Coping with nerves before a gig

0:01 Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, and first and foremost, Happy New Year

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, and first and foremost, Happy New Year to you. As we say in Wales, a bluidh yn newydd ar, which basically means Happy New Year. Now again, these videos should be taken for entertainment purposes only. This isn't legal advice or anything like that. So really, that's sort of a disclaimer. But hopefully this video will help you and give you an insight into maybe how you feel before a gig. Now, I have, and again, this is 100% DJ related. Now, I've been in the DJ industry for probably about 40 years now. So I personally believe I can give good advice. And it's on nerves and how you feel before an event. Now, if anyone watching this, when you turn up to an event or just before the event, you have absolutely, you're not apprehensive at all.

You've got no butterflies in your stomach. You don't feel a little bit nervous. Then there's something wrong with you, because I honestly think that any and every single DJ out there, whatever event you do, whether it's in a nightclub or a bar, radio, mobile, you're probably going to have a little bit of nervousness. Maybe not so much on the radio, because you've basically got a microphone in front of you. And that's it. Unless, of course, nowadays you've got a webcam and the world can see you. But I'm just going to relay really my feelings before I do events. And hopefully you'll be able to familiarize yourself. Now, before any event I do, I get nervous to the extent where I'm going, oh, my God, am I going to do a good job?

2:40 In this video is good ways

My tummy's rumbling. I'm like, oh, can I get can I get through this night now? To put that into context, like I said, I've been doing I've been DJing for like about 40 years from kids parties, birthday parties, weddings, just all manner of sort of functions, even down to playing, let's say at festivals. And there's a DJ before me, a DJ after me. And I'm sort of doing half an hour or an hour set or whatever. I do feel nervous now if you're like me and you do feel nervous. Don't worry about it. It's a natural thing for you to do as humans. You get nervous. That's a way of your mind being open for anything to happen. But how can you get over being nervous? What's the best thing to do? Well, first of all, it is practically impossible to stop being nervous.

Now that's your own internal sort of workings of fight or flight getting you ready for the inevitable could go wrong. What could go wrong? So what I want to try and explain in this video is good ways of, let's say, just reassuring your nerves, yourself to tell you, don't worry, you're going to be okay. Now, first and foremost, let's imagine you are a mobile DJ. You turn up at the event, you set up and you're a little bit nervous now. The first thing to do before. Even before you get to the event, just make sure that you've got everything you need. Now, that may sound a little bit bizarre, like, well, of course, because I'm going to turn up. I've got everything in the back of the car, the lorry, the truck, the bus, and I set it up and that's it.

But then maybe you turn up with one laptop, a set of speakers, a couple of lights, and that's it. So in other words, you have your mobile setup as you always take with you. You set it up. And you're good to go will possibly think on these lines. And I have talked about this before, and that is to make sure that you've got a backup. Now it's all well and good. You having the best laptop in the world. It's brand new. It's out of the box. It's update. It's got all the software, the firmware. You've got all the drivers in there. And you know that when you press the button, it's going to light up and say, I'm ready for action. Well, let's imagine you go to a car showroom. You buy a brand new car and you drive it out the showroom only to find two miles down the line or down the road.

It's broken down now that can happen with anything because nothing is perfect. You know, you're going to have an issue at some point with your laptop. It's going to happen. All right, it's not a question of it won't it will happen. So hopefully I'm not now making you nervous but that's part and parcel of the way we live today because everything can anything at some point. In its life. If it's been manufactured, there will be a problem with it. So first and foremost make sure you have a backup. So even if you've got your fantastic, you know sort of MacBook Pro that's just been released like yesterday or you've got some fantastic PC. Make sure you've got a backup now. You don't have to have two fantastic laptops.

5:32 Of course, you're left with a mono sound system

Just make sure you've got something That is ready. Just in case you have an issue with your laptop first and foremost. Secondly, it's a good idea to maybe bring an extra speaker now whether you're using passive or active sound systems. I would highly recommend you take another speaker even if it's something small active sounds crazy. Even a Bluetooth speaker the worst thing in the world that can happen is you turn up with your And horn on tripods or you've got a couple of bass cabs couple of mid and top and all of a sudden one of those one of them goes wrong. Then of course, you're left with a mono sound system. That's not going to be very good alternatively. Let's say you're using a passive system now.

This is of course when you've got an external amplifier. Now the trouble is with passive if your amplifier breaks, you've got no sound at all. That's why I highly recommend you. Get yourself a small active speaker to begin with. You could use it just as a monitor, but then of course if the proverbial does hit the fan and your amplifier decides to have a packet of cigarettes and start smoking then that's when the sound stops. And of course, then you can just plug in your active speaker and off you go now also just digressing very slightly. But if you do have an issue during the night, in other words, your laptop stops. What your sound system goes down. The worst thing in the world is that you panic and you make it look as though you're unprofessional and you're running around like a headless chicken.

The best thing to do is always be professional if anything, you know say even if you have to scream to the people I do apologize. I've had a problem here but don't worry about it. The music will be on very shortly. That's the professional way of doing it. The unprofessional way is to cower down run around. I can headless chicken look red in the face and think oh my God. What am I going to do because you're not only then making yourself anxious? You're going to make the public the that the people on the dance floor and listening to you very anxious as well, and they're just going to class you as an unprofessional entertainer. Now then prior to the event what I advise you to do is to accept the fact that you are nervous don't think you're nervous and get worried about that.

8:34 Toilet bathroom wherever you are look

I know that sounds really bizarre. But when I turn up to an event and I'm nervous, which I always am. I don't think oh shit. I'm nervous. What am I going to do? Oh it's going to go terrible or is this going to go wrong? Is that going to go wrong? Are they going to like me? Am I going to play the right music and so on what I do is I accept the fact that I am nervous and that in itself helps me. I know that sounds really bizarre but it does so accept. The fact that you're nervous now also something I've talked about before again is look in the mirror. All right, yeah. Okay, so maybe haven't got a mirror but go to the toilet bathroom wherever you are look in the mirror and just talk to yourself and say I'm fine.

I'm going to be nervous. But tonight is going to be a good night that as well will help because you're talking to your inner self. I know that sounds a bit bizarre again. But it will help also. What will help is the fact that you are not alone as I said at the beginning of this video, we all get nervous. So don't think you're unique don't think you will are the you're the only DJ who is turning up at an event and you know your stomachs rumbling and you thinking oh my God what am I going to do because you're not alone on the night you're playing there will be another thousand DJs around the world minimum playing at the same time as you with the same feelings. So you're not alone. All right. Now, I hope this video has been a help.

Please by all means post a comment underneath this video describe how you feel explain how you feel. Are you nervous? Are you a little bit? Are you a lot do you get anxiety attacks and so on if you do then just tell people because by the action of you. Getting it down also helps trust me. It does help. It's the acceptance of you feeling nervous that will help you overcome being nervous. So all of a sudden, you know at your next event, you're not going to stop being nervous but then by accepting the fact that you are and you will be will help you immensely. All right now. I hope that. In itself has been a help and just to let you know as well. This video is going to be uploaded as soon as it's made, which is sort of now and tonight I'm going to be doing another live stream probably going

To be using the X Z playing some house and stuff like that and as ever I'll carry on playing till the lovely algorithms find out I'm playing good quality music and say we're just giving you a heads up. You're playing copyrighted music your stream. I think it's maybe temporary. Blocked.

Okay. Anyway, thank you for watching. Happy New Year and let's make it a good one practice and enjoy. Thank you.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.