A while ago, I posted on IG about wanting to write another blog post and realizing that all I had to write about was gloomy depressing stuff. A lot of you were very sweet and reached out to express support by letting me know that those stories are important to share. So with that in mind I’m here to say: this is not that blog post.
No, this post is about #BlendsWithFriends!
What is #BlendsWithFriends, anyway? Dear reader, I’m so glad you asked.
#BlendsWithFriends is a biweekly open decks meetup at Quarter Horse Arcade in Durham, NC, from 8pm-midnight every other Tuesday. It’s an opportunity to learn to DJ, perform in front of a small, chill and supportive audience, test out new tracks if you’re a producer, play with various synths and gear, and borrow equipment to practice with. If you just want to hang out and dance and play free video games that’s cool too.
I’ll start off by running through what the event looks like and how to participate, and then talk more about the origin and ideas behind it.
“WHAT CAN I DO AT #BLENDSWITHFRIENDS??”
1. Open Decks - Sign up to play a short (15-30m) DJ set with Traktor Kontrol S4 and laptop and turntable or whatever gear you bring. There is a clipboard for you to write your name / artist name to sign up for a slot. sets go in signup order, with length based on how many people are trying to play. I’ll explain Traktor / basic DJ concepts to you as much or as little as you like. You can bring your own music on a USB flash drive, a hard drive, or vinyl.
If you want to bring your own music: You’ll be using Traktor with an S4 mk1 for files, and an Audio Technica direct drive turntable for vinyl, both running into a 2-channel Xone mixer into the house sound. If you don’t normally use Traktor, the easiest thing is to just put whatever tracks you want to play in a folder on your drive. If you bring a USB that’s formatted for Rekordbox / CDJs, it will just take a second longer, since Traktor doesn’t recognize the rekordbox file structure and playlists, but we can import rekordbox playlists into Traktor.
If you are a Pioneer rep who wants to donate a set of CDJs and a mixer to #BlendsWithFriends… please reach out!
2. Petting Zoo - At #BlendsWithFriends, you can make the music yourself with whatever gear people bring to the event, running into a mixer with multiple headphones. (Shout out to Maxie, Peter and Alex for bringing out gear for people to use the last couple weeks and getting the petting zoo vibe going!) If you have some sweet gear you wouldn’t mind people touching (respectfully) for a few hours, bring it out. Also I’d love to have recording capabilities so we can document the jams. If anyone has a recorder they could bring and plug into the mixer, that would rule.
3. Gear Library - Check out gear to take home with you!
Right now we have the following items in the gear library:
Traktor Kontrol S2 MKII - checked out - 2-deck DJ controller for Traktor with USB cable
Alesis Multimix8 USB FX - 8 track mixer with integrated USB audio interface, w/ power supply (pictured above)
Yamaha PSR-220 - 61-key stage keyboard w/ power supply (pictured above)
How does the gear library work? Generous people donate equipment they aren’t using, and other people borrow it. If you want to borrow gerar, message me on IG at @treeecity, or text me, and I will bring it to the next session. If you want to borrow something that’s currently checked out, you can put a hold on it. In the interest of making tools accessible to everyone, no deposit or rental fee is required, so please don’t break the free gear! Respect the gear and you will build good music karma. Disrespect the gear and the muses will abandon you.
4. *NEW* My First Gig - I want to try having a final DJ slot at the end of the night. Someone who wants to play a bit longer can do a more official set (45m-1hr) as more of a “performance” rather than “practicing in public” - and get paid for it! This could be ideal for someone who has never played a show, someone who is rusty, or someone who wants to test out their live set in a public setting. Pay will be a slice of the fee I get for throwing the event, scaled to how long the set is—it won’t be a lot of money (think in the $20 range)—but if what you’re looking for is something a bit more official than the open decks, this could be a good fit. Then you can tell promoters, “yeah I headlined Quarter Horse… nbd.” They will be falling over themselves to book you (your mileage may vary).
“SO WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA, ANYWAY?”
The idea for #BlendsWithFriends came from earlier this year when friends who had CDJs would have people over to practice. Since CDJs are prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, but are industry standard, there’s an echelon of gigs that you can only get if you have enough access to CDJs to learn how to use them. (Huge shout out to all the friends in my life who have ever let me use their CDJs—from 300s to 3000s. Special thanks to Laura and Joe for letting me hold their decks to prepare for some unusually freaky gigs this past summer.) These fun, low key DJ hangs at people’s houses made me want to create a more complex iteration at a venue, where people could share skills and music and just vibe. When Quarter Horse reopened, I bugged them incessantly to let me bring back my monthly residency from the Before Times. It came to pass that they needed something on Tuesdays, and lo, #BlendsWithFriends was born.
The simple driving concept behind #BlendsWithFriends is that hanging out, playing and talking about music is good and fun. DJing is easy! You can do it. It will make you a better musician, performer, dancer, etc. The goal of the event is to create some entry level opportunities for people to get their feet wet performing on a nice system, without a lot of pressure, and to make the skills and technology accessible to anyone with interest. Some people who come to #BlendsWithFriends have been DJing and producing for years, some are playing their first shows, some make music but have never DJed, some have never played music but want to learn. Wherever nerds with different skill levels are gathered, they will teach one another, and that’s church to me.
Several folks who have had early DJ experiences at #BlendsWithFriends have gone on to playing parties and bigger shows, starting their own nights at Quarter Horse, even opening for some pretty fancy DJ people! I don’t take credit for this but rather I bring it up to illustrate the point that having a broad range of performance opportunities, suited to different levels of career and experience, makes for a friendlier and more robust scene—and that anyone with the interest and drive should be able to play gigs as big as they want.
We’ve done about 6 or 7 of these so far and it still is a brand new experience every time. Everything is collaborative and DIY so if you have an idea for #BlendsWithFriends you could probably just show up and do it and people will likely be down.
Quarter Horse requires patrons to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test within the last 48 hours. All arcade games and pinball are free to play! Quarter Horse is a local institution that has done so much for the electronic music scene here in Durham. Like a lot of us they got rocked by COVID and need our help to get back up. So please—come early, come often, and tip your bartender.
Want to see something specific out of this event? Want to donate gear to the Gear Library or bring something for the Petting Zoo? Want to sponsor this event? Or just have any questions? DM me on IG @treeecity or send me an email at treeecity at gmail.com! Next #BlendsWithFriends is Tuesday night 12/14, I hope to see you there!