How I Became One Of The BEST DJs In The World - James Hype

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The first night that I was in London, I slept
on the floor of my studio, like with nothing in
the studio, unfurnished room. You don't get into this because
you want to be rich. You don't get into this
because you want to be successful. If you do well,
then they'll be byproducts. You need to be here because
you really love it, and that's the only thing that's
going to pull you through. If you want people to

(00:39):
understand you, it's way more beneficial if you fit into
a box. The hard thing is, if you're the resident
of DJ, everyone's counting on you. You can't be like, oh,
I'm taking next week off. The DJs are very influential
with the people who own the nightclubs. If you're a
nightclub owner and you're looking for an artist to book,
you're probably going to ask you a DJ. I can
tell you right now a blueprint to get to play

(01:02):
big festivals and.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
It's welcome back to the Off the Record DJ podcast
Guys Special one today. I had loads of stats that
I was going to read out, but if you're watching this,
you know who it is. It is one of the
best DJ producers on the planet. James Hype in the building.
Thank you, let's go Wait, welcome back to Leeds.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Thank you. When I when I came in, someone said
to me it was like, how long how long has
it been since you've been in Leeds? And I really
had to think it's been a long time.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, like you in. You come in because you're doing
to get close to UK tour and we're going to
talk about nightlife and what it means and all that
kind of thing. But yeah, just you had a show
last night in Lincoln, so you're doing like local clubs,
local tour, but driving in that tours getting there, they
like bring back memories of like early DJ in days
because you started starting in the club scene like around
like around like Merseyside and Lee's and Manchester, what kind

(01:53):
of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, well we were last night. We were in a
club called Home in Lincoln. Yeah, and it's it's actually
someone that I DJed like ten years ago. I stood
in for the resident DJ and when it first opened,
so and I remember at the time it was so big,
so significant to me. I was like what big opportunity,
you know, going to get to play in the main
room in this new club. And I went back in

(02:15):
there last night and like there's feelings coming back to me.
I was like, wow, that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Amazing because I remember, like you're from a similar scene
that we are, and it's like I remember going to
like DJ Booth and seeing like CDs like James Hype
and people like that. It's like we used to give
out six CDs and stuff to borrow. So it's it's amazing.
It's come like full circle. Also, you actually did the
early days of Crossford. He came and did like a
live we did like a live event for up and
coming producer DJ and you come and spoke at it.
So it's like cool to come like full circle. But yeah,

(02:41):
take me back to them early like club in days,
like doing the residencies.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
And them nights.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
You know you turn up every night and like five
people there or you know, getting that reps in back
in the day, Like that'll come and I'll come back
to you, like, yeah, tell me.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Man, I mean I used to. I used to DJ
five or six nights a week every week for years,
like actual years, like a long time. And obviously I
had the nights that were good. Remember when I first started,
they gave me a Tuesday night and this after hours
club in Liverpool, but it was busy. It was busy
about four am. People came in the door and I

(03:15):
realized quite quickly that in order for me to do
my job well, I'd just like to keep the people
on the dance floor. I remember the first time of
the first time I played, I was like, yeah, I'm
going to play all these amazing tunes, all my favorite tunes,
and then very quickly realized at four am, no one
cares about your favorite tunes, mate, So yeah, I had
to learn how to keep people on the dance floor

(03:35):
in a way that was also sort of a bit
of me, you know what I mean. I wasn't going
to just start playing like stuff that I hated. And
then yeah, after a while I started getting the better nights.
So I did the Tuesday well, and pretty soon they
gave me the Thursday. And Thursday in Liverpool was a
big student night and I think the owner of the
club he was like, James is young, He's going to

(03:58):
connect with the students and it was great. The Thursday
was amazing. It was like a dream for me. And
after the Thursday, I think I've got like a Saturday
and a Friday and started progressing through all these nights,
but there's one night that always sticks with me. And
I used to live in Liverpool City Center, like on
top of all the clubs. If anyone knows Liverpool place
called concert Square. I had like a penthouse apartment in

(04:19):
Concert Square and the guy that I DJed for on
a Saturday night opened a new venue and he asked
me if I would do Sundays in there, and he
wanted me to play like completely different music. He wanted
me to play like a bit of like indie rock

(04:40):
and some like soul and like really open format. And
I was aware of other DJs sort of playing this
style and there were people who were doing it in
a really cool way, and I was like, yeah, okay,
I'm going to give this a go, make it my own.
And yeah. I started doing this Sunday and it was
not very busy, and I kept at it and I

(05:05):
didn't really enjoy it most weeks, and I remember having
a conversation with the boss. I was like, I don't think.
I don't think I'm going to carry on that thing
because I was so busy I didn't need to do it.
But on reflection now I think I didn't quit the
Sunday I did it for about a year. I did
it for a long time, and I think those Sundays
gave me so much because when it's a Sunday, the

(05:28):
energy is so different. I wasn't fighting to keep the
people on the dance for in the same way that
I was on the Thursday. On the Thursday, I was
I've got to make the owner so much money and
all this, I've got to make sure that it's the
best energy ever. But on the Sunday, I was actually
like spending time digging through music trying to and I
was learning so much, and I was learning, Oh, I

(05:50):
found this really cool record from the eighties. If I
play this, this group of people are going to love it.
And I learned that and then I was able to
put that into practice on the Sunday, but also put
that into practice on the Saturday in a way, put
that into the music that I was making in ways,
and that gig always comes back to me when people

(06:11):
talk about reputation, like you just did yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, yeah. The UK, like DJ culture is so it's
so tight knit, like it's a really when you get
in with people. I've heard you talk about like some
of your early influences it's just like the DJs who
had the residences that you wanted or who was at
the bigger club, right, And it's kind of like that
in the UK, right, It's like everyone depending where you go,
Like Leeds has a bit of a difference in Manchester Liverpool,

(06:34):
but in them scenes generally all the DJs sort of
connect and help each other out. But is that what
you found like in the early sort of years, just
like you're just looking up to like the next guy
or the guy who had a better residence than you.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Well, as I just mentioned the old Sunday night thing,
so one guy really looked up to at that time
is a guy called Dan Hills. Yeah, and I actually
used to come to Leeds to watch him play. I
can't remember the name of the club, but it was
a student night that he did and he was playing
like Stevie Wonder and stuff. We played together like the
last weekend. Yeah's amazing. He's great. But honestly, I don't

