Learn To Be A Superstar DJ

Becoming master of the decks has never been so easy. Prepare to take your party to epic new heights.

MistaJam has been spinning hit after hit since the age of 14, playing epic sets everywhere from Glastonbury to Ibiza. If anyone knows how to mix banging tunes, it’s the BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra new music guru.

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01 Your job as a DJ is to keep the party going. A lot of DJs forget that, especially at the start of their career. When you get to a point where people are dancing, you don’t want them to stop. That’s where beat matching comes in. Beat matching is the art of matching the beat of one record with the beat of another, making the two run in sync, allowing you to mix seamlessly from one to the other. You also want to make sure they’re in key with each other. That requires either a bit of musical knowledge, or a bit of cheating by using a programme on the computer called Mixed In Key.

02 There are loads of techniques you can use to mix records with different tempos. You can either use “bridging records” — specific edits of a record that take it from one tempo to another — or you could use scratching. A lot of mixers these days, especially the Pioneer ones, have built-in effects on them — so you could echo out one record and bring in the other. Beat matching might be a lot more technical, but these involve you having the balls to press the button on the mixer and knowing when to pull the record out.

03 When I first started out, notes were really important. They were the things that allowed me to practise mixing one record into another, and putting together a mix tape. I’d sit there, go through the music and write what I needed to do at what point in the song. But if all you’ve got is three CDs and a set that’s worked out — so you know at 1:13 you’re going to do this, then that, then mix into the next record — that isn’t interacting with the crowd. That’s not going to keep the party going. That’s you showing off, saying, “Look what I’ve been practising in my bedroom.” As time goes on, there’s no substitute for just knowing your music.

04 DJing is like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. If you can do that, chances are you’re going to be a good DJ. You have to concentrate on what’s going on in your headphones and what’s coming out of the speakers, while someone is trying to show you something on their phone, and a drunk girl is asking you to play One Direction even though you’re in the middle of a drum and bass set. There’s a lot to concentrate on.

05 You could use a computer programme to do it all for you, but that makes you a jukebox, not a DJ. The art of DJing is a technical skill, knowing about selection, knowing music, being able to read a crowd, being able to take a crowd on a journey with your musical selection, and being able to do that with all the pressures that are put on a DJ once you’re in a booth.

06 If you want to be able to walk into any club in the world and DJ on the equipment they’ve got, it’s best to start off with physical CD decks. They take SD cards and USBs, so you don’t necessarily have to use CDs. The pro-level, industry-standard equipment can cost you three grand or more, but you’ll find it cheaper on eBay. Pioneer does a system called Rekordbox that allows you to prepare a load of music and stick it on a USB key or an SD card.

07 There’s loads of programmes and apps you can buy that allow you to use a MIDI controller — Traktor, Serato and Pioneer all make them — so you can mix the music coming off your laptop. It’s cheaper than buying decks, but you are limiting yourself as to where you can play, because clubs won’t have them.

08 If you’re going to DJ with a MacBook, make sure you’ve got one with flash memory in it or, if it’s old, one with a solid-state drive. Put a hard drive with moving parts in a bassy environment, with loads of vibrations, and your hard drive will fuck up halfway through, leaving you with the white screen of doom and no music.

09 The thing people seem to forget about DJing is that it’s an art form. There are too many dickheads – the latest Big Brother rejects, or such-and-such from Geordie Shore – that have jumped on board, bought themselves one programme on the computer, and all of a sudden they’re a DJ. The big DJs you see on festival bills, who play in nightclubs all around the world, are the ones who have truly dedicated a large part of their lives to learning the skill.

10 The ultimate schoolboy error I see these days is people who think they’re the headliner when they’re the warm-up DJ, so at 10 o’clock, as the doors open, they’re playing the biggest records, rinsing out the big tunes. You’ve got to play your position – if you’re an up-and-coming DJ doing a warm-up set, your job is to warm up the crowd for the main act to go on and play the big records.

11 Being a DJ isn’t cheap. You’ve got to constantly invest in new technology and headphones — your average DJ is a huge gadget geek — and you’ve got to constantly invest in music. I’ve got 435.3GB of music in my iTunes library. That’s a good few thousand songs. As a rule of thumb, if you’re a regular working DJ, you’re probably looking to spend at least one gig’s worth of money each month to make sure that you’re up-to-date with music, so it is actually quite expensive.

12 A DJ is a music fanatic. You want to be a person that is up on new music. That’s something that can’t be taught. I’m obsessed with music. I could easily spend the next 48 hours just going through new tracks, and I wouldn’t be anywhere near scratching the surface of what’s out there. I’m constantly immersing myself in music, always practising; trying out new pieces of equipment and new types of technology. It’s something that you’ll dedicate your life to, and you only get out of it what you put in.

The kit

Best compact controller for newbies: Pioneer WeGO2. Pro-quality headphones: Sol Republic tuned by Calvin Harris. ASBO-worthy volume: Alto Truesonic 600W speaker. Bedroom-friendly lasers: ProSound Lighting laser projector. Awesome atmospheric party starter: fog machine ProSound AF-1200.

Party-starting apps

Traktor DJ Probably the best app of its kind, this pro-quality tool will even recommend songs from your iTunes library based on compatible tempo and key. ₹868 on iOS

Djay LE This popular app makes great use of the iPad’s touchscreen technology, allowing you to mix tracks, add audio and scratch with the swipe of a finger. Free on iOS

DJ Studio 5 Newbies will appreciate this app’s auto-mix feature. Take it to the next level by pre-cueing with headphones and even recording your own mixes. Free on Android

From the January 2014 issue of FHM India.