy NUXX’ before it really got big, that was a special moment.

Tech wise, I bought my first turntables in 1994 which were Soundlab DLP1 (belt drive) and a Kam Made2Fade mixer (can’t recall model), first record bought was a Rising High Records promo of Union Jack’s Two Full Moons & A Trout. I sold the DLP1’s and got a pair of Technics 1210s in 1995 and they’re still going strong today.

backtothefront – Carl Cox dropping ‘Born Slippy NUXX’

I got a chill reading that, many a great moment to that track 😀

Mine was local guys wet music putting on a show, in a disused carpark just outside the city. It was in rave’s hey day in melbourne when dance music attracted all sorts of people, tunes were techno in early 2001 energetic but not really hard. the people were amazing, dancers were amazing, and the dj’s were chopping and changing tracks non stop amping up and pushing the crowd non stop… it was an amazing first night for a 17 year old. waited till I was 18 then saw Scot Project who took me somewhere I had never been before. saved up for a few months and got some pioneer turntables, I regret buying pioneer, but not turntabes, djing and electronic music has been a big part of me ever since.

Nice, love threads like this :). Well I was lucky enough to have my older Brother’s gear to use. The fire under my skinny ass was a single track..which ignited the spark. “Age of Love” , a trance track from 1990. My Brother and his DJ partner had been resident DJ’s at a couple clubs, played at a bunch of weddings and so on for a couple years before that track was released. I used to watch them in the garage, and play around some. I’d fool around with their reggae , hip hop/trip hop ,New Age (Depeche Mode n such) ,and some early house records. Really “Age of Love” set it off for me , never knew sounds like that existed before I heard that track. As most of my Brother and his partners crates were not of the sort. I remember my Brother’s partner feeding more records that were similar, old techno and trance from then. He tried to guide my ignorant ass through it all lol. I think about a year or so later , a close friend took me out to my first rave. That was sort of a real explosion for me . Quite different from the clubs that I went to with my Brother. The crowd was happier and just more into the music, then the club scene. I started tracking down records after that, to get my own collection started. Obviously no internet , so it was all humming the track as I recalled it ..to the guys at the record shop lol. Never looked back from there I guess.

Been into DJ’s and dance music since I seriously first got into music, back then started out clubbing at places like Renaissance in Mansfield and Derby, along came their, and first for a club, mix CD. I soon got decks, messed around but sold them again as I preferred to be on the otherside clubbing.

Then 12 or so years later hitting 30 I thought I’m getting too old for clubbing and need to have some purpose being in clubs, having developed a refined taste and more astute I got myself back into it.

I knew decks were coming to an end and things were going digital and could not see the point in CDJS (MP3s were the rage and what was the point spending time burning stuff) I was also skint so this meant one things midi-controller and laptop. At that time hercules controller had come out, it had a bunch of trial software, of the bunch I lived virtual dj. I soon upgraded to full version but still found it limiting with the controller (headphone cue/mix issue).

I then saw the Richie Hawtin youtube set-up video and thought wow got to get that, he’s the doyen of tech DJ’s he knows what etc, but I had to wait for the cash. I had a 3rd lane crash of my beemer, decided to downsive to a golf as recession kicked in and i was travelling mega miles each day to work. With the difference I splashed out on the set-up in my sig, BTW I thought I had to get the technics as collectors items before they go – glad I did as I got them for £420 a pop same price as mk2’s, but now they go for over a grand, but they aint going. The set-up covers all bases: past (technics), present (traktor linear djing), future (ableton non-linear re-mixing) 🙂

So for me its age and circumstances!

My inspiration is the music that raises the hair on my arm.

Wether it be a huge buildup into a dirty ass drop or the perfect vocals over a sweet melodic tune.

Ive noticed this works alot better too when DJ’s know how and where they want their set to go (rather than just listening to tunes one by one.) The DJ has to know when to raise the energy level, when to drop/lower it, when to sustain it, and when to blow your mind. 😀

Its like their taking you on a journey to musical heaven and you have no control where your going 😉

These mixes are few and far between, but their def out there.

I remember being in high school and making mixtapes by recording CD’s and radio tracks on to cassette tapes, and trying to pause the recording where I knew the next track could come in nicely. I also used to make a lot of mix CD’s for friends. I loved it. What pushed me over the edge was going back to college after summer break, and my roommate (out of nowhere) had bought one turntable and a crappy mixer. That pushed me over the edge to buy another deck, a good mixer, and tons of records.

Other DJ’s have always inspired me though. 75% of the time I’m listening to music, it’s either one of my mixes, or other DJ mixes that I find. It gives me tons of ideas on how I can better my own craft.