Coke Beats on the Virtual Sessions presented by The DJ Sessions 7/31/24

In this thought-provoking and wide-ranging Virtual Session, Darran Bruce reconnects with Dublin-based DJ, producer, and Recording Academy member Coke Beats to explore the evolving landscape of dance music, artistic freedom, and the balance between community and independence. Over the past year, Coke has been busy performing at underground events in LA, attending the GRAMMYs, and releasing on powerhouse labels like Smash The House and its deeper sub-labels Smash Deep and Generation Smash. He also reveals details about recent collaborations, including a new single with Karina K and remixes for Irish singer-songwriters Marty Raffo and David Punch, both projects bridging the gap between pop songwriting and club culture.

The conversation delves into deeper themes—how remixes can connect disparate music communities, why genre boundaries are meant to be broken, and how the inclusivity of music can transcend physical limitations. Coke offers unfiltered advice to aspiring DJs and producers, discussing the value of building your own scene versus working with established labels, the importance of consistency, and why mixing and mastering are non-negotiable investments.

From crate-digging rare vinyl to adapting to AI’s growing role in curation, Coke reflects on the tension between organic club experiences and the rise of virtual performance spaces. His candid insights on branding, longevity, and career sustainability make this episode both inspiring and practical for artists navigating today’s music industry.

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Coke Beats
Location: Virtual Studios, Seattle WA & Dublin, Ireland

Overview:
Darran Bruce reconnects with Coke Beats for an in-depth discussion on his recent projects, philosophies on music creation, and strategies for sustaining a career in an ever-changing industry.

Topics Covered:

• Recent Performances & Projects: LA gigs, GRAMMYs attendance, and working with Smash The House.
• New Collaborations: Upcoming release with Karina K; remixes for Marty Raffo and David Punch promoting inclusivity.
• Bridging Musical Worlds: Using remixes to connect pop audiences with club culture.
• Genre Freedom: Why Coke refuses to be boxed into a single style.
• Building a Scene vs. Joining Labels: Pros, cons, and strategic considerations.
• AI & Music Curation: The potential and pitfalls of algorithmic DJ sets.
• Vinyl & Rarity: Crate digging and why some labels only release on vinyl.
• Career Advice: Importance of consistency, community engagement, and top-tier mixing/mastering.
• Balancing Life & Art: Navigating obligations while staying inspired.
• Industry Pitfalls: Branding over substance, inflated follower counts, and ghost production.

Call to Action:
Follow Coke Beats on Instagram: @officialcokebeats
Discover more episodes at thedjsessions.com

[Darran]
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the dj sessions presents the virtual sessions I’m your host Darran right now. I’m sitting in the virtual studios in seattle, washington on the west coast You know and coming in all the way from dublin We have Coke Beats back on the show again Coke Beats. How’s it going today?

[Coke Beats]
Oh, good. Oh good. Thank you for having me again.

[Darran]
Darran looking forward to this one Yeah, you know it’s been about a year since we last talked I think it was uh, I was looking at my notes and I think maybe august last year. We were chatting.

[Coke Beats]
Yeah

[Darran]
You know you sent over a guest mix last time we’re expecting to get another guest mix this time super excited for that Absolutely, but you’ve been pretty busy over the last few months here We were talking a little bit about the pre-show in the pre-show, you know about you doing some touring Uh, tell us about that and what’s been going on over the last six months

[Coke Beats]
Yeah, so the last time we spoke um, I was mainly preparing basically for The projects that I am currently either almost done or still work in progress for summer 2024 I have done several gigs in mostly like raves actually in private events. I was in la and I played at the Dirty laundry, which is a great underground venue Not really underground.