(07:07):
think I ever really belonged to a city, so I'm
not sure I've experienced what you're talking about there. And
I'm not saying that from like a bitter perspective. I'm
not like I've done all right. But I think if
I really had belonged to a city, then I probably
would have had more sort of friends along the way
and stuck to a sort of group. But I didn't

(07:28):
grow up in Liverpool. I grew up outside of Liverpool,
moved into Liverpool, felt like a bit of an outsider,
and then I was a bit of an outsider. Liverpool's
very very house music, and I was sort of the
guy who played house music but also brought a little bit.
And that's like, you're not always going to make friends.
Doing things like that doesn't mean it's a bad thing.
It just means if you're sort of against the status quo,

(07:49):
then it might people might not always understand you straight away.
And then I was only in Liverpool for five or
six years and I started branching out to other cities.
So I don't really like Liverpool. Liverpool claims me like that.
I was never really one of the boys there. I mean,
obviously me and you have met, and I've met a
ton of other great DJs on the road, but it's
never really been local.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
I remember the first time I sort of was like
aware of you was like on when he was making
bootlegs after bootlegs, and when like DJ city was like
popping and it was like DJ City charts and things
like that. I think it's really where like a lot
of all UK producers especially like really like took like
took you under our wing because we're like everything you made,
We're like, oh, we can play this. And it got
to a point where you're like, youdn't really have to listen.

(08:32):
It's like, yeah, he's made one in the collection and
let's go. But did you start to like feel like
the first time you're like creating a fan base through
sort of the DJ producer community.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
First one percent, like I and and and the interesting
thing for me, so to elaborate on what Lauren's just saying,
I was I was doing remixes of popular current songs
in like house music style, and I was making things
for my own DJ sets because I just sort of

(09:07):
I figured out what needed to be made in my
head and I was like, let me make that, and
if I can play it, the odds are a lot
of other people are going to play it. And I
got sort of addicted to this process of releasing releasing
a remix every week, and I was doing one a
week and I would put it on SoundCloud and I
put it on DJ city and all the DJs would
get it, and I did become very popular with DJs

(09:28):
like yourself. But the kind of the weird thing about
that is DJs are never going to be the ones
who come to watch you at your shows because they're
all DJing themselves. So I had like social medias pop
in and everyone's like, yeah, James, you're the best, But
then they're all they're all DJing, like, so who's going
to come and watch me play? So that that was

(09:48):
sort of sort of a disconnect there, but then the
way that actually translated into being beneficial for me. The
DJs are very influential with the people who own the nightclubs.
So if you're a night club owner and you're looking
for an artist to book, you're probably going to ask
you a DJ. And I would have been in that

(10:10):
very low price point of people that you can book,
and they're like, oh, what about this guy James Hype.
I'm playing his remixes all night and he's building him
building his profile on Instagram, and the club managers like,
all right, cool, he's affordable, let's book him. So that
there was a period where I don't I wouldn't say
I had any fans outside of DJs, but I was

(10:31):
getting gigs because all the DJs were helping me get
into that position.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Was it when was like the moment you thought, because
remember you moved to America in your throughout that period,
when was it time for you to be like, right,
there resonancy things sort of working, I'm making tunes, getting
a few local bookings. Was there a moment You're like, right,
I've got to go If I want to go here,
I've got to get out of here or try a
different tact than just trying to DJ seven nights a week.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
At Yeah, well, I'll be totally transparent. The move to
America thing was complete smoke and mirrors. Yes, but but
I'll explain that and why that sort of made sense.
So I was, I was doing resident DJing, and I
felt like I'd reached a point where there was no
further I could go. I had. I was like, I
was resident in prison and leads on Saturday night, and

(11:20):
that was like the best club that you could be
the rest and yeah, I've got to the point where
I was really selective with what gigs I was doing.
I was like, I'm going to do this one because
it's the biggest, this one because it's biggest, and then
I'm going to stay home all the rest of the week.
And I was making music, and I was making house music.

(11:45):
Five years before that, I was playing all genres. But
through this period, I'd realized, Okay, I kind of need
to stick to one genre in exactly yeah. Otherwise people
people want to put you in a box, and if
they can't put you in a box, then they don't
really understand what you are and that makes everything a
lot harder. So I was like, Okay, I've always liked
house music, why not let's let me do it. And also,
I'm a white guy from the suburbs. Let me do house.

(12:06):
It just makes sense. Yeah. So I'd committed to house music,
and I'd taken my residency game down to just a
couple of key ones, and I had a few people,
a few of these clubs messaging me on Facebook like James,
we want to book you, and I was I was
full transparency. I was probably getting paid. I think I

(12:28):
was earning six hundred pounds on a Saturday night from
my residencies, and then like maybe four hundred pounds on
a Friday, and through the week I was probably doing
one five hundred pounds or something on the resident which
was like, I thought that was really tot but I
had these people who wanted to book me, and they
were going to pay me more than that, just just
for one hour, you know. But the hard thing is,

(12:51):
if you're the resident DJ, everyone's counting on you. You
can't be like, oh, I'm taking next week off because
well you know, you're not now, like, because we can't
just repl issue like that, otherwise you wouldn't have the
job already. So I came to this point where and
I was working with some really some really cool people
who did like me, who did let me take weeks off,

(13:12):
but yeah, it came. It came to this point where
I realized I had to leave the residencies in order
for me to really move forward with these these bookings
that were coming in, and I sort of I picked
my timing. Anyone who's anyone who's a club DJ knows
that you get really busy before Christmas and then January

(13:35):
it's pretty lame. Yeah, a couple of months. Yeah, yeah,
even February is pretty lame in it like the clubs
just aren't busy, and it's it's pretty depressive. Yah. So
I remember I worked, worked my ass off all the
way up to December, saved up money, sold a car,
and I think I think I had about twelve thousand

(13:55):
pounds in the bank, which was loads mind for me.
Then like I wasn't, I wasn't, wasn't very old, wasn't
very good at saving money. And I decided, I don't
really remember the thought process behind this, but I always
love taking big risks. I decided, I'm just going to
go to America. And I know that there's no gigs

(14:18):
for me here in January, or none that I need
to do, none that I want to do. So I'm
just going to go and make loads of noise on
the internet. And I got a flight to America, book
some sick Airbnb's not too expensive but like just really
cool kind of locations, and I bought some c DJs. Like,

(14:40):
this is such a big transition when I think back, right,
what was I doing? A key thing that I forgot
to mention here. I was desing on Serato up until
this point, right, Yeah, OK, so I was a house
DJ playing on Serato. But I knew that I could
could eat because I again, again, you've got to fit
into that box. You have to. I mean, you don't

