Why I LOVE DJing ❤️

• RIP Fatman Scoop. The greatest hype man of all time?
• DJing vs. Performing. Why we love each.
• Why you should play the music you love and how to weave it into your sets.
• Being a student of different music genres is crucial for open format DJs.
• The current nightlife scene is challenging, with fewer venues and more DJs.
• Successful venues have strong concepts, branding, and book top DJs.
• New season in nightlife. How to attack the Fall.

00:00: Remembering Fatman Scoop: The Influence and Energy
13:30: DJing vs Performing: Finding the Balance
25:57: The Importance of Loving What You Do
28:00: The Love for DJing and Practice
32:37: Challenges in the Nightlife Scene
35:02: The Importance of Being Prepared and On Time
37:45: The Value of Strong Concepts and Branding in Venues
42:18: Navigating the Busy Season
45:36: The Current State of the Nightlife Scene
48:38: The Impact of Economic Factors
50:59: Booking Top DJs for Success

Transcript

0:01

What's up guys, welcome to the hundred and sixty first episode of the Grow My DJ Business podcast brought to you by the Grow My DJ Business Discord, Parari Production Academy and Digital Music Pool. My name is Cream. Gary W here and I'm I am back after a week off. Special. Ferrari around. Like he just fits in with what we talk about and what we do and our market and he's just great, you know. I like that he understands our market, but then understands obviously the production side of things and then like almost like the label side of things and you know, all that what A&R is needing things like that. You're like a higher level DJ and then I'm like just like the local DJ that like plays all the bigger local spots. So like it's a really nice balance. Yeah, he brings a familiar but different perspective, which is great. Definitely, definitely. And that's a huge advantage to have a different perspective. so shout to Parari. Well, you guys will hear more of Parari. I think anytime one of me and Gary are not available, Parari is probably going to step in and be one of our co -hosts, so. was a shotgun one last week, end of summer, had family in town. was like, you know, I'm just not not recording today. But I was happy that he stepped in. He's always a great addition to the show. So I wanna start today with a little bit of a somber tone. I know this is a little after, you know, when everything happened with Fat Man Scoop, but definitely wanna start by saying Rest In Peace, Fat Man Scoop, like one of the most influential people in music and hip hop in, I don't know, it hit me way harder than I thought it was gonna hit me, you know? I, when I think about Fat Man Scoop as an artist, think like DJ's best friend, right? He was, he was a DJ's best friend. And not only was he a DJ's best friend with the music that he made and the music that he was a part of, but he was also a big fan of the DJ culture, was always involved in like DJ podcasts and you know, obviously, synonymous with Crooklyn Clan for obvious reasons, which we'll get into. really where his career took off from. And I think that had never left him, even though he started to make music with bigger artists, he never lost the footing of the DJ community, right? And I think that's why as DJ, you saw it all across all of our feeds. And if you're listening to this podcast, it was all over your feed too, because you're consuming DJ culture on a daily basis. that's, it was just huge for the, loss for the DJ community. Yeah, and think Scoop is more synonymous with like hip hop and Hot 97 and that world, but really he crossed genres, you know, like he had records with all kinds of Hardwell and Mac J and all kinds of people and right, really, really accepted the EDM world and accepted his vocals or understood that he could bring something to those records too, which was awesome. he was understanding the evolution of music at the time when hip hop became, know, kind of took a backseat to EDM, right? And then when Bob Sinclair got big and David Guetta was on the come up, and this was around 2011, I would say 2012 in that area, he started to get into that EDM world and he really contribute. And then you realize like this guy could throw his voice on anything and it makes it a party record. And that's why DJs just love playing Fat Man Scoop tracks. like even I've been playing a bunch of his tracks, you know, obviously, and we all have for years in every one of our sets. like you might not remember, like Level Up, Ciara, like he's featuring Missy and Fat Man Scoop. Like, yeah, he plays a huge part of that record. But you're just so used to hearing his vocal, his voice that it almost becomes like background. But if you take Batman, right, if you take his voice away from those records, they're not as party -driven records. I mean, they would be party records, don't get me wrong, but they might not be as classic as they were. Yeah. I think Scoop was just the embodiment of like hip hop, embodiment of energy and hype man and fun. He like made people want to have a good time, right? Made people want to dance, made people want to party. Like he could grab the crowd by saying one single sentence. Like he had you hooked instantly. And in working with him, like watching him come on stage and just like go into that mode and just immediately own the crowd was just really amazing to be able to see firsthand. what was your experience in working with Fat Man Scoop? Because I never even really asked you like kind of how it went or like if you guys like, know, if you had worked together for, you know, multiple times or if it was just one time or whatever, so. So I first met Scoop in Atlantic City. At the time, I was a resident at Harrah's Pool. So we were doing the pool after after Dark Party. And I was sort of going in between right where I would open for certain DJs and certain artists. And like a lot of like the out of town guys would come in and I would open the room or like some of the bigger artists like they had cheat codes and whoever else would come in and I would sort of open. And then I was also getting some of the like lower end headline shifts. Right. So, you know, the Saturday after New Year's Eve, like I'd be the headliner kind of thing. So like, the first