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We've been featuring DJs, producers, artist managers and industry leaders in Tales From The Dancefloor, and in this 45th episode, our last for the first season of our podcast, we wanted to turn the tables and put our very own Phil Morse in the hot seat.
You'll find out about how Phil got his start in music and DJing, his days promoting club nights in Manchester and why he moved on from all of it, and how he eventually put up the blog and site you're reading this on. So if you've been following Digital DJ Tips for a while now, or even if you're new to our community, there's lots of great stories here with lots of life and career lessons for your #DJlife.
Enjoy this final season ender episode - it's Phil as you've never seen (or heard) him before :)
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Ben Stowe got his love of the geeky side of audio and visual gear from kicking around a TV shop as a kid. But his growing tech-savviness became his saviour when it literally allowed him to work his way out of his life in a homeless shelfer as a young adult.
Now running a large company that he founded, which takes care of audio and visuals for some of the biggest DJs, live music shows and sports events in the USA, Ben has never forgotten where he came from. So he spends a lot of his time "paying it forward", teaching DJs how to correctly set up, maintain and use the technology in their rigs, so they sound better and can perform more professionally. In this, the penultimate episode of the first series of Tales From The Dancefloor, Ben shares his story.
Ben's company: https://www.nlfxpro.com/
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As well as being a wicked DJ, Brandon Block was seen as one of the biggest party animals of the 90s in the UK rave and club scene, living larger than life. Stories of excess were legendary, and an infamous appearance on the Brits (UK music awards) in 2000 reinforced his reputation.
TV appearances including one on Celebrity Big Brother kept Brandon's name in the public eye, but in the background he'd had a personal pivot, working hard helping those who'd come off the rails through drug abuse or who were struggling with mental health issues. Nowadays he's still DJing, but also continuing his work as a life coach. In this honest, funny and optimistic episode, Brandon shares his journey...
• Learn more about one of Brandon's projects here: https://www.happydaysforeveryone.com/
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Tall Paul was one of the biggest UK DJs of the 1990s, made famous originally via his residencies at Turnmills in London. In fact, his Turnmills Friday night "The Gallery" is still running (nowadays at Ministry of Sound). He toured America and the world, has an Ibiza residency, and scored a couple of huge hits, not least Camisra's "Let Me Show You".
Changing times, family, burnout and a loss of direction all took their toll on Paul in the 2000s, as his passion for music warped into business commitments, and he stepped back for several years. Recently however, spurred on by the revival of interest in 90s UK clubbing, he has returned to the studio and to gigging regularly. In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, he shares his the story of his ups and downs.
Paul's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/dj1tallpaul/ -
Like many a young DJ, Dominik Sobanski spend the obligatory ten years enjoying the music scene - promoting, DJing bars, hustling, living the DJ dream (in this case, in Huddersfield, in the north of England). Not many DJs can say they ended up booking Pete Tong and Calvin Harris though!
But when it all fell apart, he narrowly avoided setting up a car wash, and instead pivoted into the mainstream entertainment agency space - where now, he has a company employing hundreds of DJs who play in bars and clubs the length and breadth of the UK, and as far afield as Ibiza and Croatia. In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, he shares how he did it.
• Find out more about Dominik at the WDC Entertainment website and the WDC & Friends podcast.
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As one half of the "LuvDup Twins", Mark van den Berg - originally from Cape Town, South Africa - made a name for himself in the Manchester (or "Madchester") scene in the 1990s as a DJ, producer, and club promoter - culminating in DJs in places as far flung as Russia and Hong Kong. Later he found himself pivoting into working on an early social media platform, before getting into the video DJ business, supplying music videos to DJs across Europe.
While he still does that (nowadays with his own company, WeMix), he also found time to become a wedding DJ, forming one of the most successful DJ companies in the south of England, Mighty Fine Entertainment. It's not only a company that has won awards, but that has led to him being a wedding industry award judge himself. In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, Mark shares his ups and downs, and some great stories too!
• Find out more about Mark over at Facebook Page.
