Let's Mix

As the end of NGDJ’s first round draws nearer, one trend is obvious among the mixes that are currently in the qualifiers: An overwhelming majority feature house, tech house, techno or trance.

You could almost talk of a “house barrier” in NGDJ, but it should come as little surprise. House, tech house, techno and trance are dance music’s biggest genres. If club world were a temple, it would be built on solid bricks of four-to-the-floor.

But there are also mixes in the competition focusing on other genres. Two dj:s that have made it past the 200 vote limit with mixes featuring breakbeat centered music are Brussels’s BeNoize and Manchester born, London based ScallyDanDan. Was their digging into breaks, bassline, dubstep, grime and generally ”sick” music a deliberate step to stand out in the competition? We spoke to ScallyDanDan and BeNoize to find out more.

Most of the mixes in NGDJ are house, tech house, techno or trance mixes. How come you did a breaks and, in ScallyDanDan’s case, a dubstep/fidget mix?
BeNoize: I didn’t set out with the intention of playing breaks. I just do and think it’s fantastic. I love to play something that is a little less well known amongst the masses, but still is attainable for almost everyone and it can attract a larger public.
ScallyDanDan: The mix I made is simply the music I love and what I’m into. My sets are mostly heavy bass, unusual rhythms, urban feel, upbeat but not fluffy – as my mate says: ”sick”. Ha ha! I’m really excited about Balinese music at the moment, and I’m about to start making my own productions, which will have this sort of flavour to it. In an ideal world I’d love to create a whole new genre. Maybe call it ScallyStep!

ScallyDanDan, photo by Matthew Brindle/Megamegamega.com.

Do you think that choosing an “odd” genre makes the mix stand out among the competitors?
ScallyDanDan: I guess for me, whilst I know it’s a competition, I think people should be making and uploading the mixes they are passionate about rather than what they think will be popular and win a competition. If it comes from the heart it speaks to the heart. If people love what you do, and rate it, see it as a bonus, but ultimately turn yourself on first with your mixtapes.
BeNoize: I just try to get people on the dance floor and let them enjoy themselves. It may have been my intention to introduce something different but that’s because it’s a style that you can play at parties and everyone can go wild to! I don’t really think that it matters which genre you play. The essence is how you bring the music and how you choose your songs and put your whole energy into your mix.

BeNoize.

How have you promoted your mix?
BeNoize: I used different channels to promote mu mix. The obvious Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, but I also emailed all my friends and relatives and handed out demo CD mixes with a NGDJ link at gigs or parties that I was playing or where I was with friends.
ScallyDanDan: It was a lot more difficult than I thought actually getting 200 votes. I basically posted it on my personal Facebook, on my Facebook fan page and my Twitter. I messaged all my friends and asked if they would vote for me, and post it on their walls too. People who were leaving comments for me on my Let’s mix page I interacted with and made some cool friends from the site. But yeah, just persistence.

There’s a lot of talk about voting in the NGDJ threads on Facebook and in forums. What’s your take, do you vote for competing mixes?
ScallyDanDan: Yeah, I vote on other peoples mixes, but only if I like them to give them a positive rating. There seems to be a general mood on Let’s mix that once you’ve qualified your overall rating start to drastically drop. Mine went from 4.8 down to 3.0 just after qualifying, and this seems to be happening to all the qualifiers. I suspect it’s people engaging themselves in ‘tactical voting’. I really don’t understand that. Just do your best mix, get people to vote for you, and be a nice person.
– I believe in the idea of karma. If you do good things and try and to help fellow people they will in turn help you. I really think it works the other way around too: If you’re constantly voting people 1’s to help yourself win, you’re just creating a void within yourself. If you won by such means, would you feel like a real DJ, or just a real good scammer? Ultimately negative voting is fuelled by peoples’ insecurity, and the act of being negative just creates further insecurity for them. Sorry if that was a bit deep! On a positive note, listen to my mix, if you like it please vote and leave some comments so I can listen to yours too!

Do as ScallyDanDan says. Listen to his Dubstep Fidget mixtape and BeNoize’s Ghetto Blaster mix below – then have your say by rating them!

ScallyDanDan’s Dubstep Fidget Mixtape from scallydandan at Letsmix.com.

Ghetto Blaster from BeNoize at Letsmix.com.

Making a great mix is of course the first step towards becoming the world’s next superstar DJ. Once you have your track selection and mixing skills in place, it’s time for the second step: Getting your mix heard. No easy feat, but don’t despair! There are experts out there willing to share their best promotion tips and tricks. Out of all the DJ:s who have entered the NGDJ comp and got the 200 votes necessary to reach the qualifiers, Prague based John Culter’s live at Tiësto, 02 Arena mix has received the most plays – over 6700 at the time of writing.