time I ever worked with him, I was technically opening for him and then opening for a DJ from Vegas out of town. And, you know, I started the room, I did soundcheck with him. We just sort of like hit it off instantly, like super cool guy. We were kind of talking about the flow of the night, talking about like what he wanted when he was coming on for his performance. And he didn't know me so. He was there like super early. He heard my set. He was hanging out with my girlfriend in the VIP, was super nice to her, like making sure she was comfortable. Like, hey, do need a drink? Like, not something you would get from like a headliner artist, you know? And as my set was continuing, you know, 11, 11, 30, he's getting ready to come on maybe at 12 or 12, 30. We were supposed to switch on to the other DJ that was booked. And he's like, nah, fuck that. I want you to DJ. Like, you're doing a good job. Like, I fuck with you. Like, let's, you're DJing. And literally told the GM, like, nah, Kareem is gonna DJ for my performance. And this is the first time I ever met him. so whatever, like performance was great. was one of those things where like, I'm going off of his cues, but we had never worked together before, but it just worked, you know? So it was, it was awesome. It was great. Again, like jumps on the mic and he just instantly owns the crowd. They're yelling in, they're putting their arms up. They're doing whatever he says. And it was just amazing to see how the energy can just go from, you know, six to 10 in one sentence. Right. Is he the greatest MC of all time? Party MC of all time? Probably. Yeah, I'm trying to think. mean, there's some other like some other ones that I can think of in like the EDM world that have done a lot of the festivals. I can't think of like Ambush and there's a few others, but I think across genres like most recognizable. I can't think of another one. Can you? no I can't. I'm trying to think back of like when MC culture was kind of at the forefront of hip hop, like more like in the 80s, early 90s. Right, there might be some guys before our time that we're just not. And I think there's definitely a couple New York City and like party rock emcees from the mid eighties, you know, that probably worked with Grandmaster Flash or even cool Herc, obviously the pioneers and godfathers of DJing. But in modern times, he's definitely by far the greatest emcee. I mean, he's got the greatest party record of all time. And you said it on a podcast. months, months ago or eight months ago, whatever it was when we, when we went over that in Be Faithful and like Be Faithful in itself was just an absolute bomb. I can remember walking to actually before Be Faithful him and Crooklyn Clan had another track prior to that called Where You At? And that sampled, Where You At sampled DMX. comes in with Where My Dog's At instrumental. And that was in 98. So I was probably like two years in the game already and I was picking through records and like that was one of the records I bought early on in my career. I was like, my God, like I've never heard anything like this. You know, at that point I'm 14. I'm like, I've never ever heard anything like this. This is wild. And then when Be Faithful came out, that was like a must have because after that Where You At record, like... I wore that thing out like at parties, you know, middle school block party at my friend's house parties, like wore that thing out because it was just so unique and it combined so many different records in one record. So it was like, I can go many different places after this, especially being a hip hop DJ at that time. And then, like I said, when Be Faithful came out, you know, being that, you know, Biggie had died two years prior to that coming out, that, that, that Faith Evans record. obviously be faithful with which it samples heavily. Faith Evans, right? I'm sorry. Yes. And then that's the main sample. But then it also goes and samples party at a party by Queen Pen, which was a big track back then off the books by the beat nuts, which was a big track back then. Can I get a Jay Z? They were sampling stuff that was like out in and around that year. So Crooked Clan was like, you know, obviously successful DJs and successful producers, but they were sampling things that were still relevant and then putting out this party break, which was awesome. Right, the choice is yours, Black Sheep, which was a little older at that time, and so was Hip Hop Array, but classic party tracks, right? And they throw them all on this track, and it's like a surefire hit, you know what's gonna hit. You knew that. Fat Man Scoop already had a proven track with their last track that they produced with him and, know, what should we call it? B -Fatal just went off like wildfire and still does go off to this day. mean, it's... don't really see as much anymore. know some of the some of the record pools like some of the exclusive artists, I think DeVille has been making some on on Club Killers. But it's not really something that we see too much of now. Right. I'm trying to look up the, was a major record store in Times Square that I used to go to when I was in middle school and like every big DJ would go there. So like when I walked in, like it wouldn't be shocking to see the DJs from Hot 97 there or any of the radio stations. And they had this huge break beat section. And like I wasn't super familiar, but people were like hounding over this section because what you would do is you'd grab break beats and you'd sample the break beats for your productions, right? And like I feel like after Be Faithful came out and after Where You At came out, I was like, I was more privy to go check out that section and try to integrate that into my sets and then find break beats that went with current acapellas. like current hip -hop acapellas and then try to do like on -the -fly mashups and that's kind of and it was hard because like you were doing it on vinyl and so it was long form you weren't quick quick mixing anything but it was part of the hip -hop culture and the DJ culture back then to dig through those breakbeat sections and I feel like Crooklin Clan really brought that to the forefront as well as Fat Man Scoop. Yeah, man, it was a sad day