Archive for March 16, 2009
Going from DJ to producer
The term “DJ” means a lot of things to a lot of people, but as I seem to recall blogging at one point (although I didn’t go looking for the post), in the club DJ realm, I think I see it as a sort of progression in a way. There’s your basic DJ, a DJ/Producer, and what I’ve coined as a “Producing DJ” (which is admittedly not the best term for it).
A DJ just spins records. (OK, well, maybe MP3 files, but anyway.) A DJ/Producer does that, but also produces or remixes music, which in dance music, is basically the same thing; which is to say, actually creating and arranging the music. And the “Producing DJ” is someone like a Tiësto or Armin or whoever, who DJs and produces, but also brings those concepts together in a “DJ” set, manipulating songs on-the-fly, adding loops and effects, and generally giving a musical performance that’s based on the work of others, and themselves.
As I said, it seems that there is some evidence that these three things are a progression of sorts. Regular DJs—not that there is anything wrong at all with being a regular DJ (unless you ask Deadmau5)—tend to want to start producing music. And if you’re a really good DJ and producer, it’s not much of a leap to start doing both at the same time, live.
This is, in fact, exactly the progression track I’m on. The release of my first commercial remix is merely the first publicly visible mile marker of entering the second phase, DJ/Producer, although in fairness to myself, publicly visible is the key phrase there; I’ve actually written and produced dozens of songs (and not just in dance), but they’ve not been particularly visible. Whether I ever become a “Producing DJ” or not, I don’t know; that’s not really a current aspiration.
In any event, other DJs I know are on the same track, although are farther along than I am. My buddy Jeremy Martorano in Phoenix is producing quite a bit these days through his Majik Boys collaboration, and is sounding good. And Mike Bordes, a DJ I know through coordinating his mixshows on iDanceRadio.fm, has been on this track awhile now. (For the record, Jeremy and the Majik Boys also have a mixshow on iDanceRadio.fm.)
In fact, Mike just released a really superb dance track titled Don’t Know What U Got. It’s well-produced, it’s got a nice vocal (provided by Mike’s fellow New Yorker, Angela Severiano), it sounds good, and well, it rocks!
The most recent work I’m aware of from Majik Boys is their remix of amberRose Marie’s new track Wanna Be a DJ. I do like amberRose, and really dig her track from last year titled Destiny. And I do like the production work that Jeremy and team put forth in their mix of Wanna Be a DJ. Unfortunately, however, I just can’t stand the song; in short, I cannot manage to get past the cheesy, gratuitous lyrics. It strikes me as a song written to pander to DJs, as if the thought was, “Oooo, DJs will love this, it’s about them!” Well, I don’t like it, and I don’t like feeling like I’m being pandered to. But that’s nothing against the remixers on the project, or amberRose, whose vocal talents I really do like. I just wish they all had a better composition to work from. But alas, the track is on the Billboard dance charts, so perhaps I’m alone in this. Or, maybe I’m just jealous. 
But in any case, as Deadmau5 would say (refer to the link above), I’m just a f***ing c**t, so what do I know? 
Have a good week.