It’s in west hollywood and They have an interesting collective of djs but focus on different subgenres of house music And i’m called club evil And so if you’re interested if you’re in the west coast if you’re in la definitely check out club evil It’s on socials on instagram and so forth Check their mixes in their nights And also on top of that. Uh, I was attending the grammys Because i’m a member of the recording academy and I was there both supporting the releases which I voted for and meeting some of my friends from Um, la san francisco san diego, which they were attending obviously the grammys And even i’m actually part of the new york chapter Because of my affiliation with a lot of the music stuff that I did many many years ago in new york and Following that and I focused a lot on studio productions on studio work so in between March 2023 and now so basically in the past 10 or 12 months And I did a lot of releases. Um, and lately I focused mainly on releasing the smash the house, which is A very well known label and they have big names like dimitri vegas david guetta and so forth But they also have sub labels that they focused on less mainstream genres Like smash deep which is more deep house tech house And generation smash which is a mix of pop and dance music so I found interesting, you know, uh to work with them a great experience or obviously, you know having the chance of working with a and r’s and Sound engineers and arrangers but they being in the In the music world in the dance music world for decades has been Proven for me to be an extremely valuable experience and right now And I recently finished a production which is kind of like a sneak preview of the new single by American single songwriter karina k Double k And she had releases with spinning records.

She had singles that they were in the top 10 uk charts very successful Dance vocalist a great songwriter And i’m not gonna say the name of the song and it will come out pretty soon. They actually finished to shoot the video And in california a couple of days ago. I was checking the uh, some of the photos from the set And it looks really really nice And on the same level on the same type of genre I recently did two remixes for two different um irish singer-songwriters The first one called marty raffo.

He’s actually from belfast, which is northern ireland So it’s it’s uk but he’s in within the irish island on the same island And marty raffo is a singer-songwriter Think about like, you know call play A little bit of ed sheeran and He is management, which i’ve been in touch through the years and I also worked with on the pr side Uh, they were very interested in trying to get radio airplay on dance radio stations So they were saying, you know, i’m i’m known to be able to kind of like melt, you know put merge two different worlds, which is the world of Pure collab, you know kind of local almost in a rave scene where you have like, you know, five six minutes tracks, you know And then put at the same time Uh the song the songwriting of pop so being able to put together these two worlds Definitely is still something valuable And especially when you think about something Uh, which has been around for ages, which is the remix format, you know, or the mashups And there’s there’s no novelty about remixes and mashups, but It’s still interesting to find when a remix Is successful in introducing an artist that doesn’t have anything to deal with dance music to the dance community and also, you know, um Covering that gap, you know creating a bridge between two completely different communities So one community is used to go and check djs playing like two hours four hour sets And another community is used to go to um a rock club and see 45 minutes one hour concert with like 10 12 different songs so that dimension is still extremely um, you know relevant even in the age of ai because you kind of need to go beyond the music and you need to Have a little bit of a background from the two different communities, you know the two different, uh ways Uh that people have to socialize through music So marty marty raffa was one of the remixes that I did and I recently finished the remix, um of a song by Um an artist called david punch and he’s 100 irish And I think he’s uh, he’s actually not too far from dublin from where I live Same management the same team And the name of the song is different and it’s very positive message of inclusiveness.

I mean for inclusion for disability uh for autism spanger syndrome and showing that music does not just um, you know bring people from you know, different cultures and different backgrounds together, but it also Bridges gaps between um, you know people that feel music the same way even when we think that music requires, you know, like uh, um You know a different platform like if you think about and we’ve seen this in in festivals audiences that Maybe they were even deaf and they could feel the music You know through air for pressure or through visuals or you had Blind people enjoying the experience of being you know, surrounded by sound Music is so abstract but can literally bound together All humans and transcend any form of Labeling judgment and this is still an extremely relevant Um Message we see this also in the olympics actually, which they’ve been criticized in france But we’ve seen so many different messages of inclusiveness Uh, which are obviously, you know, one of the core values of sports because sports is meant to unify people But uh old artists that have been performing at the olympics They have been Made they made a point about this Because we’re going through a really tough period, you know and socially there is um, there is this fraction of society that are struggling to um, um, you know to reach this utopia, uh where uh, we want to get together and grow together so we don’t want to be disjointed and uh, And you know and and just out of touch with reality and then there is all the other part of society Which is still kind of like A bit struggling, you know, um, yeah trying to find a way to get better at you know, Communicating growing together and music always comes back as the uh, you know, and it’s a very old. Um, Not that old because i’m talking about 70s 60s and with 70s, you know with disco music 80s with the clap scene um music is Definitely a way to transcend reality, but it’s also um a way of bringing people together and the value of the clubs and it’s More a social value and music. It’s just kind of it’s almost like a tool, you know, and You’re gonna jump in here really quickly here.

