Authenticity Over Algorithms: Johan Blende on Music, Tech & Taking Back Creativity – The DJ Sessions Virtual Sessions

In this provocative and candid edition of The DJ Sessions – Virtual Sessions, Darran Bruce reconnects with Swedish-born, Athens-based producer Johan Blende for a wide-ranging conversation that explores the evolution of electronic music and the artist’s role in an AI-driven, instant-gratification era.

 

Blende opens up about returning to music with renewed focus after a personal hiatus, releasing on labels like Studio Barnhus, Live At Robert Johnson, and the upcoming Hell Yeah Recordings in Italy. He discusses how early passion for sound never truly fades—and how creating music is a calling, not just a career. Known for his authentic analog approach, he shares stories of resurrecting broken synths and why his laptop remains his most powerful creative tool.

 

The discussion dives deep into challenges facing today’s music creators: the overwhelming flood of content, the loss of critical filters, and how artists must navigate a world where social media clout can outweigh substance. Blende and Bruce go beyond the surface, tackling themes like the AI invasion of music, false celebrity culture, and the crucial value of craft, patience, and honesty.

 

Throughout, Johan’s dry wit and thoughtful perspective shine, especially as he critiques industry trends and recalls the 20-year journey of a track from a rejected remix to a proper release.

 

From vinyl nostalgia to skateboarding confessions, this episode is unpredictable, funny, and meaningfully disruptive. A must-listen for creators questioning their role in a rapidly shifting digital landscape.

 

The DJ Sessions: Virtual Sessions with Johan Blende

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Johan Blende
Location: Virtual Studios, Seattle WA & Athens, Greece
Series: The DJ Sessions – Virtual Sessions

Overview:

In this refreshingly honest episode of The DJ Sessions Virtual Sessions, host Darran Bruce reconnects with acclaimed producer and DJ Johan Blende for an enlightening conversation about creative longevity, the digital clutter of modern music culture, and reclaiming meaning through music.

Topics Covered:

Creative Comeback:
Johan reflects on stepping back into the music industry after a hiatus and why he couldn’t resist the call to create again.

Releases & Labels:
Insights into recent and upcoming releases with Studio Barnhus, Live at Robert Johnson, and Hell Yeah Recordings.

Analog vs. Digital Tools:
Johan shares his favorite gear, why his laptop is the real MVP, and the journey of reviving old hardware synths.

AI & Authenticity:
A powerful critique of AI in music, content oversaturation, and the fading value of genuine artistry in a click-driven landscape.

Remix Resurrection:
The tale of a 20-year-old remix project that evolved into a new track finally being released.

Skateboarding & Impostor Syndrome:
A humorous look at Johan’s “poser” skateboarding days and the deeper theme of image vs. reality.

Health & Balance:
Simple advice on staying fit as a producer: moderation and movement, not crash routines.

Label Shoutouts:
Blende’s top non-affiliated labels: DFA, DWEED, Semi Delicious, Running Back, and (jokingly) The DJ Sessions future label.

Best Eats in Athens:
Recommends “Tsitsina,” a low-key fish taverna in his neighborhood, plus hidden gems beyond the tourist trail.

Life Advice for Creators:
Put the phone down. Stop scrolling. Create from the soul. Ignore the noise.

Call to Action:

Follow Johan Blende:
🌐 Website: blenday.co.uk
🔊 Music: All major platforms
📍Location: Athens, Greece

Discover more content:
Visit thedjsessions.com for live streams, exclusive mixes, artist interviews, and upcoming music + radio projects.

Closing Thought:

“Stop using the internet. That’s how you’ll be happy.” – Johan Blende, with a wink and a warning.

[Darran]
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions Presents the Virtual Sessions. I’m your host, Darran, and right now I’m sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington and coming in from halfway around the world, all the way from Athens, Greece, we have none other than Johan Blende coming in the show today. How are you doing, Johan?

Very good, thank you, how are you? Well, I know this interview is scheduled for 1.30 Pacific Standard Time, but we got a little bit of doing some show talk and shop talk before the show, so glad to have you on the series today. It’s been a while since we last had you on.

[Johan Blende]
I remember the whole show.

[Darran]
Yeah, we wanna know what’s been going on in the world of Johan Blende over the past few years. You obviously had some recent and upcoming releases on Studio Barnhouse out in 2024, and you also did some other stuff, but what’s been going on in your world since we last talked?

[Johan Blende]
Right, that was last year. That was, yeah, 2024. We’re in 25 now, I suppose, yeah.

That came out on Studio Barnhouse, as they call it in Sweden. Since then, I have been releasing, just recently, in Germany, live at Robert Johnson, the German record label slash nightclub, I suppose it is. And then I have more music in the works.

I’ve got an EP coming out soon on Hell Yeah in Italy. It’s more of a Valerian vibe kind of record label. And then remixes, I’ve been doing remixes, a lot of remixes.

I think only one has come out so far. I’ve got three, well, three coming up. And anyway, yeah.

So there’s music in the works. And from being a little bit, well, I didn’t take a break from music, but I took a backseat on music for a bit. And then eventually I decided, no, I’ll go for it again.

So here I am.

[Darran]
Definitely know what it’s like to take a break from, I guess, the industry as a whole, getting off an eight and a half month hiatus myself, not too long ago, and rekindling and getting up back in the saddle again. You know, what was something that you think that really, in your hiatus, when you took one, what was something that you really thought that something was missing, something was lacking, something just burned out? Did you gain valuable insights and come back with a vengeance?

What was something that really kind of made you go, oh, stop, and then, oh, let’s get back? Is there something that really was a major point that made that happen?

[Johan Blende]
Yeah, it’s the calling of it. I mean, you know, I think the problem with, I mean, because I’ve had this since I was, well, not born, but since I was a very young child, I always thought if you, no, I always thought I have to do something with my life. Right?

I mean, like we all do, right? We all think that like something is very vague when you’re a child, especially, but the passion that I had, the one true love that I had was always music. So I always thought like, well, you know, I better get into that, which took me a long, long, long, long time to get into it, actually to, or rather to muster up the courage to actually do it myself.

But eventually, I mean, you know, you realize that that childhood love that you have, it will never escape you. So whether you want to escape it or not, it doesn’t matter because sooner or later, you’re gonna end up doing what you were trying to do back then anyway. I think, well, that’s my experience.

I mean, you know, I only have my life to share. You know, that’s it. Oh, I lost you.

[Darran]
No, you didn’t lose me. I muted my mic because I had a siren going by. Sorry about that.

[Johan Blende]
Oh.

[Darran]
You didn’t lose me. I muted myself. You know, in 35 years of doing this, you know, it’s always healthy.