(15:00):
have to. That's the wrong thing to say, but if
you want people to understand you, it's way more beneficial
if you fit into a box. So I was fitting
into this house music box, and I was like, I
think I need a DJ on USBs because Serato just
doesn't look right.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Eventually when you're going to house shows trying to set
up around the house guy, it was like it was.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Like, what's going on? I had to prove to people
that I was a house DJ. I probably had to
prove to myself that I was a house DJs. Well
you know, so yeah, I bought to c DJ two thousands,
DJM nine hundred, and I was in America in like LA,
just like doing live streams on Facebook every day, and

(15:42):
all of these people who knew me from the UK,
they were like, what the hell is going on there?
James Hype has moved to America and he's just like
so then everyone's like he is, so yeah, And then
then I'm there like getting through the savings like and
also I visa, So I was just there like on Esther,

(16:02):
which means I can stay in the country for ninety days,
so I was always coming home, but I didn't really
let on that I was coming home. And then I
think in like February, I was also bear in mind
I was producing loads and music at this point as well.
I just I just put all my time into this,
and this really coincided with my producing taking off as well.
I remember having you. I had a few official remixes

(16:23):
for record labels, so they were paying me a little
bit of money, but also just like the kind of
exposure that comes from that because I'd been releasing remixes
on SoundCloud, just bootleg things, and all of a sudden,
your remixes on Spotify with the real artist's name on it. Crazy,
so that all coincided at the same time, and it
was it was like February. I was thinking about, like, Okay,

(16:43):
what am I going to do in April when I
have to go home, And I just started thinking like, okay,
I'm going to have to start getting to bookings in now.
There were a couple of people who had booked me
in the past were happy to book me again, so
there were a few of them going in the diary,
and then I just had to just keep me making noise,
And the more noise I made, the more people were like, Oh,

(17:04):
can you come and play at my club? And I
started filling up my diary for when I came back
to the country, and also when I came back to
the country, I moved alone. How did this happen?

Speaker 2 (17:18):
Is that when you because like we'll talk, we'll get
into your content in a bit more granular detail. But
is that when when you moved to London? Is that
when you were like this content is basically everything and
this is where I'm going to go all in Or
was there a gap between maybe getting more official remixes?
How how when was that switch had been like I
need to go all in on content because that's what's
really going to get me to the next level. Or
were you focused on like the official remixes and putting

(17:40):
your own music out or a bit of both.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
I wouldn't say I was as all in on content
then as I was now. I mean, for the time,
I was pretty all in, like there are there are
I was doing DJ routines. You can see you can
see some DJ routines from that period on my YouTube
where I had a ponytail and stuff, but not not
loads of it, and short form wasn't really so like

(18:04):
Facebook and stuff. Yeah, I wasn't really doing a significant
amount of views on any of it. I was I
was keen to and there were people who were but
not really in the not really in the dance music space.
So I wouldn't say I was all in, but I
was probably more all in than a lot of other people.
But the one thing I was always very aware of.
I remember when I first moved to London, I wasn't

(18:25):
really doing a great deal, but there were some there
were some DJs that I'd connected with on the Internet,
and maybe like one of the first weekends I was
in London, there's a there's a duo called Jack and Danny, right,
and we'd bonded over just like we were making similar
type of music. We were making edits of stuff, and
I was a fan of their work, they were a
fan of my work, and I was just I think

(18:47):
I was messaging them on maybe Instagram, I'm not really
sure what it would have been at that time. And
the first weekend I was in London, they had a
show and they were really like established in the London scene,
and I didn't know anything about the London scene. I
just knew that London was cool and I wanted to
be there, so you have to be there exactly. So
I what I did the first weekend I was in London.

(19:07):
I went to their show and I'll never forget this.
I was on the stage next to them taking selfies,
making a look like I was playing at the show,
and I posted it on my Instagram and it was
like just like a generic caption, not telling any lies.
I was just like, thanks to sick Night. So there's
always been It's like I said to you, the American

(19:29):
thing was smoking mirrors. I never moved to America. It
was smoking mirrors, but it got everyone talking like I'd
moved to America. And then the thing with this is
like one saying that comes up in my head, perception
is reality, you know. So it was like, oh, James
Type's on stage at this club in London. He's probably playing.
Half the people think you're playing. Half the people won't.

(19:49):
But it doesn't it doesn't really matter, Like.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
People aren't going to dig into it and find out, Yeah,
you take it a phase value, Yeah that happened, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
And if you've got the stuff to back it up
as that. I mean, if you're if you're a wasteman,
and then everyone's going to be like, what is he doing?
They're like, Oh, it's James type. He's making moves, he's
just done this remix and now he's on stage. He's
can it you know?

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yeah, I think it's a made like when like up
until now and between that point, one thing that stands
out is just the ridiculous amount that god that you
put out, and that goes from when you were doing
two remixes a week on DJ City, that goes to
when you were doing fourheads a week in Liverpool or whatever.
Up until now. It's like, I don't think people can

(20:31):
really comprehend it right because they'll they'll look and you'll go, yeah,
I get why he's super successful right now because you
can't get away from the ridiculous output. Like where like
on a we'll get into sort of like how this happens,
but on sort of them all like I guess philosophical level,
like where is that drive? Like where does it even
come from? Is it just because you just love this ship?

(20:53):
Is as simple as that.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
You've got to You've got to because you, like I
get paid well now, but not like the stories we're
talking about now. Through this period, I was borrowing money
for my girlfriend and stuff like, and she didn't have
a lot of money. So it's yeah, like when we
when I first moved to London, I didn't have anywhere
to sleep, Like I first moved to London, and we
were trying to get we were trying to get places

(21:15):
that would allow us to rent, because it's very tough
to rent property in London. They want you to prove
that you earn loads of money. They want you to
prove that you can. Yeah. So I couldn't get approved
to rent anywhere, didn't have enough money. They wanted me
to pay upfront. But what I did get approved for
was a cash rental of my studio. So the first night,
the first night that I was in London, I slept

(21:36):
on the floor of my studio. Yeah yeah, like with
nothing in the studio, unfurnished room. I had like I
can't remember, like some clothes or something under my head.
And so you don't you don't get into this because
you want to be rich. You don't get into this
because you want to be successful. If you do well,
then they'll be byproducts. But you need to be here
because you really love it and that's the only thing

(21:58):
that's going to pull you through. And I was I
was in school. I was a teenager getting suspended for
bringing a boombox with me because I'm just refusing not
to play music to people. So like, that's that's who
I am, that I was born for it, and then
I know that. And when I discovered producing as well
and found my process for that, it was like unlocked

(22:20):
a whole new thing.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
So every every gig at that time in around London
or the shows you were doing, you just basically putting
everything back into the craft, into the studio, the rental.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, I didn't. I didn't make any money for a
couple of years after that.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, And I think that's what like we really want
to get across the like people is like the just
the amount of hustle that it takes to sort of
get to this level. I love to talk to you
about like your your process of like like daily like
you've got a bit of a team now. But when
that started to grow and he was like, Okay, I'm
going to start making you started like making serious concept
from like you know, lockdown when you're doing streams and
things like that. Were you How involved are you in

(22:59):
that process of content? Obviously got a team now, but
in the early days you across like everything or do
you focus on DJ and producing the brand?

