DJ and electronic Music Production

Project management

Simon Adair

Evaluation

this project has lead me in an unusual direction. Last year I never intended to go into Live work or 'Gigging' to supplement any publicity I could garner as an artist. What really made me change my mind is that I had suggested the idea of doing some live work with my friend 'Passive Fields'. We had both worked on Industrial Music a couple of years earlier and really wanted to pick up where we had left off.

Two heads are greater than one. I felt that trying to get into 'gigging' for publicity and doing 'Art music' to a trendy crowd of millennial uncomfortable as a non-exhibitionist person.

One of my main regrets is not starting producing and performing electronic music earlier in my life so I would now be more established and practised.

Preparing a live set independently is one of the best ways to get some publicity for my collaborative work with 'Passive' which I believe is unique and spontaneous and deserves vindication and exposure.

Set-backs

Three things have held back our rehearsals and made planning more difficult.

• Resources and people. Some things have had to be scaled back like doing elaborate video and artwork. Finding other people to collaborate on our unusual brand of music has been difficult to impossible.
• Time. Any rehearsing and recording has been totally dependant on getting rehearsal time at the WEC in a studio large enough to pack in as many synthesisers as possible.
• Budget. I can think of massive things to do with video installations, albums, wine and cheese, riders and access to amassing technical equipment and big venue hire. All have needed scaling back due to my 'student loan' sized budget. Simply put, my imagination is bigger than my wallet.

The Learning Curve

The positive side to the set backs are educational. Even though I'm an older student and relatively wise in my own right. Organising and planning a gig of sorts is actually a new avenue for me.

The most important part of the learning has been able to arrange rehearsals and utilise the facilities at the WEC to the best of my abilities. This has supplemented my knowledge and respect for recording and analogue hardware greatly. It has also allowed me to create and experiment with Audio more in my collaboration with 'Passive fields' instead of turning my project into a crusade of creative vanity.

However there are very few people I could have worked with on a project of this kind as it takes a certain aesthetic and technical understanding of analogue audio.

Another thing that I have grown familiar with is asking around venues for information on live events and I have begun to do this even with gallery spaces as I ultimately want to get into the 'art scene' with my music, especially on my collaborative work.