Is this what you're battling against in your town? Time to make your own DJ scene...
Digital DJ Tips reader Prof Strangeman writes: “I am an up and coming dubstep / glitch hop / house DJ. I have been bedroom DJing for way too long. I feel confident that I could pull off a set.
“One problem though. There is no scene for this music in my town. I live in an oil town in Northern Alberta, Canada and my friends and I love this music to its core, but the scene in our town is country music. Do you have any tips for finding gigs in a town where your style is non-predominant?
“There are very few places in town that have the ability to host a DJ. I need to get out into the public so this thing can take off. Any and all help would be fantastic.”
Digital DJ Tips says:
While of course I don’t know your town, you already have a scene – you and your friends. So blag a room. Invent a club night name. Make sure every one of your friends brings 10 people. And put on the party of your lives.
Digital gear means you can plug in anywhere that has a sound system, or just hire one. Be imaginative about your venue. As we teach in How To Digital DJ Fast, the really important thing is to play in public, at any cost.
You won’t start out throwing amazing parties, but the only way to get good is to do it.
Make sure you (or you and your DJ friends) do the DJing entirely yourselves – you know what you like, and you’ll be good enough.
Certainly don’t think you have to save money and get any name DJs in or anything. Invent a brand, decide what your music is, get it out there on a social media, and go for it. Don’t let anyone in or out of that building without getting their email address so you can tell them about future parties.
Most people don’t ever even throw one party, let alone get to double figures. In truth? You won’t start out throwing amazing parties, but the only way to get good is to do it. Some nights will work, some will be bad. But ten parties in, you’ll have a scene.
And one advantage of having a small town? It should be easy enough to make sure everyone knows when you have an event on!
Are you in the same position as Prof Strongman? Have you managed to create a scene out of nothing? How did you do it? Please share your experiences in the comments.
Now go to:
7 Big Mistakes I Made At My First DJ Gig (And Why It Was Still Great Fun)
How To Promote Events & Throw Your Own Parties
Are Festivals Killing Clubbing?
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A couple of great sites you could consider:
MyDJTube
[ link ]Mixify
MIxlr
If you have a group of friends in your town who listen to the music, get together with them and figure something out. If you don’t have a group of people you can play to in town, find a town nearby that does have a group and get involved with them.
Garage bands had this very same problem so they held private events in their own garages, with their own PA (read as begged, borrowed or stolen) equipment and a lot of help from their friends. Talk to someone who will let you use their garage and scrape up a used home Stereo and some speakers that can fill a garage with sound. If it’s just you spinning you can patch directly into the AUX IN line with no need for a mixer. Chances are you’re going to do some amazingly good and bad things and it’s best you do them in front of a small crowd.
When you’re done with the evening, you need to figure out how to keep going. After you’ve done a couple of garage shows, invite the people in charge of talent at local bars or small event place to come see you for free. They might stick around for only a few minutes, but they will make a decision about you if they come and tell you if they can do anything for you even if it is only a Tuesday between 3 pm and 7 pm (so do whatever you have to do to get them to come to your event). You do whatever you have to do to get people to that event so that you can keep getting bigger venues and better time slots. If you make the patron happy, they stand a good chance of inviting you back. This typically means selling more alcohol or getting some kind of community involvement. This is the “Paying your dues part” of becoming an entertainer.
If this is in your blood, you’ll keep on doing it. I guarantee this works.
[ link ]Thanks for the support guys! I’m currently on a vacation to another country, but I do plan to get on this soon. Just gotta find the right place and invite the people who love this in my town.
[ link ]what a dream, no competition. everyone is a DJ in my town so it’s hard to get to play out. making your own scene would be so much fun – even if only 30 people turn up to the parties. just make sure you book really small rooms – better to lock people out than have half empty spaces. get bigger as you go.
[ link ]Fort Mac? I might be moving there! I love House! I love to party and dance! wub wub wub!
[ link ]My advice: no matter if you make it for 10, 100 or a 1000, just make it so that everyone gets a lasting (good) impression and leaves wanting for more. Give it your best and soon you´ll have people lining up outside, you´ll start attracting alien DJs too, maybe even sponsors.
Just don´t ever sell your soul. That doesn´t mean do everything to stay underground, or give in to snobery. You can (and should) go commercial and grow (slowly but steadly, preferably). Just never forget where you came from, what took to get there once you´re there, and keep working at the roots level, with the same spirit as you started.
