D.J.Manhattan – Learning Journal

Monday – The hard part has just begun.

I am super excited, I’ve landed my first event gig! June 8th 2012. The past two weeks ive been sitting at work looking everywhere for a place to throw an event and with a bit of luck I got an interview. On thursday I found an ad on craigslist looking for DJ’s or promotors. At first I thought it was just a crew looking for someone to play or promote but when i called the guy up he said that he is looking for ppl to bring a him a crowd on a friday nights. My lightbulb lit up “I can do that, lets meet up on sat to discuss the logistics”. I called up two of my friends one who DJ’s on the regular at weddings and the other who is willing to help out with pretty much anything, then told them to meet me at mine on sat. We had a quick meeting on what kinda idea we can sell to land this chance. This event is a chance, its us putting the foot into the door. With all the general ideas set up we made our way there and i started to feel nervous. When we met the guy everything went really smoothly, he took us quite seriously and it wasent long until we started talking money. Not only is this my first gig, its also my first paid gig. As soon as we walked out of the club and away a good distance I jumped in joy, kissed my girlfriend, and high fived my friend.
I think the reason this worked out well is because i brought a few ppl with me and we looked like a professional crew.

Sunday, I started to realize that I can’t do this alone. I need a crew, and right now I have the starting of one. So far I have the Technician, and the Businessman. Right away though I feel there is a tension growing with the tech. He brings up really good points but alot of them are negative. He is not as excited about this as me and the other guy. He lives in the past, the two events he did throw didint go through well at all, one was alright but his crew then didint make money of it, and the other ended in a riot. This worries me. The only thing he is excited about is that we can mix video at the venue “I’ve wanted this for a long time I’ve always wanted to mix my own videos”. I confindent I can handle him for a few events but i need to learn the tech stuff as a back up ASAP just incase he backs out in the future. There is alot of work to be put into this and I am willing to do the leg work.

This weeks goals.

– The bussinessman is setting up the graphics for a poster and the FB page the deadline is this Sat.
– I will set up all the details for the FB page and the wording of it.
– The tech will meet with the manager to go over their stage set up and see everything in detail (we only had a quick look).
– I will get in contact with a graphic designer that I know and see if he can whip something up for sat as well.
– Set up pricing for the posters/flyers.
– most importaint on my part is to keep practicing my mixing and keep cutting out the fat in my music library. The decisions are harder to make each day now.

I just wanted to do a quick update today and show off our event page.
http://www.facebook.com/AfterPartyNation#!/events/235709449866985/
Please take a look and any suggestions would be great. I think my friend did an amazing design on the poster! I am so excited for this event so hopefully my crew will start out with a bang!

Missed the monday update so here it is on tueday ;D

Tuesday – Life Choices

My ear is healing well, I don’t have complications (atm). I have tested it with my GF that yes I can hear out of it. There was a small chance that I would lose my hearing in that ear completely. Thursday I will find out how its healing. (I have this deep plug in it right now that constantly closed with a cotton ball so I cant see it myself (nor am I allowed to take it out).

Now onto the rest of the update. I really could use some advice and I have no idea when or where or from who I will get an answer. I am at a cross roads with three doors each leading me to a different outcome. All three are open. First thing I must mention is that I absolutly hate my job, I dont hate anything or anyone 99.9% of the time, but I absolutly hate my job. My reasons are as follows; I work 8am – 8pm on avarage mon – fri + working from phone sometimes until 10pm or so. Then sat morning from 9am – 2pm from home. Only reason im doing this is to help out my mother a bit and be able to afford DJ gear (which now i have most of). Pay is decent. I’m 23.

Choices are as follows: Safest to most risk

1. Drop work, and go to collage/Uni while developing my DJ skills. The great thing about the type of housing I live in is if im in school then I don’t pay rent. Which will cut the rent in half. The thing is though, is that I dont know what to go into, the only reason I never went into Uni or College. I don’t want to waste the money I’ve put away. I am not even sure if I would do well into a Uni/Col setting. This is also a large time commitment (If i were to become something it probably be a teacher, which in Canada is 5 years of school.)

2. Wait until next spring then drop everything and everyone and use the saved money to do what I originally wanted which was to backpack across the world. When and if I come back, to take a student loan and do Uni/college. By then i’d have an idea of what i want for sure. Although I’m leaning toward a highschool teacher. (thats my ultimate fallback if everything fails)

3. Drop my current work, find a job with less pay (like a student job) and more free time and focus my entire being to DJing. But not be able to put away as much money as I am now.

Thanks for the replies!

Extralucky13,

haha yea getting the chick prego is def out of the question! That was my original life plan before i got into this, . I wanted to go around the world and grow as a person. The only issue with that now is that I have the NS6 it just seems like alot to carry around esp with a laptop and booth speakers. I would have to replace my gear, but with this type of journey would be a small price to pay.

Posting a bit earlier then usual this time, Its 12:30 but still counts as Monday!

Not much to report this week. I finally set up a mix that I like, but I feel it can still be alot better…

Tell me what you think,

http://www.mixcloud.com/djmanhattan/dj-manhattan-promo-mix/?utm_source=redirect&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=cloudcast

Otherwise, all I’ve been doing this weekend is practice practice and practice! Two weeks until my event… so just setting up my play list and killer tunes. Another cool thing is that I finnally started making a legitimate music crate where im slowly replacing all my favorite songs with the ones that I bought.

The Tech showed up today for some practice at mine. We hooked up two controllers and mixed between eachother. Its kinda cool. The Bussinessman went out to meet some DJ at a club that I was supposto go to. He ended up drinking and not showing up for the practice session… I don’t know what happened at the club and if he really made some connections but im not happy that he didint show up today.

As for last weeks post i feel kinda better i talked to my boss about my work hours and they are going to be cut enough for me to have some more time to mix. For now il keep the job and keep saving money. I figure i will know what i want soon, just gotta wait.

This weeks major goal other then pratice is to create a mix CD… My promo playlist is a start but the choice of music and over all mixing could be better in my oppinion + I need start looking and setting up a list of all the places to try to DJ at.

Hustle, Hustle, and more Hustle! Time for another monday post!

One big realization over last week… promoting a gig a month and a half before the event is too long. The hype starts to die after about 2 or three weeks. Lesson learned, next time I’l start promoting my events 2 weeks prior to the event and push alot harder.

Another lesson. Do it yourself and dont rely on anyone unless you’ve known them to do work consistantly. The Bussinessman has fallen out of favor with me and The Tech. This sunday was suppsto be a practice session before the event thats happening in a couple of days. He didint show up, or call, and I can’t get a hold of him. If we land these regular gigs I will basically lose a graphic designer. Lesson learned, learn as much as you can about everything so that you can do it yourself if you are in a tough spot. I am going to need to find time.

And one more. I need to get a refund on diablo 3… >.>; it is a terrible time sink. Even though I’ve been using it as a reward system after practice… I should be practising more in the first place, or reading, or learning or promoting.

This time I am setting a month goal to go out and hustle! Epic goal time!

Throw a party! actually! Throw two! By the end of this month have two parties going to promote events and play infront of a crowd. One will be at my buddies place and the other will be a BBQ event at mine.

Practice. I’ve been staying up until 1am most nights now I find that I sleep better even though its less sleep. I will use this time to learn everything and Anything about DJing.

Promote x level over 9000. Thursday – Sat go out and promote myself, and meet women and promoters.