To be honest, I can't remember how many times I've heard my DJ friends tell me, "Mag DJ sets ka na kasi Cy." It's not because I didn't want to but I was struggling inside of me with the current state of clubbing and electronic music appreciation in our country.
Imagine: I wanna share the music that I dig to give people a good time on the dancefloor, however, only a few clubs would allow me to play the music that I prefer since a lot of the local clubs are pretty mainstream. It's a serious decision for me to say I'm getting into DJing again because it's been so many years since I jumped in. With the current state, it's been harder to decide to do it again. Going back, I can only think of a handful of clubs that would "get" my sound because there are still clubs who are still about the music and not simply about making DJs jukeboxes because that's what some DJs have been in a lot of clubs especially recently when the whole EDM craze peaked... hiphop electro tracks played left and right... I remember reading something how some so-called clubber would get mad at a DJ for not playing a song he was listening to in his car on the way to the club. hahaha Some may not find it funny because they may relate to that so-called clubber but still brings me back to my point of how DJs have become jukebox players. It's unfortunate but that's the reality. So what are we left to do? I mean there are tons of us into the music but if we can't play the stuff that we like for people to discover, then how can we enjoy playing out? I don't want to get into something only to play stuff I don't like to play. I'd end up hating DJing. Cuz honestly, it's pretty easy to be a DJ these days especially if you were to play the ultramegasuper mainstream stuff. Just go to your suking pirated store and you'll get all the music you need and you can finally call yourself a DJ because the goal was to simply please the listener/crowd even if in reality, the so-called DJ had the music in the bottom of his priority list for getting into DJing and had fame or money on top of it. I'm not saying those who are into the music are better or someone is worse because it's really a matter of perspective. To a bar/club owner wanting to simply make a killing in sales would simply just go to the safe route and get a mainstream guy who would play all his and the patron's requests or whatever's in the charts. In this case, that DJ is "better" because he fit the needs and profile of the market and the club. We who would rather be a little bit more adventurous to take people for a ride from our music selection would be then the "worse" choice for that club. It's really a matter of perspective.
My personal dillema was, how can I build a thriving DJ career if I can't find places to play in? Being a producer and live performer is different because I get to play my tunes and we also cater to a smaller market here in the Philippines in a culture where people would rather hear something they know than groove to something unknown. Another major dillema of mine was I wanted to do this right especially being a producer as well, so I didn't want to go the "google download" route if you know what I mean. I wanted to support the artists. But if you think about it, with the measly pay DJ's get, how then can people expect them to be able to update their collection thru doing it right when they don't have enough to get proper records? I just feel uncomfortable if I get into DJing and I get paid playing records that I stole online, robbing the very people who made the tunes that people dance to. In fact, DJs should really make it a point to support the artists because you get jobs and you get paid because of music someone spent time and money making... and to be honest, they spent more to make that tune than their asking price for the track.
Anyway, I've silenced all the questions and troubles in my head and I'm finally giving in. It's the right thing to do because if I also want to promote myself as a producer, I need to be visible and right smack in the scene and simply releasing tunes won't cut it locally. Unfortunately, I can't rely on my live shows to get regular bookings locally. I'm just also excited on how my productions would improve more from digging deeper into DJing again. But I'll of course be doing a hybrid live-DJ set because I don't want to lose that live aspect of mine where I play in my own tunes and sounds. "Silverfilter" was born and have survived because of the live aspect. I don't want to remove it to still have that identity I've worked hard to develop over a decade now.
I guess I'll just see you in the clubs :)
Cy
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