⚡ TIMESTAMPS ⚡ 0:00 Intro 2:36 Use it to regularly relieve stress 3:48 Commit to creating, not consuming 4:57 Prioritise chasing the “flow state” 7:04 Engage the left side of your brain too! 8:56 Lean into the community 10:54 Engage with the public on your terms 14:58 Surprise yourself by making music 17:47 DJ community chat
Listen, you are really onto something. My wife and I have done extensive mindfulness training, it's so powerful and rewarding. I'm a DJ since the mid 80s too, and it is the best therapy, but I hadn't really considered the benefits of that, such a rewarding focus. Cheers for this great connection. Forget the gear, the most basic tools are all you need, the records and ideas are the gold. 🎯🎯
As a DJ and health/wellness podcaster, this was by far my most favorite video @phil. So glad to hear influential people like you talking about this important topic 👍
Whenever I can't sleep I either listen to the music, mix a set, practice a battle routine, make beats, watch dj battle videos, scratch tutorials, dj mix set videos, It does make me feel better
I used to be a manic depressive until I set aside time to dj. Something about figuring out where to navigate the peaks and valleys in a set also helped me to figure out my own internal regulation.
Took you guys long enough to catch on, DJ'ing is a big part of my mental health for a while now. It's an art, engaging in art has been proven (time and time again), to improve your happiness and mental health (but only when you don't make it all about you).
It's a great video, Phil. I'll share my story here: One of the reasons why I bought my first controller two years ago was related to mental health. I was working back then. I'm not working anymore. I was very stressed due to the complex task I had to do despite my lack of experience. My colleagues had no patience with me and they sometimes treated me in a rude way. I felt useless and clumsy. It was hard for me to disconnect after work. My mood improved a little bit when I started to DJ. At least, I had something to focus and have fun at weekends. I had some time when I could just enjoy music and learn something new. When I was fired, DJing was a key thing to stay positive and not feeling down again. I would be depressed without it.
After almost 25 years of working and living as a DJ, I retired as a DJ and quit smoking. Barely 10 months later, I had the hardest time of my life and fell ill with depression. Of course, there were also other factors that led to this. It was almost 5 years ago now and I have fought my way back into life. The depression is still there subliminally and I have to follow routines every day and pay attention to my diet and sleep. And music has accompanied me the whole time. Just not the DJing. I'm starting to do that again now. Because I couldn't sell my gear. That's why I've spent the last few weeks deciding which controller to get to start with. Rane One and Rev7 were first on my top list. Then came the Rane 4 and the Rev5. But now I'm waiting for the Rane Performer to be released. I hope it comes soon. Thank you very much for discussing the topic so openly and offering DJing as support.
As a DJ, producer, and musician, whenever I feel like I need a break or something to take my mind off things, I often mix on my decks or play some tunes on my synths. I get transported away from the ordinary world, and my focus is only on the music and the emotions it evokes. It always makes me feel better.
DJing on Twitch feels isolating as I don't have the audience in front of me. DJing IRL feels stressful as guests and dancers want to be up by the DJ. I wish for the days that the DJ was this mysterious figure up high in a booth, like the wizard behind the curtain.
I did a big profile gig back in May in a tent with around 3k people in it. I absolutely loved it as I was a bit away from the crowd. Fast forward a month later and I was back in the bar I play in and found the crowd on top of me a bit overwhelming!
I used to DJ at parties among friends back in highschool trough my early 20's, a few years ago i took out my 12's set them up in my home office and got some media players, i do it mostly for mental health, it's one of the few things that quiets down the ADHD.
Music has helped me get through a lot. when I was younger I would be by myself writing scripts to video game soundtracks trying to make an epic story. My family is Caribbean, they like Soca and Dancehall/ Reggae and Chutney. In high school I had friends that got me into Hip Hop, My girlfriend now Fiancé loves Spanish music, mostly Reggaeton. When I figured out I could take things or a song I liked about one style of music and combine it with another that instantly blew my mind. I still to this day think it’s magical how songs can flow and combine together in harmony. And just like how it started, to tell a story. Or to create a vibe.
I only ever DJ'd for private functions in the 80's as Clubs still allowed smoking and as I had Pneumonia when I was 9 I avoided night Clubs. I'm now an Electronic Music Producer/Jazz vocalist/DJ and studying Music therapy and will be performing in Age care facilities as well as on cruise ships and in Tenerife and Benidorm Spain. Delivering Art and music therapy programmes for Alzheimers and Dementia clients. As well as honourably discharged Defence force personnel.
I popularized "electronica" at the night club in a USMC base when I was active duty in 98. Normally, they have hip hop, country, or rock. Marines were mostly whites, some blacks, some Latinos. Asians were rare. Enter some Asian guy with his weird "House Music" lol My partner was black, he spun Jungle. We partied like rocks stars at underground raves and festivals in LA/Socal. I was featured in the Sci Fi Action film Battle: Los Angeles at 15:35 into the movie, some Asian marine talking about music and mixing. That's how they portrayed me, except I had a flattop the whole 4 years.