for me for sure. know, Scoop did a lot for lot of DJs. He did a lot for me behind the scenes after that first meeting that I never really talked about. He helped me in that venue. He helped me ascend from an opener to a headliner for sure. He was down to help anybody. Like, I hit him up to do a drop for me and, you know, he did a little drop for me. And he just always stayed in touch too, which was like, why's Fat Man Scoop DM to me? don't like random stuff. He asked me who did a flyer for me. I actually linked him with DJ9, Shout to Nine. And yeah, we're just like, hit me up, like, what's this record? And it'd be like an edit that I made. He's like, yo, can you send this to me? it would be random, like, EDM stuff. So it was just cool. You know, we definitely lost a great one. Yeah, it sucks. Young, young man, you know? Yeah, just really shocking and unfortunate, but he did contribute to the music community, DJ community especially, and just amazing, amazing guy. All right, let's move on to one of our first topics here. I was DJing in a room, either last week or a couple weeks ago, I can't remember when, and I was just sitting there like, asking myself, do I really love DJing? Or do I really love performing? And is there a difference? And I don't know if I love DJing. And I hate to even say that because... I've been doing this for a long time and this is part of who I am, right? DJing is something I've done and I've loved to do for fun and then as a career later on. But I was in a room where, you know, no mic, I had no crowd interaction. I was playing a long set. There was no real, you know, extras as far as, you know, the big CO2 and some of the stuff that I've been doing here in the bigger rooms. And I'm like, this, I don't enjoy this. I don't really, this isn't as fun for me anymore. you know, and it just brought the question like, do I actually love DJing or do I actually love performing? When I saw this come across the email as a podcast topic, I knew exactly, and you said in the beginning, is there a difference? There's a major difference. There's a major difference. I love DJing. I like to DJ. I like to DJ for people, right? Because when I pose this... genres and work a crowd and like really dig deep, play stuff that's off the wall that may or may not work. Like you love it. I want to be thinking about records and genres and is this going to surprise people? And is this a great record for this time? Should I save this for later? I love all of that stuff to the point that, I, I, I, I'm going to be fully honest here. I was playing a big, night at one of our venues. And at the end of the night, they were like, well, why didn't you get on the microphone? And I was like, I just didn't even think about it. I'm not even going to lie. I was so invested. in my dance floor that I just didn't, I didn't think about it. I never thought to be like, happy pride, yada yada yada. I just didn't, it just went by the wayside. And I think they weren't happy about it and I'm just thinking about it, I'm like, I was just so into DJing the room. So when you wrote that, it resonated greatly because I do not like to perform. I don't want to ever tour anywhere where. even if I had the opportunity and I magically somebody made records for me and I was able to go out and tour, I would not want to do it because people staring at me while I'm working and being smiling and jumping around and getting on the microphone and all of this like theatrics, it's not for me. You have to know... Yeah, you're OG, man. You're OG. You want to be in the corner. You want to be in the corner where nobody can see you. You're playing music. a thousand people, like if you did not see me the whole night, I would be okay. I would be completely fine with that. And I was thinking about the DJs as I came up and where the DJ was in the room in comparison to where the dance floor was. And like I'm thinking of the original, not the original sound factory, the second sound factory where Jonathan Peters played on 46th street and he was up and it was covered and all you could see was like the gooseneck lights to light his turntables. And that's all you saw. You didn't see him. Yeah. thing over at the place that Danny Teneglia played, I forget what the name of it was, a couple blocks up where Bed was and all those places where Crowbar was. Anyway, I still to this day don't know where the DJ booth was in there. Yeah, we're talking like some of these big New York City spots back in the day down like meatpacking district New York City. people venues that we used to have in the New York City area. Well, I mean, still got Mirage, but like in Manhattan, we're talking. like those, obviously the evolution, it's changed. I never, just, don't think that I've adapted to like to be in front of a crowd. I've never liked to be in front of a crowd anyways. You know, I just wanted to be playing records and just be the best DJ I could in wherever place I am. I understand it, you've been doing now so many, excuse me, so many high level gigs and you've gotten used to performing, to come back the other way and if you enjoy that, to come back the other way is very difficult. It's weird to me. It's like, this could be so much better. I used to be scared of the performance aspect. Like, I'll be the first one to say it. It used to make me nervous. It used to make me uncomfortable. But now it's a part of what I do. And when I go play gigs, that that's not an aspect of the booking. It doesn't really fit me anymore. I've just sort of grown into this other thing. And... I do love the performance side of it. I do love getting that feedback from a crowd. I do love, I love that part of it. You know, I want the spectacle. I want the cryo. I want like the dancers and the people on stilts and all this crazy stuff happening in the room and like all of this coming together to create this cool thing. When that's not happening, it's like, yeah, this is still fun. It's cool. Like, yeah, I get to make the dance floor a rock. And like, I know I could do that, but Right. Where's the other stuff? Like going back to just DJing and this particular room I'm talking about, like we don't even have a microphone. Like I'm literally just DJing, that's it. It's