Part 2

I've always wondered: How is it possible for DJs to memorise so many tracks? How do you store tracks in your mind – traditionally as grooves + melodies + harmonies or as colours, energy levels, shapes?

(laughs) Great question, I was always wondering the same, it seemed completely mind boggling.

What I found works best for me is just to listen to the tracks well before playing them. I organize all my music on my iTunes library and sync it directly to my phone so I can listen to them wherever I go. I’m the happiest ever when I have a bunch of new tracks on my phone and a long flight ahead, listening to all the new finds over and over, to really infuse my heart with their feeling. Once I’m playing and see all the track names in my playlists on the CDJs it’s like I know instantly which one is what and would fit best for the moment.

But when I hear the track playing somewhere it’s like I know it by heart but it’s nearly impossible to remember the name. (laughs)

Let's say you have a gig coming up tonight. What does your approach look like, from selecting the material and preparing for and opening a set?

As I’m digging and organizing music on a regular basis, I can pretty much be ready to play any gig at any given time, just from browsing through the different particular playlists I have, ordered by energy / atmosphere with poetic names.

Still, I love to create unique playlists for each gig. mainly selecting all the tracks from my most recent finds that would fit the event, so I can present the freshest music possible. Then I explore further in my library to pull out some older forgotten gems to complement.

How does the decision making process work during a gig? How far do you tend to plan ahead during a set?

I show up with all my music organised in all different playlists, but mostly end up playing from this one playlist that I prepared specially for the event, with a wide selection of potential tracks (About 300 to 400 tracks in general).

I very carefully prepare this selection ahead so I can completely improvise in the moment. Before I start playing, I have no idea where the music will take me, which 30-40 tracks I will end up playing and in what order. I really want to be able to present the most diverse, varied and unexpected sets I can, telling totally different stories each time, this is what excites me most.

What are some of the considerations that go into deciding which track to play next? What makes two tracks a good fit?

The main question on my mind every time I’m selecting a track is “Where do we want to go from now on?” Do we want to keep building the energy, to reach a climax or to give a breath. What do we want to feel right now?

I play by harmony so first I look at the tracks that are in the same or similar key (from the 300-400 tracks in the playlist I’m left with about 30-40 different possible tracks) and try to pay attention to what the track playing at the moment is saying. I watch carefully how the people are reacting to it. If I feel like they are asking for more of this kind of energy, or if we need to switch it up a bit.

I see a set as one fantastic epic adventure where each track is a new chapter telling a different thing yet all adding up to each other, following a storyline. I like to slowly build up the energy, but never staying too long in just one style, so that the musical landscape can evolve quite fast, so we can live together the most exhilarating adventure possible.

Kode9 once said: "Many DJ sets go from drop to drop, so the biggest part of the track is always when it comes in. That kind of DJing I find pretty boring and that kind of DJing would be better done by a machine. I prefer to hear tracks in the mix together for extended periods of time, and I like to hear the tension between two tracks." What's your take on that?

Absolutely agree! This is what to me makes DJing the greatest fun we can have in the universe ever aha!!!

Since I started to DJ I always had the goal to be able to play 3 or 4 tracks at the same time, to be able to create a truly unique sound and story. I prepare the starting cue points for all my tracks at home on Rekordbox before anything, so once I’m playing I can spend the most of the time with my hands on the mixer, just blending at least two tracks together and more whenever possible.

Always trying new combinations of tracks, surrendering to the great power of music and of where it wants to take us.

Even if tension between tracks is not a goal for you, pieces can sound entirely different as part of a DJ set compared to playing them on their own. How do you explain this?

The probability of playing two tracks together in particular is like a miraculous event, it’s really our greatest chance for self-expression, to tell a multidimensional story that is unique, to create something in the moment that probably will never happen again the same way. The dynamic between two tracks blended together creates a third track on its own, improvised in the moment … it feels like true magic.

In terms of the overall architecture of a DJ set, are you looking more for one consistent level of energy or a shift between peaks and troughs – and why?

I always seek for tracks with high energy, tracks that will make you want to dance but still want to be able to oscillate between different kinds of musical scenes, with tracks that can be dreamier and then into techno, slow BPM to a faster BPM. Mostly building it up slowly but surely. I want to be able to go through these peaks and throughs without losing the energy somehow.

That is the art, and that’s the skill that we will always get to improve every time we play.  

Many DJs have remarked on collaborating with the audience. Others rather want to present their vision without external input. Where do you personally stand in between these poles?

A full-on collaboration with the audience, definitely! What I want to play most is what will give the greatest happiness to the crowd. I love to DJ because it enables us to be completely versatile from gig to gig, we can adapt to the place, to the people, to the time of the set, even to the artists playing before or after. So, each set can be truly unique, improvised in the moment with the conditions given, and not pre-thought in advance.

I want to be a channel which transmits what the audience truly needs. For that I need to get my own self and own pre-conceptions out of the way, so I can function in the most intuitive way possible, in full improvisation of what the great spirit wants to express in the moment.

A DJ gig, just like an improvisation, is a fleeting experience which can not be repeated the way listening to a record can. How has DJing affected your view on life and death and the importance of memories?

Getting more and more into the music got me to look deeper within the very fabric of reality indeed. Questioning all that we know.

Realizing how little we do know. If anything at all! I do feel like there is no such thing as death the way we commonly understand it, but rather eternal energy that never gets created nor destroyed, but simply changes form. Just like notes of music assembling and disassembling again and again to create all kinds of compositions. Our physical bodies will die yes, but us, our essence, our consciousness, our energy, or whatever you want to name it, that will go on for ever.

Maybe all that exists and ever existed is just this present moment. Maybe our past and our future is a construct of our mind, all happening simultaneously and malleable. Our memories are our feelings. The entire universe is musical by nature, it is up to us to make it as harmonious as we can!