We had a chat with John to find out how he became so darn good at promoting his mixes.

Hey John! First of all, tell us a litte about yourself.
– I’ve been DJ:ing and doing studio work for about 10 years. I used to be a resident DJ in some of the big clubs in Prague, places like Roxy, Duplex and Karlovy Lazne. Nowadays I prefer not to play in the same club over and over again, so I travel and play in Austria, Germany, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and a bit in Italy.

Your mix has received almost twice as many as anyone else in NGDJ so far. What secret brew are you stewing to get through to all those listeners?
– Basically I don’t think it’s a secret, just a lot of working hours spent on self promotion. There are flame wars all over the internet forums about today’s successful artists, people say they are built only as business products. But people don’t know how much time you have to invest. Look at Steve Angello, Laidback Luke or any current artist with a blog and Twitter. You will see that they have almost no time to sleep! 20 hours a day on their projects, crazy traveling, computer work…Hard work and patience will bring you where you want to be.

How do you use social networks like Facebook and Twitter?
– Social networking is the best way to spread any information or promotional stuff. Twitter is damn good to inform your followers about your moves, but obviously the first step is to find those followers, otherwise posting anything is just a waste of time.
– Facebook, I would say, is most powerful weapon nowadays. You can build up your own artist page and share it with a social network full of “normal people”, something which a site like MySpace can’t really offer. Facebook developers offers nice applications for improve your page or to connect with external services, like Soundcloud which is quite popular. If you work out all the possibilities on Facebook, you will be surprised how far you can go. I mean, there are almost 400 million people on Facebook. That’s probably enough votes to win the NGDJ contest, right?

Your mix is a live recording, do you think that gives you an advantage?
– I’m not sure, but luckily people have liked it. When NGDJ contest was announced, I knew I had to act very fast. I decided to use one of my live recordings and I choose the one from O2 Arena, primarily because it isn’t long and boring. According to my research, many people will not listen to a full 80 minutes of CD time, they like to switch between songs and mixes.

You obviously have a bit of a following already. But what’s your tip for DJ:s who enter the competition straight out of the bedroom, so to speak?
– Generally being a musician means to trust in what you feel, go for it 100% and don’t stop even if what you feel makes no sense. To build a hype as a young DJ, just feel the music your own way, don’t try to copy a style of the big names. Be unique, interesting and modern. If you have basic Internet experience, you won’t miss your way up. It’s just hard work from there. Then your fans will find you themselves.

For more John Culter, check out his homepage, Facebook Fan page or follow him on Twitter.

And, of course, listen to John’s mix if you haven’t already:

John Culter live @ Tiësto, O2 Arena, Prague, CZ from John Culter at Letsmix.com.

And they’re blog related! But first things first: NGDJ is on a roll and at the time of writing six DJ:s have reached the Top 100 Qualifiers. The first of them was Jakub Smogur, better known as DJ MentalCut, who needed only two days to promote his mix and get the 200 votes needed to qualify for the next round.

So how did he do it? We linked up with Mentalcut to squeeze him on some of his mix boosting secrets.

You were the first DJ to reach the NGDJ Qualifiers. What did you do to promote your mix?
– Yeah, it’s awesome! All I did was writing a post on my blog on mentalcut.blogspot.com and on my Facebook profile. Really simple. I’d like to thank my friends and the people who voted for me.

What is your best tip for people who are in the NGDJ competition and want to get more votes on their mixes?
– I did a lot of mixes in different styles during last year, but for the NGDJ contest I decided to choose something universal, which many people may find good. It’s a short mix of stuff that’s not really new and ”currently hot”, but I think I’ve put it together pretty nicely… The selection of tracks came second, I put the whole shape and mixing skills first in this mix. By the way, the mix is dedicated to a club in Cracow that doesn’t exist anymore. It was called Qushi.

You’re from Poznan in Poland. Is the scene any good there?
– Every two months I’ve got my own club night. You’ll find a nice selections of ‘regional dance music’, like baile funk, kuduro, Baltimore breaks and cumbia with addition of classic reggae and hip hop. It’s like ‘no genre borders’. Overall, there’s a small but openminded scene in Poznan with many young talents who look forward to what’s new in today’s dance music.
– Personally, I always admired DJ:s who combined great skills and technique with the abillity to rock a party. I’ve played all over Poland, some gigs abroad and shared the stage with guys like Scottie B, Assault, Kazey and many others.

Listen to and rate MentalCut’s Micro Qushi mix here!

The Promotion academy is Let’s mix’s own little school of hard knocks. Here you’ll learn how to succesfully spread your music and to avoid bumps in the road while building your own brand as a dj. Here, up and coming dj Dave Qri reveals some secrets.