I now tell people, take breaks, but kind of try to be somewhat organized, have a pattern, have a set to do. And a lot of this in the beginning, I was just in an interview and somebody said, you know, you don’t go from A to B to C to D. Your A might be Z.

Your C might be F. You know, your D might be Q. You know, but as long as you’re putting the pieces of the alphabet together, you know, you’re gonna eventually have the whole alphabet and start to form where you’re gonna start to be able to do something.

You know, and you gotta, sometimes we’re young in this game and you wanna just rush, and then there’s a burnout when we don’t get that instant gratification. And that’s what a lot of people are looking for that start up in the artist, in the music business now, as opposed to say 20, 30 years ago, there was not a lot of outlets for electronic music. There weren’t a lot of places.

I mean, you’ve got the underground scene, you know, but it wasn’t mass, it wasn’t, what’s the word I’m looking for? It wasn’t, not mass distributed. It wasn’t mainstream, you know?

So, and we didn’t have the internet per se, you know? It wasn’t, you know, till the late nineties, you know, even me having a high speed, you know, 50 megabit download from Comcast in my home so I could play video games was awesome because I didn’t have a dial up modem anymore. You know, 56 baud K modem.

I remember, I think they had 128 K baud modems and by that time they were all being phased out for dial up and it was going to cable or fiber optic, you know, or fiber, you know, two megabit download speeds. Yeah, whoo. And that’s what we were streaming with our show when we first went live.

And if we wouldn’t really get two megabit uploads either, we’d get two megabit upload download would probably be more like 786, you know, something crazy like that. So that just, you know, the ability for people to get instant on and social media and taking that in, it’s like, now you can distribute and put, oh, it’s the dog drinking water. I was wondering where that noise is coming from in the background.

I’m like, do I have a leak in my place? No, but anyways, long story short, you know, that instant gratification of always being on, always being in the mix. Plus this device right here, you know, basically capture everything, see everything.

Everyone wants to be an influencer now. And I’m an overnight star because I have an Instagram account. I’m not knocking anyone that does this stuff.

I’m just saying that that has been a major shift. Whereas if you wanted to press before, you had to have somebody come out and be a reporter and put you in a magazine. And that magazine had so much info they could put in that magazine or a TV show, what I used to produce shows.

We have 22 and a half minutes. If I did, you know, I could put 30 minute shows, but I had to put content and make a 30 minute episode. And that’s all we had.

Then YouTube comes out and we can put as much on as we want digitally and put it out there, push it out there. Or, you know, you go to the record store and there’s only 5,000 copies pressed worldwide. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but now you put a song on Beatport and 100,000 people, five, a million, the entire world has access to it.

So how do you get through the clutter in that sense?

[Johan Blende]
Well, okay, so here’s, I don’t think you are preaching to the choir, actually. I think I’m actually, I, well, maybe you are, but no, but I feel like the one thing that we’ve lost as a society is the filter that we needed, because you needed a filter. I mean, like the internet, as many good things as it’s done, I think the things that is done that is on the bad side outweighs the good side, you know?

So it’s sort of like, I don’t know. Especially when it comes to music, I also think a little bit like, well, maybe we needed, you know, the music press was there for a reason. And the record labels were there for a reason.

I mean, like, it was a filter, whereas now there is no filter. There’s just, you know, what is it, like 100,000 more plus songs being uploaded onto Spotify a day? I mean, you know, how can you compete with that?

And there is no press to go to so you can promote it either. I mean, like, how do you do it? I mean, then all of a sudden you have to create some silly video instead.

And it’s sort of like, but then we’re not talking about music anymore. We’re talking about being an idiot on camera. And, you know, I mean, you know, like I might be doing it right now.

[Darran]
It’s funny you mentioned that, is that’s what, when we came out of the broadcast world, broadcast television world, there were certain, you had to be approved to air on the station, one. Then you had to be FCC compliant, two. And then you had to have, there are other things that basically prevented just shows from throwing their stuff on, like public access.

You had a guy that would show porno every Friday night at like one in the morning. Porn films on public. And it was right to, he could do it on public access because it was considered art and could put it up.

Mike, the show was like, the name of the show was, the guy who did the show was his stage name was Mike Hunt. Okay, yeah.

[Johan Blende]
And then he did the radio.

[Darran]
Right? And he still did it. Yeah, and he’d show pornos late night.

But you couldn’t get that on broadcast television. But once YouTube came out, we saw, we passed in the height of where we were getting ready to go and do a broadcast television show. You know, YouTube came out and we saw the same thing you see now with a lot of TikTok vids.

A lot of people just going, oh, look at me, look at me, look at me. I’m still YouTubing. And we didn’t see that as a relevant, we saw it as a downplay to what we were doing as a broadcast approved television show that we passed on the whole YouTube thing.

Looking back on it, I mean, I think we put some episodes up there, but they were limited to 15 minutes at the time. And our shows were half an hour. So it was like, we still couldn’t even upload our shows fully.

And we were gonna make two part or shows or each individual segment. It was like, no, time already. We’ll wait for something like Hulu to come out is what we were thinking would come out and we can put our shows or submit to that for independent producers.

Lo and behold, a few months later after that happened, podcasting came out, the video iPod came out. And that’s where it kind of got us into doing video podcasts and putting our devices. Cause now you had something you could walk around with and watch your videos on the go before you have a laptop or a desktop.

There was no walking around with videos in your hand. Then two years later, the iPhone comes out and now you build wifi in and with a cellular connection, you could download anywhere in the world pretty much. So that really changed the game.

And in 2009, we got into live streaming. So that instant we’ve adapted is what I’m saying over the times through different distribution means. Even this interview right here is a live interview going out and will be updated, uploaded later on within 24 hours to our site for post viewing.

And a podcast, if you’re subscribed, download automatically to your computer. Yay, we’ve got to work on that distribution now. But yeah, the instant on, instant generation, instant access, barriers to entry being, I would say it was, I think the lack of respect of what it takes to get up so high in the industry isn’t heralded anymore because of the ease of use.

And we were talking about this pre-show, he meant the advent of AI coming into everything. And it’s like, now what? You see this, it was, the cry went out when photography was being AI’d.

Now the cry is coming out when music’s being AI’d. I just saw somebody from a pretty well-known reporter did an interview with the parent’s permission and AI interview with somebody who was a victim of a mass shooting in America. And they had the person that was killed in the mass shooting as the AI person and the real person interviewing that person.

And it’s like, wait a second here. And they knew and they set it all up. They did announce it, they were doing something.

But still, if a person didn’t know, they’re like, you’re interviewing a dead, putting words in there, I’m gonna let an AI generate. And it’s like, wait a second. Are we now gonna, am I now gonna replace, am I gonna match Max Hedrum this shit?

