Do Not Feed the DJ

I’m in the process of moving my archive of mixtapes onto Sound Cloud, here’s a couple of mixes to get the ball rollin!

“Addiction & Magic Mix”

“Octoomba Fest Mix”

I’ve never really sat down to gather my collective stories of being a DJ over the past 11 years.  One of my first gigs that wasn’t a house party or backyard BBQ was Queer Prom in Orange County.  Back then it wasn’t a big deal to play a few requests and get a couple of weirdos striking up a conversation.  But over the years a DJ wants to grow into a niche, pit that against the fact that over the last 10 years, everyone has acquired a thousand songs on their phone, and the club scene has turned into a hateful, hateful place.  I share now with you a list of annoying moments, strange moments, and the just plain comedic opera that is being a working DJ…

Can you play “Total Eclipse of the Heart?”
I get it.  It seems like a hilarious idea to request an awful song when the dance floor is peaked.  You imagine it in your mind that most people will hate it and clear the floor and that you and your two friends will jump and flail to one verse of the song garnering all the attention of the masses.  Then you’ll look around, realize that the joke is lame, you can’t possibly keep this up for 4 minutes and exit to the bar leaving the dance floor empty.  So no. I won’t, shan’t and can’t play “Total Eclipse of the Heart” for you.

“You are 5 minutes away from the best conversation of your life”
Am I?  Am I really, Mr. guy-who’s-clearly-on-a-mix-of-cocaine-and-acid?  Contrary to popular belief, DJs don’t have a great deal of time to engage in lucid conversations about your ex-girlfriends and why the music industry is failing.  I don’t know if I have a kind face, or if I give off an aura of acceptance, but I am one intolerant bitch when I have stuff to do!  I hope that you find love, as well as your other flip-flop.

Go Go Down! Go Go Down!
Sometimes if you don’t have a luxury of a lighting guy, you have to run things yourself.  Usually the light board has 5-6 settings and you press a button every few songs to change the lighting and shoot a burst from the smoke machine.  My first night at a club, the club owner tells me “we may not have alot of peple tonight, so if the dance floor looks empty, shoot more smoke into it so it looks more full.”  Brilliant idea.  Also a brilliant idea is the go go dancers on table tops dancing on poles.  I go about an hour and I’ve forgotten all about the smoke machine, I see the owner across the room he’s waving his hands reminding me to hit the smoke button.  I do it immediately but unbeknownst to me, the smoke machine shoots a blast of mineral vapor directly into the face of the go go dancer.  She falls off the pole and lands on her butt on the table top, clinging to the pole and coughing up mineral powder.  Did I feel bad?  Yes.  Do I think that smoke machine was installed in the wrong place?  Absolutely.

I was Secretly Auditioning You
I was spinning at an indie/riot girl night, so naturally an older man in a suit approaches me and asks where the tip jar is.  I thought to myself, it must be in 1992, because who freakin’ does that these days?  He asks if I can play some Britney, or Katy Perry, or Pink.  I know, PINK, right?  Because those artists fit so well into this event.  I gently reminded him that it was ‘Grrl night,’ and he laughed at me and said “I was secretly auditioning you, I’m looking for a DJ for our High School Dance.”  FIrst of all, who ‘secretly auditions’ people?  Second of all, what kind of Lesbian Performance Art School do you teach at that you went searching for a DJ at ‘Riot Grrl’ night?

My number one fan is a guy I don’t know
There was a one or two year period that I would run into my ‘fan.’  He knew my name, started conversations with me about people we mutually knew, commented on all my posts, but I 100% do not know who this person is.  It got to a point where I was seeing him at events I wasn’t spinning at, or random events, and he would just hang around me as if I came there to meet him.  I’m sure he’s a nice fella, and I’m glad he enjoys my sets with such enthusiasm, but I don’t even have a first name to go off of.

I’m a Lawyer
I had a lady approach me at a gig, it was very very very important to her that she let me know that she was a LAWYER.  A LAWYER.  She went on to explain to me the type of law she practiced, and that she was here with friends.  She then proceeded to request a song, reminded me she was a lawyer, and asked why the crowd wasn’t dancing.  I explained to her that it was a cocktail party, not a night club.  She pointed out that she was a lawyer, and that lawyers like to dance to Gangnam Style.  Alas, I didn’t have the song.  And even if I did, I wouldn’t have played it.  What is she going to do, sue me over it?  ”I’M A LAWYER.”

