Mad Decent

I always am judging myself by the lifestyles and success of those older than me. Being 21, I'm too young to really grasp what I have going for me and I'm too old to not know what I want to do with my life. I wanna play music. That has never changed. I'm a DJ (who isn't nowadays) and being young I want to play only what I want (who doesn't). My "Don't ask me to play GaGa, and no I wont play that Tila Tequila song" attitude (though it's usually entertaining to count the number of such requests) is an example of my immature approach to DJing. In recent months I worked to fix this approach, learn to laugh and just do it.

But that is not the rut I find myself in.  Being very young, I still
 have the dream of being a traveling electro DJ. That's my cloud 9. I'm a 
film student in Philly, and am lucky get to DJ around the city doing bars, 
parties, and block parties. I'm moving to NY for my school internship, and 
want to make the most out of this experience. But I find myself stuck in a
 rut of not knowing where to go from here. I consider this moment my jumping off point
 for the next chapter of my life. From someone with obvious life experience I could use your 2 cents.

Thanks Mad Decent,

Stuck In A Rut

Dear Stuck In A Rut,


Let me tell you first off, being a traveling DJ sucks. I mean, It's fun at first, and you'll meet some amazing people, but its not all good times. For every promoter you instantly click with, and every city where you smash it and get your cock sucked at some shady Best Western, for every good trip like this there will be at least one awful one. Granted I never traveled as an Electro DJ, or played a whole mess of hipster parties, but from what I gather speaking with my famous friends it's really the same shit. Some dip-shit promoter in ostentatious street wear will pick you up at the airport and talk your ear off about nothing you want to talk about, especially music. Talking music with these people is like helping a retard sort colored glass for recycling. So after you've suffered their opinions about nothing, they take you to eat somewhere they really like. Sometimes they understand what its like to be a New York Magazine subscriber and you eat at a cool local favorite for Vietnamese or Mexican. That's best case, usually you end up in, or a stones throw from, a mall, eating at some god awful chain spot where the food could poison a small animal. Dinner's over and let's not even get into hotels--we'll just jump to the party. 

The entire dinner they yapped about how fun their party is, how everybody there loves good music. Then you get there and you are DJing in a shitty bar, and everybody wants to hear "Sweet Dreams,"  "Sweet Child O Mine," and Gucci Mane. Maybe if you are more successful you are playing a bigger club, and then the spot is dope, but you're still in America and everybody wants to hear "Sweet Dreams,"  "Pon De Floor," and Lady GaGa. And you are not in New York so you're done at 2am, so you eat again, and now you're getting fatter. And there were no girls into you, well there was the one, but you can tell she's into every DJ that comes to town and basically has Herpes written on her forehead. So you stuff your face, and retire to your hotel room to look at Internet porn and antagonize people on the Hollerboard cause you're lonely and negativity is the only way you know how to get attention. (Suddenly I think I might be projecting, and not giving good advice, but I'm going to keep going anyway.) So finally at 5am you fall asleep. For once you don't have to fly across the country the next day so you sleep till 11, aka standard check out time. And you roll out of bed, feeling like death, shower, and trudge to the airport. If your lucky, the promoter can't give you a lift and you get to cab it alone, cause you'd rather be down the 35 bucks than have to listen to him talk about how they're bringing Hyper Crush next weekend. The night before you forgot to check in for your Southwest flight, so you get seating zone C, and you spend the next two hours flying in the middle seat, hung over. You land, and meet your contact for the next gig, and what do you know, he's annoying and wearing shitty street wear 

Ok, on the flip side, there is nothing like belonging to this fraternity. When you can talk Japan with Pase Rock or Norway with Eli Escobar, you know you are down! You are a made man now, and when you meet your heroes you talk casually about airports, airline status, what towns suck, and what promoters are corny, and you'll feel like you've arrived! I guarantee, it's the funniest shit, the craziest shit, and the time of your life. It's really not that hard to get there. DJ as much as humanly possible. Relentlessly promote yourself. Go out almost every night and be nice to everyone. Use the Internet to make friends. And most importantly MAKE MUSIC. It does not have to be good, just decent. As long as you make it and stand behind it, believe in it, other people will too. You'll be on your way. Get that computer, get all those plug-ins, do not give up, if you want it bad, want it more than the next guy, you'll get there. 

I was watching Inside the Actors Studio once and Debra Winger was on. She told the story of how she showed up to the casting for Urban Cowboy and talked her way into an audition. She was not on their list, or even on their radar, she just knew she was right for it. You have to be that willing to do whatever it takes. Thing is, if you pull that kinda shit, you better be able to back it up and you better be right for the part. Live this shit twenty four hours a day, and you'll get whatever you want, do it part time and you'll get part time results. Be careful what you wish for though because you could end up like me--a 31 year-old aspiring writer with a GED, an awful learning disability that prevents me from spelling, and the BPM of just about every crappy song ever recorded permanently embedded in my subconscious.

— Roctakon

Is your life a mess? Need advice? Tell Roctakon.
Email: HelpMe@Maddecent.com