Speaker 1 (23:08):
I mean I started the content in that period there
was I was very fortunate. I used to live with
I used to live with a guy who was my
best friend at the time, and he became my content guy.
But when he became my content guy, he was DJ. Right,
So I had a camera and I used to think
I used to take a camera with me to the

(23:29):
shows and put it on a tripod, and I taught
him how to use the camera and he ended up
way better than me, you know, like he actually started
like studying it, but I taught him how to use
the camera. So yeah, how involved are I own the content?
It's I am pretty involved the probably more than most DJs,
is it.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
How How often do you sort of have meetings about content?
Is it like, right, we're doing this this week, we're
doing this, or is it like all over the place
because I'm just just the schedule.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Is in the back of the room. How often do
we have me is about content? Content comes before everything
because without the content there's nothing like I could make
the best song in the world, but without the content,
no one's gonna listen to it.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
What we want to get across is like, you know,
people watching this like wanting too some like tips and
tricks of like you know, because you watch your content
on short forms and there's the simple like tools, right,
you'd be like, I've never seen a DJ do this
or imagine doing this live or something like that. That's
people can do that, right. People can go up and
for their own sort of routines and set up in
a club and something, and the hook is everything, right,
there's the hook, there's there's the how you sort of

(24:32):
capture people, and I guess doing it all yourself. Initially,
you just you just like earn that memory and you're like, ah,
I know what this is going to look like, I
know about this piece of content, how it's going to
look or is.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
That But we get it wrong though, Yeah, sure, testing
like the one you've just referenced. I've never seen a
DJ do this or whatever it was like we did.
I did a couple of posts with that caption like
two weeks ago and they've all done over a million views.
But I remember when we thought of that line. We
were all there, oh that's good, you.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Know, yeah, of course, yeah. I want to pull back
to what you what you're doing now. You know, we
are a start about sort of UK nightclub closures closing
down and the almost like the demise of nightclubs, as
like ten clubs a month shutting down in the UK
or something like that. And you know, an article came
out saying if this sort of cant it continues, it'll
in by twenty twenty nine or something like that, there'll

(25:22):
be no sort of night It has been no sort
of nightclubs anymore. And obviously you're doing to get closer
touring now around the UK. Is it like, is it
imperative that we save it or do you think we
sort of have to move like with the times or
is it it's not all on you.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
By the way, I was thinking about this in the
shower this morning because I knew you're going to ask me. Yeah, yeah,
well I assumed you would, and there is like it isn't.
That's an interesting point because we we're the old guys now,
we're the ones clinging onto what was really cool when
we were eighteen, and maybe if you're eighteen. Now you're
just going to be like, what the hell are those

(25:57):
old guys talking about? You know, So maybe we don't
need to cling onto these clubs. And obviously we always
will want to clean onto the clubs because we are
all all of our formative memories of becoming DJs are
based around those clubs. But maybe there is something out
there the world that the next generation of DJs will

(26:19):
that will be their formative memories of becoming DJs. And
I just I don't know what that looks like, which
is why it's scary.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Yeah, we had a we had a bit of a
conversation like over the last couple of weeks about it,
because there's although this is happening, you know, the reverse
tends to happen. So there's been like a lot of
different rises. So like the rise of like the the
boiler room type DJ where someone will you pick up
some decks in the middle of somewhere and film themselves
as there's loads of like creator YouTube DJs. Now there's
the rise of daytime events. There's so many like the

(26:45):
finished through the daytime which makes sense, let's party, let's
get to bed, right, There's you know, unique like you
know corporate events and all that kind of thing, and
there's like you know, we've got a meta quest here,
and there's vr DJ and there's influencer DJing. So like
you said, I think it's just it will evolve and
maybe we don't have to hang onto it. However, for now,
for the time being, I do very fucking yeah. Tell

(27:07):
us a bit more about the sort of the toys.
It's a week long tours in the year four and
you're doing you've just done Holding Link and you at
least and I which we are going to come along to
and see the show, but some clips from it are
absolutely mental. But interestingly, like you actually blew up earlier
in like America and Europe and you did here, did
that right, yeah sort of? So is it just really

(27:27):
nice coming back and just having huge support like in
UK because you did the Drumshed show.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Right, yeah, that must have been like ridiculous. The Drumshed
show changed everything for me, right Like I through through
the period of the pandemic, I used to do more
than four hours live streaming every week, religiously, like it was.
It was my whole routine, and amazingly it became lots
of other people's routine on the Internet to tune in,

(27:52):
so I reached millions and millions of people. And through
that period I started selling T shirts Stereotype T shirt,
and I had all the data on where the people
behind them were, and loads of customers in the USA,
loads of customers in Europe, loads of customers in the
UK UK. The UK has the biggest fan base of
Stereohype t shirts. Now the pandemic ended. And the first

(28:16):
place I DJed was Finland, which was random first. It's
still the only time I've been to Finland. It's crazy crazy.
And then after that, I think I went to the USA,
and I went to I was all over Europe. I
was everywhere, and my career in all each places, like
I've been headlining festivals in Europe for two years and
She's doing huge shows in America, and I always had this.

(28:43):
My whole team are based in the UK, so my
manager's based in the UK. I'm starting to record label
in the UK, and more so for them than for me,
there's always been this frustration that the UK doesn't really
see you as a significantly big artist. And I, as
I say, I had the data on the T shirt

(29:04):
sales and we came out of this pandemic period and
I remember having a conversation with my manager and we
were talking about doing shows and he was like, yeah,
but they don't what. They won't boogy for that, and
I was like why because they think you don't sell
any tickets. And I'm like, listen, I know how many
T shirts I've sold. A T shirt costs more than
a ticket, and it's way You've got to be way

(29:26):
more of a fan to buy a T shirt than
you have a ticket. I know how many T shirts
I sold. I know I can sell tickets. And he's like, yeah,
but no one else does. No one else believes that.
So what we had to do in the UK that
we didn't have to do elsewhere is we had to
build our own shows to prove that we could actually
get people there because they just didn't they didn't see it.

