Arthur Kokanov

This weekend has been soo busy i had to just sit back and relax for two days afterwards… I hate feeling unproductive! But GTA ballad of gay tony is to good. Neways… while you guys are reading the wall of text here is something to fill your ear buds http://www.ustream.tv/new/search?q=vega+party+nation#/recorded/27371912
Friday was so much fun! But most importaintly I learned a fuck load and boosted my confidence sky high! It all started when I came down to my gig 2 hours to early (This gig was at the basement of my residency bar and it happens every two weeks on fridays. I’ve done this gig once with the girl who handles and sets everything up.) I was alone but all the speakers and wires were there. I spent the next 30 minutes hooking everything up to the best of my memory which happened about 3 weeks ago. I plugged the speaker wires incorrectly into the speaker but with 10 seconds of tinkering everything was set up perfectly and I test blasted the sound with my NS6. I figured out their mixer without anyones help and learned that plugging stuff in is actually very easy, it just seems intimidating.

I spent the next hour chilling upstairs with the servers waiting for the bartender girl who runs the downstairs to show up. Once she showed up and set the bar we were ready to rock only problem was that there was no one downstairs everyone was still in the main bar area sitting… it was somewhat of a slow night. So I started running up and down once in a while to check for people. Then I got annoyed and I really didint want to play for no one… So I did one last run upstairs and when I saw some people standing waiting for the bar, I took a deep breath and at the top of my lungs yelled “Electro House music party downstairs! Electro, House, Music, Down STairs!” and left. One minute later the basement filled up with dancing people. I grew a very large ego boner and the party started… Hard.

For the first few minutes I felt something I havent in a long time… nervousness. its weird when I can see that people are having alot of fun I get nervous. I am afraid that if I fuck up I will take that away from them. It’s awesome! I love it! Then halfway through the show one of the large speakers cuts out… I don’t panic and switch over to my next song then as quickly as i can run over with my trusty mini flashlight and see that some of the wires came loose. I unplug and replug everything… boom everything is back to normal. There was also a point where one of people dancing points out that the ceiling is dripping and we make the joke that we broke it but partyting so crazy. I also grab 2 numbers wut wut! Even though I have a gf it still feel crazy good to give off a manhandler vibe. Friday ended of an epicly well note especially because I was testing alot of new electro house I got in the past two days and didint have time to label it all.

I’m not going to go into saturday in detail just because its the gig i do all the time and it was pretty much the same in terms of people leaving happy : ) there is not alot of dancing (bar).

lessons that I have to mention are as follows: The wires and tech work intimidate the poo out of me… its not that scary and fairly easy to do. (my friend is a tech for a wedding company and he showed me how to set everything up once time). If something goes wrong mid show you can always comprimise or try to fix it, just dont stop the music. I mix 100x better (I feel) infront of people because I vibe off them and they give me all the energy I need to keep going. On that note that is why I started my Ustream and share my link while I practice it forces me to be more focused because someone maybe watching. One thing that hit me though is that I love the underground gigs and party gigs wwaaaayyyy more then the bar gigs. I got paid less but I left soo much happier. One last thing… Networking man do I need to focus on this alot more right now… I think at the begining this part is so hard to work on but is very importaint for gigs especially for clubs and underground.

My focus right now? Network… oh and production I’ve been playing with Ableton and learning that on my spare time 🙂 Peace out!

I posted the recording of a random mix i did today and honestly its pretty epic…

I’ve got two gigs coming up so il post a full update on monday…

for now though 😀 I’ve got my Ustream working Woot woot! Check it out here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/vega-party-nation

Thank you both! It’s so rewarding that others are tuning in and I am able to help some people out with choices when it comes to their DJ / music careers.

Middle of November already and for me it’s a start of a new chapter!

I guess I should do a bit of a review of my adventure so far. Man it feels like a long journey but at the same time the time flew by so quickly… here are a couple of my new mixes while you read the wall of text
http://soundcloud.com/arthurvega/arthur-vega-electro-mix
http://soundcloud.com/arthurvega/tech-house-tribal-mix

My first time at the turn tables was at my friends house On V7’s and some mixer he had. I had a ton of fun mixing at his place when we would chill but I never thought of it as anything more than just hanging out. I didint know anything about Djing at the time and just loved or hated the way people would mix at clubs. I just enjoyed the music and sometimes the show, but most of the time I wasent at the club for the music but for the girls. Me mixing at his place was really very rare once every few months when we had time to chill but each time I couldent let go and always got lost in the music. Then a few hours before New Years of 2011 we were chilling at his getting prepared when he suggested that I play before his main event at the bar. A little dumbfounded but super excited I said yea. When we got there he set up his mobile gear which was a VCI Typhoon and his mac and started the show. Roughly 30mins into it he told me to step up and play until actual new years. This was a major changing point for me. My nerves were skyhigh but it felt more like excitement than anything else. There was about 30-50 people at that moment and I loved it. There was so much joy in me I can’t even describe. I didin’t want to let go I wanted to keep playing for the rest of the night but it was his show and only 10minutes left before midnight. I acted as MC for the rest of the night and at time would play short periods so that he can take a break. I left that night not being able to talk about anything else. He even gave me the typhoon for the week so that I could practice at home. My life would not be the same after this.