I´m saying from experience, ´cos believe me if you just start it and persevere you´ll make it happen. We still start out small “scenes” here and I live in a 13 million people city with 100s of clubs of all kinds. Should be as hard, but it´s not. People just feel the heart and soul we put into making such things happen, and they flow in. That´s beautiful.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
[ link ]I’m assuming you’re talking about Fort McMurray. And while I agree it’s a country-heavy town, I can’t imagine there aren’t a bunch of youngsters interested in dubstep and just looking for a club night that caters to them.
I would talk to the manager of a local club and try to organize a one night dubstep party, invite all your friends, put up posters and hopefully things go well and it leads to more nights.
[ link ]Hey!
Just go for it. In same boat here – notts city of all places. Nothing here caters for and my pals so I’m putting on a club night.
Hired a room, blagged some kit, marketing done helped by social media etc. Need to sort my tunes and we’re there. Nearly,
Gotta make your owm scene/place/night if one don’t exist.
Good luck and have fun!
DDS.
[ link ]Let us know how your night goes please, DDS!
[ link ]I was in the same situation when I started, and pretty much did what Phil suggests here. In my case it was Drum n Bass and HipHop, and to my surprise it was a big success from the first party!
You might be surprised how many people turn up when there is usually nothing to do for the kids in your town.
[ link ]Raves. I’ve watched many areas like yours where the reckless abandon of techno and drugs will convert even the most anti-EDM folk into fans.
How else did guys like Danny Rampling make people who only liked rap and rare groove suddenly like house?
I watched guys in a sleepy college town where the bars and some club only play Top-40 build a rave scene, just by trying. You have young people, and I’m sure they will open up if you build the fantasy they might see on YouTube and other media. Take chances.
[ link ]Its exactly the same problem i have , but its the equivalent of the country music in my country ( traditional popular )
im thinking of doing this since day 1 in my djing , because im not willing to check clubs yet , because i think nobody will hire a dj just because he says he’s good , i dont even have pictures deejaying
so i’l go rent a place or make deal with somone who owns a place that can hold a party
, i want to play (EDM) , Dubstep , Hip Hop
, the both xD , producing also ( hope i make somthing AWSOME )
and make my own shi*
i do turntablisme (Beat juggling ,scratching ..etc) also , and digital djing
when i do the first step i will tell you in the forums
i have like 3 – 4 weeks
great article ♥
[ link ]I got some problems with that too.
Trying to push some heavy underground music, like Rhythm`n`noise, Hellectro, Industrial – but there is no real scene. 1 event with mixed style, every second week – and thats all in a 50km radius.
The next event with that music is over 150km away…
I got some nice gigs, but pretty far away (100km+) in bigger cities, but i dont get bookings.
What should i do ? I have a pretty small fanbase, they like it, but they are not so many to build up something more than a house party.
And rent a club with PA, all the other stuff like barkeeper, security and license rights will cost over 500€ – i cant even dream about getting +/- 0 with max 50 people.
How can i push this style if there are not enough people in the area and some big scene-clubs are closing right now because they dont get enough people ?
[ link ]Thomas,
Maybe it’s your scene which is the problem? I know that kind of music has a very narrow focus and as such, has a very small pool of people interested in it. I personally don’t like Terror-corps music because it feels like I’m being screamed at by a livid, dying, psychopath trying to kill you with words… if I wanted that I’d hang out with my exes.
In my experience, The scenes with the harshest music, burn out the fastest, have the least amount of cohesiveness and tend to play “high school clique” power-struggle games. People like to go to listen to music to have fun, if the music isn’t fun, the people will leave, so if you want to play that style of music, you have to find a way to make it fun.
One of the things DJs overlook is their story/style/mix/method/groove. Not just that you CAN mix songs together without skipping a beat, but HOW you mix your entire set. You need to make sure your crowd isn’t falling asleep mentally, they need some change-up or they’ll become bored. You’re playing with peoples emotions when you play music so learn to give the people what they want… a good story, and try to remember that musical emotion works two-ways it also gets into YOUR brain and makes you think in certain ways (for better or worse, you’re the one exposed to the most emotion).
If you’re pushing something and people don’t come, there might not be enough people who like the music or you’re trying to skip too many steps. Building a scene requires lots of footwork from YOU, as well as other people. You need to get out there and find out what people are interested in and you need to find a way to contact those who like your music and are willing to go someplace to hear it.