Dave Qri began dj:ing in Maribor, Slovenia as a 16 year old, playing mostly minimal and tech house, but also incorporating afro beat into his sets. Since the Dave Qri mixes on Let’s mix have quickly received a lot of plays, we linked up with Dave to ask what his secret was.

Hey Dave. First of all, what’s the club scene like in Maribor where you’re from?

– Aaah, very diverse. Other regions favors one style and are mostly into the godfather of Slovenian techno music, Umek. But in Maribor the most famous dj is Valentino Kanzyani. I won’t go into details, only that this means that Maribor loves techno music. The national centre for nightlife is Ljubljana, though.

What music websites and forums do you visit and use regularly?

– Let’s mix is a good website and a nice community. I also use Residentadvisor.net, Ibiza-voice.com, Soundcloud.com and Play.fm. My webshops are Beatport and DJTunes, and then of course there’s Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

How do you use Let’s mix to interact with your followers?

– For promotion. I post my mixes here and then embed them on my profiles on social networks like Facebook and MySpace. I think the Let’s mix player is good for followers and listeners because you can check the time and name of songs which are playing in the mix. If a listener doesn’t like a song they can skip to the next, obviously.

As an up and coming dj with no production catalogue to speak of, which is the best way to build a following?

– A dj with no productions generally must record some mixes which in turn need to be technically perfect. This mix should be posted on some sites with many visitors that can give you feedback.

– Social networks are alsp very good for promotion. I post all my mixes on MySpace and Facebook, which means that every month I get feedback and comments on the tracks, transititions or general quality.

Dave Qri’s self promotion summary:

● If you have no production catalogue, make sure your mixes are the epitome of technical perfection.

● Post mixes on Let’s mix, Play.fm and Soundcloud.

● Use social networks like Facebook and Twitter to share mixes with friends and followers.

Dave Qri’s mixes:

The Promotion academy is Let’s mix’s own little school of hard knocks. Here you’ll learn how to succesfully spread your music and to avoid bumps in the road while building your own brand as a dj.

Andrew Northover is a friendly student and dorm room dj from Melbourne, Australia. Earlier this year, he was voted the winner of a mix contest set up by our friends at Pacemaker, The Summer Mix Contest. Andy entered the competition with a slick mix of progressive house and managed to receive more votes than anyone else in the competition, also winning the ears of the jury over at the Pacemaker office. Andy has some good ideas on how to make your mixes heard, so we sent an e-mail down under to hear more.

You received more votes than anyone else in the contest. What was your trick to get your mix heard by so many?
– I’m very grateful for the large amounts of votes I received in this comp, and I basically have my Facebook account to thank for that! Initially I just posted it as a status update every couple of hours, that got me near the 200 mark and then it slowed down. So I started e-mailing and private messaging every single person in my contact list to encourage them to listen and vote as well. I basically worked every day of the competition getting all of my 600 contacts on Facebook and MySpace to vote for me one by one.

– Also a big thanks to Jonas Stenberg who told half of Sweden’s tech trance crowd to do him a personal favor and vote for me. There were also posts in various music forums across the internet that brought in many miscellaneous votes while I slept. I figured posting on international forums gave me higher chances than just staying local. I also told my Facebook friends to tell their friends to maximize my chances. It’s amazing what politeness can achieve.

So what’s your best tip for aspiring dj:s who want to get their mixes out to a wider audience?
– Popular music forums such as Inthemix and Club-trance, and social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have such frequent use it’s virtually impossible to go undiscovered if you promote yourself correctly. But what most people forget though is that that you have to give in order to receive. People might look past your post if it’s titled “LISTEN TO MY MIX”, but people love hearing about themselves. If you are a regular poster in the forums and social places you want to be discovered, people begin to know of you, browse your profiles and see what you are up to. You can’t expect to be discovered if you don’t plan on discovering other people.

– The Let’s mix website is the perfect place to get discovered though. In the short time I have been a member, I have been witness to the most amazingly supportive community on the internet I have seen in a long time. The quality of people on here is great, there are no posers, just a great selection of different kinds of music lovers. I found that during the competition I did a lot of browsing all through the various mixes and groups on this site and found myself giving votes to many other DJ:s who just had exceptional mixing ability and track selections. This website is exactly what aspiring DJ:s need to be discovered, and with the ability to still be able to browse mixes and forums without being a member allows for easy promotion of your mixes on various other social networking websites.

Andyroo’s best promotion tactics:

● Post mixes on forums like Inthemix and Club-trance and social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

● Encourage your network of friends and followers to listen to your music.

● Give and you shall receive. In other words, interact with other dj:s. And don’t force your music down other people’s throats (or into their ears).

Andyroo’s mixes: