Discussion: What Makes A Live Show According to Sampology

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Discussion: What Makes A Live Show According to Sampology

Australia’s prominent AV/DJ Sampology, who was recently billed as the 30th best DJ according to veteran DJ Yoda has shared details on what really makes a live show in the dance world. His legitimacy as a skilled DJ and technical knowhow when it comes to synching his audio visuals needs no questioning having finished up on an expansive Australian ‘Stimulation’ tour including a quick dip over to Bali’s Potato Club , knocking out a killer party with Absolut, performing a peak-time set at FBI’s 10th birthday, a weirdly wonderful video of Major Lazers “Bumaye” video that Diplo shared himself and much much more over the last few months.

To get a better insight into what really defines a ‘live’ set we’d thought we’d ask the AV/DJ dojo everything from the basics of what makes a live show to how it compares to well… just your everyday DJ set.

Stoney Roads – Why did you choose the live show/What’s involved in the live show/What exactly makes a live show?

To answer questions 1,2 & 3 I would start by saying I’m hesitant to define alot of things in music, whether it be talking about if a song fits into a genre, or what the definition of a ‘live’ show actually is. The important thing is how I feel about it & how the crowd feels about it. To explain a little more about myself, at the moment my shows are 50/50 between DJ sets & the AV show. I wouldn’t argue against the AV show being called a live set, it requires me to live operate 3 pieces of software, a MPC, turntables, live cameras and a vision switcher as well as having constructed the whole set to usually either too tell a story or convey some kind of narrative to the crowd & ask them to give up their ear & eyes to enjoy it. So I work hard to make my visual sets a real show type show & I hope people enjoy it that way. I understand people might look at me as a DJ in that setting because they see turntables as part of my set up, and that’s totally fine.
When I’m in DJ mode the emphasis is on dancing, enjoying the music, people enjoying themselves & when everything is going to plan the location, crowd & other factors determine what music I am going want to play right in the moment to make everyone move in a certain way. Whereas the AV show is definitely more of a structured show.

Stoney Roads – Do crowds commonly enjoy the live show more so over a typical DJ set?

Sampology – My situation is unique because the whole point of the show is that the audio & visual is synced to exponentially enable me to effect people alot more, so I think people enjoy it that little bit more in a different way to a DJ set. Right then and there in the moment of DJing I’m actually happier myself, because I’m more in the crowds position, in terms of not knowing 100% what I’m going to be playing in 10 minutes time. I also love dancing so DJing allows me to be more in party mode myself. I plan out my visual sets like a band would make a set list but I transition between things differently & on tours the show grows and changes from date to date as I bring new content into the show as it goes along the tour. Often the first date has quite a bit of different content to the last date of the tour, but obviously the vibe and the story telling is consistent. But I am always producing new content as I go along.

Stoney Roads – What does the future hold for live shows?

Sampology – I think just like every other term in the music industry the word ‘live’ will change, it already has changed so much. I remember at one point a couple of years ago I was thinking about Ableton ‘live sets’ versus ‘DJ sets’ & thought it was interesting some (definitely not all!) DJs are putting more work in on stage than some (not all!) people playing a solo ‘live set’ using something like ableton. That said theres an immense amount of lazy DJs out there. I use turntables but for me seeing someone like Flying Lotus perform with just one laptop & a controller honestly really really excites me, and I would call that a ‘live’ set. So I think to try and completely define this ‘live’ thing is a bit redundant as theres a massive grey area that ultimately isn’t important. Why? Because what is important is people in the crowd firstly enjoy themselves and support the artists & DJs they love & secondly take a bit of extra time to respect an artist or DJ they think is really passionate and hard working up on the stage. Personally I think it’s important for artists to push everything they are doing forward no matter what it is, or whatever their performance mode is.

It should be noted this isn’t the be all and end all of what a live set is as we have other performers including Big Gigantic and The Algorithm adding their .2c to the questionable debate surrounding what makes a live set.

Until then soak up a quick 30 minute ‘Stimulation’ mix from the Brisbane wonder-kid or his Major Lazer/Diplo shared video remix of “Bumaye” below.

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