Shout out to my friend Arielle -- a Brooklyn-based writer, thinker, and DJ -- for this reflection on her past year in DJing. I am honored to be rocking with her b2b at the next Generator 1/25/26, Generator being the NY events series I've been throwing with Laron for the past 8 or so months. We are going strong into the new year at CWW Radio Shop (1136 President) with a lineup consisting of Arielle and I, Laron, Quincy Davis, and SWAYA. It's free and all ages and starts at 8. Come through for the best music you never heard.

-Andrew

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By Arielle Lana LeJarde

In the beginning of 2023, this very blog's lord and savior (co-founder) Matson asked me to spin a DJ set. I said yes. The problem was, I'd never even touched decks in my life. After months of practicing, I spun my very first set at stakes is low (ed. note that's what I was calling Finals events when we were at Erzulie) and the result was something I've always been proud of.

(Ed. note: The set is fire, and first times are special.)

That is, until I sent my friend the recording a couple of days ago and listened back to it myself. Unsurprisingly, I wasn't as good at mixing as I remembered. But what I lacked in technical ability, I made up for in gusto, fearlessness, and a genuine love for every track I played — a combined delusion that may just have come with the territory for someone who says yes to a DJ set when they've never DJed before.

(Ed. note: I love this. Technical ability is great in DJing, but imhhhho should never stop anyone from doing it or else how would anyone ever begin? Also some of the most technically amazing DJs have no taste and no nunchi.)

I'm not close to my 10,000 hours yet, but since that day almost three years ago now, I've already played nearly 50 DJ sets. And every time I get behind the decks, I learn something new.

I remember the first time I learned about mixing in key. It was before my first DJ set and a house producer friend named wev came to Pirate to give me a lesson. I didn't understand it, and it felt like too much information to take in, so I ignored it. Along the way, mixing in key started taking over my brain. All I cared about was mixing in key — and I lost the fun of finding unlikely tracks that would go together. There were times I even curated crates with tracks that I knew were boring just because they were in key. (Side note: the best advice I ever got was from DJ Noir who told me: No filler. If you don't love it, you don't like it.)

(Ed. note: Mixing in key is great, and some of my favorite DJs like DJ Topspin are harmonic masters who were geniuses at it before you could change a song's key digitally. However, I personally think that caring about key is way more of an issue when it comes to making remixes and edits, which are meant to be replayed, than it is with DJing, which I fundamentally consider to be ephemeral. That said, I am extremely permissive of "bad" transitions, and care WAY more about the vibe, energy, and the strength and power of whatever song it is that the DJ is playing.)

One day, I tweeted "mixing in key you will Crumble," and it sparked so much discourse that I was interviewed for an article about it. I told Harold Heath of MusicRadar that "trying to mix in key was stifling my creativity — in my opinion, it was making my blends boring and the set less dynamic. I was also having less fun and feeling boxed in."

(Ed note: This is called insight and not everyone has it!)

I still feel that way and I try as hard as possible not to care about harmonic mixing, but the truth is: it does sound better when you mix in key. Now that I've started to use three or four decks, it's even more noticeable when tracks are off-key. It's annoying, but people were kind of right to come for me. On the other hand, I do feel extra-accomplished every time I find a fire blend that "shouldn't" necessarily go together.

(Ed note: Arielle told me she mixed in key all 2025. What a fkn feat! I could never.)

With all that being said, I still feel like a baby DJ with a lot to learn. But my hopes are to become so good that I'm able to mix off-key and it still sounds good somehow. There has to be a way.

(Ed. note: With her writing, DJing, and events-throwing, Arielle has always found a way and that's what I respect most about her. No cosigns or permission from whatever establishment needed. Rock on.)