just like boring to me. Yeah, the no mic having no, I mean, I know I just said that I didn't use a mic the whole night, one night, but not having that as an option sucks. That shouldn't even be a thing. Yeah, you know, I asked the question and I'm gonna answer it. Do I love DJing? Yes. Do I love performing more? Yes, also. You know, since I don't have a setup in my house anymore. I used to have a room completely dedicated to DJing. I used to have a setup in my bedroom where I would come home after a really great gig and DJ more because I just wanted to, you know. I'm not doing that as much anymore, but I've also been doing this for however many years, right? It's like, it's a little different. It's definitely, this is my career, right? It's not a hobby. So, no, so I, like, I think I love the performance aspect and I love those gigs that have that aspect more than just DJing at this point. Right. Understandable though, like it's hard to come down. Like it's very difficult to get to the level that you've gotten to to play these higher profile gigs. And then when you get there, it's hard to put the car in reverse and go and do the other stuff that you're coming from. It's... of the performance stuff too is that they're hiring me to go do what I do. There's no expectation of, well, this is the format of the room. You're booking Cream and you're getting what Cream's gonna play and that's it. And that plays a role too. And me and Perari talked about that last week. We talked about the conversation with Rick Wander and sort of having that perspective of, I'm gonna do me because this is why you booked me. This is kind of funny because it's funny that you talk about that particular thing because I Went into a gig a couple weeks ago, and I'm like I'm going to play I had like two specific genres that I wanted to play at that gig and I could do whatever I want at this place literally and I went there and It took me two hours to get to that genre because I just didn't feel because I was playing the room instead I knew I could have played that stuff. It would have had no effect on what was happening in the room. But I can't get, my DJ brain can't get out of the way. You know what I mean? And it's... been scarred into that by owners and managers just like hammering us over the years. I think that no matter what has happened, I'm gonna play the stuff that's going to work in the room. It's just, it is so ingrained in me. And even though I knew I had a seven hour set that day and I was gonna be able to do many different things, my first, somebody texted, they're like, how's the glitter box defected stuff gone? I'm like, haven't played a house song yet, it's been two hours. But it just didn't work. you know, and then I found an opening where it did work and then like I hammered it for three hours where like people didn't want to hear it anymore. But when you're playing on such a long set, can wait to get to certain things for sure. You know, it's funny, I took that gig and I wound up being able to take that journey and really play the stuff that I really wanted to play. to play some really cool records that I've never played before and ones that I haven't played in 10 years maybe. all around that gig, I saw other DJs that I've been meaning to go see that are playing seven hours, playing six hours. And like, they were all excited about playing those longer sets. And I think it's for that reason. I think it is that it's the DJ portion of it. It's not the performance portion. Like they want to go into this, these long sets and play so many genres and play so many records. And like, you know, when you just, you're downloading, you pick up records and you're like, my God, I can't wait to play this. Well, that happens a lot. And then you don't get to play it because the opportunity doesn't present itself. When you play six and seven hours, the opportunity is coming. You just got to figure out when it's going to be, then you got to remember that that you want to play that record. Right. Well, I think that's a good point, like being able to play the records you love, right? Because when I'm getting to go and play records I love, I'm gonna have a better time, you know? And right now, the records I love are more EDM forward, you know? And it's like bass house and tech house and speed house and stuff that I wanna do. And I don't know, if I can't do that, I don't really wanna be somewhere. I think recently though, even in your local gigs, from what I hear from people that work at places, is that you've improved, your DJ skill has improved because you're playing those records. Not the skill, your DJ set is perceived differently because you're playing records that you love. That's a better way to put Like when I go to a room and I'm playing something different because I'm playing me instead of what all the other DJs are doing to try to make the customers happy kind of thing. people appreciate that you're still gonna hit all the stuff that the customer's like, but you're getting into the stuff that you're into. And you know when and where to place it. Right, and that's the thing, right? Like you have to know when and how to do it. And how long to do it. Because if you play two records too long, you could ruin your whole night. Right. And that's why I cited like, I never, didn't play anything for two hours because you know, like it's when and where it's still your job to do that. Right. It's still part of DJing is you have to be a DJ. Do you think that you have to love DJing to be successful? No, I mean look at Avicii, fucking hated it. He's like the highlight. are just forced to DJ because their songs are big and touring is how you make a lot of money. And I get that. But as a as a younger DJ that's trying to create a name for themselves, do you think that they have to love DJing to be successful? No. No, because the way that you're gonna, the way that if you wanna make it, we're not talking on a local level, if you wanna make it and be a touring DJ, or if you wanna just make it, period, you have to produce, you have to produce great records. This has got, it's totally flip side to where it used to be, where you had to be a good DJ and then produce a record and then you can go and do whatever. You