[Darran]
Yeah, lots of stuff you’ve been up to Definitely No, there was a lot of stuff. I wanted to talk with you I didn’t want to interrupt your flow there, you know, one of those things that you hit was, you know, Um talking about the people the making the music with people with disabilities and things like that, you know One of the things we do with our silent disco events. We’ve added what are called haptic technologies To our to our headset So when you have a silent disco headset on you can actually feel the music the vibrations of the music and everything uh, and that’s a real treat people love that because The one complaint they get is is you know people that can hear they’ll say oh I can’t feel the bass Well people who can’t hear they can’t hear the music But if they put one of these sub packs on or a haptic speaker on They can feel the beat of the music and dance along with that, you know And that’s really cool how technology’s coming together to make that happen You know going back you mentioned, uh, you know earlier that you you had the recent collaboration with karina k uh, you’ve been doing some remixes and all that fun stuff and You know, how would you if you could describe your music in three words? What three words would you choose to describe your music that you make as Coke Beats

[Coke Beats]
well, it’s uh You know these three words literally, um where I can use positive and you know Visionary and freedom are three or three Three as not as a monetary value of being free but free as in freedom so those are the three values, you know and positive is because to me uh music can express so many different feelings but being myself somebody that And I even i’m sometimes very practical. I want you know, I have a positive outlook an optimistic outlook. I think there’s always hope And there’s always you know we are a certain point as civilization as humankind where Um, I think it’s going to be really difficult that we’re going to completely mess up, you know There’s going to be always even a small pack of people that will bring us, you know into a certain direction That’s the positivity In a visionary because I don’t put any limits to the music.

I mean, uh, i’m still Um, you know multi-format dj I mean currently Uh, i’m doing a lot of guest mixes for radio stations. I’m getting a lot of requests And I think in july I was doing between four and five guest mixes radio stations from like mexico Russia, you know, you name it like anywhere around the world. They were requesting me sets and uh, sometimes it was Trans music sometimes it was uh house or melodic techno and It’s the beauty of being multi-format, you know And I grew up being exposed by many different types of music and I still believe that um Music should not really have a label, you know as far as a genre I mean, it’s good to have a genre to know what you expect Like if i’m going to a festival and it’s random bass I know that i’m gonna get certain type of people certain type of energy. That’s cool and even colors etc but Uh to me there is no reason why somebody that listened to techno should not be able to listen to jazz And um, we were talking earlier on about berlin if you even go to a very famous and extreme Extreme for some people venue, um such as bergheim. Okay, so if you go to bergheim Uh, even in bergheim, which is considered to be this dark place, you know where privacy is holy and untouchable And you do have the panorama bar uh, you do have a different levels within the building Where you can experience different types of music like you can literally stay there for like two days in a row And you can go upstairs, you know I mean in the you know in the rooftop or whatever the first floor and there’s chill out music Yeah, then you go on the second floor and there is like full-on disco music for four hours The guy playing records, you know playing vinyls.

[Darran]
I hear it can be an eight hour wait to get into that place Yeah.

[Coke Beats]
Yeah. No, definitely. I mean it’s it depends like, you know, like locals will tell you more about this but it has when you go, um, it depends like if it is a night where And you know, you have some you know Celebrations like I think they celebrated.