And it’s gonna be there, there, there. You know, like, yo, yo, Johan, how am I doing? You know, and glitching.

I don’t know if you remember the show from the. I do, I do. You know, basically, am I gonna have an AI avatar interviewing you?

But I think there’s the genuine, genuine article can’t be replaced. Like we were talking about making music, using those keyboards behind you. You know, physically entering the information in.

Even people said back in the day, drum machines are gonna kill the world. You know, oh, you use an online editing tool. You don’t cut film the old ways.

Or, I mean, you see this in the DJ world too, where people are like, oh, when I learned on vinyl, and now they digitize everything. I used to carry the old schools, but do the new school. I mean, now you got DJs headlining major shows and they’re not even mixing, they’re not even wearing headsets.

Yeah. We can talk about that and go down that route. I’m not knocking anyone, but if that’s when you make it look that easy, or where’s the showmanship come in if you’re really not doing it?

And that’s, those are the shows that are getting, it’s not the independent producer like yourself sitting back in their house doing their talent. It’s the person who literally is having somebody else hit a play button for them, and they’re in front of hundreds of thousands of people. Then they’re getting hundreds of thousands down the line, and they’re not even mixing or doing their talent of what they’re supposed to be being booked for.

Yeah. I mean, Milli Vanilli got busted off their ass for lip syncing and lost their Grammy, I think, for lip syncing on stage.

[Johan Blende]
Well, yeah, that doesn’t matter. Like, if Milli Vanilli came out today, that no one would even raise their eyebrows.

[Darran]
No one would even bat an eye. You know, I mean, Timberland just signed the first ever AI artist, or first ever signed AI artist to a label. You know, things like that.

So it’s kind of like, where is this all going? What’s happening? You know, and I know we spoke before, and AI is a great tool to use for certain things, but when it comes to making music, you gotta watch out what you’re doing out there.

[Johan Blende]
Yeah. I mean, you know, where are we going? I really don’t know.

You know, I think most people worry also. It’s not just us. I mean, you know, it’s everything, really.

But I mean, you know, obviously, when it comes down to it, I mean, it’s sort of like, just like you said, I mean, like, people tour the world with headline DJ shows, and they turn up, and are they even there? Who knows? I mean, and they’re definitely not wearing headphones.

And so, I mean, how do you DJ without headphones? And that’s like, you know, it doesn’t, it sort of makes everything redundant. Everything has become redundant, and we are, it becomes, we are redundant, aren’t we?

I mean, like, I can make a song on these keyboards back there, although actually, only one works, because they have to be serviced, but anyway, that’s a precise point. But anyway, I can make a solo of that, and I don’t know. I mean, who listens?

I don’t really know. I mean, you know, it’s sort of like, the best you can hope for is that maybe someone cares about original art, but it’s lost in the ether anyway. So I don’t know.

I mean, it’s tough. I mean, I don’t know.

[Darran]
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I mean, like I said, it gives the impression that I can understand. I’m not a DJ.

I understand I could pick up the fundamentals of it and mix two tracks together. It doesn’t mean, can I create a magical experience? Are my track selections, am I gonna, okay, you can look at the videos and know how to mix in key.

Okay, you’re gonna be in the right BPM. Okay, cool. You know, but I think, unfortunately, it’s gonna start backfiring on us, because like, I had a conversation with somebody wanting to be a part of my series, and I literally was talking with them, and they’re like, well, I wanna be part of your series.

We were talking about this pre-show, and I said, look, you wanna be part of my series? This is what we, this is how we pay. This is our compensation structure.

This is what we do. And they’re like, okay, well, I want this, and they wanna start making demands. Like they had clout, weight, strength.

And I’m like, you’re not, you’re telling me, all you can tell me is that you’re a DJ, and that you make mixes, and they’re each unique mixes. Doesn’t every, and tell me one DJ that goes out there and plays the same exact mix every single, single, single, single time. I’ve never heard one DJ ever do it in my life, especially not on my show.

I recognize it, because I listen to every single mix that goes on my show. So unless you’re gonna make unique mixes, okay, great. So you’re gonna use different track selection.

Yeah. Are you doing something? Are you DJing with your nose?

Are you DJing with your toes? Are you DJing upside down? Are you cooking a meal while you’re doing it?

One finger, one finger, and then you press play, and then you let it play. I don’t care about your knob turning skills, okay? That doesn’t impress me.

Are you scratching? Are you using four decks at once? What are you doing that’s different than anything else and I’ll say this out loud, I don’t care if I get ostracized, or I don’t think I’m gonna, because a six-year-old can do this stuff now.

Yes. Just like a six-year-old can make an online video on YouTube, or if their parents sign off and give them the permission slip to say, yeah, go ahead, I authorize my kid to be on your, because usually it’s 13 years or older on these things. So if a kid’s 13 years old, what’s your gimmick here?

What’s your stance? What’s gonna increase viewership in my show or increase viewership or audience attendance of my events if I bring you on board? Well, I should get paid anyway, so I’m doing it.

Well, okay, wait a second here. Let’s literally look at this. What’s the value somebody’s gonna bring to the table?

So you gotta size that up. And with no barrier to entry, I get you wanna say you’re a great person. I’m all about ego in the sense of stroking it if you’re doing something, but when you’re at a baseline with a million other people, you’re at a baseline.

I was gonna step you into the next 10% to the next 10% to the next 10%. So, you know.

[Johan Blende]
I think sometimes, I think humanity sometimes forgets that just because you can do it doesn’t mean that you should. You know, and this is what has been obviously, I mean, this is pretentious as hell, but it’s also true. I mean, like certain things should not necessarily be down to, I mean, what is it all about anyway, right?

I mean, like, what are we trying to do here? I mean, like, we’re trying to get good at our little field that we have, that we’ve decided to do, and therefore, can we make a living out of this? Or can we become good at this?

Because it’s all down to skills. But then if we’re replaced by technology and AI, and then all of a sudden, that is redundant. And I mean, what the hell are we gonna do then?

I mean, you know, there’s literally, I don’t, what is life about? And then we have to start asking those questions. And we, as a human race, are not ready to ask those questions anyway.

So why are we even going there? I mean, like, is that what we really want to do? Like get into a point where we want to start asking those questions?

I’m not so sure about that.

[Darran]
I think that the biggest mechanism you really have to look at is, and I hope I don’t kill any future corporate sponsorship for saying this, but how much money can the industry, the big industry, churn out by even paying less and less and less and less to artists, because they can just grab AI as it gets smarter, smarter, smarter, and crank out bubblegum artists, bubblegum tracks, bubblegum pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, and force it down the throats of everyone. Like a fast food restaurant, here today, gone tomorrow.

I mean, they had the band that they created on Spotify that people started researching. It had like a million followers or something crazy. And you did research on them.

