DJ Medik
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DJ Medik
MemberYou’ll be surprised what you can convert into a club! Maybe there is a restaurant in your town that is willing to clear out tables and chairs to make a dance floor? Get yourself a set of powered speakers and you should be good for a basic set up! Most of the small clubs where I DJ at in my area have agreements like “We get the door cover and they get the bar sales” or sometimes we will get a bonus if we hit a certain % of bar sales set by the venue. If you can find a place that is willing, it will be good publicity for them as well and give them some extra cash flow. If they do not have a bar set up (since the ban was just lifted) maybe they would be willing to foot the bill to pick up some popular beers and hard alcohol and set up a little make shift bar for that night. You can start off once a month until you build a big enough customer base, then go to bi-weekly, then weekly (heck even nightly if it really takes off!! haha).
But before you plan anything, you want to check your city laws on serving alcohol and playing “amplified music.” Some cities require venues to meet a certain decibel range and special permits or licenses are required in order to play loud music late at night.
Especially with the ban on booze just lifted, you will want to make sure you have all the appropriate licenses for serving alcohol. You don’t want to put the venue at any risk!
There are some other things to consider as well such as:
– Security staff
– Wrist bands if you are going to have an all ages/ 18+ club to determine who can drink and who cant.
– A door person to handle the monetary transactions
– A money box with a lock on it and a table/ chair set up at the entrance.
– Marketing costs and advertising.
– Printed flyers and a “street team” to hit the pavement and get the word out. Even a social media marketing crew (most of these jobs will probably be you starting off)
– Check your venues capacity and make sure you are not violating any fire laws. You don’t want the fire marshal shutting you guys down!
– Lights/ fog machine and/or club décorThere are lots of things to consider and it is a LOT of work.. but very rewarding if successful! Good luck with your project!
MemberThat’s a rough one.. we all want to be diplomatic but there are times when we do have to take a firm stance. I had another DJ who used to always come up to me because “he had an idea” when I would have the dance floor hot and going. He always wanted to mix into my set and always wanted to play a song when things were going good. I had to tell him that he had his time and now it’s my time. Fortunately he didn’t take it too personally and even apologized for his actions. The best thing you can do is maintain your professionalism. Let the person who hired you know and if they don’t do anything about it, just simply choose not to play there again.
MemberI too am learning how to mix Dub Step and I’ve found success with just overlapping breaks of two tracks for my mix. Or even timing one break over your current track so the drop in the new track corresponds to when the drop of the current track would have played. I use my hot cue buttons as well to bring me back to a break loop on the old track so I can mix out of it once the new track is in full swing.
MemberThis is all great advice! Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond 🙂 It seems like I just have to find a better balance of technique vs. crowd pleasing. I’m so obsessed with being the best technical DJ I can, I forget about what is really important which is the crowd. I will take your advice to heart!
MemberYeah, VNV always does well! Lately Space and Time off their new album is the current track to play which I work in as much as I can. I also love their Empire album so I play Standing, Legion, and Darkangel quite often. Combichrist used to be an instant dance floor filler, but lately I have not received much response from them. I do love Intruder Alert though, bangin track! The big one right now is Aesthetic Perfection. They are my trump card if I ever lose my floor. That and Military Fashion Show by And One. It’s gotten to the point where that is the only And One song anyone ever requests anymore! haha, I was playing “Panzermensch” by them and someone came up to me and asked if I could play And One while I was already playing them!
Maybe it’s just the area I’m DJ’ing at. LA always seems to do well, but my weekly gig is at a bar and they don’t even have a proper dance floor (just tiled floor that people don’t like dancing on). The dance floor seems so fickle too in this scene. Last Sat I played “Living the Wasted Life” by Aesthetic Perfection and it brought them all out, then right after I played F-117 by Funker Vogt (which has always help up as a club classic) and instant dead dance floor.
Do you happen to have any goth/Industrial mixes you have done in the past posted anywhere? I would love to hear one of your sets!