Uh, it was either an anniversary or something About a year ago and that was like, you know impossible to get in because you had some people were lining up on And you know saturday night Or other people they would do like a five o’clock in the morning on sunday, which is in my opinion better Uh, because the locals will never line up Line up in the morning. Yeah, so, um, but the concept is um, You know coming back to the second point about being a visionary Uh, which is that what you know, that’s what labels and radio station call me And I don’t put boundaries to the genre. I don’t i’m not like a purist like i’m i’m not I don’t do only house music.

For example, I don’t do only techno, you know, there’s uh, which is I guess sometimes a bit confusing um But the audience loves it because the the majority of audience especially the new generations They really care about the genre. They want just music that they like Uh, so as long as you have something which is like your signature And to me the signature is but if I have music with vocals And you do have a sense of structure, it’s like a song basically Within a dance track and if you have a dj set the songs in the dj set are Organized they’re chosen based on the journey. So for example, like lately Uh, because I dj in so many different ways, you know funny enough like The most visionary thing you can do is kind of like going back to buying records in a certain way And I you know, I did that like actually have right here And and also we’re going to talk about briefly about a release, but I recently on vinyl but um going back on vinyl records it kind of forced you to Have a choice of music Which it does bring the audience into a journey because you are literally limited By the fact that you can’t you know do too much technical stuff I mean you can you know, obviously you mix in between records, you know, you Align them, you know the beat matching all that kind of stuff But you’re not going to be like going crazy creating loops or creating, you know The different tricks that you can do on a cdj Which is really really good if you know, if you do it like, uh, like james hype, which is very creative with the cdj’s There’s a lot of great people on cdj’s and I you know, I play dj cdj’s two three cdj’s four cdj’s but when you go back to vinyl records is about creating your own collection of records, which I do have already, but You also you also find Uh labels that they don’t release on digital And they just release on on vinyl records. So and or you find like, uh, you know crazy labels Um, you know, but they do records that are like, you know that you have a hundred records two other records So when you go to that night and you listen to that dj set it’s it’s a visionary because Um, he’s playing music. You’re not going to be able to find anywhere.

It’s not on spotify It’s not on itunes And if you like that, you know unique atmosphere that mood you have to go and check the dj And the last point Uh is freedom and freedom it goes back again to the same thing about um not Being you know as novel, you know, like like somebody that says oh I listen only to techno I listen only to house music because it’s still happening, you know still happening that Some people are okay. I only dress in black. I only listen to Really fast and heavy, you know the hard songs which is cool if this is you obviously But at the same time if you’re a dj doesn’t mean that if you like techno You are not allowed to check out records because you might like yeah, you know if you if you are into Deep heavy sad vibes You’re probably gonna like, uh, you know Dark metal or you know, or like doom metal, you know or some drone, you know crazy sounds so freedom is also in that is in having a diverse and You know an open-minded audience, you know

[Darran]
You attract that type of audience when you jump in between records and owning your own label smash the house You actually get to express whatever freedoms you want and release whatever you want to play and is that a recommendation you would make? For more producers out there to go and form their own Independent label and then try to get their independent label to launch with other people or do you suggest?

They still make their own music and feel what they want to do and submit that to other labels Yeah, no, I don’t own smash the house smash the house is oh you don’t oh just you’ll have upcoming releases That would be great.

[Coke Beats]
That would be great. If I own the special smash the house is the label Directed by dimitri vegas Uh, which is one of the main artists and main forces behind tomorrowland uh and Making music with smash the house You know team Uh, it’s been a real challenge for me because they do have a very clear sound Uh, which is a limitation for me because I want to go like on a tangent so That’s a very different. Um That’s an interesting example like actually for the question, but he just asked for producers So there are two different ways that you can go.

There is one way Which is seen being more and more popular Where you have producers because the dj not necessarily makes music but a producer Or a dj that works with a producer and they want to do a release together a collaboration Uh that they want to release a song with the label Now the reason to release a song with the label Is not to get just your music out because you can do that with uh any distributor, you know You can you can go from distro kill tune called city baby. You name it.

There’s so many right? the real value of working with a label and This you know comes also with the tip Is that is that you really like? Them as a team Them as a community.

