I thought of this blog topic while listening to a podcast that was discussing how artists have a hard time with imposter syndrome where they have high highs and very low lows where an artist would get a booking and feel they don’t deserve the placement that they are getting. This also brings me to the other possible topic on this one where the actual performance does indeed matter. I’ll go into a little more detail in the following sections

Mental health notes

Let’s break this down, you create the music, this takes the inspiration you get from your unique life experience and the creativity you were given – that is also something that many people can not achieve. You learned the DAW of your choice to the ability where you got your music signed to a label, and you got your tune to track on Beatport or whatever chart, charted you on. Then you got booked for a show and your fans show up and there is that thought in your head “I don’t belong here” but yes you do. You worked your ass off to get there so take pride in the moment and enjoy this with your fans, the people who supported you through the struggle and got you here on the stage so you can perform the music that you created for yourself and for them. This even goes for those who aren’t producers at all, you’re only a DJ but again this skill isn’t given just to anyone. Being a DJ takes hours of practice and the knowledge, ability, and investment in new music and mixes you put out. Let’s even get out of DJ culture altogether, you could just be a singer/songwriter so this would be the hours of coming up with your sound and approach to your production, the way you tune your human instrument. So with these reasons plus many other reasons, yes, you do belong and you do deserve this shot.

I’ll stop here on this as this I do believe needs to be a conversation that we all need to have so go out on socials and start sharing this and make your own comments on this so we can increase the confidence of our beloved creators. I do believe this to be a thought in the heads of many creators that hold them back to be the best they truly can be.

Actual performance matters

So let’s discuss this…when you do get the booking your performance does matter. Let’s first start with your physical performance. Please do not just stand there and mix tunes, or sit on a stool and talk in monotone. This is boring and you are showing your crowd that they should also just stand there as well. You need to move, dance even, bring energy to your performance. Your energy does go out to the crowd and it does influence the time they are having. Then you should make it a point to work with the person who booked you to have a visual component to the show, if LED screens are not an option then getting a screen to throw up your logo/name, at least would be ideal. If they do have house visuals going on, including your logo/name is a great idea. An even better idea is to get custom visuals created for your set but also that could be triggered if you go outside of your planned set depending on the crowd’s energy.

For some shameless promotion if you are reading this and you need help with the creation of these live visuals for your performance reach out to us and we’ll be able to help you out here with the amazing artists we have on our creative agency. You can reach out to us by heading over to https://www.cybergrooveam.com/consult

The importance of this is pretty obvious but I’ll point them out for you anywho. People are very visual so they can also be entertained by your visual part of the performance. They will also know your brand as you will display it as you perform so there would be no need for those questions in the crowd “You know who this is?” It is also a perception thing as well, if you have visuals, especially custom visuals you are telling the audience, promoters, managers, and agencies that you mean business and you take your brand/project/career seriously, and that you invest in your yourself so they should do the same if you are in the market to build your team. Now of days, the music is of course the forefront of the performance but the production quality of performance is getting to the point where in order to be competitive with others you need to have a visual representation that is unforgettable. The visual production quality forces people to stick around at the stage to bring the focus to your music production. Then don’t forget about your energy because people are still watching and feeding off of your energy. This physical performance is even more important when it comes to the Boiler Room or Pit performances that put you in the middle of the crowd. I have been seeing this style more and more so it is time to up your game here. Given the advancement of technology, there is an opportunity here to influence how to represent yourself and your brand. Bring this to your team and discuss the type of performance you could provide to audiences and get creative with all of it. You have to be dynamic based on the type of performance you are giving, and this could be a great opportunity to really tell your story. In the situation you are putting on a “Boiler Room” type of performance, how would you increase the production experience here since the point of these sets is the true focus on the performer. Could something be done above the DJ setup, maybe onto the performer itself through 3D mapping or other methods or do you believe in your performance style so much that you don’t have this visual component – either way – it’s time to get to work!