I got asked to do a DJ set at a record shop’s birthday celebration when I was on a night out a year ago. Was a bit nervous about the idea having never done it before either but it was only in a small shop full of a few people drinking cans. Didn’t come to pass in the end as the request wasn’t followed up and my laptop broke that week so was missing half my music so I didn’t follow up on it either. The shop has since closed so won’t be asked again.
That’s the story of the one time I nearly DJ’d.
Yeah. Do it. But do I t properly. Do it in a way that you can be proud of yourself no matter how it turns out.
Decks + vinyl – no way without some serious practice. Nah. Even making one song come on at a vaguely correct time vaguely after a previous song had finished took me a while, let alone beatmatching etc. There are a lot of free DJ apps available that you can stick on your laptop, give it an evening of practice and working out a playlist and you can sound as good as any DJ doing indie nights basically anywhere. More practice and you could do DJ sets anywhere, any genre I reckon.
One of my regrets was not pulling my finger out and learning how to DJ (beatmatch). I have more records and geeky knowledge than most friends who used to play out a lot and even had a DJ name ready to go. Just didn’t put the time in and get past the frustration you get when learning.
I love that the moral of this story is, “I would have been an amazing DJ if I learned how to DJ.”
This is also the way I feel. My brother thinks I would be good because he likes the way I structure my mix CDs.
I learnt how to beat mix when a feckless teenager wasting my life away not doing work n stuff. I still have my decks and about twice a year have a go/blast…otherwise just use em to listen to records. If I ever got asked to DJ I would but only fade mixing and not beat minxing. That said my two favourite beat mixes of all time are Cypress Hill’s Insane in the Membrane into House of Pain’s Jump Around (a no brainer although Cypress Hill has to be played at top speed for it to work) and Pixies’ Velouria into Stone Roses’ Fools Gold (the super long version). Playing records and that then. 
Dig for Fire not Velouria!
Decks and mixer are now in storage, so all I need to do is get them back, and just learn to DJ. Then I will be a star.
This business plan is flawless.
Depends how serious you are about your art. Could just stick I Dormienti on and build a fat zoot. Either you’re a maverick or you’re not.
mate i’m bare maverick i just don’t have beatmatching capabilities yet. a cheeky twift is definitely needed imo.
If they use newish CDJs then beat matching is exceptionally easy (Nexus 2000s basically do it for you) but it’s still going to sound like shit if you don’t make the effort to cue the next song (that’s how you end up with two different vocals clashing) so don’t half-arse it unless you’re comfortable doing it. Above all just play the music you like; if no-one goes for it then it’s their stupid fault for asking you to play.