So i’ll give an example if you If you’re you’re from seattle, so if i’m a producer and dj from seattle The first thing that I would do is that I will check the labels that are actually in seattle Even if they’re small, it doesn’t matter that I will check them Because it makes more sense for me being from seattle to work or to start to work with the label from seattle Then try to get a release from a label from berlin or amsterdam or belgium and I tell you why Because yes, you can you can’t sign with spinning records. You can’t sign with armada music Whatever label you want ministry of south because nowadays you can create a relationship with a talent manager A label plugger an a and r you name it.

You just go online You you drop your demo you share your sound cloud You’re consistent you send emails you’re gonna get an answer Okay, and if your music is good and it fits the label, they’re gonna sign it The point is not getting signed with the label. It’s asking yourself what the label is gonna do for me What what’s the point? You see what I mean?

So it’s like Uh, you know and and actually, you know, because everything is online Uh, I mean even if you’re in seattle Obviously you’re going to met the guys on the label in person, but you’re gonna still send files So still like, you know at that stage is still sending files so When you are at the beginning You want to show to the audience? They don’t know anything about music. They don’t know anything about like how to get signed.

They don’t care They listen to music if they like it good if they don’t like it, they just swipe they just uh move next Okay But the only but you’re gonna see one thing You’re gonna see how consistent you are as a producer and as a dj So for example, my consistency is in being non-consistent. So in being multi-format If I start to make for two years just house music Yeah, probably I can work with like a lot of house music labels And you know and just take us or work with the same label for like two years But it’s not me so I will not receive requests for remixes, you know, because people will be like, okay the same type of people will request the remixes I wouldn’t have like a Single songwriter that’s pop to do a remix for me, you know, it would be something within the house world Maybe a disco pop, you know type of artist wants to have a house track So to me, that’s not me first of all and the second thing Uh, the people that are following me they will not understand my choice. It would be like what happened, you know, like what’s going on?

so The point is this is the first point. The first point is if you want to go and work with the label ask yourself Why you want to work with that label and if you don’t have a clear idea of what you want to do And obviously the wrong idea is that by working with that label you’re going to be successful Because there’s plenty of people that release music with all the big labels in the world They get a bunch of streams on spotify. They got a few articles Do they get gigs?

No, they don’t because they don’t belong to any community. They’re just dropping music with putting a name, you know Numbers, you know, they’re important, you know nowadays but it’s kind of like changing the whole music industry game. It’s more about People do they really know you like, you know, the booking agencies know booking agents know what you do Um, do you have your own night, you know, whatever so that goes actually the second point having your own night If you don’t want to work with the label Because you think that all the late because you think it’s a waste of time trying to work with the label Yeah, or you think that you know, even even if you get a deal maybe with a seattle based label Or for me like in london or in or in europe Uh, then you create your own scene and to create your own scene You need to be sure only one thing you need to be sure that you belong to a scene And if the scene doesn’t exist you need to create that so you need to be the energy behind um a group of Just passionate producers because in the beginning it’s not gonna be money Yeah, you’re gonna have to find people or people will find you and this will happen Live so you need to go physically to the venues to the raves or conferences And then you’re gonna find like-minded people Like-minded people there’ll be okay. Let’s start with one project together.

It could be launching a radio station It could be launching a podcast. It could be launching a label, you know, and then That will create a consistency because that is basically a collective When you have that The audience will notice that And they’ll associate you with the collective Which doesn’t have to be limited by the fact that you’re in seattle or berlin or whatever The identity of a collective could be that all the people within that collective They will share the same values and the same aesthetics Like same stuff that happened like with the hyper pop genre with producers like sophie And which they were doing this extra cartoonish type of music And they started to get noticed actually online in the online world But because of that because it was so different and unique And you know from the visual side from it was it was so cool Then they started to get Attracted for more producers for collaborations and working with very big names, you know And then even transcend music and going to fashion other fields

[Darran]
So speaking of that, you know a lot of good information you dropped there Is there something really messed up? In the electronic music world that needs fixing And if there is what’s the one thing you think that would need that to be fixed and how would you go about or how?

