Tales From The Dancefloor

Latest Episodes:

#025: Sam Gribben - From pirate TV to Serato then Melodics, a life of innovating... Aug 02, 2019

Show notes

Sam Gribben was one of the first four people to work at Serato... and when he left the company 10 years later, he'd been CEO for over half a decade, and the workforce was 75! Not bad for someone at their first serious job...

Since then, Sam has combined his skills in technology, his love for music, and a life-long attraction to teaching, in his new company, Melodics. Melodics is an innovative take on online music tuition, teaching keyboards, drums and how to use controller pads.

In this episode of Tales From the Dancefloor, Sam talks about the pirate TV station he helped start while still at college, his failed attempt to get involved with an early innovator of DVS technology at 4am at a party in Amsterdam... and how RZA of Wu Tang Klan gave the Serato team the shock of their lives in the early days!

More about melodics: https://melodics.com
"That" RZA interview: https://youtu.be/TXsYXMqw4Zc

#024: Rik Parkinson - My career helping to design Pioneer DJ gear Jul 26, 2019

Show notes

Rik Parkinson, like so many, basically got into the music industry from being a fan and a DJ. Little could he have guessed at the start of his career as a junior at Pioneer DJ that he’d end up researching features DJs want and helping Pioneer DJ’s design team to bring them to market, through his current role in product development.

A textbook behind-the-scenes mover and shaker (and actually, that rarest of things nowadays – a “company man”: Rik’s been at Pioneer for his whole career so far), you may nevertheless have seen Rik on the Digital DJ Tips YouTube channel over the years, talking about new gear from Pioneer DJ in show report videos.

But in this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, he shares his whole story, and reveals what it’s like helping to design the gear many of us rely on in our DJing lives.

#023: DJ Angelo - Turntablist, International DJ, Educator & Brand Ambassador... Jul 19, 2019

Show notes

Burma-born, UK-raised, DJ Angelo is one of the world’s most respected and versatile DJs, with a style that blends a scratch DJ's technical skill with a club DJ's ability to rock a dancefloor all night long.

The past few years have seen Angelo perform across every continent of the world, as well as finding new audiences through his work as a content creator and product consultant for DJ equipment brand Reloop, among others.

In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, Angelo discusses his upbringing, where he gets his drive and determination from, what it's like playing some of the more unusual gigs he's played... and how his career had more than a few twists and turns before DJing became his "thing".

Angelo's website: https://djangelo.co.uk/

#022: Rachel Lynch, top USA event DJ who's spun for George Clinton, Gloria Gaynor... Jul 12, 2019

Show notes

When her brother dramatically fell ill hours before a wedding he was booked to DJ at, Rachel Lynch decided that the show had to go on: Despite zero DJing experience, she stepped in and performed the gig. Now, 15 years on, she's one of the best-known and most-loved event DJs in the USA.

In this fun episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, Rachel talks to us about how it felt stepping up at that first gig, how she got established, how she prepared for DJing a warm-up set for George Clinton, her love of cars and car shows... and how getting a gig at the local gym was one of the best career moves she ever made.

She also shares the ups and downs of being a female in the DJ world, and explains how she got into online educating - something that has helped her to gain acceptance and gratitude across the event DJ community from that traumatic start all those years ago!

Rachel's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/djrachel.lynch

#021: Robb McDaniels, Beatport CEO & Music Industry Disruptor Jul 05, 2019

Show notes

Robb McDaniels always knew he wasn't going to spend the rest of his life working in merchant banking, where he started his career. He knew the pull of the dance music scene that he loved so much was going to get him in the end. Yet when he started his first company, to bring the UK dance music he loved to the USA digitally (this was pre iTunes...), he couldn't even name all the major record labels...

Roll forward a few years, and that company - INgrooves - was handling digital distribution for over four million tracks in the States, and counted one of those labels, the Universal Music Group, as a client. Robb was in demand as a music industry investor, while his entrepreneurial streak led him to start a management services company, which ended up working with names like Thievery Corporation and Paul Oakenfold.

Nowadays he heads up electronic download store Beatport, and is spearheading that company's drive into streaming with Beatport LINK, as well as expanding its reach to the more mainstream pop, Latin and hip-hop music scenes via its collaboration with DJCity: Beatsource.