(29:46):
And I don't know, I can't really be mad at that.
It's just part of the journey. But yeah. So the
first show that we did, we did Electric Brickston just
after the pandemic, sold out. I think that's seventeen hundred people.
And then the next one we did Studio three three eight,
three and a half thousand people, and yeah, we saw
that one out and then we did Drumsheads fifteen thousand

(30:08):
people and I did that along with me jews Or.
I can't take full credit for fifteen thousand tickets, but
it's just surreal. I remember my manager called me and
he was like, do you think we can do it?
And I'm like, no, I don't think we can do
It's ridiculous. It's fifteen thousand people, and he was like, yeah,
but even if we do, like I think he said,
like twelve thousand, we'll be happy. And yeah, we did

(30:29):
it and we actually must to sell it out and
it's just it's phenomenal and just being there amazing, unbelievably.
I was crying before my set and yeah, it's a
crazy place. And I think through the process of that
doing that show, proving to people, oh like like this year,
I've got loads offs for like festivals in the UK
and stuff, and like we did we did cream Fields

(30:49):
last summer as well, and it's all off the back
of that. Because when you do something that big, you're
you're doing something so big that people can't ignore you.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, you know, when you're going through and playing these
different shows and just even your different shows in general. Right,
you've been this week, You've probably been America.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
And back or whatever.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Going back to the days where you're playing, you know,
different crowds every night, Like if you're playing leads, right,
you'll know if you're playing leads and you drive forty
five minutes to Manchester, it's a different They like different music,
it's a different scene. So how does that translate into
your shows?

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Now?

Speaker 2 (31:22):
Obviously the levels are different, right, people go want to
come and see you, they want to see skills. But
do you change accordingly? Still? Do you still have that
mindset of getting into right, I'm going to this show.
What I need to find out a little bit about
the culture, what's popping in this city? Does that just
sort of you've done it so much, does that just
kick in? Or do you plan? Is it a lot
more planned than I.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Wouldn't say I spend a lot of time doing that,
but I do. I love doing that. Like I recently
played a show in San Francisco and there's a clip
of me playing mac Dre. I literally did like I
seen that transitioning down to one hundred BP mac Dre
Dune and the crowd like, yes, I don't know anything
about mac Dree. I'm going to be honest. I've got

(32:06):
a friend who's from the Bay area and he just
he never shots up about mac Drey. And I was like,
is this guy really that popular? Sorry for my ignorance
if you're from the Bay right, and I, yeah, I
dropped into this mac Drey tune and like, forget Ferrari.
They did not care about any of my tunes at
this point. That went meant And I love doing those.

(32:27):
I love giving people those little moments because that's for me,
that's part of real DJ and that's like yeah, and
I I love music. I love music. I love the
history of music, and I love sometimes I just go
on Spotify and just be fascinated like, oh that person
made that song and yeah yeah, Like I'm obsessed with
that stuff. So if I can get that into my

(32:48):
DJ secs touch other people with that, not not in
a nerdy way, in a way that yeah yeah. And
I remember I did a South America tour earlier this year,
and I was going into every place and like searching,
like what's the biggest rapper from the place, And I
was like, I was like making like a couple of
remixes of like local rappers and stuff, and that people
were losing their minds. And it's it's so cool to

(33:11):
be able to just like tap into like the culture
and pay tribute to it, and then also just on
a non geographical level as well, changing up the sets,
Like there's so many different types of clubs and crowds
that I'll play to as well, Like I have a
residency in Las Vegas, and anyone who knows anyone who's

(33:35):
been to Las Vegas will know that the crowd there
is so diverse and so varied that yeah, all tourists. Yeah,
and you end up DJing in a very sort of
greatest Hits kind of way, you know, like you'll play
all your own songs, You'll play some other popular songs
that people know, You'll play some really old songs that
will get the crowd going. There's not so much like

(33:58):
experimental music. There's so much like brand new, fresh stuff.
Whereas I'll play in other places, like I have a
residency in Abitha, and when I'm playing in Abitha, then
I'm digging deep into the musical journey exactly.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
So so beyond the geography there is there are so
many different variations of yeah, way used to play.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
But I love it. I love it. You lean into
that because you know, if somebody gets a residency in
place like Vegas, it's very easy to come and just
be like, Okay, I'm gonna play what I'm going to play.
Dads are not kind of thing. And if you're a
bit more underground, are you not from the clubbing era
and open format era, Yeah, you might not have that
inklin to do that.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Yeah, but that's from the the reps putting in on
the Sunday nights and nights.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, because I've seen you play some that you dropped,
like Matt j. You've seen you play like drum and
bass in sets and stuff like that. Is it are
you conscious of playing mixed genres or is it a
laying that you Actually I'm building brand that is me,
and you come and see what I can do and
I'll sort of take you on a journey like are
you gonna experiment with more genres? Or is it a

(35:07):
bit like let's just see where he goes kind of thing?
Not thinking about it too much.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
I'm not thinking about it too much.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
The thing with I'm very good at making house music
now that might sound really arrogant, but it took me
a long time to get really good. I was really
bad for a long time for a long time, and
so that's kind of really easy for me. So my
default will probably always be making house music. So making
other genres might be a bit of a stretch, but
I love just dropping little pieces of them in a

(35:35):
house music set. I'm always try and be as me
as I possibly can be, and I think there's there's
a there's a million great house DJs out there, but
maybe what makes me different from a lot of those
is the fact that I did used to play all
genres of music. So here's a little bit of that.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
When you like making music like like now until you
used to do like I know a lot of producers
have spots like on this podcast, like never never really
satisfied with the thing. Oh, once the thing's done and
you do the next thing, you sort of you forgot
about the previous work or something like that. Are you
able to like you ever sort of satisfied with anything
or is it like we can do this better, we
can do this better, and do you need to be
like that?

Speaker 1 (36:13):
I'm satisfied with some of my records Yeah, I'm satisfied
with Ferrari. I'm satisfied with these control Yeah, trying to think, Like,
don't get me wrong, I listened to old stuff and
I'm like a cringe at my old mes.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Yeah. But the stuff that I find that I am
really satisfied with when I look back is the stuff
that is not It doesn't sound like a time, It
doesn't sound like that it sounds and there are producers
who do this really well. Like you can listen to
a Calvin Harris track from like fifteen years ago, and

(36:48):
even though it would have sounded fresh fifteen years ago,
it doesn't sound like it's fifteen years old today.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah, And it's it's that finesse. And I haven't always
managed that. I still fail to do that some days.
But when I manage that, that's when i'm That's when
I'm happy. When I look back and.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
You're making Are you making most of your music just
on the road now?