You can burn out of DJing if you're being pressured to being the best all the time, or you DJ just to pay the bills without even feeling the music. Or you have to take requests of music that you don't like. I know a guy who did mobile for a long time, and he burnt out, because it's just business, it hasn't been a party for a long long time. It's what I call being "Pushed" to DJ. For longevity and good health, I prefer being "Pulled" into DJing, and this Pull starts with Fresh Music, or Fresh Ideas. Being Pulled is that itch you need to scratch, that motivation in your head like "Oh, I cannot wait to drop this new track (or this forgotten gem!" Or, "Oh, I cannot wait to try this new trick that no one's ever done before. Or you discovered hacks that improved your rig and cannot wait to put it to use in your next gig. But the healthiest DJing for me is when I'm selfish and self indulgent by playing only music that I like, only to myself, and that's impossible to do with paying gigs. It's why I kept DJing as a hobby after I burnt out of mobile DJing the 90's. I became a selfish SOB, I will spin even when nobody's around, and I go home feeling charged up rather than drained. Compliments and tips: money, alcohol, and even candy, charge me up even higher! But I don't care if I get no attention at all. Same with being a party goer. People should not be pushed to go clubbing, they should be pulled. And when they leave the venue, they should satisfied and charged, not drained. As an old boy, I can't do all-nighters anymore. It's why I hope to catch the Morning Gloryville parties soon. Hell, I just might start my own Mornign Gloryville, which is a project that I kept in the back burner for a while. I need to do it to Charge myself.
I love that push/pull thing. I think when we define "success" (as in "am I a successful DJ?") LONGEVITY needs to be taken into account. Just because you can do it today, can you do it tomorrow? Next month? Next year? What is your strategy for "keeping it interesting"?
@@digitaldjtips hey guys! 12:13am Just got back from and amazing self indulgent gig. Gotta recharge my rig now and gotta replenish my fluids as I drink like a fish.. lol get back to you soon as I can. 🍻
@@digitaldjtips Longevity... It was in high school, in the early 80's, when I knew that DJing would be my life long hobby, whether I made money on it or not, whether I would be famous or not, because I was a music lover long before I got into the dance scene. It was a given that I'll be buying music for the rest of my life. But it was that conscious decision of saving up and purchasing a brand new pair of Technics SL1200Mk2s was when I realized that I'm committing to something for the first time in my life because 1200's went for around $300 a pop, and high schoolers just didn't have that kind of money in the 80's. I would've had to drop out of school and get a fulltime job, and minimum wage was like $3.50 hour?? It was in the mid 80's when I finally got the 1200s. I was good with Radio Shack's Realstic DJ mixer. And with a crossfader! Imagine that... But at the same time, for about ten years down the road, I had doubts about committing to the dance scene because my mother wasn't supportive of me partying all the time. I'm from an old fashion conservative Asian family, making money and having fun while doing it was a foreign concept. So that joke you made is Spot On. I think having kept DJing at a hobby level was probably a key to my longevity. Another one is my eclectic taste in music, I would've burnt out early on if I committed my whole life to dance music only. Or even worse, one genre only. How do I keep things interesting?? By being a Selfish SOB. I quote a key scene in the cult film Napoleon Dynamite, "What are you going to do today Napoleon?" "Whatever I feel like I wanna do, gosh!" lol I live by this these days. It wasn't easy at the start, and it's not easy even now, even for a busking DJ like me. I still feel the pressure, but far less now. I'm less stressed, and more pissed. lol I give all credit to Pri Yon Joni for predicting The Future of DJing, when he made a funny video skit where he was scratching on the sidewalk and someone dropped some change into his drinking cup. I was never busker. I just decided to build a super compact battery powered DJ Rig in 2017, and started street DJing in Tokyo just for fun, and as sort of a DIY electronics experiment. It was the first DJ rig of it's kind, at least here in Japan, AFAIK. There were a few DJ crews that DJed in the streets but they used gas powered generators and a van. My rig fits all in a folding cart and I go by train. There were ninjas spying on me who tried to sneak photo shots of my rig. Probably Pioneer or Denon spies. My latest DJ innovation is my hoverboard powered DJ cart. As I mentioned before, strive to be The First on something. Or, at least be one of The Few, because what's point of doing what everyone else is doing?? Competition? Sports DJing? lol No thanks.
@@digitaldjtips As proof of concept that DJing is NOT ONLY about "Donce Music", listen to The Kleptones mixtapes. AKA Eric Kleptone, he is indeed One of The Few who I admire. His musicality is AMAZING. On a similar level as Gilles Peterson, IMO
As a fulltime open format dj mental health is hard. Late nights, promoters, venues, gigging and mostly music .. It's not the same as just playing what you enjoy for fun
I agree that DJing keeps us young. And my theory is, that as DJs, we are no longer slaves to the clock like the normies. As DJs, We Are the Clock, the Time Keeper, the Metronome, the Conductor commanding orchestras, bands and individual musicians. And when you start following your own clock, The Universe will let you know that you're on the right path, with Synchronicity: found items, symbols, omens, and recurring numbers 11:11 666, 6666, 777. We won't stay young forever, tho. We simply age slower, maybe. I'm in my late 50's now, but I looked like a teenager in my mid 40's, someone mistook my wife as my mommy. 🤣🤣🤣
26:38 I love that story, it's very rare times when career DJs become selfish. Master Chefs cook for customers all day long. But even Master Chefs have to eat, right?
My parents don't like electronic music neither, but they understand me. I'm free to listen to it and play it, although I prefer doing it alone. I don't want to disturb them 😅
I fundamentally reject the premise. People's happiness has been on the decline every year since they started keeping tracking it like 70+yrs ago. Everyone wants to do some hack or trick that is going to make them feel better. Nobody wants to fundamentally change, question their reality, ask hard questions. Like, why were people so much happier a long time ago than they are today? What was different then, than how things are today? I find the people most likely to defend the status quo, to defend the values of today's culture, are the people most likely to be posting on social media about the importance of talking about mental health, and how they struggle with poor mental health.
![Improve Your Mental Health Through DJing [7 Brain Hacks]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