You couldn’t find any of the artists anywhere. They had no produced shows, no produced track, nothing beforehand. All of a sudden blew up on Spotify and everyone’s like, you even look at the names and the bios of the different people, you’re like, this has to be AI generated.

And lo and behold, Spotify came out and said, yeah, this is a totally AI generated band. This is this, boom, boom, boom. And people bought it.

Yeah. You know, and it’s like, whoa, whoa. And then you gotta think, have they been experimenting with something like that in the backend for a few years now?

Let’s just see what happens. We won’t give them a lot of stuff because trust me, there’s a lot of stuff that goes on in the backend of these corporations that people think, oh no, they’d never do that. Facebook would never try to fuck with our emotions and never downplay our stream.

So we only see negative stuff instead of positive stuff to get us, they’d never have bots and let companies come in that can enrage and fuel fires and make up fake stories. And that never happens. I trust them so much.

Yeah. This is the time where you’re getting me to swear on my own show, Johan. So thank you.

No, cheers for that. Because normally I don’t. Normally I try to keep it very PC and clean.

And I actually have some sponsors watching too. So I gotta watch out. Give a shout out to the Green Door, Seattle, Josiah Tubbs.

Always best buddy, you’re there. What’s up? And DJ Hanna, how’s it going?

Beyond that, you’ll be on the show here soon. I’ll tune in on Instagram. Thank you for watching.

[Johan Blende]
I love all those.

[Darran]
You know, just wanted to know that. But yeah, I mean, we could go down that AI rabbit hole conversation, where it’s going, what’s happening with it, the changes. But going back to original artistry, I know you have hardware behind you there.

Are you more of a hardware or software producer or both? Yeah, sorry. What’s your favorite piece of gear or software that you like to use to create your original content?

[Johan Blende]
Right, I’ll tell you what it is. It’s the one that I’m using right now to talk to you. I mean, this thing here, right in front of me, the computer, that’s the one.

I mean, because to be honest, I mean, I know a lot of people say, well, you know, no, I’d love to rescue my, none of these, I’m sure, but I’d love to rescue my whatever synthesizer that would be. But no, no, no, no, no way. I mean, you know, as long as I have the laptop backed up and I can rescue that, then I’m happy.

I have all this. It’s a work in progress because I’ve had it for many, many years. Two of these, like this, I don’t know, I have like a few more things than these in the background.

They’re being serviced. So I’m trying to revive them basically because I shipped them from England to Greece. That was a mistake.

Because they broke. But anyway, I’m trying to revive them and so I can use them properly for once. And when I was in England, I used to have them but spread out all across town.

And I never got to use them because I never really, never had a studio. I mean, you know, I never had a proper studio. I mean, I had a studio that I shared for maybe a year, many years ago, but I couldn’t afford one.

And I couldn’t set it up at home because property in England is very expensive when you rent. So, you know, so what can you do? So yeah, everything was just always in storage.

But so yeah, I moved here and it took me, what is it, three years now since I first arrived here. And now I shipped everything over because I could afford to finally. And then now I’m trying to set something up properly and this is the results in the background.

However, they are, unfortunately, some of it is out to be serviced and we’ll see when, if it will be revived at all, then I will start using it. Otherwise, I’ll just stick to the laptop, which I’m sticking to you on, full circle.

[Darran]
And then using your laptop, you know, what’s the longest time you’ve ever spent consecutively working on a track on your laptop in your studio?

[Johan Blende]
The longest has probably been, oh, actually this is a good story, I think. No, you mean like on one piece of machine or like a song?

[Darran]
Like a song, like consecutively spent working on one track. Not like you put it away, came back two years later, consecutively spent working on a track.

[Johan Blende]
Okay, I’ll tell you this story. Yeah, I don’t know how much I should reveal of this story. Anyway, okay.

This was back in, what, like 2006, maybe, I think. It was a guy at the time that I knew, he was a French DJ slash producer that was releasing on this record label called Mental Groove in Switzerland. And he approached me, and this was back in the early Myspace days, right?

Do you remember that? I remember the Myspace days, yeah. Anyway, and he was like, well, let’s do some music together.

And I thought, yeah, okay, let’s go for it. And anyway, I ended up doing a remix for him, and he released an EP on Mental Groove, and I did a remix. And back in those days, it was on vinyl, so it was very exciting, because it’s a vinyl, right?

Well, actually, that was standard back in those days. But anyway, so, and then we did, I remember he, this is what, I don’t know if I should share this. But anyway, let’s assume that it’s okay.

I did a remix together with him for this band in France. I’m not gonna say who it was, but anyway, it was rejected, so it was never used. And then many, many years later, I rediscovered this track that I’d done, and I thought, okay, so, because it was saved as a project, but you know, like, I use Logic, right?

It’s like the Logic files, they update Logic, and the files aren’t necessarily, they’re not following the updates. So you sort of get like fractions of what you started off doing back then, into like, okay, so this is a new project file, and then you open it up, and it’s sort of like, well, it’s a little bit different, and then you, okay. And then you start using that for a bit, and then you forget about that, and then you start it up again, and then it’s like, well, okay, this is a little bit similar, and I sort of remember this all of a sudden.

Basically, it evolves into something completely different, not because you wanted to, but only because it has to, because, you know, there’s no other choice, because they update their software, and Apple updates whatever, and then you can’t follow suit, unless you constantly export things, and then make sure that the project works for the next one, if you see what I mean. So anyway, long story short, I think I opened something about a year ago, and I thought, oh, that’s a really good melody, and what the hell is that from? And then I started looking into it, and, you know, I had to dig quite deep into this, to find out what it was all about, and then I realized, oh shit, it’s that remix that I did for this band, with this guy, the French producer, and when I say I did with this French producer, he didn’t do anything, he just introduced us to it, and I pitched the thing, and they rejected it, he didn’t actually do anything, no offense to him, I mean, I loved, the guy was brilliant, I still adore him, but anyway, it didn’t turn to anything, and this is where the legal troubles come in, right? Maybe I’m selling him as one of my, the co-producers of this song, but he’s not. But anyway, so the melody and everything, I really liked it, and then I ended up coming up with a new song, using that melody, and then created a track that is actually now being released in Italy, so you know, full circle.

Right now? Yeah, so 20 years it took, almost 20 years. Only 20 years?

Yeah, yeah.

[Darran]
Nice, how many tracks do you produce a month, and how many end up getting released on average?

[Johan Blende]
No, I mean, if you asked me six months ago, I’d say none, and none, that would be the answer. Right now, no, actually, no, sorry, no, I lie. I produce, I had a little bit of a break for quite a while.

In fact, I’d say from maybe, like just before the pandemic, maybe a year before the pandemic, and up until 2023, I wasn’t doing much at all. I was not into music at all. As in, not because I wasn’t liking music, but I was very disillusioned about everything, you know?