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For those who know, John 00 Fleming is one of the flag bearers for a certain kind of underground music that was once called "trance", but that in the past 20 years has had to relabel and regroup against the EDM onslaught. In great demand and touring the world still after 30 years of professional DJng, John also has a remarkable personal history of battles, including battling and beating lung cancer at just 19 years old.
In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, John shares the ups and downs of a decades-long career, and talks in depth about what has to happen to the music he loves for it to live on, dropping the names and labels he thinks will fly the flag for trance into the next decades.
• Find out more about John over at his site: http://www.john00fleming.com/.
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Ean Golden is a name closely associated with the rise of digital DJing and controllerism, mainly through his championing the scene in San Francisco at the turn of the century, his input onto the design of some early iconic DJ hardware, and of course through being the founder and figurehead of DJ TechTools.
In this honest and contemplative edition of Tales From The Dancefloor, Ean shares stories of his early life as a DJ, how he's ridden some of the highs and lows of a unique career, and how a near breakdown in Ibiza led to a period of soul-searching... and a new direction. Now living in New York, Ean explains why recently, he's decided to return to the spotlight at DJ TechTools, and what he plans to do next.
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For many in the know, Innofader is held as an example of all that's right about boutique companies in the DJ industry. It's a company that exists solely to make crossfaders, either so DJs can replace those that came with their DJ mixers for better performance, or for forward-looking manufacturers to fit top their gear "out of the box".
And those who really know will know that Patrick Danaher has been an integral part of the success of that company. His story is one of following your dreams, making hard decisions, and having the conviction to run with what you know is right - and he shares it this week on Tales from the Dancefloor.
• Find out more about Patrick at his personal site and his Facebook page, and check out the Innofader site.
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Grahame Farmer is behind the Data Transmission website, which at its height employed 19 people and has spawned an online radio show and record label. While the site is still going strong, in the last couple of years Grahame has had a personal "pivot" into something quite different: DJ success coaching.
In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, he shares where the idea came from, how he built an audience for DJ coaching, and how he managed to coach 60 DJs a month spread all around the world. He also shares some tips for getting yourself noticed as a DJ, so listen in if you're trying to get your tracks or mixes to a wider audience...
• Find out more about Grahame at the Data Transmission website: https://datatransmission.co
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Seb Fontaine was EVERYWHERE in the 1990s - he had a Radio 1 show, he had a long-standing Cream residency, he mixed compilations for Ministry of Sound, Perfecto and Global Underground... he was one of the first wave of superstar DJs.
But unlike many of his peers, he's still going strong - gigging, making music, and loving it more than ever. Here he shares the highs and lows, and reveals his thoughts on the right way to DJ, underground vs overground, and much more!
Follow Seb: Seb's Instagram
More about Mixbox: Evermix website
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Morgan Page is one of the hardest working DJ/producers in the scene, playing festivals the world over, providing music for Tesla and Space X, collecting Grammy nominations... but it all started for him not in clubs, but as a radio DJ - something he still does to this day with his Sirius XM show and podcast.
In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, Morgan shares some of the secrets of his success, including why going slow is usually the best bet, how to chase success while staying true to yourself, and how collaboration and teaching have helped him to stay fresh and focused.
• To find out more about Morgan Page, check out his site and mixshow.
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Imagine what it's like curating the music for, and DJing at, Formula E race meetings around the world each and every season, and having your DJ sets not only playing at the racetracks, but beamed into the homes of 200 million people worldwide?
EJ (don't call him "DJ EJ"!) is a London-born DJ/producer who helped to create this job, and who does it year in year out. In this edition of Tales From The Dancefloor, he shares how he got the opportunity, what it's like, how he balances the job with his commitments to his young family... and how his future may well lie in not only electric cars, but saving the world with hemp...• More about EJ on his Facebook Page.
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Aston Harvey was there right at the beginning of the explosion of DIY dance music in London in the late 80s - but little did he know when he formed his group The Freestylers with his friend Matt 10 years later, that they'd have a 20-year career championing the breakbeat sound worldwide.
How did they do it? What's the secret of spending three decades in dance music? And what did it feel like going from watching Top of the Pops (famous UK pop music TV show) as a kid, to actually being on it as an adult? In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, Aston answers these questions and shares his stories.