MemberI’m from Riverside, California (Southern Cali) and I play at Discord in Riverside every Sat and Necropolis (at club Yost) once a month on Weds. They are both goth/ industrial clubs, but I’m trying to get into more mainstream clubs so I can play what I love.. Electro and Dub Step! 🙂
MemberThanks The Black Rag! That helps. I guess I freak out a bit too much when I see an empty floor. I take it way too personally! I do try to keep up the energy (I am very animated when I DJ and clap and laugh and just have fun) but sometimes I feel that energy lacking when my floor is empty. Almost like I’m faking it.
MemberJ-Zed, I heard that man! This club “promoter” does almost zero promotion himself (aside from creating the events on Facebook and just re-posting them). Relies on the DJ’s to bring people in, yet does not give us a cut of the door (even on exceptional nights) claiming we should all be working together as a team to keep the club afloat. Of course I’ve always promoted myself, but I hate feeling like that is my primary job when I should be focusing on putting together a bangin set for that night. I’m trying to get a taste of what it’s like to work for a large club who knows how to promote successfully!
MemberThanks so much for that lead! I picked up a few of the UKF albums and have been practicing. The videos are helping quite a bit as well! When I get something I’m proud of, I’ll post my mix online to get some feedback. Thanks mate!
Memberwow, reading through all this I’m starting to think one of my gigs (monthly) is a bum deal. I get paid $20/ hr (but I only get 1 hr set so pretty much $20 a night) which is pretty much pocket change.. It’s a goth/ Industrial night so we typically do not pack the house. Maybe 50-100 heads on a normal night? The “promoter” sent a Facebook message to all the DJ’s saying that if you do not repost the event every day and invite all your friends to the event, then you do not get to DJ. That pissed me off a bit because they hired me there for my high energy sets and I normally pack the dance floor. I get my standard pay regardless of the final head count. I also set up all the sound at the start of the night and sound check everything, so I’m basically “Sound Guy” “Promoter” and if I get a chance… “DJ” it seems. I honestly thought this practice was normal.. but after reading this I see that it isn’t.
MemberHi there and welcome! I love spinning electro and dubstep as well, but am struggling with my dubstep mixing!
January 26, 2013 at 10:34 pm in reply to: Any Goth/ Industrial/ EBM/ Powernoize DJ's out there? #35753MemberYeah, I like Tactical Sekt as well. DJ Fractal (from Tactical Sekt) spins at our local club Chamber quite often and is a great DJ (although he plays more electro than Industrial like me.. haha!). Just saw God Mod live at Das Bunker and Jayson was so wasted he couldn’t even remember the lyrics to the songs (he also admitted this on stage). I didn’t realize Nitzer Ebb was back in action though! Will have to check that out!!
I’m just feeling like the scene is stagnating sadly save for just a handful of good guys (I also love Suicide Commando as well. He was in the States recently and put on a GREAT show!)
MemberSo funny story, I googled “DJ Busking” and I’m pretty sure I found a pic of you!
MemberThank you SO very much for your advice!!! I’m actually very excited to try this in my area!! I’m always itching to DJ and even though I have a weekly spot, I feel like my 45 min set once a week are just not enough! I DJ at home daily but I’m always worried about noise levels because I live in an apartment. Going to start saving for the missing bits of gear I’ll need to pull this off and do it! I’ll for sure update you on how it goes 🙂 haha, I can’t even focus on my day job right now I’m so excited to move forward with this!! Thanks again mate!! Cheers!
MemberFrom what I heard they sounded to flow together pretty nice! Although I may not be the best critic as while I enjoy that type of music, I have never mixed it myself. I’m used to mixing tracks together for a good min or two and very long transitions, but the style of tunes you play are not like that.
On a side note, I just picked up a tool call “Mixed in Key” and it’s a program that will analyze the music key of all your songs and allow you to sort it accordingly. That might help with your track selection (not saying you had a bad track selection at all because you didn’t!) but it will allow you to play keys that mix well with each other so you do not have songs that clash.
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