Would you suggest? Changing that in the electronic music scene

[Coke Beats]
Yeah, well, I mean it’s uh You know, it’s not really I think You know, it depends the way you see it, okay, so Depends the way you see it because it could be something messed up or it could be something that it’s up to you To make the right choice so right now certain You know environments they work More more mostly based on the branding and on the marketing rather than the music In other words, they’re all about the music and all about the people, okay It’s up to you as a producer to decide that so you need to be smart enough to Understand.

Okay. Wait a second if I go with that Label or that manager They can only introduce me to that world. Is it what I want to because if it is yes I am committing for at least At least minimum one year so one year of your life is gone like committing to that So and I give you a practical example if you are a techno dj Uh, which is starting, you know, which wants to do production, but you’re a techno dj And you have like one or two nights per month.

Maybe you have your own night Okay, and it’s successful like you’re getting 300 people. You have your little scene and stuff like that Does it really make sense to work with a label? That will ask you to release music in a genre which is not what you’re playing live Just because you want to get like a million streams just because you want to get a playlist The answer is no obviously because it’s more valuable what you’re doing with your own night Because it might not be paying anything in the first year But what you’re doing is that you’re building a real fan base a real fan base because right now And this is not just for electronic music or maybe this is what is that what is messed up Is that we are starting to see more and more?

the real hype behind numbers So the point is that we do have like nowadays, especially with ai you can craft a really Good looking photos very highly polished videos Um, you can have people Making music for you. You can have ghost producers. You can have ghost djs that actually pre-record the set for you You can completely like create a brand Not an artist a brand And then stick that to somebody that has a certain image or a certain appeal And create a an online viral sensation.

Okay, and you can sell that The point is how long you’re going to be able to sell that and most of all What are you actually selling because you’re not selling art. You’re not selling content You’re selling Uh, like the quick bucks, you know, like something that it’s like I want to cash out of this product really quick Okay, so if you’re if you’re thinking about doing something that In five years people you want people to remember you and say oh, you know, this guy was doing something for Uh, the dance music community and it could be the dance music community of a small town I don’t say like international, you know, because there’s all different stuff that comes into place for that But uh, there’s politics and stuff like that But still like how do you about the music or you’re just trying to get something like really quick But you might get burned, you know, or your artist name I get burned, you know, so That’s something that needs to be Mined and it might be something but it’s still a little bit messed up the fact that in electronic music you can do stuff like that But that’s just the nature of music industry and the nature of music industry is that obviously When just of course this topic obviously when we will see a saturation point, we’re gonna hit saturation point With which we’re very close to like probably next year Uh with all the tools that we have online Um, and then you need just enough money Anybody would eventually be able to Uh play, you know get a good spot in a festival get One good release every single month Very good cover artworks Constantly posts on socials every single day, right? But in the end What is going to happen is that the audience is going to be so used to it That it will be the equivalent of saying Uh, okay, but in actually never Seen somebody for example that does a six hours dj set Why because you actually need to have the selection to do that And otherwise people will get bored.

They would just like completely ruin the whole thing or um The comeback of vinyl records is another example and notice that a lot of the new djs That spin vinyl records. They spin disco music. They spin 70s fog music so records, but they’re like five dollars, you know, but it’s not about the price It’s about staying there actually doing the crate digging And the way they put it together the way they organize the set.

It makes perfect sense and visually for people Is actually seeing wait a second. This guy is definitely not pre-recording the dj set because you can’t fake it So it’s right there. There is a visual component which funny enough is very similar to um the you know, the massive success of cooking shows where people Uh, you know coming for the fast food to the fact that everybody can go and buy pre-made meals but if I want to go in a restaurant and see the actual chef making the food, wow, that’s like a Luxury, you know, it’s something like unique but anything, you know Just getting pots and pans and putting like, you know hot water and throwing down a pasta, you know It becomes something like oh wait a second.

