“You’ve got to take risks as a DJ” — our favourite quotes from Eats Everything
Last week we had the pleasure of inviting Eats Everything onto the Virtuoso stage for an hour-long DJ workshop. Here are 4 stand-out moments from the session that got us inspired.
4. Doesn’t matter if they’re good or they’re bad
“Make as many tunes as you can. Finish as many tunes as you can. Don’t just procrastinate on a loop and just sit there. I do it all the time, sat there for hours just listening to the same loop and just adding to it. Make tunes. Finish them. It doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad. Just finish them. Try and get as many tunes as you can done. Because, say you make 40 in a month, out of those 40, 20 are going to be ‘alright’. 10 are going to be ‘good’. Three are going to be ‘mint’, and one is going to be a BANGER.”
3. Advice for new producers
“Don’t overdo yourself with hundreds of plugins. When it comes to the actual making-of-the-music part — have two synths that you LEARN, and have one compressor that you use. Because it doesn’t matter what you use. It’s about what comes out of the speakers, not how you do it. It’s what comes out at the end of the day. Learn these things because they’re your tools. You can have all the plugins in the world but if you don’t really know how to use any of them and you’re just flicking through presets…”
2. Peaks and troughs
“You don’t want to play too many big, well-known tunes in a set. It’s about peaks and troughs — especially if you’re playing for a long time. If you’re playing for quite a while then it’s about giving a bit but not too much. If you’re playing for an hour on a festival, big stage — BANG BANG BANG — play as many big tunes as you want; you want to out-do the person playing before and after you. But if you’re playing for six or seven hours.. you’re in charge, you’re in control. Keep them waiting, and then just — BANG — occasionally.”
- Take risks
“You’ve got to take risks as a DJ, I think the whole point is playing a record that people wouldn’t expect to hear, or putting an acapella over something that’s ridiculous. I remember once, Luciano put this Britney Spears over a track, and at the time I was like ‘what are you doing?!’, but now I listen back and I think, ‘fair play, what he did was wicked, it was a moment’. For me it’s little things like that which make you stand out, make you remembered.”
Eats Everything joins us again on the virtual stage for our Artist Development course, alongside multiple guest speakers from the music industry including Guardian music journalist Joe Muggs and music lawyer Rob Eatkins. Last few spaces remaining. Find out more and sign up HERE.
