A Professional on Pitch - Why Everyone Publicly Admits to DJing

We always love to share the Wall Street Journal(WSJ) articles that come through on topic because it's great to hear what the main stream media have to say.  Nonetheless, the following article about not being afraid to call yourself a DJ couldn't be any more relevant than now.

(Wall Street Journal) One side effect of the recent electronic dance-music boom has been that calling yourself a DJ is a now perfectly respectable thing in its own right. You don't really need to be a hyphenate—say, a model-actor-DJ—anymore.

But try explaining that to Jan Gunnar Solli, the fullback-DJ: The 31-year-old Norwegian plays for the New York Red Bulls of the MLS by day and has a DJ residency spinning at the nightclub Pink Elephant on Eighth Street by night.

Daniella Zalcman for The Wall Street Journal

Norwegian soccer pro Jan Gunnar Solli performed as a DJ at Pink Elephant in Midtown on Sept. 29 just hours after taking the field for the New York Red Bulls.

Mr. Solli moved to the U.S. nearly two years ago when he was signed by the Red Bulls. The team's Swedish coach, Hans Backe, knew him from playing back in Scandinavia, "and he said, 'Jan, would you like to come and play for us?' I didn't need to think about it too much," Mr. Solli said.

The fullback lives in Hoboken, a short ride on the Path train from the Red Bulls' arena in Harrison. During the season, the team practices every day at Montclair State University. Sometime the Red Bulls play three games in a week, "so it's impossible for me to do some DJing. That's why I like to work with one company like Pink Elephant." The scheduling, Mr. Solli said, is easier. (His next performance there is scheduled for Saturday.)

Making your way in the international nightlife industry is "a lot of connections and getting to know people, and at a certain point they give you a chance," he explained.

Mr. Solli has been DJing since he was 19, but "in Norway, it's not like there are a lot of clubs." Instead, he found work at Barcelona spots Opium Mar and CDLC Carpe Diem, and at the Eclipse at the W Hotel; then in London at a nightclub called Maddox. "And then I played in Ukraine at a place called Opra," recalled Mr. Solli. "They like to party."

In his guise as DJ Solli, he especially enjoys "finding new tunes, keeping updated, looking for different remixes. I have a lot of patience finding the kind of tricks that a DJ can use. It became more of a competitive thing between me and my friends."

Mr. Solli said that what makes him a good DJ is that he "focuses on the good energy, and if that can be delivered through the music, that's when my mission is complete. I feel great with music alone, but if you add a few smiley faces or a whole screaming crowd of joy and happiness, well then I'm on fire," he said.

"It's about the crowd," he continued, saying that he succeeded when "the people can walk out of there with a smile on their face, and if they tell me I have a fresh sound. It's not so much about me. It's about great energy and how that can be delivered through my performance."

Enlarge Image

Daniella Zalcman for The Wall Street Journal

DJ Solli in action.

Thanks to his athletic regime, Mr. Solli insisted he's not a big party guy. "But I'm not afraid of having a drink. Still, I get all my energy from just being there and performing and playing all the right tunes."
That kind of sounds, well, like, playing a big soccer match. "You get the goose bumps when you play the assist pass or you score the winning goal," he said. "It can be almost similar when you play the winning track and the whole crowd goes insane."



Here are a few of Mr. Solli's current "winning" tracks:

1. "Spectrum (Say My Name)" by Florence + The Machine (Calvin Harris remix): "A super crowd pleaser," said Mr. Solli.

2. "Lies" by Burns (Otto Knows Remix): "There's a lot of energy in this track, especially the cool synths."

3. "Don't You Worry Child" by Swedish House Mafia: "Beautiful sing-along vocals over a fantastic drop. It'll give you that goosebump feeling."

4. "Steel Eyes" by Benji (feat. Sherry St. Germain): "Listen to the sick break and how the guitar and Sherry's voice just get under your skin."

Read More

Avicii Interview with Wall Street Journal: Talks Yankees & Madonna

Just like big money, the Wall Street Journal can't help but follow Electronic Dance Music.  Take a listen into what they discussed with Avicii.  They cover his recent show at Yankee Stadium with Madonna, his infamous plaid, and if he's sold out.

(Wall Street Journal) Swedish DJ Avicii is one of the most in-demand artists in his genre, electronic dance music, but he’s also riding the wave of EDM’s re-emergence and crossing over into other areas: pop and fashion, to name two.

Avicii, who follows in the footsteps of Swedish House Mafia (whom he has called a major influence on his work) has made $7 million in the past year, according to Forbes, and he ranked 10th in the magazine’s list of the world’s highest-paid DJs.

The 23-year-old, whose real name is...

Read More

Best EDM Article We've Read: Press Play? Hit Start

One of the best reads from the last month. Its long but worth it!

Article from Hot Water Inc

"There’s been a lot of noise over the past few weeks, from various people and places, about the quality of the current electronic dance music experience.

On June 23 – enjoying the afterburn of a Rolling Stone cover story in which he called out everyone from Skrillex to David Guetta for dialing in their sets – Deadmau5 used a Tumblr post to piss on the importance of technical DJ-ing skills, saying that with the advent of Ableton and its automatic beat-matching capabilities, “we all hit play.” An editorial on super-blog Dancing Astronaut declared that “EDM” had officially “mainstreamed,” and decried the lack of new music in most superstar DJ’s sets: “What worries me is not that DJs are simply ‘pressing play,’ but that they’re pressing play on the same tracks in the same order night after night after night,” said writer Jacob Schulman. Meanwhile, Paris Hilton played her first official DJ gig– and apparently wasn’t even able to press play (a tech came onstage to do it).

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal (of all places!) even chimed in, bemoaning the “dumbing down of electronic music,” and labeling crossover artists like David Guetta and Calvin Harris “cliché-riddled, white-bread house that don’t represent the best of the genre.” Then there’s the much-talked-about feud between veteran DJ Sneak and Swedish House Mafia (sample: “I do not respect DJ actors”); and icons like Mark Farina and Dennis Ferrer being asked to vacate superclub DJ booths for not playing recognizable music. 

The bottomline: Artists are getting

Read More