You're either on the bus, or off the bus.

Can a DJ be a one person jam band? Some in the scene might argue that one person pumping out computer-made beats from a set of speakers can’t possibly be classified as a jam band. Jam bands are all about improvising – you never see the same show twice, no matter how often you see the band. The music has created an entire subculture that of course was first cultivated by The Grateful Dead, but is still alive to this very day. It’s a beautiful thing.

Let’s see where I can go with this.

If you’ve ever bought a CD put out by a fairly established DJ with a lot of discography and such, it could be a CD in one of two styles. Either it has songs completely separate and unrelated to each other, or the entire CD is just one song that morphs and changes into different tracks. I like both but there’s nothing like being to put one CD on and listen to how the musician changes from a track to another track. It could be subtle as changing the hi-hat rhythm to something different or it could be as intense as a wind-up. The same thing goes for when a DJ is playing live.

If you go to see a jam band, generally the entire show has maybe about.. 8 songs. However, the show is about three hours long, four hours if the band doesn’t have an opening band. That means that songs can be as long as twenty minutes. This leaves room for intense improvising. Another thing is that songs go into other songs, like song one will go directly into song two without any kind of pause and it can be as subtle as the guitarist speeding up to as epic as the entire band starting to crescendo. Can you see the similarities already? If your friend the taper or the band puts out a recording of the show, you know your CD is going to be like one big song rather than a bunch of individual songs. I mean, they are individual songs but.. if you’re in the scene you know what I mean, ya digg?

I know that when I see a band live, especially my favorite band – I go to get down. I dance, I sing, I’ll shout and laugh with my fellow fans because like most bands with a large following of devoted fans – I feel like the band really gets me. When they do that intense crescendo into an epic shouting sing along to a song that the real fans know – all you can do is smile. These people are like your family. Complete strangers of course, but family. You’re all the collective vibe and we all get it, and we all get each other.

It’s kind of like, you’re either on the bus or off the bus.

Do DJs not have a similar following? The rave subculture is still alive and well just the same. They go to a rave and experience the the same feelings. This DJ really gets me. This is my family, we all get it – we all get each other. More and more there is starting to be a merging of cultures, though. Bands like Lotus, Boombox and STS9 bring these two cultures together from the usual jam band with traditional instruments to the usual jam band with traditional instruments and a DJ. It’s a nice fusion. Then you have the individual DJs who play heady music like Bassnectar that doesn’t need a band to wiggle into the subculture because his music gets us too.
We’re not really all that different from one another. We all just wanna get down.

I always ‘kind-of’ liked dance music. Even as a little kid I might throw down some of that hard earned Christmas money and buy a random dance album from the shelf. Over time my musical preferences changed dramatically and I’ve pretty much got a taste for anything these days. However, I still can’t stand to listen to the radio and the music on most channels so I guess I havn’t changed too much, huh? Well, I’ve only been DJing seriously for about a year an a half. Seriously: investing my money into equipment and building my skills as much as possible. I saw my first DJ in the summer of 2008, and I had been experimenting with creating dance music before that and even created a track called “Lightning Strikes The DJ” that I played for a friend of mine but lost when my computer erased all the tracks. Anyways, I went to All Good Music festival in 2008 to see a plethora of good live music and had been listening to this DJ named Lorin Ashton, aka Bassnectar. I had been listening to some of his stuff and was digging it so right before he went on I pulled my friend into the crowd and we found a nice spot in front of the stage. I’ll spare your time and just say this : Face melting. The bass was intense, the DJ was intense, the glowsticks were flying everywhere, there was crazy stuff on the screens behind him, the crowd was crazy and it was one of the greatest shows of my life. I walked away from that show knowing what I was going to be doing for the rest of my life. I was actually excited about leaving so I could go home and start to mix new music and look at DJ equipment. Nine months later, like giving birth to a child, I put out my first album. I had and still have no band mates to hold me back, no label telling me what I need to do, and no one telling me what kind of music I need to create or play. It’s a beautiful thing, and I’m happier with my music than ever before. I played drums and the djembe before I started to DJ and I still play the djembe but my drum set collects dust. I feel like it’s what I’m meant to do. Even before I even thought about being a DJ I used to always make mixed CDs because loved the variety and the ability to set the mood. I made killer party CDs. Now, I’m not making a CD for the party, I’m rocking the house myself.