Miss the nightclubs? Now, DJs are bringing the party home

With nightclubs shut for now, DJs are setting up their consoles against interesting backdrops, as they livestream their sets and experiment with new sounds

A sundowner is in progress. The sky is a delicious orange. The Arabian Sea roars in the background, its sound punctuated by rhythmic beats from the DJ console. Sounds like a party by the beach? It is, but it is entirely virtual.

Ever since the lockdown started, this has become a ritual for DJ Suketu. He strategically positions himself in his balcony on Marine Drive, Mumbai, so his audience online can not just hear his music but also take in the gorgeous views. His sessions are a mix of deep house and deep Bollywood.

“In the last three months, I have done about 32 gigs, sometimes 12 a month,” says Suketu. However, from playing three times a week, he has now cut down to once a week, on Sundays. The reason being, many artistes are performing online on Fridays and Saturdays.

Even big international names like Diplo, Carl Cox and Tiesto have over the past few months livestreamed their gigs.

AlteMunze in Berlin
 
| Photo Credit:
Jascha Müller-Guthof

David Guetta’s United At Home fundraiser for COVID-19 relief, in May, reportedly received 6.2 million views. In Berlin, the city known for its vibrant club culture, the Berlin Club commission and other stakeholders of the city’s club scene got together to start United We Stream, a platform where every evening, DJs live stream their act from empty venues as diverse as mills, factories and bars. From 80 clubs in Berlin, the concept has expanded to include those from the US and the UK and “there are 70 cities now connected on the platform, presenting more than 1,660 artistes,” says Lutz Leichsenring, press spokesperson of Club commission.

“The turnover for clubs in Berlin is around 168 million Euros per year. The club culture tourists that come, spend 1.48 billion Euros yearly,” continues Lutz. Since this sector too has been hit, the initiative aims to collect funds to sustain nightclubs. “World wide we have collected around 1.4 million Euros and in Berlin about 550,000 Euros,” says Lutz.

Time is key

Suketu, who has been part of the industry for 22 years and is well-known for remixes of Bollywood songs such as ‘Bin Tere Sanam’, ‘Woh Lamhe’ and more recently ‘Tum Mile’ that he created as part of Sony Music’s eight weeks challenge, says, “All the DJs are continuing to play for the love of music, not for money. This is our attempt at keeping the spirit of the people high.”

In a way, Suketu feels he has been more productive during this ‘stay at home’ phase. Life pre- COVID-19 was a blur — of back-to-back gigs, incessant flights, late nights and early mornings. It took him three to four days to create a remix, now he can deliver one in 12 to 15 hours. “It’s made me realise I spent so much time in live gigs that I could not sit and make music. 90% of artistes bank on live gigs,” he says. Over the years, 80% of his income came from live events and 20% from the music he made, he says. When things go back to normal, he wants to maintain this 50-50 balance between creating music and performing.

For Ma Faiza, this has been a liberating experience. “I did not have to play just dance music. I did an ambient music session and a sunset session. These are things I don’t usually get a chance to do in India,” says Ma Faiza, who over the weekend livestreamed a set from Kitty Su in Delhi.

The first virtual gig that she did from her home in April seemed a tad challenging given that there was no audience engagement and the environment was very different. She says the symbiotic relationship with the crowd was missing. But she is happy she had her assistant and girlfriend to keep her company. “I dressed up, set up a smoke machine, got interesting videos for the background,” says Ma Faiza, who has noticed a spate of new tools that have cropped up to make broadcasts from home look entertaining.

With this format, the advantage for DJs is that there are no borders. For her gigs Ma Faiza has been receiving viewers from far-flung Iceland and Finland to Korea and Japan. “I get 3,000 to 5,000 viewers, which is more than a club can accommodate,” she adds.

For the audience, online gigs mean not having to stand in queues, get past bouncers or pay an entry fee. They don’t require prior commitment, either. People can log in as and when and stay for as long as they want, without having to hang around or drag their friends away.

However, the attention span is shorter with this format. Hence retaining audiences’ interest becomes a challenge, believes Prasanna Kumar, music producer and DJ, better known by his stage name, Gritty. The former in-house DJ of The Park, Chennai first did an online gig for Pasha in April this year.

“For my upcoming acts, I am shooting one with multiple cameras and drones, so those who log in can see the city of Chennai as I play,” he says.

He is also part of the 044 Collective, a Submerge property curated and founded by DJ Manny. “It is a four-hour digital gathering of the Chennai clubbing community featuring the city’s finest artistes to keep the tradition of Saturday night get togethers alive. As of July, 044 Collective will be hosted at 1 Vibe co-working studio and livestreamed,” he adds.

With the opening of night clubs looking like a distant dream for now, he feels that this is a good way to stay motivated and create content.

Playing online, by the way, can be more challenging than spinning in a club. “When travelling, sometimes, you can play the same set because the people are different in each city/country. But you can’t do that on this platform. The people who are online are going to keep following the music,” he says, confessing that he once played a song and someone pointed that he had played the same three weeks back.

“People are listening intently, so I am constantly on the lookout for new releases,” he laughs. With people wanting fresh content, Suketu says he has even produced three mixes of one song, adding, “My energy has gone to the next level.”

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