Are you a Dj who is thinking of coming to Thailand, in particular Koh Phangan and want to break into the party scene?
Here is some inspiration and wise words of knowledgeable advice from some Phangan local and not so local Dj and producers that Phanganist have had the pleasure to meet...
How Boyonic became successful -
I have tried so hard to work for my work and respect it to become what I am now. I have had to work very hard to be here today, now if people like my work they will book me.
Darragh Casey’s advice on coming to Koh Phangan -
Just try and be a bit professional about things without being too serious. Come to the parties, introduce yourself, don’t nag too much, and don’t talk shit. People don’t care if you played in Ibiza or whatever here. After a while you will get a set. When you do, play well and you will get another set and so on.
Also if you play for free you won’t be respected. It can be tempting to say ‘’Hey give me the warm up I’ll do it for free bro’’ but you don’t want to be doing that too much… If the tourists keep coming and the parties keep going well then promoters can afford to pay DJs better. These are all positive steps for increasing the quality of the parties here.
J Maddison on how he got started -
The first time anyone let me use a set of decks was when I was sixteen, it was a guy called Marc Ballum who is still one of my best mates now. They were all mixing dirty Electro House in the garage of his girlfriend, Marc was the first one to show me how to beatmatch, change tempo and bring in the four by eight structure.
They used to leave me in there for hours at a time, I would bring my own cds, I used to spend hours burning cds at my mums, using all of her cds!
I played to thirty or forty people and it was after that that I wanted to up the amount of people I played to each time, once you did it once then each time you want a little bit more and more.
Dj Kuma’s advice for Dj’s coming to Asia -
To all other DJs that want to come to Asia, just because you can’t or won’t or ever get a chance to Dj back in your country, firstly you have to have a basic knowledge in djing. Beat matching with EARS is a must NOT with your EYES, secondly please don’t think or make Asia a dumping ground, don’t turn up with a bunch of gadgets from watching youtube and having a dream that your gonna be the next best DJ and make it big in Asia just because you're a foreigner.
It doesn’t work that way at all. In my sixteen years of experience I have seen a ridiculous amount of DJs come and go with that hope in mind.
You definitely have to have it in your heart, you will need to have some sort of talent in yourself.
Leon M who runs Academix DJ school -
You can come for lessons or just to practice if you already have skills. You can buy equipment, we do repairs and we sell. We have pretty much anything you need like controllers, Technics decks, Cdj’s, computers and a studio upstairs for production.
Mirko Loco -
I always make things with passion. I’m lucky to be making a living from my music today!
Moksha Lane on how he learnt -
I went to all the clubs in Frankfurt near where I lived, it was one of the main spots where Techno kicked off and developed in Germany. As an eighteen, nineteen year old, I would spend the whole weekend in Frankfurt, club after club.
Sometimes I stood for like ten hours behind the Djs watching them, you know people had no tutorials like youtube back then, but I played guitar and had a band so I was quite, what you call a musician which was handy for me, I didn’t have much trouble learning the beat matching and stuff.
Naq on getting to where he is today -
Working hard at what I want to do,
I made my name in Belgium then started to get booked in different countries so I am lucky that my music has let me travel, I feel lucky to have played in the countries I have.I have to work hard as there is a lot of competition in the industry, I am still old skool about the music and have already gone from vinyl to cd.
If there is something else I can do then I will do it, I just really love to collaborate and work with other people.
Wise words from Psymbiosis -
What I always say to people is that nowadays we all have access to the same music, we all play the same music so djing for me is more than the music we play, it’s who we are and the vibe we try to share with people.
Rory Gallagher gives some advice (to himself and you!) -
If you were your own mother what would you tell yourself?
Pretty much exactly what my own mother told me, you can achieve whatever you want to in this world son. Just believe in yourself, work hard and keep it legal!
Inspiration from Sam Whitmore -
Do it now. There ain't a rewind button.
Some inspiration from DJ and Producer SILA -
I think the roots of my style is shamanism and understanding. The main thing is not to amuse the mind or ego, my point is to give something like a psychedelic feeling, this out of body experience that I have in every music I am making.
My method is not to make music from background experience, things I know, instead the best things are coming out when I exist like nothing, then things come out, I tune in to an invisible radio station and receive messages and then give out this message.
And finally, advice to aspiring Dj’s from Xavier Arak -
Be focused on learning everything for this work and keep the dream up, don’t be superficial and whatever people say to you, keep doing it your way.
Learn and study music, it’s very important.
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