[ link ]Germany is a good place for underground music, but this is still extremly rare. The biggest festival (worldwide) for that music is not far away from me – and they got only 25000 people. But they have a mixed styles, like 20, from medieval up to industrial.
The biggest festival for industrial&co is pretty small – up to 3000 people. Not a good base to build up a scene (and if i rent a club, i have to bring 150+ guests to get some money and keep it going).
Dont know how can i push it.
Traveling far away is not a problem, but its really expensive (a flight to London, UK is cheaper than 400km way inside the country…^^) and i dont get a booking there – too expensive & my crowd will not follow.
And forget the word fun.. WIth that sick, strange and agressive (distorted like hell) music – there is not many space for fun
I tryed to get a feeling what is going in all the scene-clubs in the area – and i dont want to spin that, i dont even have that music.
5 of that kind of events are ruined, they try to start it here and it goes bad, 2 well known scene-clubs are closed from now on..
Should i leave it, just do my radioshow and start to spin hardstyle & hardcore, what i like too ?
[ link ]That is what i`m talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwVZji7C-RQ&feature=related
Something between IDM, Techno, Industrial and Ambient stuff.
[ link ]Danceable, but far away from the mainstream electronic sound. Its not easy to mix this stuff into a good set, i try to keep the sickest tracks together and make it just mindblowing and agressive.
I would like to first say that I absolutely love the feedback and community of this website. Thank you to Phil and everyone else for your support.
While I have been following this site for quite some time, this is the first time that I am actually posting. One reason for that is because I have only recently felt truly motivated to take my DJ’ing outside of my bedroom. One major reason for this is that I am struggling to keep the love alive for something that I have been a part of for so long because it’s only me cheering myself on to my mixes.
This is actually my dilemma…I live in a very large city that has any scene you can think of, so starting a scene is not so much my problem. However, after reading an earlier article about how to push your way into playing out and now this one about how to create your own scene, the one common denominator is ‘that you need friends.’ Now, not to say that I’m some weirdo without any friends, but I am without friends in the EDM scene. Not one of my friends are into the EDM scene (I moved to my current location from a place that EDM was huge). Even if I threw an event myself, I would have no one to invite. When I have approached several venues with my demo, they told me that they liked what I had down, but if I couldn’t bring in at least 50 warm bodies, it was a no go (which makes sense from a business standpoint). This has been truly frustrating for me, as I really want to get involved in playing out.
Any suggestions that you guys can offer would be really appreciated. I mix electro house/funky house with a pretty good number of “pop’esq” drops to keep just about any crowd interested, but do I just need to become more of a regular at venues/bars that play EDM? Not to say that I’m afraid to go out alone, it’s just not as much fun if you’re there by yourself, but I am willing to do it if that is what it takes.
[ link ]Here in the good old United Kingdom I got my audience by mistake!
[ link ]We have regular pub quizzes, so I volunteered to host one, this led to a music quiz and this led to my own “Blast from The Past ”
show in local pubs. 60s, 70s and 80s, with old jingles, tv ads and sound bites from the past. Together with a dvd presentation of newsreels and retro gaphics.Then invited to lay on an outdoor show and host a concert. All this at the ancient age of 66!
All produced on software which cost less than 50 USD Not technical, not hip but enjoyed by my audience, Surely that is the end game!
Sounds great, I’d like to stumble slightly drunken into one of your shows, ie my own childhood
[ link ]This is really helpful. I live in the DFW area and most of the stuff around here is either club house or Electro and I mostly play either French House/Rare Groove, Progressive Trance or Deep House/Techno. Trance has a small following around here but I’ve really been wanting to play some French House. Alot of people around here don’t even know this stuff exists. Making my own event could be really good idea I just don’t know where to have it. Any suggestions on what to look for in a venue?
[ link ]Back again! We’ve now done three nights and all have gone ok. Not mad crowds but we’re getting people coming back. That’s a result in our book. Even got a few paid gigs from some of the people attending too…
Still very early days. Promoting the night is a slog. Can’t deny that. Frustrating when you give out flyers, post material and (yes!) talk to people then only 30+ show up but it’s all part of that learning curve.
Setting up our 4th night for early summer. Once done, we’ll take a very hard look at everything we’ve done. From the venue to the tunes to the marketing and all points in between.
We’re in it for long haul so we’ll update y’all in a few months.
Cheers.
[ link ]