need to produce now. if, let's talk about like outside of the EDM world, right? We talk a ton about the EDM world and obviously like if you want to make it as a EDM guy or girl, you got to make music, right? Period. Let's say you want to do reggaeton, latin, dembo, those style of parties, or you want to do hip hop. Do you have to love DJing to be successful? Yes, because that is driven on DJ culture. That's different. the hip hop, the hip hop community, the hip hop Latin community, well you're gonna lump them all in one in the same at this point, especially when it comes to the DJ community. Because it's all very technical driven, right? You have a lot of, scratching that happens and juggling and you know, it's just way more technical than the EDM world. It's just such a culture, right? Like when you, like I'm even nervous to walk into some circles because it's such a culture. And like, you know, if you're labeled a house music DJ, you're not accepted in that culture and in that world, right? Like it is, it's an intimidating place, I think, because those guys are so skilled, you know? And it's very, it's almost battle driven, if you will. Like DJ battling and... There's like a cutthroat mentality that comes with like, there's very like, it's me, me, me. Like I'm the fucking man out here. it's like constant, it's competition, it's judgment, it's, those rooms always made me super nervous too. But you gotta show your chops, right? I learned that early. was like, was at St. Anthony's and I wanted to DJ something and they were like, all right, you can DJ it. And it's like, all right, I better show up. There's other DJs in the room. You know what I mean? And other hip hop DJs in the room. And it was like, all right, you better show out because you get booed right off the stage if not, you know? I think about that whenever people come in to see, whenever DJs come to hang out with me or see me, it's like a little chip on my shoulder. Like, all right, I have to make sure. Now there's like not just regular people here, but there's also people that understand the craft and like, I have to be clean. I have to be like, my transitions need to be neat and clean and like maybe do something a little creative and like do something different. I always think about that. Chubbs came to see me at Downtown Social a couple weeks ago and I was like tone playing and word playing and I was showing off. If you're a young DJ and you're trying to break into a local market, think you have to like DJing because you have to put the hours in to practice and get better and get good enough to get booked. So I think you have to love DJing if you're trying to break into a local market and your goal is not to be like the big EDM producer guy. A thousand percent, yes, that is true. If you want to be the big EDM producer guy, you better sit down and make music. I don't think the DJing portion is. music more than I love DJing if that makes sense. Yeah, I'm in agreement. I'm in agreement. can listen to music 24 hours a day. You know what I mean? Like I love music and you get a certain feeling from it I just love it. I'm in agreement with that because I mean, we say this all the time on the podcast, but I don't listen to the stuff that I DJ at home, you know? And so like, obviously my love for music is greater than the DJing portion because I'd be here DJing in my office and playing the music that I DJ if that was the case, if I was just one lane like that. So. Yeah. I'm listening, I can vividly remember before I even started DJing, like digging through music and like collecting music as CDs, then MP3s. Like I literally have an external hard drive of like every hip hop album and mixtape that I like that came out between the years of like, I don't even know till probably 2008 or nine. Have you dug that up yet? I have it, but I need a Windows computer to access it. Bring it over here. Actually bring it over here. I just set up my golf simulator and it has a Windows computer. and then somehow transfer it to a new external hard drive that's compatible with my Mac. But like literally every mix tape, every Jadakiss, Fab, Young Jeezy, Future, Lil Wayne, every one of them I have. Big shout to Jadakiss, saw him last week at the bar. That's funny. Gary bought Jada Kiss's shot at the bar in Florida. That's great. I did not expect to see him where I saw him, anyway, I was gonna ask you, I think we've asked this before, but I don't remember your answer. What was your first album that you bought, like personally, that you went to the store you're like, okay, I want that album. I don't remember, man. Honestly, it was probably like Green Day or like The Offspring or I don't, like it could have also been, it could have also been like a Bad Boy something maybe. I don't remember. That was all like the same era I feel like when I was younger. My mom let me go to Sam Goody, I guess it was like after my birthday and I had like some money or whatever and went to Sam Goody and I picked up Pearl Jam 10. Like Jeremy was on that and there was another banger on that one. And my dad had like this old Yamaha stereo system thing knocked, threw it in, it was awesome. I'll never forget that, I was like second grade, I think it was. that but that was like that was the start of it like my dad and your dad too like my dad was into all types of music he was listed Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey and Phil Collins and you know he had Grateful Dead in his collection and Fleetwood Mac and Pink Floyd I'm trying to think like Michael Jackson obviously and that really set off like being subjected to all of this different kind of music my dad just didn't stay in one lane Motown was big Frankie Valli is his favorite, his absolute favorite is Frankie Valli. Wow, you gotta set him up. We gotta get him up here for show one of these days. I know, we didn't go when he was down here. It's a complete fail. But yeah, like so many different genres. Yeah, think having a love for music is like, you could learn the DJ thing, right? You could figure out how to navigate the DJ thing. You can hire a coach to come help you learn how to DJ or get better or learn how to scratch. You can't really do that to love music and like wanna learn