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Your first set?


SeaWasp

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My first live set in the electronic world of things was in 1999 I believe at a student run bar across the street from my uni in Japan. I honestly can't remember too much about how it went as I get that and the next couple of live sets I did at the same place confused (can't remember which gig was which anymore), but it went well enough I guess.

 

Interestingly enough my first DJ'ing gig was in early Sept 2001 just before going back to America and it was also the first time I ever tried to DJ. So basically my first attempt at beat matching vinyl was done live on the decks at a large school party with everyone dancing. Coming from a musical and studio background it was pretty obvious what I was supposed to be doing and actually my first ever attempt at beat matching went off without a problem (can't say that was true the whole night, but it was all fun in the end). I left Japan a couple days later and stayed with a friend in San Fransisco for two weeks. He'd been djing for about a year and a half at that point and after about the first week he was mad because I was as good as him after a week. Maybe I'm just gifted (which I highly doubt), but I've never understood what people find so hard about DJing.

You don't doubt! - you are idd a internet god! your skills don't match anyone! go home tiesto! Jikken is in da house!! THA ROOF THA ROOF THA ROOF IS ON FIRA!

You cannot be serious by saying that you think you're not gifted?!. you have talent and will! those are the things that matter! ;D

I sincerely suck at dj'ing, my every attempt ends in suck. im a klutz in front of a mixerpult. (i failed miserably last year in front of some friends at a really small party.)

Go with peace! - and let there be plur and nice things! :D (gotta go to sleep soon, left eyelid closing... arrg!)

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Set from last night :

 

1. E-RECTION - OUT HERE WE ARE STONED ( X-DREAM RMX )

2. CHILDREN OF PARADISE - BLOODSUCKERS

3. BATTLE OF THE FUTURE BUDDHAS - MR.FANTASTIC

4. MESSAGE FROM GOD - WHY ?

5. X-DREAM - OUR OWN HAPPINESS

6. PLEIADIANS - FAMILY OF LIGHT

7. PLEIADIANS - PLEIADIANS

8. UX - MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE

9. PIGS IN SPACE - VISITORS PT.I

10. OFORIA - UPLIFTER

11. TANDU - ALIEN PUMP

12. DARSHAN - MIND MERGE

13. LUNAR ASYLUM - VAN HALEN

14. QUIRK - DARK MATTER

15. SHAKTA - LEPTON HEAD

 

It was good party, with around 200 people screaming their faces off. :D

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Still better than me. I've only once made a profit on a live set and that was at a small club up here and only because of a couple of CD sales (although the cds are still very much in the red so maybe that doesn't count either?). I've been paid 10,000 yen a couple of times for some bigger parties down in the Kanto region, but travel to each of those shows cost me nearly 40,000 yen per show so do the math on that one. And people wonder why I simply can't afford to do live shows anymore.... :blink:

That's something I don't understand.

 

I organise an event (not musical) with artists from all over France and it is a sine qua non condition that we pay them for travel, night and food... Although some of them told me there are some events where they are screwed, the consensus is nevertheless that they get fully paid for their costs.

 

I don't understand how they are not paying you for travel. Is it always like that with all live shows or are you ... well... screwed?

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edit: have you ever noticed how Japanese girls cannot stand in front of a camera without doing the V-Sign?

Hehe yes actually there are alot of Vietnamese girls here and they always do that when taken in photo... :lol:
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That's something I don't understand.

 

I organise an event (not musical) with artists from all over France and it is a sine qua non condition that we pay them for travel, night and food... Although some of them told me there are some events where they are screwed, the consensus is nevertheless that they get fully paid for their costs.

 

I don't understand how they are not paying you for travel. Is it always like that with all live shows or are you ... well... screwed?

That's basically how it is in Japan for the most part. Unless you are being flown in from overseas and have fairly heavy name value, nearly everything else is "well if we make a lot of extra money we will pay you". Although the only people who have ever given me anything at all to date were the people doing the Earth Energy parties. Making a living on music in Japan (in almost any genre, but especially in the psy) is more or less impossible. Even making anything of a profit almost requires that you live in or very near Tokyo or Osaka so there is little to no travel expense involved because events can't afford to pay travel, or don't want too and with there being a million other people closer and willing to play for free, you are kind of screwed if you want to get yourself out there. Last spring there was TALK of a fairly big event actually paying me enough money that I might break even to play, but they blew all their budget on "overseas talent" and as usual it was "sorry, maybe next time".

