One Year On!

I can't quite believe it's only been a year since I decided to treat myself for my birthday and get myself a Pioneer DDJ-400 DJ Controller!

A nice bit of kit that does the basics, which was all I was looking for with the aim at getting DJ match fit again; relearning the skills I had over a decade ago from when I used to organise my own DJ nights in local bars (see this post for photos of some of the DJ's that guested at those nights). Unfortunately as I didn't have my vinyl or CD's anymore, but I still had the tunes I was buying digitally from the likes of Traxsource, Beatport etc back then just gathering dust on an external hard drive, it had to be the digital route and the Pioneer DDJ-400 was perfect for my needs.

This all began from starting a new day job during the Covid Years, and listening to various dance music podcasts / DJ mixes as I worked, and with the awesome new music I was hearing, I was getting slowly back into the groove again. It soon became an itch I had to scratch, and I wanted to don the DJ headphones again.

Not long after getting the DDJ-400, I soon signed up to Mixcloud, initally just to have a go and upload a mix for the Cafe Mambo DJ Competition after seeing it on their socials, I also started uploading some of my old mixes on my profile there too. The response to my old mixes were positive, so with my 'Resident Grooves' house music DJ mix series grinding to a halt at #192, I started recording new ones and posting them on Youtube and Soundcloud too. I also continued where I left off with my 'Fusion' Progressive House / Melodic Trance mixes too, after uploading the older mixes they cracked the Global Top 100 Melodic Trance chart on Mixcloud in consecutive weeks! I'm now posting 'Fusion' mixes on Friday's and 'Resident Grooves' on a Saturday.

So flash-forward to the beginning of 2023, and I scored my first live DJ gig since 2011; DJing at Cedric's Birthday Bash at Ronnie's of Warwick in January, and following that up with another gig at Ronnie's, warming up at Cedric Anderson's DJ night DISCO Ball in April - two quality nights and a pleasure to be a part of. I'm also so grateful for Cedric in giving me a chance behind the decks after so long away, it was so good to be back playing for the dancefloor again! Stressful (at least first time around), but so much fun!

Twelve months later after being away for so long, I'm so glad to be back doing mixes again, and back in love with the dance music scene again, especially with so much great new music out there. I can't wait to see what the next 12 months holds!