Speaker 1 (37:10):
It works? Yeah, pretty much. I have. I have amazing
studio and I love it when I get to go there.
But there, I was away for a month up until
this week, and then I've been there all week sort
of prepared for the tour. It kind of depends, like
there's there's periods of the year where I'm I travel

(37:32):
a few days a week, and then this periods of
the year where I'm just gone.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
So I don't really are you able to have like
a routine, like a daily like a daily routine, like today,
I'm not today, I've not got gig? Is it? Then?

Speaker 1 (37:44):
Right?

Speaker 2 (37:45):
I'm up, I'm in studio making Yeah, that's it. Oh,
I have a gig on the way to the gig.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
It. I love routine, but I can't. I can't have it.
So the days when I can't have it, I do.
I do lean into it because yeah, it's yeah, I'm
quite like obsessive, you know, obsess over routine. My my girlfriend,
I get pissed off because she'll be like, do you
really have to get up at eight am? Yes? I

(38:10):
do have to go otherwise I'll be angry all day.
You know, I've dreaming about out. Sorry, where were we studio? Yeah?
So I'm good at making music complains, especially really long flights.
I'm not good at making music on short flights, but
the long flights are great because you can no one
bothers you on the phone, and as long as you

(38:32):
downloaded what you need before the flight, then yeah, you
can just you can lose yourself. I've made some made
some sick music on long flights, and the studio is amazing,
like I can. I've never had such a good signing room.
You know. My studio for a long time was just
in a basement of like a mixed use building. And
it wasn't it wasn't a treated room. It's just like
it was quite It sounded like crap, to be honest,

(38:53):
But I'd still made some great records and it you know,
made for Oriana. But the studio I have now is
like perfectly room. I've got huge monitors in there and stuff.
It's brilliant and that allows me to mix way better
than I ever have before and get the low end
sounding incredible, which I've never been able to do before.
But I can still make stuff in air pods, yeah,

(39:17):
and I do. Yeah, And I'll play stuff in a
club that I've made in a really yeah, and I
never heard in the studio and it's just and that's
I'm not big enough air pods. I mean, I think
they're good, but you could do that with any headphones
if you if you kind of learn what they're supposed
to say.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah, how if you managed to balance, if you busiced
to get a balance with between like a healthy producer
life and now you mentioned like last now to link
you've got into like five in the morning, slept on
a bus you were able to Where where does it
become when do you draw a line of like I
need to have a healthy mind, healthy body, but also
I've got like seventy five million shows to do. If

(39:53):
you manage to find that balance or is.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
It you've got a prioritized sleep at times when there's
no there's nothing else do. Like I got really into
the gym, like yeah, two years ago, maybe because I
started just I've always gone to the gym, but then
like two years ago, it's just yeah, backed off it
a little bit. And I remember there's a day where
I was like, now I'm going to go every day.
And I did go every day, but it was like

(40:15):
to the detriment of other things. Yeah, as I said,
I'm quite obsessive. Yeah, I'd get in from the show
at four am, and we'd have to leave at ten
am to the airport and I'd be in the gym
at eight am. You know what. I mean, like, that's
that's not good, Like you have to draw a line.
You can't do that if if you're not getting six
or seven hours, then that then the sleep has to
come first. But yeah, it's a constant balance.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Are you quite pleased that? I think most of your
like huge, huge successes come you know, a bit later
in life. You know, you started DJA in early twenties
or whatever. Do you think it's Is it a blessing
in this guy? Is that your success has come now
because you can make a sort of better choices. Like
if you were this big at twenty one, do you
think you'd be able to maintain that lifestyle now?

Speaker 1 (40:55):
I think I think it's. Yeah, Like I was an
idiot till I was like twenty five. Not like I mean,
I don't deserve to be in prison or anything, but
I wasn't making like good choices. I I was just
like really immature. So it's kind of crazy when you
see someone who makes it really young, like how did
you actually manage that? Maybe they've got incredible people around them,

(41:16):
you know, because people do people do hold it down
when they make it really young. But then also there's
a lot of people who don't manage to. So I've
said it before that I'm grateful that I had so
much figured out before I found the level of success
that I did.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
Do you think you can sort of make it to
your level? Like a lot of DJs ask us that
go right, I'm into DJing, but like a bit like
you did, where started making moot legs, started making mashups
and stuff online and sound cloud. But I'm sort of
stuck a residency. Like can you get to a headline show,
festival show just being a DJ without making music today?

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Do you think? Yeah? But good luck. I'm not saying
you can't do it, because you probably could, but you'd
have to be doing something like you'd have to be
an incredible TikTok maker or something like that. And I mean,
I can I can tell you right now a blueprint
to get to play big festivals, and it's called making music.

(42:14):
I can't tell you a blueprint died it without I'm
not saying no one can do it. They probably can,
but good luck.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
Do you when do you celebrate like when you've got wins,
when you've you know, for hour has just gone and exploded?
How often do you get to celebrate like you're doing
his tour. Now will you ever will you be able
to sit down after it in a week and go, yes,
that was unbelievable. But then he's like, boom, We're off
to North America six weeks.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
I'm not really good, but like, I don't know, I
enjoyed the process. I don't need time off. I don't
need to be like, oh yeah, you know, we do,
like I have to force myself to take because I
love it. Like I'll be already thinking about what's next already,
and but that's how I like it. Like obviously people
tell you not to be like that, but I don't know.
It makes me happy.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
Yeah, just like this is what you'd be doing in
your spare time if you wasn't.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
I do this free exactly. Yeah, it's still be just
as intense and probably would have as many people around
me because I would be able to pay them.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
I want to talk about the people around yourself this
show that you're traveling around with. You just said it's
like a team of fought so you're not putting it together.
Let's talk about like the textbecs and stuff involved in
a show like this. Because you said to me before,
like because there you know, your local clubs. They don't
have the sound that the tech basically to put on
the show that you want to put on. And you
can't ask them to put on five, ten, fifteen grands

(43:33):
worth of equipment because this is not going to make
any money, right, So talk about what what is involved
in these like get Closer shows, like from the text
to the rigs to everything, is it all systems go?