And I was trying to also find things to do outside of music, because it’s, well, let’s face it, it’s not the easiest field, right? I mean, it’s quite possibly the hardest field, I’d say, these days. I mean, sometimes, but yeah, sorry.

[Darran]
Yeah, speaking with it being one of the hardest fields, you know, producing music does sound synonymous with spending hours behind a computer or equipment and gear, especially electronic music, sculpting the beats that you make, some of those tracks. You know, what do you do in your spare time? How do you stay fit?

I mean, I put on 25 pounds, jumping back in this chair over the last three months, and- I think you lost weight.

[Johan Blende]
I’ve seen, I saw you three years ago. You look really good, by the way.

[Darran]
No, I did, it went right here. It didn’t go anywhere else. I lost about 25 pounds, 20 pounds.

Yeah. Then over the last few months, when I sat back in the chair again and went, boop, and it’s all right here, right, right here. Yeah, yeah.

See, right there. Nowhere else, nowhere else. I look great, you know, from first day on.

[Johan Blende]
That’s the best fit.

[Darran]
I don’t know what you’re talking about. No, but I mean, it’s kind of like, oh, this, you know, I was just kind of like, how do you stay fit? How do you stay healthy from not falling into that trap of being in front of the chair for five, six, four, five, six, eight hours a day and being sedentary?

Do you work as, you know, standing, or kind of do the standing desk theory, or do you have a routine that gets you up and out and motivated moving around?

[Johan Blende]
I think you’re assuming that I’m fit, but I’m, what makes you think that I am?

[Darran]
I mean, like, I’m- Well, that’s what I’m asking. How do you stay fit? Do you do leg lifts underneath the desk?

I wear ankle weights. I’m like, have you seen my ankles? They’re fucking, they’re like, yeah.

No, yeah, just, it always adds, you know, I mean, no, but it can add those extra pounds. I remember when I got a desk job after working retail for a while. Retail, you’re always on your feet eight hours a day.

You know, I worked that desk job, and you had that breakfast bar in the morning you go down to, you had lunch you’d eat, and you’d be at your desk for eight hours sitting in that chair, making calls, doing this. And yeah, I went, whoop, you know, and came back up. You know, so, you know, just always interested to find out what routines people have to possibly stay fit in a desk job.

[Johan Blende]
Yeah, no, I mean, actually, do you know what? The best advice is, and I think I gave you, I think I gave you advice last time, but my best advice is, I think, actually, just don’t eat too much. I mean, like, it’s actually that simple.

It’s actually that simple. As in, or rather, put it this way. If you move around a lot, eat normally.

If you don’t move at all, then eat less. I mean, like, if you’ve decided that you’re gonna be sitting on a desk all day or do nothing, then don’t eat too much. I mean, it’s as simple as that.

And drink a lot of white wine, that’s, no, I’m negating it now, but yeah, I think I eat once a day these days, that’s it, you know. And I’m not even that skinny. I mean, like, I’m not even that fit, but I move around a bit, you know, walk at least, and then, yeah, just eat moderately.

That’s it.

[Darran]
Yeah, no, I know that’s sometimes tough for me to do. I mean, today I haven’t eaten because I had a crown reinstalled, temporary crown reinstalled, and I can’t eat for like five, six hours. But come dinnertime, I’m going to meet with a client.

[Johan Blende]
Wait, let me say something. I mean, like, that’s when you go to sleep, you don’t eat for eight hours, right? I mean, you know, it shouldn’t be that hard.

[Darran]
Yeah, I’m going to meet with a client after this, and it’s Taco Tuesday, so they make some really bad-ass tacos at their restaurant. And I’m like, okay, five tacos for Darran, yay. I gotta watch out that that sits in the stomach, though.

But, you know, out of all the productions that you’ve done, what production is your most favorite one or one that really stands out to you? And what’s the thoughts behind it being your favorite track?

[Johan Blende]
My favorite production, it’s, I think the ones I’ve done, or the, yeah, the ones I’ve done, I like, okay, so I like the music that I’ve done that is, I like involving other, you know, like involving other people. I like, I haven’t, like on Spotify, in fact, I mean, some of the new stuff I’ve done, which is not released, and it’s not, might never be released for all I know. I mean, you know, but involving people, like playing and singing without using, I’ve been, too many years I’ve spent like using computers and stuff and being lazy as I think of it.

I think my favorite things are the ones where I involve real people and real sounds and make it sounds like a real thing. I mean, you know, I spent most of my life I’ve spent making computer sounds sounding real. So making real sounds sound more computer-like, that’s my favorite productions, I think.

[Darran]
Were you the, correct me if I’m wrong, were you the one that told me that, did you actually go record a beehive? Was that you?

[Johan Blende]
A beehive? No.

[Darran]
Somebody I interviewed, as I said, to get a natural sound, they went and put a microphone up to a beehive.

[Johan Blende]
No, that was not me. I’m not a friend of the beehives.

[Darran]
No, I wasn’t sure if that was you or not, but it was years ago I was having an interview.

[Johan Blende]
I mean, like I’m trying to grow a beehive, but it’s not even happening. So yeah.

[Darran]
Outside of the labels that you’ve released with, what would you say are the top other five labels that are currently are reoccurring, that have reoccurring quality releases?

[Johan Blende]
Okay, it’s definitely DFA, always. It’s always been DFA. D-Wee, it’s all Ds, you know, D-Wee, the Solvax label.

Oh, what else do I like? I like, oh, I like, what’s his name? Demi Requismo, what’s his name?

What’s his label’s name? It’s very good. Semi Delicious.

It’s very, very good. So yeah, how many did you want? Oh, five, well, if you just get three, that’s cool.

You’re saying labels that I haven’t released on. I mean, like labels I do release on are my favorites.

[Darran]
Well, I didn’t want any favoritism there, you know?

[Johan Blende]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but what else? Yeah, Running Back, love Running Back, very good label. And right, how many?

No, there’s one more, shit, well, give me one then. Ah, DJ Sessions label, that’s the last one.

[Darran]
I don’t have a label yet. All right, that’s coming up. You know some of the precursor magic that’s happening behind the scenes, so yeah.

Probably In The Future and It’s Forthcoming.

[Johan Blende]
Yeah. Oh, In The Future was forthcoming. What?

What was forthcoming, In The Future? I may have said that wrong, I don’t know. Yeah, no, I didn’t understand the question.

Please, please say again, and then I will answer.

[Darran]
No, no, no, I think we’re definitely been toying around the idea of having our own label, but that would be almost like, I already do a video production company, I’m already doing video distribution.

[Johan Blende]
I’m sorry, I thought that was a question.

