The Opening act and getting it right.

Played an opening DJ set for the very talented singer Shaan on 30th April, 2011 at Palace Grounds, Bangalore. Playing right before such a big artist does give you its jittery moments, when planning and performing. I too had mine.

Here are a few pointers which might help DJs in the future and also give an insight to my friends, as to what goes into such a performance.

1) Sound check well in advance and take a brief from the major artist before performing. Most artists have a few queries about the music you maybe opening for them.
2) Do not play tracks that belong to the artist performing. Leave them to the artist alone.
3) People have paid to watch the headlining act and not really you. Yes that is a fact and you have to accept it. Saying that, it only makes your job tougher.
4) Promote the artist headlining when playing your opening set, do not talk about yourself, instead build a hype around the major artist. This helps in relating to the crowd at that moment and yes they will tolerate you a few more minutes.
5) I am of the belief that any opening act should not be more than an hour. After this the crowd does get restless. I played for 45 minutes which was just perfect.
6) Yes you will have to try harder than the usual too woo the crowd. So prepare that monster set, without jeopardizing the bigger act.
7) Most mass events are very commercial in nature, especially the Bollywood ones, Thus do not play too dark/intense set. I personally like to keep it very simple and popular for such events.
8) Yes last but not least have a lot of fun on stage. And show the crowd how much you too are anticipating for the major artist to take over.

Hope the above pointers helped. I had a great time and next looking forward to open for the hugely popular Mohit Chauhan in June!

Why is the DJ not playing my requests ?

For a few may seem rude that the DJ would not play requests or rather play them after a really long wait. Keeping it simple am gonna try explain why :-

1) Dance music is tempo based or as technically described B.P.M based. Suppose a DJ is playing this super tune by Michael Jackson. The tempo of this track being 110 B.P.M . Now if there is a request to play this awesome tune by Tiesto, which has a 140 B.P.M . It would be a disastrous mix, in order to merge the two tracks together. It would sound really bad to the ear speeding up one tune or lowering the tempo of the other drastically. Usually results in a break of flow and yes an empty dance floor. Unless you are looking for a cut/paste DJ like this.

2) A DJ set is also genre based. So if a DJ is playing for instance Hip Hop music, a request for some Techno at the time is not such a good idea. The DJ will take time till he moves on to the other genre. So you will need to be patient.

3) Now if the B.P.M and genre of the track requested for is within range, a DJ still might take some time to play the request. Cause each track has their own feel. For instance let us check out this popular track by Yolanda and another by Edward Maya. Both these tunes are of the same tempo and genre called house music. But I personally will not mix em one after another, as the first tune has a far superior floor filler kinda feel to it and I would play it early on in my set. I would mix this with a tune similar. The second tune will come in much later in the set and I would rather mix it with a tune that goes something like this.

4) There is also an important concept of mixing in key. This is essential for a smooth transition, irrespective of the tempo or genre. Most good DJs will follow this rule while mixing at a club.

5) Most DJs strive to achieve a technically excellent set. This is the biggest reason why one would not take a request. Also, I am a firm believer that in a Club you must let the DJ do his job. Whereas, in a private party one can bend the rules a little and play by the ear.

Keep these points in mind next time you are out partying. You will know just when to ask the right tune. For the record I do take requests. Cheers!