In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, Robb looks back over his rise, shares some great stories from the music industry, and gives his thoughts on what comes next in dance culture.

#020: DJ TLM: Dutch hip-hop DJ and hugely popular YouTube DJ tutor Jul 01, 2019

Show notes

DJ TLM will be best known to fans of Tales From The Dancefloor as the man behind scores of supremely helpful YouTube DJing tutorials, and his #sharetheknowledge podcast series.

But from his earliest days promoting events in his own house, DJ TLM has been a performer - and in this awesome episode, he reveals his life as a club, tour, mix and radio DJ, including how a chance encounter with a rising Dutch hip-hip star has led to over 3,500 DJ gigs in a decades-long collaboration.

He also talks frankly about work/life balance, DJing and having kids, and dealing with racism in his early clubbing days. Meet one of the names who has made it easier for YOU to learn DJing online.

More: DJ TLM's website

#019: Simon Walsh, Radio Plugger & DJ Promo Pool Boss... Jun 21, 2019

Show notes

Tapping into an unusual reserve of “get up and go”, a young Simon Walsh did just that. His jet-setting start to his music career involved things like, y’know, hearing Larry Levan play and visiting Studio 54 in New York…

Quickly fascinated by the science of promoting new releases, Simon went on to found what is now the biggest independent music promotion company in the UK, Music House, working on both the biggest commercial releases and more underground sounds. He’s still doing it today, decades on.

In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, Simon shares many stories, including tales of being a radio plugger, and driving a very young Take That around the UK from gig to gig…

#018: Scotty Hoogerbrug, Serato's Top Marketing Guy, Shares His Inspiring Story So Far... Jun 14, 2019

Show notes

Scotty Hoogerbrug always loved dance music and owned decks - but it wasn't until he was offered the top marketing job at Serato as its CMO that his love for building businesses, coding and technology, and the DJ world all came together.

And while nowadays he travels the world, gets backstage at the best gigs, even gets invited every year to Jazzy Jeff's exclusive DJ retreat, Scott is essentially still a fan - and a fan who sometimes has to pinch himself to remember that this is all happening for real!

In this cool episode of "Tales From The Dancefloor", Scotty shares his story, revealing what it's like being in Serato's top team, and the journey that led him there.

#017: Laidback Luke - On his rise to fame, the state of DJing today & achieving balance in life... Jun 07, 2019

Show notes

Talk to any DJ who's been around long enough about Laidback Luke and you hear a similar story: He's incredibly passionate about the art of DJing, and he makes time for everyone. We'd like to add that he's also a survivor, having had a whole techno career before he reinvented himself as a more mainstream DJ/producer.

But there's so much more to him than even that: He's mastered social media and vlogging; he has nurtured talent right from the very beginning, running an influential production forum that saw the likes of Steve Angello and Avicii using it to help them cut their teeth as producers; and of course, famously, he practises kung fu (and even trains people via his own online kung fu school).

In this honest and revealing podcast, Luke shares tales of his early life before and in music, the struggles he's had balancing being a husband and a dad with a global DJ career- and some hilarious stories of his early days as he rose to worldwide fame.

#016: Jay Cunning - The UK breakbeat scene, pirate radio, running a DJ school & more... May 31, 2019

Show notes

From his first love of UK "hardcore" (the "old school rave" scene, not the guitar "hardcore"), Jay Cunning has been involved neck-deep in all things breakbeat in the UK. the breakbeat scene was a phenomenon in itself, and to those who didn't witness it first-hand, Jay's stories will in themselves be fascinating.

But this podcast is more than that: Jay talks about how scenes rise and fall, and why; he shares stories of life in radio, both legal and decidedly illegal; and talks about DJing when you've got a full-time job.

We cover making DJing work with a partner and family, clubs vs radio, running a DJ school, and many other things Jay's done and learned in his long career. It's all in another absorbing episode of Tales from the Dancefloor.

Jay's links:

Website - http://wearehardcore.uk/
Podcast: http://smarturl.it/JCpodcast
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/JayCunningDJ
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jaycunningdj/

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