[Darran]
No, that wasn’t a question, I said the label is forthcoming, the label is in discussion, the label. We have process, we have things in process now that are leading up to actually setting that up, that are in motion, and I would say, oh, through my dreams and wishes, six months, we’d have something probably more like a year to be realistic, to have it be a solid, solid platform to release on. We’re super excited with some stuff we’ve announced that we’re doing here, but I can’t give away all the secrets in the pathway of A to Z, you know.

I apologize for touching. No, no, no, no, it’s all good, no, it’s all good. It’s public information out there that we’re launching a new music.

I didn’t know it was gonna happen. If anyone has two cents of smarts with them, they’d understand the realization of why we’re launching a new music section on our site, not a new music store on our site, you know. The iPhone was in development for years before it hit the market, the color, the video iPod was in development for years before it hit the market, the color iPod, photo iPod, the iPod itself was out doing years in R and D before it hit the market.

We wanna make sure that when we roll something out, it’s solid, it’s strong, it’s not a fly by night chapter in the back of our books. You know, there’s like even parts of our site that need to be a little bit, I wouldn’t say necessarily updated, but could use some TLC like our store. You know, we need to maybe get some new types of clothing in there that haven’t been in there for 16 years.

[Johan Blende]
Yeah, you don’t wanna be Blackberry, so there you go.

[Darran]
Yeah, we’re not the Black, but we’re not outdated. We’re moving forward. We’re not the Blackberry.

I thought the Blackberry was making a comeback though.

[Johan Blende]
Yeah, I actually bought one, yeah, there you go.

[Darran]
Oh, recently?

[Johan Blende]
No, I’m joking. Oh. I mean, did you actually do one?

I don’t know.

[Darran]
I had a Blackberry, I got a Blackberry Blackjack the year the iPhone was released. I was actually at Macworld when the iPhone was released at that presentation in San Francisco, blew everyone’s minds. I was working for Apple at the time.

And my friend that came back, I got the Blackberry and I was working with another company. And she said, are you gonna get the iPhone when it comes out? I said, yeah.

And I was actually the fourth person in line in Seattle at the Bellevue Square store when I came out. I managed to buy four of them because I was buying them for friends of mine because you only buy four per person or something like that. So, yeah.

[Johan Blende]
Oh, come on. You were gonna sell it on eBay.

[Darran]
No, no, no, no, no, no. I had somebody, let’s just say in the likes of things, this person was a very, I’m gonna say it in a certain way here so I’m not using the person’s name, but a very close personal acquaintance of a Dat Maimon. If you could figure that one out.

[Johan Blende]
No, I have no idea what you mean, but yeah, all right.

[Darran]
You know the person is a very, very famous. Vaguely, vaguely. Very, very famous celebrity around the world.

He was having, I was buying one for him. My friend and I stood in line and we bought the phones for him and Dat Maimon is how I’ll refer to him. You’d know the films the guy’s in if you’ve seen them.

[Johan Blende]
I’ve never heard of this guy, but I will look him up on 4chan.

[Darran]
Well, you’ll have to take the first letter. The first letter of the first name and the last, the first letter of the last name and impose them or transpose them to get the actual actor’s name. I don’t wanna put his name into the transcript because it will, this will all be in transcript.

[Johan Blende]
I got that bit.

[Darran]
I got that bit.

[Johan Blende]
I was just saying it wrong. I mean, you know, anyway.

[Darran]
I don’t want his attorneys calling me up saying, hey, you’re an NBA. You were supposed to say that.

[Johan Blende]
However, I mean, you know, yeah. I didn’t say it. Johan said it.

Johan said it. Nothing. I didn’t, I was just repeating your words.

But anyway, my old friend Dat and I, we also did one of those things back in the day. So yeah, there you go. You know.

I’m just covering your ends here.

[Darran]
Yeah, yeah. Now, do you listen to other people’s shows? Do you, for inspiration, do you listen to any podcast series or YouTube shows or follow any of the radio station, online radio stations?

If so, what would be like the top three you would recommend people to listen to? If not just as an end user, but also as, oh, there’s where I can get some inspiration from as well.

[Johan Blende]
Well, you want me to divert viewers from your channel?

[Darran]
No, you gotta leave the DJ session. Of course the DJ sessions exist.

[Johan Blende]
Yeah, so that’s the one.

[Darran]
And we are looking at starting a radio station too on the backend. Shit, I forgot to mention that to somebody earlier today too.

[Johan Blende]
Yeah, but I mean, let me see what. Yeah, okay. Very good.

Do I? No, not really. No.

I don’t know. Beats in Space. I like Beats in Space.

That would be the one. Oh, and radio. Intergalactic FM.

Love Intergalactic FM.

[Darran]
I know Intergalactic, yeah.

[Johan Blende]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So good. So good.

I listen to it all the time. Well, I say all the time. My wife, she prohibits me from listening to anything but Smooth FM.

I shouldn’t be promoting Smooth FM, by the way. I mean, that’s bad.

[Darran]
What genres is Smooth FM? I know the name. I know why it should be.

[Johan Blende]
Yeah, the clue is in the name. It’s very smooth and it’s very FM. And yeah, if it was Smooth AM, I might be interested.

But no, this is Smooth FM. So, well, not. Anyway, that’s what we put on daily because just to please the wife.

And also, no, it’s Smooth FM 80s. Actually, it’s even, well, even better than Smooth FM because it’s 80s only smooth music.

[Darran]
My go-to that everyone knows in my life, pretty much, it’s around me, knows that Soma FM Groove Salad, my go-to down-tempo ambient. It’s on when I’m at work. It’s on when I’m in the car.

Unless I’m listening to a mix or doing a show or in my mobile studio driving around or doing something, it’s Groove Salad by Soma FM. Give a shout out to Soma FM. Groove Salad, Groove Salad.

If you like down-tempo ambient chill, they’ve been running it very long time. I’ve been listening to it since 2003. That’s perfect, Groove Salad.

Groove Salad, check them out. Groove Salad by Soma FM. If you’ve managed to listen to them, give a shout out to Rusty and say, Rusty, Darran from the DJ sessions told me to listen to you.

I know Darran. You think I’m actually gonna call in and say this? You don’t have to call in.

You could probably just email them or say something on one of their socials. And be like, oh yeah, I remember Darran. I came in toward their studios one time.

They’re based out of San Francisco. And that was really fun.

[Johan Blende]
Say something nice of me if I don’t. That’s all I’m saying.

[Darran]
Yeah, it’s all good. You know, technology does move very fast in electronic music land. If we wanna sum it up into that, if you could think of something that’s not on the market today, but in your vision would be really awesome to have, what would that be?

[Johan Blende]
You mean like those skateboards from Back to the Future 2?

