Still some people don’t believe that I gave all the records which I played at the Southern Soul Festival in Montenegro away to the crowd after I played them in my set.
It was my first time to do this internationally although I’ve done this in Japan several times before.
DJs think I’m crazy and some record shop staff complain but my customers love this event.
They can get vinyl for the price of the entrance fee.
People asked, why?
I have some reasons.
I always buy cheap and good vinyl when I go to secondhand record shops. I feel sad when I see these records because they are valuable but the shop staff don’t them regard them as valuable.
So customers don’t think they’re special either.
People presume the only valuable records are the high priced ones.
That’s why I save them.
These records are by famous artists, they were hits in their time and continue to be masterpieces but there are too many copies on the vinyl market.
I already have many copies of same records.
My aim is to introduce good tunes.
Maybe these tunes are too obvious for many DJ’s but they are still important.
I love to see how happy my audience is to get their favorite tunes as proper vinyl.
They can grab them when they like. It’s not even necessary to ask the DJ, what is this?
They don’t need Shazam!
My second aim is to give my audience the opportunity to start to buy records. Some people these days don’t have any vinyl. Some young people don’t know how to play records!
Actually when I did this event in Japan some customers bought an analog record player just to play the record I gave them. My hope is some people will start to collect vinyl after this event.
Maybe some of them will become DJs.
I know one woman did that after I gave her a record.
She was the intern for a promotion company when she was university student 15 years ago.
She was attending me on my tour as Kyoto Jazz Massive.
She took me to a record shop in Moscow.
I found George Duke’s Master Of Games, already I had some copies so I gave one to her.
Later she told Nylon magazine it was the start of buying vinyl for her career. Her name is Nina Kravitz.
One more reason.
People never expect that they can get the same records which the DJ played.
Maybe only I can show this.
This is kind of promotion of myself as different from others because the most important thing here is reversal of values.
My audience are shocked when I do this and they know it’s possible to play records like the DJ.
I want to get rid of the segregation between the DJ and the audience.
No barriers, this is my attitude to creat ART.
I hope that the people who could get records from me after coming to Southern Soul Festival spread the pleasure of listening to records to this world.
Is it giving? Yes. Also no. This is sharing the love of music.
PS
Business wise of course when I do this event, more customers will come in the hope of getting records.
Also I think I should get sponsorship from a turntable company…
PPS
I play obvious records. But I still try to be creative.
I have to prove as a professional that my song order is unique even if I play records which are not rare.
For example I played Sade’s Smooth Operator on Friday. Every one was enjoying it as a festival tune but it was the 12inch version with the Jazz break (if you are a proper Jazz DJ you must have it!) after that I turned my set into a Jazz set. So I could surprise my audience.
Also I used same method on Sunday night for the closing party. I played Terumasa Hino’s Samba De-La Cruz after
Freddie Hubbard’s Ride Like The Wind (pop but still with a boogie touch). My theory is that a good DJ has similarity between tunes but a great DJ has surprises between tunes.
If you are interested in my thoughts, please check out my book published in 2005 called "How to Choose Music as a DJ" ( sorry only in the Japanese language ).