TRIFECTA mix – Electro House, Mash-Ups & Dubstep by Do Not Feed The DJ

A trifecta blend of Electro House, Mash-Ups and Dubstep, I assure you, the bass-canons will leave nothing but sweaty dance destruction. All ‘vs’ Mash-Ups are hand crafted and baked with love by Do Not Feed The DJ.

- DNFDJ: Disneyland Electrical Parade Intro
- Wolfgang Gartner: “Bounce” vs. Missy Elliot & Ludacris: “Gossip Folks”
- Beastie Boys: “Brass Monkey”
- Madonna “Hung Up” vs. Deadmau5 & Wolfgang Gartner “Animal Rights”
- Azealia Banks “212″ vs. Enur “Calabria” Instrumental
- Steve Aoki: “Paradise Poltergeist” vs. Diplo “Work It”
- The Cataracs: “Bass Down Low” (Static Revenger Mix)
- Major Lazer: “Pon de Floor” vs. Cypress Hill: “Insane in the Brain” Instrumental
- Steve Aoki & Iggy Azalea “Beat Down” vs. Common: “Universal Mind Control” Instrumental
- Cedric Gervais: “Molly”
- Jack Back ft. Sia: “Wild One Two”
- Little Boots: “Stuck on Repeat” (Fake Blood mix) vs. Justice “We are Your Friend”
- Jantsen & Dirt Monkey: “Sand Man”
- Calvin Harris “I feel So Close” (Dillon Francis mix)
- Calvin Harris ft. Kelis “Bounce” (Bloody Beetroots mix)
- Diplo “Bust a Move”
- Lady Gaga “Judas” (Electrolytes mix) vs. Zedd “Shave It” (501 remix)
- Ben Benassi “Cinema” (Skrillex mix)
- Katy Perry “E.T.” (Ben Benassi mix)
- Calvin Harris: “Awooga” vs. Eurythmics: “Sweet Dreams”

Here at DNFDJ we travel the world (or within reason) to deliver top quality video from music festivals and Electronic Music happenings. I traveled to the exotic location of San Bernardino to capture the following video.

“Oogum” by DO NOT FEED THE DJ – shot at The Kandy Festival from Rhianne Paz on Vimeo.

Ok, ok, it’s just a local rave in the Inland Empire, but I’m allowed to be snarky about it because I actually hail from that hood. All kidding aside, I had a great deal of fun shooting these images, so I decided to cut the footage to my newest original track “Oogum” for your viewing pleasure. Thanks to a clever camera hack and lenses more expensive then I care the mention, I could shoot all night in virtual darkness where no other video camera dare dwell. For all you SLR video shooters out there, here’s the stats on how I shot that night.

Panasonic GH2
driftwood hack 100mbps
ISO range 800-1600
Lumix pancake 1.7f 20mm
Zeiss ZF 1.4f 50mm

And now, an audio visual guide to some of the tracks I played at Tune in Tokyo’s AKIHABARA WINTER WONDERLAND at Royal/T Cafe!

Aimo – Macross Frontier – Deculture remix by: DO NOT FEED THE DJ

First and foremost, let’s get my shameless plug out of the way, here are two of my own remixes

VOICES – Macross Plus – Remix by: DO NOT FEED THE DJ

ZANKOKU NA TENSHI NO THESES (DJ AMAYA VS. GROOVEBOT REMIX)

A very special thanks to my buddy DJ Amaya for allowing me to use his remixes in my set. This man is the James Brown of Anime remixes, the hardest working man in Ableton no doubt… Virtually all of DJ Amaya’s remixes are available for download at his website www.DJamaya.com

K-ON! – DON’T SAY LAZY (DJ AMAYA VS. GROOVEBOT REMIX)

Zedd – The Legend Of Zelda (Original Mix)

If you dig Zedd’s ripping electro style, check out my favorite track by this producer “Shave It”

Final Fantasy VII ‘BadAzz’ [One-Winged Angel] by PrototypeRaptor

2NE1 – Far East Movement _ I’m the best Like a G6 (MASHUP) by: Punk3LY

During my set I also did some live electro mashups & remixes including the Final Fantasy Theme and “Head Cha La” from Dragonball Z. I’ll work on making these into MP3s and will post them for download. Thanks to everyone who worked on the event, it was a great way to go into Holiday Break!

Ok, Ok, we get it, you made your own Deadmau5 head, but why stop there? We can make a light-up head out of just about anything, right? Take a peek at how I constructed a light-up Angler Fish head. It’s not gonna be pretty, but you will get mad originality points.