[Darran]
If you were a skateboarder, I think a hoverboard would be something that would be a technological leap in the game.

[Johan Blende]
Now that you’re going down that route, can I tell you I used to be a skateboarder?

[Darran]
No, I did not know that.

[Johan Blende]
No, of course not. How would you?

[Darran]
However, let me tell you- Unless it was in your bio, how am I supposed to know this stuff, y’all?

[Johan Blende]
No, no, you’re right, you’re right. I used to be a skateboarder back in 90s, I suppose. Obviously 90s.

I was the world’s worst skateboarder. As in like, I wanted to be a skateboarder more than anything. And I remember thinking like skateboarding was really cool.

And this is clear, the fashion that we need to go down, the fashion route that we need to go down. All my friends that I had at the time used to think that too. So we all went down that route of being skateboarders.

And some of us were not bad. I, however, was the world’s worst skateboarder. I mean, not just a little bit bad, as in like, I used to walk around with that thing.

You know, like when you walk around with it, like I’m just here, like you’re carrying it like down the road, like to look like you’re a skateboarder, right? Yeah. And then like, okay, well, okay.

And every now and then someone stopped you and be like, give us a trick. I was like, all right, all right. And I stood on it and it was like, what the fuck do I do?

I don’t know, I don’t know. Okay. So I, you know, I pushed my foot a little bit and then, okay, okay, okay.

And then like, okay. And then they’re like, well, jump. But I was like, okay, I don’t know fucking how to jump, but okay, okay, here we go.

I couldn’t jump. And it took me, I did that for three years and I could not jump. It took me three years to figure out that I couldn’t even jump on the fucking thing.

You know, like people were doing like kickflips and 380s, whatever they called it. No, 380s, 180s. No, no, 380s, 360s.

That was the big trick, 360. Couldn’t do any of it. I couldn’t do anything.

Like go on a ramp, I fell down. I fell off it straight away. I couldn’t do anything.

So, but yeah, that’s my skating days.

[Darran]
You were a skater? Did you consider yourself a poser? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

[Johan Blende]
You had the gear, but you did not use it. You know, I remember the first time I came to Germany to DJ, this was almost 20 years ago. And someone was saying, I would say, your name is Blend.

Sorry for really bad German accent here, by the way. But, and I apologize to anyone who’s watching being German, but your name is Blend. And I said, yeah, it’s Blende.

But they were like, oh, Blend. That means it’s a poser who is also a loser, who’s really a loser. So a poser that is a loser, that is what Blend means in German.

So yes, I was a poser, but a loser. So yeah, perfect name.

[Darran]
And you were, where were you born? Where did you get, where were you raised?

[Johan Blende]
In Stockholm, in Sweden.

[Darran]
Sweden, okay, okay. And now you’re living in Athens, Greece. Yes.

What was the, did you, were you always there in Stockholm and then said, I’m out of Stockholm going to Greece? Is that how that transition happened? Or what was the move?

[Johan Blende]
I lived in London for 20, almost 20, 23 years, I think. All right. Yeah, yeah.

So no, it was, yeah, the idea was to go to Greece, but I had to go to London for 23 years first. That was bad. Nice.

[Darran]
You know, I like to travel. I’m a foodie. I like to, you know, I’m trying to put more passport, more stamps in my passport.

Been over to Amsterdam a couple of times, was in Germany last year, going to inner Mexico later this year, looking to make it a lot more over to Europe. I’d love to visit Athens sometimes. Where can you tell me, what would be the best thing to do?

I got two part, this is a two part question. What’s the best thing to really go do, coming from somebody who lives there, to do in Athens? Not the tourist stuff necessarily, but is there something that would be a must have, must do, go check this out.

This is something awesome.

[Johan Blende]
Like a specific place? Yeah, go check this out. You’re going to see something that- Not like an area, but more like a bar or like a restaurant.

[Darran]
Could be an area. Well, we’ll get, that’s part two. Bars and restaurants come in part two.

But I’m talking like something like, like when I was in Germany, I saw the Brandenburg Gate. I saw all the old architecture. I was driving around scooters through the city to get through and just going, wow, this is Berlin.

Whoa, you don’t see enough of it in movies per se, or if you do, it’s an establishing shot of the city saying Berlin. I got to see the radio tower there.

[Johan Blende]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, if I say the Parthenon, that’s going to be the most boring answer on the planet, right? I mean, cause that’s the most boring answer on the planet.

But, and it really is boring up there, by the way. I’ve been, I hated it. I thought it was overrated.

And don’t put this on any Greek tourist boards, by the way. Don’t tell the government because they might kick me out. But fucking hell, what a fucking bore fest.

That was Parthenon. However, no, the liquor, Mount Ligabet is beautiful. I mean, everything around it, more like, is so beautiful.

And there’s also a Lake Bulyagmeni, but it’s become very touristy, unfortunately. As in like, it used to be, when I first arrived, which was when I last spoke to you, actually. I mean, it wasn’t that long ago.

Well, it was. Anyway. Anyway.

That was, it wasn’t as touristy back then. And it was accessible for, very easily. And it’s very, very nice.

It’s, yeah, it’s, yeah, Lake Bulyagmeni. However, now you’re gonna have to pay a big price for it, as in like, dollars. Just to visit there?

Yeah, yeah.

[Darran]
You mean like, to get hotel and to travel?

[Johan Blende]
No, no, no, just to get in, just get in. To get in? Yeah, yeah.

No, I mean, they always had an entrance fee, but back in the day, it was, well, like, even three years ago, it was like five euros to get in. Now it’s 30 euro to get in. I mean, it’s six times the price.

Is it like a resort or is it, is it? No, it’s literally just a lake. But the lake has got these, no, it’s a lake, but the lake has got, what are they called?

Docks of fish, you know? Those fish that nibble on your feet. Oh, the nibble, okay, I got you.

[Darran]
I know what you’re talking about, okay.

[Johan Blende]
The whole lake is literally, and obviously I shouldn’t even be saying this because I want less people to go there so I can actually start going back. I guess quite likes it, but yeah, that’s the place.

[Darran]
Okay, okay, I’ll check it out.

[Johan Blende]
Have you heard of the Parthenon? Yeah. Yeah, you can go there.

[Darran]
Okay, now my second follow-up would be, what’s the best, what would be the best restaurant to go to for Greek food in Greece, in Athens? The best Greek food restaurant. Is there one that really stands out to you that says, this is this little place around the corner, a hole in the wall, it’s over a huge section of the city.

[Johan Blende]
I do have one, I do have one. It’s called Tsitsina. It’s a taverna-ish, and it’s a fish taverna, and it’s Tsitsina, which means little cat, Tsitsina.