about music. That's gotta be inside you. If you want to be a great open format DJ, we say it all the time, go to private events. You've got to continue to put yourself in positions where you're going to play different music and you have to be a student of different music and you have to figure out how to get it into your sets. And honestly, the only way to get better is continue to play and pick up gigs and put yourself in situations that are uncomfortable and you're going to fail a lot, but you get better. You know, you get better over time and it's not instant. It's not one year. It's many years, like it can be many years, especially if in the open format world, in the house world, it's a little different. It's a little different because the sounds are, but that's changing too, your speed house and all that and your different varying BPMs and having to throw all that into one set. just heard James Hype talking about, I know we talk about James a lot on this, but like. He's a great follow, man. He's awesome. His teaching stuff has been amazing. His inspirational stuff has been amazing. He has a course, I would love to go check out his course. I forget where it is, go look for it. It's out there, for sure. It might be with like Crossfader, one of those. Yeah, just incredible. I've been loving the stuff that he's just been putting up, really just putting himself out there, which has been good. Yeah, I just reposted a TikTok about him basically talking about production and telling a story of how he was in the studio, like the super sick, he went to the studio two days in a row. And as he said it, everything he created was shite. And the third day he woke up and he was in his apartment and he opened up his computer and was sitting in his kitchen and like came up with this amazing idea and then went back to the studio and like finished the idea in a short amount of time where it's like you're gonna have a lot of those really bad days. But when you have the good day, it makes all the bad days worth it because you have this one day where you're putting in that work for every day, right? And then one day you have, you got the juice, you have the creative juices flowing and like it's magic. And that's where you're like, my God, this is amazing. Like I just came up with this great idea. I love this. I can't wait to test it out where you could spend a week and you create nothing. So I love that, I love that. goes with production, goes with DJing, same thing. You're have a lot of failures, man, and then one day it's just gonna go, you know? you could have how many bad gigs in a row and you're like, man, I don't know, like if I want to keep doing this or I don't know if I want to play these rooms anymore. And then all of a sudden you have a great gig and it's like, wow, that was magic. Like everything I did work. The crowd was amazing. The feedback was amazing. The manager was happy. And you're like, I love this. I can't wait to go DJ next week. And it's like, it's the same thing, right? You just show up every day and you put in the work and like the good times are going to happen and the good outcomes are going to happen. I feel like that was my first residency in high school. was like, I was at a place Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Thursday, Friday was shit every week, every week. They were shite terrible. That was awful every week. And then Saturday would be amazing. And then it bring me back the next week, you know, and it's just that is that's the nature of the beast. Right, it's not always gonna be good. As much as people might think that that's how it goes. Yeah, even even now it's the same thing now. There's still bad gigs plenty of times. Even in the big rooms, there's still slow nights. Like no matter what level you're on, some nights are gonna be good, some nights are gonna be bad. And that's just part of the job, right? Yeah, yeah, 100%. So. busiest damn time of the year for us. It's been a crazy day today. It's just been a lot. a crazy two weeks, just like it always is leading up to the first weekend after Labor Day. It's there is this end of summer. Everybody's trying to get it in. And then all of a sudden it is change of gear immediately. I think it's hilarious that you guys woke up on Tuesday to like 55 degree weather, which is, you know, so par for the course and then also par for like the way that we need to be thinking about stuff like we're in one gear one one day and the next day you're all in the next gear. a hoodie and sweatpants and I was like, what are we doing out here? I feel like that is so on par for what happens in our business from Labor Day Monday to the day after Labor Day on Tuesday. It's all of a sudden go time. And I feel like, especially coming into the NFL season this weekend and not even this weekend, tonight as we record this, this will all come out after the NFL week one's done. Yeah, like going into this weekend, it's just like, it's mentally prepping everybody for that adjustment to where, hey, you might've had a slow week last week where you were at locally in the North Jersey, New York City area. Well, it's not gonna be that this week and next week. We're getting into it. flow full where like owners and managers were just sort of skating through the summer, like everyone is going to be super on point and involved and hyper critical. Because it's going to be busy. There's probably a lot of new staff that are working in these venues. Obviously, all the people that were away for the summer in whatever vacation spot that they would normally go to for us, it's the Hamptons and it's Jersey Shore. All those people are now back in our city, right? And looking to go out and looking to have a good time and excited about the summer ending and this new season, football season, we'll call it a fall season to start, right? The bottle service people that were down the shore and in the Hamptons are now coming back to the city, you know? And those slower bottle service places here are gonna be much busier. We're already seeing it, like with the reservations and tables getting bought out for our like quote unquote fall grand opening, you know? Yeah. Yeah, the I like to. I never thought about it as like a fall grand