PRACTICE SESSION JOURNAL: SJ
Published March 14, 2023
We love to to meet you who use Culture Box as a place to practice and build up skills. SJ came by for a practice session a Tuesday in March!
What’s your relation to electronic music?
I was lucky to grow up in a town in the UK called Derby that had at that time one of the best house music nights – Progress. All the biggest DJs played there. The resident DJs were just as popular and their sets mixed lots of funk and soul classics. They also often had a live saxophonist and percussion player! I used to fall asleep with my headphones in listening to their mix tapes – house music was my life! My favourite DJ was a guy called Jeremy Healy, because he was so experimental – you never knew what he was going to do next.
For how long have you been DJing?
When my family moved from the UK to Malmö in 2019 I decided that I would take some time out to learn something new, purely for myself. I Googled DJ courses and discovered Future Female Sounds in Copenhagen. Luckily for me I trained with them just before the pandemic so I was able to practice at home during that time, doing live streams and immersing myself in my back catalogue of house music. It was so much fun!
What’s your relation to Culture Box?
I found out about the Culture Box sessions via the DJ group that I joined because of Future Female Sounds. I am so grateful both to them and to Culture Box for offering the opportunity to play on club equipment!
What’s your taste in music?
I grew up in the 1980s so a lot of the music I listened to stems from the end of disco. I love synths, and of course Prince changed my life when I saw him play live!
What did you practice today?
I worked on a deep house set that layers vocals and throws in some disco surprises!
What worked well for you today?
Layering the vocals, I love to blend tracks in this way and slow the pace of the set.
What do you need to practice more?
Ruthless set list choices, I have a tendency to go off and freestyle! Also just more time on the club equipment since it is a completely different experience to my home console – DJing is like playing an instrument for me, I almost feel myself jumping into the decks when I play!
Based on today’s practice do you have any notes to yourself?
Let myself dive deeper into transitions using vocals. Before today I have spent three years trying super hard to line up my BPMs but, wow, it is so much more fun and natural to me to mix the singing!
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