But it’s in, down in Paliofalo, if this will do anything to your listeners, I don’t know. But Tsitsina, it’s, honestly, it’s, to me, it’s the best foods in the area where I live. That’s also where I live, so if they wanna go and stalk me, they can now.

[Darran]
Well, when I definitely come to visit you, you’ll have to take me there. Yeah, no, I will, I will. I heard they announced this new pass.

It’s not the Eurorail pass. It’s something that allows you to travel all throughout Europe, clears everything, and it’s very inexpensive. Like, you can get, very inexpensive to get around by train.

Not the Europass, but it was something else I saw recently. Maybe I figured you might know what it is, but it was very enticing, because I do wanna see a lot more of Europe, and not just be stuck in one city. Yeah, yeah.

[Johan Blende]
But are you sure it isn’t just the Europass?

[Darran]
It probably is the Europass. Maybe it’s a new take on the Europass. I’m not sure.

I just thought that would be really cool to get over there. I’ve always wanted to go to London, but then go over there and- Oh, oh, no, no, no, yeah.

[Johan Blende]
See, oh, that, it doesn’t work for London anymore.

[Darran]
No, not for London. No, I’d go to London, and then I’d get over to the mainland, and then start maybe in Spain, and go to Ibiza, and then up and around.

[Johan Blende]
You’re not gonna get one of those in London anymore. No. That goes to Buckinghamshire, and if you’re lucky, you can go all the way up to Blackpool, and then that’s the end of your trip, I’m afraid.

Yeah. The Europass in…

[Darran]
Doesn’t work anymore. Anyways, is there anything else you wanna let our DJ Sessions fans know before we let you get going? Oh, you mean like a life advice?

Life advice would be great. Usually something to say to up-and-coming producers out there to watch out for when they’re getting their career started.

[Johan Blende]
Yeah. Can I send you a link to an essay that I will write about this answer, instead of me thinking of one right now?

[Darran]
Yeah, if it’s copy-pastable, I can put it in the show notes. Yeah. Yeah.

[Johan Blende]
You know, I can’t think of anything profound. I mean, like, I think, actually, yeah, stop, yeah, okay. Well, this is gonna be very weird, but stop using the internet.

There you go, kids. And then you’ll feel happier. Okay.

[Darran]
I don’t think that’s a, if I related it to this, if I use that as a synonym, I hope I’m using that right, that unfortunately it’s become, like my friend said years ago, the internet became a necessary evil. The cell phone became a necessary evil. You know, to break people away, and even we see this in nightclubs, the backlash that would happen.

I mean, you’re seeing it happen in some places. I think it should honestly happen more, and I’m not even an artist that’s on stage, is banning cell phone use in clubs. At least in the recording and video of the performance, but I’m on an interview right before this, Johan, where somebody says, you know, a lot of, I wouldn’t have become famous if it wasn’t for people making viral videos of me.

No, no, no, no. You know, it’s six and one half, I’m talking about when you go to an event or a venue, you should be watching the performance or you should be like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You’re not taking part in the performance if you’re doing this. I know, I know. How do you get those viral videos to go out?

You know, you can always hire a team to make those viral videos for you on site and say, they’re the ones that can be filming. You know, and then people share those ones, but people like to create their own content and share their own content. I mean, you just gotta think how much data, they wanna say AI is burning up server usage and they’re making these data centers for AI, blah, blah, blah.

But people, do you understand how much data gets processed by you fighting with somebody on social media? By uploading a million videos a minute, probably more than that now over the last eight years. If it’s double that video online videos, even Facebook is now retaliated, not retaliated, but said, hey, your live video is only gonna live for 30 days on our site from now on.

[Johan Blende]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Darran]
Twitch did a great thing coming right out of the box saying if you’re not an affiliate, your video lives here for seven days and it’s gone. If you are an affiliate or partner, your video lives here for 30 days and it’s gone. That way they’re not racking up massive amounts of data garbage.

And if you have a person who’s not really good at video game and they’re video gaming for eight hours a day, you know, 30 days a month for an entire year and that’s just garbage footage, it’s not, nobody’s watching, they’re paying for that server storage place. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And how much does it cost to run all that?

Forget what AI’s impact is having, this video content, massive upload content, all to this stuff and storing that content, these data centers, you know, it’s like, you wanna talk about people wanting to recycle, you know, I’m not trying to get in a soapbox here, but people bitch about recycling and doing all this stuff, but they’ll go make shows of stuff that lives on servers that is taking up energy resources to store that data and host that data and they’re using the internet to do that and they wanna be held green conscience. It’s like, do you know what it takes to manage and keep that footprint of your data online forever that does that?

That’s gonna be damaging the ecosystem and damaging the environment as a whole. But I could go down a whole nutshell, surf the world about that as well. But other than that, yeah, no, I hear you.

Just put the device down, I guess, would be your word of advice.

[Johan Blende]
That’s why I was trying, I mean, you worded it so much more succinctly than I could put.

[Darran]
Yeah, yeah, I was probably a little nicer about it too. I think we both were nice about it than what we really wanted to say.

[Johan Blende]
No, I said it in a crude way. I don’t mean, yeah, I’ve got nothing against the internet per se. I’m just saying like, as a general rule, to be happy is the internet that’s going to make you happy.

That’s the way to be happy. I don’t think it is necessarily, unless you’re watching the DJ sessions, which is obviously a different thing. But I mean, you know, that’s self-explanatory.

That’s all I can say about it. Those are my last words.

[Darran]
There you go. And where’s the best place people can go to find out more information about you and what you have coming out and releasing?

[Johan Blende]
There’s a website, blenday.co.uk. There we go.

[Darran]
That website right there, blenday.co.uk. Get all the mixes, releases, and more info at blenday.co.uk. Awesome, well, thank you so much for coming on the show again, Johan. We’ll follow up with you here in the future. Got a lot of stuff going on.

We’re going to be having that conversation about your music on the DJ sessions website as well here. Looking forward to getting that up and running, getting you on our player, maybe even into one of our new radio shows we’ll be launching here in the next six months. I’m always got something going on over here at the DJ sessions, and you know that.

So it’s a pleasure having you on the show again. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

On that note, don’t forget to go to our website. Obviously, as I just said, thedjsessions.com. Find all our socials there.

Follow us on the instas, tiks, metas, whatever it is, your choice, your flavor. We’re out there at thedjsessions.com. We got over 700 news stories a month coming in.

Take interviews, live interviews, exclusive mixes, 2,700 past episodes, and more. Our new music section. We even have a VR nightclub, and we have a mobile app you can download, take us on the go, and have an interactive experience on your phone.

But all of that and more is at thedjsessions.com. Check us out. Thank you for watching today.

Thank you, Johan, for coming on the show. It was a pleasure having you. And remember, on the DJ sessions, the music never stops.