It’s important to sketch things out to help visualize what kind of Angler you want to be. Most importantly I had to make sure I could fit my giant noggin inside the mouth of this fish.

Grab a big sheet of paper like newspaper or butcher paper and draw out the shape of your fish, make sure to leave the bottom flat, that’s where your head goes, so don’t make it too tight.

Remember, if it doesn’t fit on your noggin as paper, it’s not going to fit as cloth or felt. You can also feel out where the hood falls over your eyes, and how much you want to extend the jaw of the fish.

I used black felt as a base for my pattern, and picked up some shiney scale-like material from the ‘cougar wardrobe department’ at Jo-Ann’s fabric. I picked up a red blinking toy that I was going to use for eyes, but they blinked, so I had to find another way to make it work.

I cut the patter about 1/2 an inch larger than the patter because I knew I would have to sew it together and turn it inside out. The seam you want to sew is basically the round part on top of the fish, and the front side of the jaw. I then hot-glue gunned the scale parts onto the cloth. Don’t go too crazy on the hot glue because it will start to seep through the felt.

I needed something translucent for the fins, so I used a clear presentation folder form an office supply store to make the fins. It also helped make my fish a little more rigid and less floppy.

This part is optional, but you can adorn your fins, and the ridge of your Angler with battery powered Christmas Lights. Just remember you will have to securely tape a nest of Christmas lights to the underside of your fish head.

If you don’t ‘mute’ your unused lights they’ll show through the felt of your fish head, so take little baby pieces of tape and fold them over unused lights. To make the ‘dangle’ light I used some thick gauged wire from the jewelry section of the craft store and hung a white ‘finger light.’ you can also try to use some of the Christmas light, but think of all the weight of those lights on the already fragile wire.

Lastly, I couldn’t make those red beady eyes work, but I was able to use the plastic packaging they came in for the eyes. I stuffed them with white tool to diffuse the light, and directed two orange Christmas lights to the holes behind the eyes. and Voila! ANGLER TIME!

MAD DECENT Block Party 2011 Los Angeles – Slow Motion Panasonic GH2 from Rhianne Paz on Vimeo.

I’m a HUGE fan of the Philly-based “MAD DECENT” label, so when the block party rolled into town, I decided to make my first attempt at shooting 60FPS for slow motion.

MAD DECENT Block Party 2011 Los Angeles
Slow Motion Panasonic Lumix GH2
Lens: Lumix 1.7/20mm pancake
Color Grading: Mojo
Shot and Edited by: Rhianne Paz
Music: Calvin Harris – “Feel So Close” (Dillon Francis mix)

Shot at 60 FPS, 1280 X 720 and comformed to 24 FPS in Compressor, no additional ‘slow motion’ filters were applied

By special request! I’ve made a new mixtape featuring songs from my last performance at Tune in Tokyo!

Click image to download, or listen now in Flash player

Sakura Bomb Mix: International Electro

Tracklist:
“Raise Your Weapon” – Dead Mau5 (Madeon Extended Remix)
“Push & Rise” – Wolfgang Gartner
“Drips” – SE7EN
“Bounce” – Calvin Harris Featuring Kelis
“Jyounetsuno Daisyou” – Shinichi Osawa
“Call Your Girlfriend” – Robyn (Sultan & Ned Remix)
“Killer” – Jean Elan
“I Just Wanna XXX you” – Capsule
“Pick Up the Phone” Dragonette (Arithmatix Remix)
“High School of the Dead” – Kishida Kyodan & The Akebosi Rockets (DJ Amaya VS. Groovebox Remix)
“Appears” – Ayumi Hamasaki (Shinichi Osawa Remix)
“Devil Inside” – Uteda Hikaru (Scum Frog Vocal Mix)
“Laser Beam” – Perfume (DJ Amaya VS Groovebot Remix)
“Easy Please Me” – Katy B (Claude Von Stroke Grizzl-fiyah Mix)

Hey Kids! I had a super-rad time at Comic-Con, I actually DJ’d a Comic Con event this year for the launch of “Todd & The Book of Pure Evil” and “Psychoville” on FEARnet

Aside from that I hit the floor with my handy Panasonic GH2 and got some shots of Preview night.  I threw these all in my Final Cut Pro blender and made a little video for you all to the tunes of Daft Punk’s “Da Funk,” enjoy!