DJ’ing is damn hard sometimes!
Apologies if this isn’t the right place for this, mods feel free to remove if needed, but I feel like this community could have some good advice.
I’ve been spinning records for about 2 and a half years now, and it’s become a great passion of mine. I genuinely care a ton about digging for really special tracks (mostly for trance,house,electro), perfecting my technical skill, and learning about the history of the music I’m playing and the stories and people behind it. I’ve ran a recurring party in my city for about that much time, hosted international touring talent, and tried as hard as I can to sink into this scene.
It’s something I treat with a great deal of respect, but sometimes it feels like the universe is telling me this just isn’t for me. Every single event I’ve planned or been a part of this year has gone wrong in some way. Either weather is bad, too many DJs cancel, the venue suddenly isn’t available, or I’ve been sick and cannot play. It’s frustrating, and doesn’t feel worth the effort and care sometimes.
The scene for parties and electronic music in my city has had a small boom recently, and it feels like I’ve been forgotten about. I haven’t really had any bookings recently, even at parties I’ve helped start.
To be fair, I haven’t been as present in our scene recently. A new career change has left me with little time or bandwidth to go out at night, and I know I have to show love to receive love. I’m also not the most social when I’m out, feeling more comfortable focusing on my set and running the night smoothly. But, I hope I’m making sense when I say that it can be frustrating to pour a lot of time, effort, and money into something I love only for it to feel like I can’t get past square one anymore. I’d really hate for it to be an issue with the music I bring, as I’ve always had good crowd reception and I feel like I can read the room well.
I have several close friends in other local DJ’s, and I don’t really know how to talk to them about this. How do other DJ’s in this sub keep going when it gets hard? This isn’t something I want to lose.