Speaker 1 (43:43):
I'll break down who's in the team. Yes, So first
of all, we're not making any money from this. It's
just cost him in money. But that's fine. Like Wes,
there's shows that you do that you get loads of
money farm and shows that you do that you don't
get money from them. This is for me. This is
about the culture and paying tribute to the scene that
got us all here and reaching people as well. You know,

(44:03):
like not every not everyone lives in London, so if
you're already doing UK shows in London, you're not going
to reach people. So yeah, we've got we've got a
team of fourteen on the tour bus and so it's
myself my tour manager who's in charge of everyone, make
sure everyone's on time and everything like that. And then content.

(44:25):
I've got Wallace, Ben, Alex Alex all right, don't anyone Yeah,
two Alex is so Wallace. Wallace is the guy who's
been with me the longest. He's in charge of moving
differently like all the youtubs and stuff. And then Ben
Ben works alongside Wallace and they do a lot of

(44:46):
multi camp stuff together, so making sure we've got all
the cool angles and stuff. Now there's two Alex's who
they're not permanent team members. One Alex I've brought on
to do some fitness content with me while we're on
the road, and he's also ill also be helping out
with the shows. He's experienced in making fitness content. And
there's another Alex who is a runner for the other
camera guys, so he knows a bit about cameras. He

(45:08):
can help the mark if he needs to, but he's
not really manny. So that's five people, six people, okay.
And then I have Joe, who is the production manager
now he's in charge of He brings like a lighting
desk to all the shows and connects to the club,
but also brings his own lighting as well. He has

(45:28):
two guys with him who are like his his assistance.
That's nine people. I have my have my pet with
me because, as I said, with doing fitness content lifestyle,
this is for me. It's not even about healthy life
start I can go to I mean it is, but
I can go to the gym by myself. So it's
it's I want to be more than the James Hype

(45:49):
that I've been for the past three years. I want
to Oh, James Hypes does fitness content with you know
what I mean. So I'm just trying to I'm trying
to follow my own passions and just be as be
as me as possible. So that obviously that it costs
me money. It's more of an investment, but it's hopefully
we can take it somewhere. We've got my tour manager's

(46:10):
got an assistant with him as well called Toga who's helping.
He's helping doing some of the driving and he's also
close protection guy. All right, yeah, yeah, oh yeah. We
got got Sabian who he's been opening up. He's opening
DJ on all the shows.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
All right, nice.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
He's cool. Story with Sabian because actually during lockdown he
was messaging my friend and he was like, I really
want to help. I'm a really big fan of what
you guys are doing. I really want to help out.
Is there any way I can help out? And remember
we were doing some like location videos filming around London
and he came with us and just carried boxes and
stuff like that, and he eventually became my friend through

(46:53):
that process. And since then he's released the record on
stereo hype and now yeah, he's opening for me on
these shows and pretty cool to like be be a
part of his journey as well. And a rewire who
you probably know he's he's with us on the tour
as well. He's going to be he's going to be
closing some of the shows, but he's actually playing tonight.
That's sick. But as well as that, he's just he's

(47:14):
a part of the family. Yeah, yeah, cost did I
miss anyone? There's three Alexes and then yeah, and there's
a third Alex who's my who's my long term friend
from when I was growing up, and he works in
he works in what do you call it, like acting? Yeah,

(47:35):
he's an actor, but he's just really good with people.
So because we're doing these Get Closer shows, we need
someone to be in charge of the crowd because if
we're making content and we've got a bad like arrangement
of people behind the DJ. We want it to be
as diverse as possible behind DJ. We don't want it

(47:56):
to just be like the same person there for the
whole set. We want to circulate the people around and
for the and for the enjoyment of the people in
the crowd. So he's in charge of that.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
That is detail, but it's so cool figured he's out
of a rector. That's so cool. I love that story
about and reaching out to you as part of the two.
I remember the story about when like when you was
like blowing up and stuff like you just dming for
the no drama Craig David tune, just like reaching out
to Craig David and then like making it happen. That

(48:26):
must like, I think people underrate the power of just
reaching out right.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
I think we're scared of it too big time because
we're all scared of rejection. But I've got another cool
story just about about not being afraid of rejection. I
made a record with Vintage Culture. He's like he's a
he's a god in Brazil, you know, he's just huge.
That allowed me to have a profile in Brazil as well,
which is really cool. But we we connected in the pandemic,

(48:52):
and the record didn't come out for another two years,
and basically it required me to follow up five or
six times over the course of two years, but eventually
the record came out. And if if at one point
I'd have been like, oh no, he doesn't want to
do it, I'm not gonna I'm not going to keep
pesturing him, and it wouldn't have come out. So and
one thing I'll always do as well, if you're someone

(49:13):
who's trying to get through to me, if I've replied
to you once and then I never replied to you
ever again, if I see you're following up and I
do reply, I'll be art thanks for following up, because
like it's it's not I didn't mean to ignore you.
You got me at a bad time, you know what
I mean, And you can if you just remember that
in your head, like, don't be afraid to follow up
with people because you don't know what what day you've

(49:34):
messaged them on.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
And a lot of people who are in that position
like the respect it right, It's not like hassling. If
you've got something of value to offer, Yeah, it's not hassling.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
Somebody is it.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
It's like, it's like I respect that you want this,
Like you're hustling. Like we get messages all the time,
and if if people have got value to offer and
and they're persistent, it's just that it shows character, Right
do you do? Do you still do that? Now? Reaching
out to people? Is the people you still want to
work with that you're trying to get hold.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
Of every time I go on any sort of interview
or podcast. I reached out to my p and ask
him to collab.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Yeah, where is here?

Speaker 1 (50:07):
Is another one that tagging.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
Who was someone that? Who was someone that replied to you?

Speaker 1 (50:14):
You were like, what the fuck?

Speaker 2 (50:16):
Or is it someone who's them that's famous? And you're like,
oh my god, I'm actually ignoring him right now?

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Something to reply? But yeah, I mean, yeah, crazy, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
So and you've you've worked with Yester, right, we've done
some bits together?

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Yeah, what have we done? He remixed my remixed one
of my latest singles. But then also we we were
working on a record together a few years ago and
basically have just send him my send him my next
single and asked him to remix it and he's up
for it, And I need to.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Reply if you don't reply, I love that. So the
so that next stages for you. Then he's like, you've
sort of alluded to there is like building out the
James Pipe brand even further. You talking about a bit
more fitness content. Is it just what ever lead you
just want to talk about stuff're passionate about and that
happens to be another thing?

Speaker 1 (51:07):
Or is it is it?

