Psytrance Culture and Stepping out of your comfort zone

Psytrance Culture and Stepping out of your comfort zone  

Psytrance culture globally, while having many obvious similarities, also differs from city to city, country to country.

 …the best thing to do as a DJ is to simply play what you love, play with conviction, and spread your energy; we spin tunes and give people a good time, this is our job!”

They say to travel is to broaden ones perception of the world.

I knew the minute I chose to lead this type of lifestyle that I would travel to some interesting destinations and meet all kinds of people. Living the psytrance culture one can go to places that you never knew existed and that no tourist route would take you.

My recent trip to Brazil was my second time there, so I had a fair understanding of what I would be getting myself into. From my experience one needs to be open to anything and have a lot of patience, because generally the language barrier can be very confusing. Sometimes you think one thing will happen, but the complete opposite does. Also be open to all forms of transportation because when you got to get to a gig, you literally gotta do anything you can to get there.

How far will you travel for a gig?

I will tell you a little story about my travels after Universo Paralello.

I travelled from 8 am the one day to 3 pm the following day to get to a club gig  and back again and oh my word, was that an experience! In a nutshell I took a boat through the rain, getting completely drenched, a 4-hour taxi ride, missed a flight, then had to arrange a new one, then 4 hours on the plane, another 3 hour bus ride, to then play at this club which to be honest I still have no idea where exactly it was. The insane energy from the dancefloor made it worth it though! Then another bus ride, 2 trains and a taxi, and finally I made it home. It was another level of special after that journey!!!

The one thing I did learn though is that every country and party is different. We may have the basic language of psytrance culture, but I feel that each country likes different sounds and styles. I have no idea why, but if I just think back on my last year I have played in 3 different countries as well as various  places around South Africa, and I played different styles in each of them. I felt it was a great challenge to read the crowds reactions and play what I thought would get them going.

It’s not the same everywhere…

This is just my observation; what I can comment on with conviction is that as a DJ or artist to never assume anything!

You may think you rock in your own country, but once you leave your comfort zone at home, you are all on your own out there in the world and you need to be on your toes. I felt that sometimes perhaps the crowd didn’t like my choice or style of music. For example I would play a track I know goes down really well in Cape Town, but it would not seem to work on a foreign dance floor, so I would try something else and get the reaction from totally different tunes. It’s really overwhelming to try please your dance floor especially when you finish your set and a local DJ comes on, with tunes you have never heard before and the crowd literally goes nuts; now that’s a sucky feeling [laughs].

But then there are times when you get it right and the energy is crazy; the one thing about us South Africans is we love to dance and go crazy too, so I think that foreign dancefloors respond well to that energy exchange.

The best and most important thing though is that everywhere I have travelled and played, the people have all been very welcoming, hospitable (even with a language barrier), kind and friendly. That’s what I love most about psytrance culture.

Play what you love

So the best thing to do as a DJ is to simply play what you love, play with conviction, and spread your energy; we spin tunes and give people a good time, this is our job! We do come from different countries that have different social set ups and psy scenes, now that I think about it, so it’s really amazing how through the music we come together. How else would we learn new things or hear different sounds and music styles?

Psytrance culture is both the same and different around the globe, if that makes any sense?

The psy scene continues to spread to all corners of our planet and grow.

What I am Listening to: Dj Moon

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