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German producer and DJ Luca Schreiner is an up and coming name to watch. Still only 24, he's self-taught, with a keen eye for what works both on the radio and the dancefloor. From his breakout cover version of Everything But The Girl's "Missing" (that got him signed to Ultra Music), to his remixes of James Arthur, Kelly Clarkson, Clean Bandit, even Backstreet Boys, to his big-stage festival DJ sets - he's making inroads in all the right areas.
In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, Luca talks about what it was like having a dad already in this industry, what his school friends thought of him getting into music production, how he made the leap from remixing other people to writing his own songs, how the internet has helped artists to collaborate globally... and how it felt to DJ at New York's iconic Marquee club.
More on Luca at his website: http://lucaschreiner.com/
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Received wisdom has it that a bunch of British DJs went to Ibiza in the late 80s and brought house music to the UK via London - something Manchester has always contested! In this episode, been-there-done-that Manchester radio and club DJ David Dunne talks about those amazing years from the perspective of the North of England.
And he should know - he presented the first ever house music radio show in the north-west of England, he had a weekday daytime show on Kiss 102 (Manchester's first dedicated dance station) and went on to DJ worldwide for Hed Kandi, as well as becoming director of music at MTV. But there's a twist in this tale - and it's a poignant and memorable one...
• More about David Dunne on his SoundCloud.
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From his worldwide touring schedule, to his long-running record label Punx, to his work with names like Deadmau5 and Oliver Heldens, MOGUAI is not only a prolific DJ and producer, but also a true industry veteran, having started his career playing techno in his native Germany way back in the early 90s.
In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, MOGUAI talks about the changes in his music, what it was like to play to 750,000 people at Berlin's Love Parade, how his collaboration with deadmau5's label catapulted him into a global festival career - and why he can never see himself retiring from making electronic music.
More about MOGUAI: Website
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Growing up in a hippy collective, the young Jonas Norberg was always around music - but it was when he sold his bass guitar and bought decks and records that his path as a DJ was set.
However, it is Jonas's work with Pacemaker DJ hardware and software that has shaped his adult life. Pacemaker originally made an innovative portable, handheld DJ device. But that led to the current incarnation of the company, as a developer of innovative AI-driven DJ apps that are helping music lovers to become DJs.
Pacemaker was one of the first (and is still one of the only) DJ apps to offer Spotify streaming, and the company's "Metamix" technology is helping DJs to collaborate on and share their mixes legally. Here, Jonas shares his story, including a "will it/won't it work?" Steve Jobs-esque technology keynote moment, and a great Eric Prydz & Swedish House Mafia tale.
• More about Pacemaker at the Pacemaker website
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When Stephanie Dell's teenage boyfriend left his job in the parts department of Denon, she thought "I'll apply for that!" - and immediately found herself neck-deep helping DJs with their purchases of Denon's very first DJ CD decks.
Just a few years later, she'd combined her love of technology, her passion for music, and her new-found marketing ability to launch Sound Marketing, a PR agency that she has grown to become a leader in its field.
In this issue of Tales From The Dancefloor, Steph talks about her musical family, raving in the 90s, what it's like being a girl in a predominantly male industry, the role technology plays in music... and shares stories about things like the very last night of Space, Ibiza, and hanging with James Zabiela in the VIP camping at Glastonbury Festival...
Steph's company: Sound Marketing PR
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Alex Zinn (aka SpinnZinn) is a techno DJ and producer who recently played a homecoming gig at Ultra, and in front of 60,000 people at Madrid's A Summer Story festival.
In his day job, he's involved in the marketing of both Richie Hawtin's Model 1 mixer and Allen & Heath's Xone:96, spending much of his time touring the world with one or both in tow, demoing them to clubs and DJs, and livestreaming his progress as he does!
In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, Alex talks about his early days DJing in Miami, how he got involved with Richie, how he talked his way into the Allen & Heath job by basically inventing it on the spot... and how he developed his "freeform" unique DJing style.
Alex's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/SpinnZinn/
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