Speaker 2 (51:08):
Is there a bigger play?

Speaker 1 (51:10):
There's no there's no real plan here. I was. I
was intrigued by the idea of making an Instagram profile
for something that wasn't me trying to go viral DJing,
you know, because it gets something. It can be frustrating
sometimes when that's your only output, you know. So I
was like, oh, what if we like just try this thing?

(51:31):
And I was. I was getting really into the gym,
training every every day when I was home and I
had I had this opportunity. My manager was like, oh,
they I don't know if you guys probably aren't all
familiar because this is a DJ podcast. But the biggest
bodybuilding competition in the world is called Mister Olympia, and
they host it in Las Vegas every year and the

(51:53):
biggest athletes that they make loads of money. It's huge,
but it's also pretty niche, you know, It's not like, yeah,
it's not like something everyone's into. But my manager had
the people from the Olympia reach out to him saying, oh,
we were wondering, We're big fans of James. We were
wondering if he would like to do a sort of

(52:16):
activation with us around would he like to come to
mister Olympia and meet some of the meet some of
the bodybuilders and stuff. So I had this opportunity and
I was like, yeah, why not. So I was chatting
to my trainer and he's really into it, and we
sort of put a plan together for me to get
in really good shape, not like bodybuilder shape, but like
DJ shape, you know. And so yeah, I started this

(52:40):
Instagram and I was like, well, let's just do it.
Let's where it goes. And I'm still in that phase.
It's not like it's not like I'm going to make
money off this or anything like see where it goes?

Speaker 2 (52:49):
Yeah, set tonight. Then in Leeds, I want to talk
about like how a lot of people will because your
sense are so technical. Now what you want You're on
for CDJ three thousands and two thousands two thousands. Tell
us a bit why you are.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
I remember the beef of.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
You in three thousands? Why you want two thousands? Just
if people have not seen.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
I'll be honest. I haven't tried the three thousands for
a long time, but I had a really bad experience,
like so through the through the pandemic, when I was
doing all my live streams, I was using CDJ three thousands,
and I actually did a demo off the three thousands
for Pioneer DJ at a NAM show, and so I
was the three thousand guys. I launched it. For a

(53:31):
long time I was doing I was playing on the
three thousands, and when I was using them at home,
they were perfect, they were great, And then I got
to festivals and they didn't work anymore. And I don't
know if it's like something to do with the way
they're linked, something to do with show control or something
like that that's different when you're on a big stage,

(53:51):
or maybe I just had a perfect set at home.
But we tried all the firmware models and all everything,
and I couldn't get them. Basically, they were they were
they were quantized. I had the quantize on one beat
and I would be like doing Let's say I had
two faders up and I would beat jump. I used
beat jump loads, and I use hot use loads. So
these features really rely on quantize, especially if you've got

(54:14):
two faders up. If the quantize isn't on up for
whatever reason, then it's going to sound like a mess.
So I'm beat jumping around, looping around, queueing around with
two faders up. All of a sudden they're not in
sync anymore and the quantizer is on. And that's that
kept kept happening to me, and it happened on some
big stages and I was like, this is stupid. I

(54:35):
look like I can't DJA and yeah, it must.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Be done about it or not?

Speaker 1 (54:40):
Yeah? Yeah, they were always like, oh yeah next ferm
wa will we find next? And it got to a
point where I was like, do you know what if
it ain't broke? Do you know? Like I'd love to
use the three thousands, but I also it's pretty important
to me to put on a good show. So so yeah,
I was just like, let me just use the two
thousands because they were fine anyway. Three thousands nice because
the screen is huge, but other than that, and I

(55:04):
do a lot of planning and prepping, so I don't
really need the big screen for most of my sets.
So yeah, I'm two thousands through and through.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
How much planning goes in? Have you got like different
because you said you've got like a Vegas show, but
then you're in the UK for a bit. Have you
got just have you got different sets plan for each show?
Do you like to leave a bit of room for freestyle?

Speaker 1 (55:26):
It very much varies.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
Show like the Get Closer tour that we're doing this week,
I am playing the same set all week yep. And
I actually really hate saying that because that doesn't feel
like dj AND to me. But that's what's going to
make this so good. This is for me. When I
do Get Closer, it's ADHD DJ and it's twenty seconds
of a record with four A cappellas on top of it.

(55:50):
That's the way that I play when I do a
Get Closer set, So that requires planning and prep and rehearsal.
I spent three days in my studio in London making
the set for this tour. But once this tour is over,
you'll never see that set again. So when I'm doing
regular shows, not Get Closer, then I'll create a new
playlist in record box every night. Now, I'll copy and

(56:14):
paste a lot of stuff from the previous night over,
but then I'll be testing out a couple of new tunes.
I'll probably if it's one of my own productions, i'll
make a new version of it or Yeah, just trying.
And I've got to keep myself interested as well. You know,
I don't understand how people play it the same set
all the time, No, no way, and yeah, so the
amount of preparation kind of depends on the style of set.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Yeah, when you've when this tour's sort of over and
done with, what is what does the rest of the year?
Your home for Christmas and that stuff?

Speaker 1 (56:46):
Is it? I think I'm going to go to Vegas.
I'm not working. I mean, I'm working on the twenty
sixth or twenty seventh, but actual Christmas Day, myself and
my partner's family lived like a long way apart, and
I don't want to go, so maybe we just I
think we're going to see the see the family before Christmas,

(57:07):
and then disappear for Christmas. So this tour ends on Saturday.
On Sunday, I'm going to celebrate my birthday with my
Fielance for two days and then I'm going to Las Vegas,
but not for my birthday for work. Yeah, but then
we're going to America for the weekend.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
But I'm excited to come for tonight and meet the
team and then I'm buzzing and what's what's amazing. What
I wanted to tell everyone was, you know, you've got
a small window before you got to go and load
into the show tonight, and you actually reached out to
us to come and speak to us. And we were
talking about like the hustle and that hard work and stuff,
and it's like it's unbelievable that you you come, have

(57:44):
a spare hour, you're running here, have a chat with us,
speak to our cross Fader community, and I think I
just speaks volumes of what you're trying to do with
this tour as well. So like, best of luck with it.
You don't need monch luck. We're best of luck with
it and we will be our So we'll come down
film some bits and stuff, but you're gonn upload everything
to your YouTube and stuff, everything to be around so
we can see him feel like, you know, if you're
not there, But mate, thank you so much for coming

(58:04):
and speaking, it's been amazing and yeah, let's go and bye,
let's go.