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Then again, underground is something that is supposed to be niche. Just because it's got 100,000 people there from across the world, they are all chasing that same niche market. If it was in London, you would probably only see 200 people considering the amount of people in London who never actually go to this underground party.
These guys are making a lot of money, and the DJs are not small profile DJs. There's been a regurgitation of music and the sound has adapted, people are trying to push an acid sound and tech sounds. All these sounds have already been there, they're 30/40 years old. People get too deep into it, too technical saying it's got to be this way. It doesn't, if it's good music and it makes you feel good then that's what it's there for, that's the whole point of music. You can't nitpick in certain scenes and say that's too EDM or that's too popular. At the end of the day, people like music, you can't change their mindset. If they want to go to a party to see Tough Love or Route 94, they're going to go to that party to see them. If you think you're too cool to come to those parties then go to something you enjoy.
A DJ's job is to do what he wants to do and at the same time play to the crowd. It's being selfish and understand what the crowd wants. A great DJ doesn't play music, a great DJ plays with music. He creates his own sound using the same records. It'll sound like a totally different set, whether he's played with loops or whatever, every great DJ has the ability to make the sound their own.
We've always said you can give 100 DJ's 20 tracks. Each DJ will play their own music way, no one will play it the same. Some DJ's will get a better response just because of the way they've judged their records and laid them out. The best thing is judging a crowd, a lot of DJ's nowadays don't know how to judge a crowd, they pick the best 10 records that they see on Beatport and they just play it rather than actually seeing what people are moving to. You can run some bits and pieces in and if they're responding then you know what they like and can go on your own journey.
The art of real DJ'ing is lost.
There is an element of it, but then there are DJ's that are a lot more creative now. There are some guys that are using software and creating remixes & producing on the fly.
If you talk about things like Traktor, I've got no problem with it, as long as you're not sitting there playing 2 channels saying you're using Traktor. What would you say actually makes a real DJ?
Well, nowadays you can't really talk about technical ability because people use software and sync to mix. I think what makes a good DJ is judging a crowd, giving them new music and making them appreciate that music, at the same time judging what the crowd like, looking out in front of you and seeing what the're responding to. The most important thing for a DJ is not about themselves, it's about people in