opening until years ago when it was marketed that way in the Hoboken area. And it's just a genius thing because it gets people excited to be back in the area, even even if they weren't, even if they hadn't left for a long time, they probably had gone on a couple of vacations or went down the shore one or two times. And, you know, they they haven't been like a kind of a kind of a mainstay. Well, now they're gonna be there for the long haul. I got the holidays coming up and everything else. And it is a great way to welcome people back and to celebrate in some sort of way and just a great way to get people to spend some money too. But with all of that, like as a DJ, like how should you be approaching your set in a different way? Should you be thinking about your DJ sets in a different way? Is there anything that maybe you should be thinking about now that like maybe bottle service is getting a little more crowded and busy You know, there any ancillary things that we should be thinking about as DJs Yeah, I mean, I think part of what I said earlier about everyone being like really on it and more engaged and paying attention more and more involved as far as ownership and management, like that's the big thing, right? In the summer, people are more relaxed and like you could kind of walk in when you walk in and you plug in and you start playing. Whereas now it's like, I would get there super early for the first couple weeks here coming up, right? You want to get there early. You want to make sure you're set up. We always say, Gary and I always say to our team, it's like, you want to take away the stress of the DJ and the music. The easiest way to stress somebody out on a big weekend or a re -grand opening weekend is for you to show up 10 minutes before you're supposed to be playing. And like, that's not the way that you want to set off this new season. You don't want to be the guy or girl that shows up right on time or even a little late, right? You want to be super early. Make sure sound is working, right? Maybe you haven't been in the venue since before the summer. Maybe the equipment's changed. I think it's a great opportunity to just touch base with your booker, you know, see what's going on, see if the formats change, right? Formats in the summer musically are much different than formats in the fall. There's just less people in the summer. You have to play more towards your crowd. Maybe you have to be a little more sort of mainstream, whereas in the fall, you can go deeper. You can go harder. You can get more aggressive. You can play a little left field a little more because the rooms are busier earlier and staying busier later. You're not risking, hey, I'm gonna play one or two harder records or test records and you're gonna lose your crowd in the summertime. You can do that when your rooms are filled. You don't get away with that in the summertime. I would tell you to be on your A game all the time, but like during this time, you really have to be on your A game, you know? But if you're the DJ that went and traveled and played the big party spots in the summer, you're now coming back and you're, you know, you're ready to go. You're ready to rock. Continuing kind of what you were doing Yeah, you're continuing what you're doing just in a different location, pretty much. So with that being said, and this is supposed to be our very, very, very busy season, which we're still busy, but. Like, we're always busy, but it's a sprint from Labor Day to New Year's Eve, for sure. But what do you like? I know we're seeing a little changes year over year here from September to September. We are a bit slower this year, specifically on Sundays, which is an indication of a slowing. I don't want to call it nightlife, but just a slowing. Bar scene club scene bars, I'd say bar scene, because that's kind of our Sundays are geared toward football and DJing. know, football and getting people out for kind of partying on Sunday. And we've seen a drastic change in our year over year for Sundays in September. Why do you think that is? mean, you know, what's going on there? Yeah, we've been talking about some of these trends that have been happening just in nightlife overall. And part of it is from the economy, right? Like, things are really expensive right now. Everything is really expensive right now. So to go out and spend 200, even $100 to go drink or party or get a table or whatever, like maybe that just doesn't make sense to a lot of people. I think also the younger generation just doesn't... you know, see value or are as interested in partying as maybe our generation and you know, in talking to our venues, not many of them are up year over year, right? There's a handful, there's a few that are doing really well. So It's tough, right? I think this fall is gonna be interesting. It's gonna be interesting to see how we do as a business, how our venues do as a business, and if we've sort of hit the lowest of low points, or if it's gonna get worse. And we don't really know, you know? I would hope that... we'll be okay, right? And Fridays and Saturdays are gonna stay strong and the good venues are gonna stay good. And it's like natural selection, right? Like the venues that are doing what needs to be done to be successful are being successful and the venues that aren't, aren't. And that's just like you as a DJ, right? Are you doing all the things that you need to do to be successful? Or are you just kind of waiting around waiting for things to come to you? If you're doing that, you're probably not booked that much or booking the venues that you want to be booking. It's the same thing with the venues. I don't know. I hope we're okay. But for those of you guys that are working and booking and consistent and successful right now, like shout to you, congratulations, because this is not an easy time in nightlife. It's just not. There's less venues, more DJs. It's just tough. And I don't think we're gonna see many new venues open up in the next one to three years. It's the craziest time in my career. And that dates back to 2000. So it's been 24 years and this is the craziest nightlife scene that I've ever experienced. Because of what you just said, like. new venue that you can even remember