Business Cards and How Traktor/Serato Fit in with Being a 'Proper' DJ

Yo. Awesome. That makes me happy. Thank you. I'm going to answer this in two ways: on my own behalf, and on others' behalf. Personally, I don't have cards. I always thought it was corny as fuck. FOR ME. I just assume that in 2013, if you wanna fuck with me, hand me your phone and I'll give you my number or I'll email you right on on the spot. I've always preferred taking an organic approach to music and my business, just to make sure I'm interfacing with all the right people. That said, when I meet someone that does have a card, I DON'T judge them at all. I kinda love saving them, because when someone blows up, you are like, "Yo, I have their card," and it's super cute. I think I still have Drop the Lime's card, along with some other random ones. I think if you are going to go that route, just make sure you do it right. Something that is almost an art piece is a lot more likely to grab me than a bad font and some contact info. If you get handed a card with detail, good design, and elegance, you might go, "Damn, this kid is on it." The last two cards I can remember getting were from Brenmar and Syd from The Internet and they were both nice and clean. I think the best method of selling myself has been being myself and working hard. I'm not trying to become friends with everyone. I'm letting it all grow organically. People know who you are working with, who you are friends with, and all that, and it leads them to pay attention. I was DJing and working with Yak Ballz awhile back, and all of a sudden I got a call from El-P out of the blue. He heard that I was good at Ableton and wanted to experiment with his live show. I ended up going to play Pitchfork Festival with him and doing a really important instrumental set at Low End Theory in LA. That led to friendships with a bunch of guys we all admired on the West Coast, and it all continued from there. And it all stemmed from just kicking it with a good friend, helping out for free, and doing it cuz I wanted to.

They work great. I started buying vinyl as well and got into Serato around 2005 or 2006. I've found it fine to mix between vinyl and Serato. It has become a little bit weird, just because music is constantly getting mastered louder and louder, so sometimes it's hard for an analog record to keep up, especially older stuff, but you can finesse that with the gain on the mixer. Also, the good thing is that you can digitize records as you go. After moving to New York, I had to make a realistic decision about my record-buying habits. My apartment was small, I didn't have a car, and my girlfriend at the time would kinda just be like, "Are you really real about filling up our little shoebox with these records?" So I slowed down a bit. Traveling with records is tough and you end up ruining shit that you love. Luckily, since then I've become single and got a bigger apartment, so I've tried to reconnect with my record buying. I really did forget how much I love it and it has been super inspiring lately. Respect on proper DJing. It's such a beautiful art form and I sometimes worry that it's going to get lost due to cost and laziness. *Column 23*