 

Usually for me to get to Tokyo in time to play a Friday night gig it will cost me about $300 USD (if its a Saturday gig and I can ride the over night bus then closer to $160). Thinking about gigs I've done down there in the last couple years, of the 9 times I've played down there I had to pay for transportation 8 times (two gigs where back to back days). The average travel expense for those was $300 (three were $400, a couple $240), so that's roughly $2400 in travel. The only ones I got any money for at all were the three Earth Energy parties (about $350 total) so just for travel that puts me at about -$2050 over two and a half years or so. Not to mention food, finding places to stay sometimes, etc. I have it worse than some because I live up in Northern Japan, but even the people who live in Tokyo more often than not end up playing for free most of the time, or might get like $20 or $30 which will cover your train fare and a couple drinks, (or more often than not get promised money that never comes, which has happened to me a couple times as well). Since almost everyone will play for free (especially the 8 million DJs out there), more often than not you have to take the hit in order to try and get yourself known. For some events, I know and like the people involved and don't mind so much (Earth Energy is a classic example, I volunteered to play all three of those events for free just cuz I wanted to go myself and they still gave me some money even though they didn't have to). But more and more events keep getting shadier and shadier with more and more yakuza-types squeezing their way in and tons of crappy small releases.... er... I mean events that often don't even break even on their club rental fees, much less anything for us performers. It just wasn't worth it anymore and after my laptop crapped out on me at my last live event I just said the hell with it and stopped doing them. I am definitely NOT in it for the money, but in the year period starting the summer or 06 when I started "supporting" The Long Walk Home, between live gigs and PAR-2 releases I personally lost close to $5000 out of my own pocket, which, unless a miracle happens and people start buying CDs again, I will never make back. The stress of it all almost made me quit entirely, but we changed our model to free releases, which keeps the loses and stress down and lets more people hear the music so all's well ends well I guess. If someone would actually pay me enough so I at least don't lose money I'd happily do a live set again (well actually after I can afford to by a new laptop anyways, hopefully later this year or early next year at least), but any momentum I had built up for those shows has now been completely lost so I'm not holding my breath.

 

Hmmm, that ended up being a bit of a rant... welcome to trance business in Japan!

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my first (and only) dj set was at a friends b-day party for a small crowd (about 40 people i think)..

 

my first liveset was a week later at a big party with 200-300 people and that was pretty nice because I got to play right before Encephalopaticys :)

Kirna also played a suomiset in the morning

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my first (and only) dj set was at a friends b-day party for a small crowd (about 40 people i think)..

 

my first liveset was a week later at a big party with 200-300 people and that was pretty nice because I got to play right before Encephalopaticys :)

Kirna also played a suomiset in the morning

@ an afterparty many times, everybody so wasted don't even notice a bad mix so :D
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My first dj set was round 99-00 at a friends small forest party, it went ok, my opening song was Praktika - Uuteen maailmaan.

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Set from last night :

 

1. E-RECTION - OUT HERE WE ARE STONED ( X-DREAM RMX )

2. CHILDREN OF PARADISE - BLOODSUCKERS

3. BATTLE OF THE FUTURE BUDDHAS - MR.FANTASTIC

4. MESSAGE FROM GOD - WHY ?

5. X-DREAM - OUR OWN HAPPINESS

6. PLEIADIANS - FAMILY OF LIGHT

7. PLEIADIANS - PLEIADIANS

8. UX - MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE

9. PIGS IN SPACE - VISITORS PT.I

10. OFORIA - UPLIFTER

11. TANDU - ALIEN PUMP

12. DARSHAN - MIND MERGE

13. LUNAR ASYLUM - VAN HALEN

14. QUIRK - DARK MATTER

15. SHAKTA - LEPTON HEAD

 

It was good party, with around 200 people screaming their faces off. :D

Damn I'd give my left arm to hear those tracks at a party! :)

 

Although you should've left Pleiadians by Pleiadians as the last number... :wub:

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Damn I'd give my left arm to hear those tracks at a party! :)

 

Although you should've left Pleiadians by Pleiadians as the last number... :wub:

Haha, thnks, but that track is too fast to be the closing number. :P

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My first live set will be next weekend @ heron festival in Belgium. :unsure:

I now have 1 hour and 40 minutes of music.

Still a few tracks to go and i can play a full 2 hour live set.

I hope people will like it cause it's pretty unusual music for a psy festival.

It's a mix of all sub genres of trance, always with a straight forward trance/techno beat.

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My first live set will be next weekend @ heron festival in Belgium. :unsure:

I now have 1 hour and 40 minutes of music.

Still a few tracks to go and i can play a full 2 hour live set.

I hope people will like it cause it's pretty unusual music for a psy festival.

It's a mix of all sub genres of trance, always with a straight forward trance/techno beat.

I'll let you know ;)

 

good luck :)

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