I am a man of passion. So when i fall in love with something i fully commit. and I’ve never, ever been so passionate about something in my life… I’ve done alot of things… I did ballroom dancing for 8years, travelled to thailand, learned social dynamics to pick-up girls… and none of it felt this rewarding. I spent that week djing everynight for 3 or more hours just getting lost in Djing. I did crazy amounts of research and found this site. I consulted with my friend about which controller i should get and a week later I had a numark NS6 with 2 speakers, and some kick ass Technic’s headphones. I do most of my djing at home and at the time i didint have a table so my entire set up was on my bed (which luckly is very high 1.5m). Every night I would set up and then put everything away, set up and pack up, set up and pack up, until i bought a table. Then I landed a kick ass girlfriend and playing music of my DJ set definately helped me get with her that night :). I played alot during my nights after working 11 hour shifts I would come back and play then maybe spend sometime with the GF… Then I burnt out.
I spend a month and a half without djing… I kept working my 11hour shifts and then the rest of the time was spent with the gf. Slowly it started to fade until one day I had nothing to do and decided to turn on my gear and spin for a bit, and I ended up playing music long into the night. I remebered what I wanted. I promiced myself never to burn out again. I started to learn balance and that ment sacrifice. I had to focus on playing less but on a more consistant basis and let me tell you it sucked! My work kept occuping my time… It kept stressing me out… I hated my job… even though it paid for everything i own I hated it with a passion… it was none stop work monday – friday 11 hours a day then some weekend times. It made it that much harder to focus because I had this new passion in my life that I wanted to dedicate myself too and I couldent. So I started using my free time at work to learn as much as i can about djing, music, and the club scene. I would spend hours filling my head with information then I would come back and mix. I had a friend design biz cards for me, we made a logo, and I slowly started focusing on getting better at actual mixing so that I could play out. My life became more balanced but there was still not enough time to get good.

With practice I started to realize more and more that I wanted to play out and not be a bedroom DJ. I wanted that feeling of playing infront of a crowd. I got a crew together and found a place. We talked the small time club into letting us play and set up a facebook event group, a flyer, and our line up. The event was a total disaster. 3 people showed up at most. One of the my ‘crew’ memebers dissapeared completely and the other had a last minute gig to set up for. I ended up being the only one after my friend who had a gig plugged everything in. I was alone if anythign went wrong… oh and I forgot my headphones… oh and i ran out of music (thank god my friend lent me his top40 usb). I left devistated and didint play for two weeks with my hope for everything dj lost. Slowly i recovered and started mixing at home again. I played a couple of short test sets at my friends friday night bar residency and then got lucky when the owner asked me to play their saturday nights.

Things definately turned around more for the positive then. My first night was super nervewrecking… I pluged my main wires into the wrong sound out and nothing would play once i figured out what happened my nerves were so shot that i couldent mix for the life of me. After about an hour i got back into the groove and it went pretty well. I got paid and left. I was back on track and my excitment shot back up… I love playing infront of others :). Weeks passed by and I had good and bad nights. One thing i learned quickly is that you should have a good variety of music if you are a resident dj otherwise it becomes boring for you and the customers especially the regulars. Another good thing i learned is that you should adjust to your surroundings and know what kind of music people like at the venue. I’ve adjusted to the venue so well that now i can get people dancing at the club with not much of a worry its great! This bar also has a basement where they hold events and its 99% electro/house. It’s run by a couple of girls and for weeks i’ve been talking wtih them to book a spot. Last week I played there and it was epic the crowd downstairs was going crazy to the stuff i played… it was so much more rewarding because i got to play mostly the music that i want to play. I will definately be talking with them for another spot to come. There was a harsh lesson that night though. Everyone who I invited no one showed up. My networking sucks and I can’t seem to invite anyone i know to come out (most of the time) for the events that matter. Maybe I just do not know enough people.

The start of my new chapter begun with me quitting my job. I finally do not work there… I found something that will keep paying the rent but has alot more free time and that is alot more valueble for me right now. There was a topic about balance somewhere on this forum and I have one thing to say about it. Balance is great when you have many things that you value in life and want to keep all of them. But to get somewhere great and to follow something that you want and love to do there must be alot of sacrifice. to become great in one thing you must give up antoher. Some people just do not have that choice, but i do and I’ve taken it there is no turning back now. I’d like to beleive that most people who are famous gave up alot to get to where they are and to maintain it takes massive amounts of work no matter who you are.

What am I going to do now? Work, Work, Work and some more work… I am going full blast and going to use my time as efficiantly as i can without burning myself out. I have a graphic artist working on a new logo for me, i have biz cards in the making, I have my full mix to finish, CD’s to burn, ableton, lightroom, photoshop to learn, jump into the club photography scene, and my most importaint… network. I need to build my fan base.

I hope this wasent to much to read and the spelling mistakes dont hurt your head 🙂 Peace out there will be alot more of me to come around… oh and there is a new name… No longer DJ manhattan, its all about Arthur Vega now.

A little behind on the posts so here is an update! Enjoy.

Last week I took a week off and in a way it worked out great. I came to my gig that saturday and absolutely killed it. I had the entire bar dancing. The servers were running up to me making sure I saw what I am doing. There were girls on table tops and ppl grooving the entire night. It was amazing I’ve never seen ppl having so much fun to the stuff I played. There was alot of lessons learned that night… Main one being is that you must play what people know. Once you do that you can sneak in music that you enjoy and watch everyone go crazy! I was keeping it at 50/50 before but now i will be keeping it 80/20, 80 being what ppl know and 20 of what I know. Another lesson was keeping pace of music. The one thing I did really right that night was switching between genres and worked my way up into heavy house and electro, then switched back into soft rap hiphop and top40 at the end of the night. There is so much more but it will have to wait. One thing I must mention is that research and reading about djing and listening to other peoples mixes is so importaint! you learn so much and get ideas and new ways to play.

I took this week off as well, I am refreshed, ready to make shit happen. So back to the hardcore grind 🙂

Major things I am working right now:

1. My Main promo mix
2. Network, network, network
3. pick new music

Everyone have a great halloween weekend!

P.S. I wish I had my camera that night… 🙁 will bring it with me each night from now on… Oh and I got my Newmark Backpack!!! Woot!