Advait Raykar

I am actually a DJ.

I have a confession. I am actually a DJ. And this is my story.

My wife bought me a DDJ FLX4 (a DJ controller) for my birthday. It was unexpected; but in hindsight, I have been talking about DJing quite a bit. I had a hunch I’d like it. But I didn’t think I’d love it. For the past couple of months I have been spending several hours each weekend (and occasionally during the week) DJing. I have a DJ spot in the corner of the living room, right by my bookshelf. It’s a rather unglamorous spot. My DJ controller is on the wooden floor. I face the living room heater. The laptop sits a few inches away, wired up to the controller. And there is another another 3.5mm jack cable wired up to a portable JBL speaker (this speaker has been a fixture in my living space since my undergrad days in Manipal).

It’s a rather humble setup.

But the humility ends at the setup – I think I have a real (still unrealized) talent in DJing. I have been (not so) subtly bringing up the fact that I am now a DJ in conversation. At the moment, I exclusively perform for myself and, on occasion, my wife.

Everytime I bring up the fact that I am now (in fact) a DJ, I realize commoners often have a misconstrued understanding of what a DJ is. I don’t blame them; for I have been in that unfortunate position for the better part of my life (in fact, up until a few months ago).

What is a DJ?

At it’s core, the DJs job is just the following:

  1. Pick what song to play
  2. Make it interesting

I think a lot of the fun in DJing is getting into something of a flow state, while making the songs you play interesting by fun transitions, mixing songs, and generally setting a “tone” for the room with your song selections and how you present them. In my case, the “room” for which I set the tone is consists of me, a 5 other plants, who I think are my fans, because they attend all my shows.

Being a DJ has given me purpose while listening to music. When I hear a song, I enjoy it more deeply. I think about the anatomy a bit deeper – and how I can potentially mix it in a set. As a DJ, there are only a few somewhat “techinical” things you need to know:

  • The tempo of a song: It’s weird to switch from a high tempo to a low temp song (but it’s pretty satisfying when you do it right)
  • Pitch of the song: Fortunatley, it seems DJs have their own super simple system for this, the camelot notation. This makes the basic “transition guidance” fairly simple. If your song is at a 5A, you can transition to a 6A, 4A or a 5B pretty easily, without being super creative. If you try to switch from a 5A to a 7B or a 10B, it is going to be a bit rough.

image

That’s it, those are the most basic rules. After that, it’s all you and your creativity. And how do you realize your creativity? Using a DJ controller. I have the DDJ FLX4. Here is GPT-4.5 sharing a bit more about how that works:

A DJ controller, like my DDJ FLX4, is essentially a physical interface that controls software like RekordBox. The software lets you load and organize your tracks, analyze tempo and pitch, and cue up exactly which parts of a song you want to play. You use the controller’s platters, knobs, and sliders to smoothly transition between songs—like when Fred Again flawlessly mixed “Jungle” into “Lights Out” during his Boiler Room set, creating that seamless shift in energy (non-ai authors note: finger drumming, something that fred again did in that set, is still somewhat uncommon, and super cool)

9c3efaqkqkjmd3zn8jw

You see those two platters? That’s to control two songs that are playing, either at the same time, or they aren’t. That’s your call. Each song has it’s individual volumes, that can be controlled using the volume slider, at the bottom center under the “Cue” buttons. There are two of them, see the diagram above. What’s the worlds most basic transition? As the song on platter 1 (left side) nears the end, slide it’s volume down. At the same time hit play on the song on the platter 2, and slide the right platter volume up. Of course ensure you time things right so it doesn’t sound weird or off key. How do you do that? the DJ has a pair of headphones connected to the controller to listen to the track on platter 2 to ensure things sound good. The act of having a track ready at a particular point is called “Cue-ing” the track. I had gpt help me with a comic explaining this:

image

So yes, that’s what a DJ basically does.

Why I love being a DJ

DJing is truly quite meditative. I have found that it puts me a flow state very consistently. I start DJing, and before I know it, 2 hours have passed. There is something truly satisfying when you make that perfect transition or mix. Or when you play a set of unexpectedly interesting songs back to back. One my personal openings (that amused me greatly), is starting my set with the pleasant and cozy “Don’t wake me up, I plan on sleeping” by the Postal Service, and transitioning it into a hype stress track “Residual Stress”, and making it a boiling the frog style transition. It makes me feel clever.

And that’s the second thing I love about DJing. It’s very easy to make yourself feel clever, because there are so many ways to be clever. The number of ways you can mix songs, and the way you select songs are infinite. There is also “dumb” ways you can be clever. I transition Charli’s “party4u”, a song about how Charli threw this “party 4 u” into Heartleap, a Drum&Bass banger that starts with the lyrics

When I see you across the room; The whole party disappears

I always chuckle. It’s really not even that clever. But it never fails to amuse me. And it sound pretty great.

Finally, I think there is an infinite ceiling of skill here. It’s a bit like writing. Easy to pick up, you can infuse your taste/personality into it very easily, and make it your own.

My influences

  1. I can’t deny the fact, the food influencer (and amateur DJ on his obscure second channel), Internet Shaquille, first got me thinking about DJing.

  2. Fred Again’s Boiler room set has left a mark. I remember playing it with a few buddies at 3 AM pretending”1 to be Fred Again DJing. When I write that, it sounds silly. But it was fun.

  3. From an actual style and taste perspective, ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U is probably my current favorite DJ. I first heard the “Residual Stress” track that I use a lot in his stellar boiler room set.

  4. I also thought Nick Cheo’s set for Book Club Radio was extremely fun, in a super unpretentious way.

Because of DJing, I listen to DJs more. I appreciate a thoughtful mix. I enjoy music more. And I think I have something to contribute to in the DJ history cannon. You read it here first – I am going to be one of the greatest DJ CEOs to have breathed. DJ Solomon, beware., DJ Ad Nausea2 is coming for the throne.

Footnotes

  1. I was on a work trip to SF, and was crashing at said friend’s place at the time. He is a big Fred Again fan, and just generally huge into music. It was the most fun I have had in Menlo Park. ↩

  2. My stage name was a big topic of discussing. My favorite was (and continues to be) “DJ Tuff Buffoon”. But my brother talked me out of it. DJ Ad Nausea it is. ↩