opening? Like to do nightlife. like that was just like a strictly nightlife, ain't you? place that's doing nightlife. I can't think of one in New Jersey. I'm thinking Jersey. I'm not thinking New York. Because New York's always, you always have stuff happening. Right, right. You have a three year shelf life. Right, yeah, right. Hoboken, Jersey City, like I can't name one new venue. No, nothing in the last five years. Maybe even more than that. That are strictly nightlife spots. They just don't exist. other markets, you know, like I would say the majority of other markets, it's probably similar. How many new venues are opening in your markets, Right? Because we always say how the overhead in our market is crazy. And it is, it is the most expensive or top two or three in the country where, you know, it is expensive to rent a space and then try to make up that overhead is almost impossible when you're only opening three nights a week, you know, in other markets, like we always think, like it's cheaper elsewhere. It's not, it's just as not just as, but it's expensive in its own right elsewhere, everywhere else in the country. Yeah. sure maybe you can make up your margins a little quicker in a different market maybe like a Charlotte or something like that. You know because your overhead might not be as much. And I'm talking like rent I'm not talking about food food cost is crazy everywhere. If you're going to have food if you're just a nightlife place you don't have that right you just you just have your but it goes to show you though like how popular is not having food at a place it's not like people like the younger generation even think they want to have food experiences and that's why the nightlife scene. suffers, you know, like that's across the board. That's not just that's just not an older person thing. That's across the board. I'm sorry. just kind that's kind of a tangent because I was thinking about food costs, but like It's just something that you need to have involved in your venue these days to be successful because people want that Instagramable, you know, everything Instagramable everything doesn't mean not just food, but drinks, everything. So the whole experience needs to be driven around. How everything can be consumed and then regurgitated on social media. So I don't know, it's a hard landscape and I don't wanna be doom and gloom for sure because yeah, you're right, like big shout to everybody. There's a lot of DJs working and we work with a lot of DJs and not just guys that work at our places, but guys that work at other places too and those people are doing a great job and really navigating this rough time pretty well. It's rough only because we know. We know what it was in the past. If you don't know, then you don't know, right? Like ignorance is bliss out here. Right. And we're also talking to owners. So we know how they're doing as far as as a business. So like that plays a role too. I do want to shout out a couple group like hospitality groups that are doing opening venues and killing it. Again, like I don't know their numbers. But when you're opening new venues, you have to have some a successful concept. So the good night John Boy guys out of Chicago and Cleveland and Bobby Boucher. I know Mr. Sway from Chicago just bought into a couple of those. Like they're opening up all over the place. They have a set concept. a defined concept. People know what they're getting when they go to any good night, John boy. It's unique. It's specific. And people know what they're gonna get. And it works. And it's been working. And it's fun. Because I've been to a couple of them. So shout to those guys. And then the Barstool guys. Like they have a very straightforward concept as well. And they have the Barstool brand with people that kind of you know, like Barstool and want to associate with them, they have those venues that are popping up all over the place and doing well. Nashville and Florida and Philly and where I think they're out in Arizona too, right? I think. So it can be done, right? Like you can open up, but you have to have a strong concept, a strong identity and people that are coming to your place need to know what they're getting. And if you're not providing that, you're not successful right now. Yeah, marketing, branding, and having some kind of identity. That's it. Not that that's it, but like that is, those are the strong, those are the things that you need to focus on to be successful. are those venues booking? Let me ask you that question. The best DJs in the country. Yeah, of course. They have the right partners and the right funding to do that. when they put the best entertainment in their place also. Yeah. It is what it is. Like, what clutch or cases or Bobby Boucher or any of these guys are gonna do for your venue far outweighs whatever the cost to bring them in is. And I know it's a big ticket item as an owner, but how much money do they make you on the backend compared to the three, $400 local DJ? If you got a good $400 local DJ, maybe not as much, but... The average local DJ, they're gonna crush on a revenue basis. I have a quick funny story and then we can get out of here. I was with the guys from, one of the guys that works with Barstool closely and he shows me a picture and it's a smashed CDJ 3000, like brand new, smashed into pieces. And they were all just laughing about it. They thought it was hilarious. A light fell out of the ceiling, like a DJ light fell out of the ceiling and just smashed the CDJ into like pieces. light smashes in next to you. I would shit my pants. I think they have like a three or four CDJ set up, but they're just laughing about it. Where like other venues that I'm thinking about would be like, my God, that was just $3,500. Like this sucks. They're just like, man, like they're sharing it around. You see this? This is hilarious. Like you guys, right? Of course, of course. Just set up my 800s today. Just set up my 800s. Yeah. man, too funny. But all right, let's wrap. All right, I think, yeah, I enjoyed this convo today, Gar. It's good to have you back. Good to be back. Good to be back. Alright guys, rock your sets, upcoming. And we will talk to you soon. Appreciate you guys listening. Peace out. Peace, guys.