I need time to do that, you know, I need to learn that etc So yeah music this is happening and it is happening for live music

[Darran]
You know, i’m glad you brought a lot of that up One of the key things I wanted to touch on pulling away from that is that social media aspect I keep hearing from a lot of veterans in the game a lot of Even people have been around just even for the last 10 years in the game that you know Booking show having those inflated numbers people can inflate those numbers and you know Booking companies will look and say I don’t want to book somebody unless they have 50 000 followers on instagram Or 50 000 people following them on tiktok and look at their engage if they even take it down to the engagement rates you know and and see how Um, that’s what they’re basing the importance on they’re not even looking at the skill They don’t even care if you have beatport top 10 hits You know, they they or this I mean, maybe if you have a million streams of a song on beatport Okay, great, you know, but what does that mean?

As is how was that song produced? You’re right They produce it. Did they work with somebody on it?

Did they ghost produce it? You know, um, how much input did they have in that ghost production, you know in that sense and maybe you’re right Who’s selecting their tracks? I Recently came across the company This is very interesting.

They are making an ai application that you go in and I say I want a set That sounds like Coke Beats And I want you to curate the set for me and they will go out there and go And pop me all the songs In a list that I can take right over to spotify Pulls it all the songs right up in spotify and puts them all in order and then I can obviously go purchase all those songs And I go I got a Coke Beats playlist.

This is what Coke Beats would sound like if he was playing Now, of course, I got the songs Yeah, but you know, I mean I can say ferry corstine I can say Uh armand van buren I can say whoever that is and and say and I want this list to be from 2023 I want this list to be from 2024 or I want to do a classic armand van buren mix I want this set to be from 15 years ago You know and they’ll pull all those songs and curate the list for you And then you can go out and buy those tracks and go Yeah, this is my curated list and who would know that it was an actual armand van buren curated list.

Nobody would know that They might you know, they might say oh armand played that in his track But it’d be tracks that are armand van buren selections not his direct tracks so You know, that’s where it’s going to be very interesting to see If it goes to that next level, could you make an ai mix? and it’s going to know exactly when the time and transfer and and and and um, cross those songs to make a A perfect mix. I mean, you know, you can play the songs, but they’re not gonna they’re not gonna mix together They might not even be in the right order to tell the story of how they go But as ai gets better you can say no tell a story with these songs and maybe We’ll be able to say okay And now we got this and it’s like hey, what’s up, you know, I predicted years ago When I was working for apple I was in the back employee room with a co-worker I said if somebody made a perfect mix And put on an ipod and went behind stage plug that ipod in and hit play How would you know because at that time there weren’t laptops? I mean, this is 2005 laptops were not it was still cdjs So, how would you know if somebody popped in a cdj in there or a cd?

Or just on channel three of the mixer popped in an ipad or even at a computer down below and hit play on the computer and it just Played the track and he said, you know, I you wouldn’t you would know because the person wouldn’t be that track You wouldn’t be able to read the room with the track But if that track was if that mix was so awesome and hard-hitting though. Yeah, you knew it was gonna work Would anyone know?

[Coke Beats]
Now there is a very quick answer to that It’s all about it’s always all about the audience You could do that The bigger is the audience The more you can get away with that And also people like dead mouse, um, james hype, etc Everybody knows that if you’re playing on a big stage on a massive festival You cannot dj live because the timing is so Like you’re on the clock. It’s like saying Uh, if you’re a rapper and you’re in a festival You have to rap over a backing track and most of the times the backing track has lead vocals on it So you’re you’re overdubbing yourself that’s because It’s so on the clock. Okay that it’s more Performing a show than a dj set or a band performing live.

Okay now We’re talking about an audience with of like 12 000 18 000 people If you go in a small club, you can’t do that because in a small club as you said You your set has to interact with people Because it’s harder. I mean even david guetta said this david guetta is a an alias called jack black And jack black does only small gigs and smoke, you know more than the 8 000 people And in those gigs where he doesn’t play classic edm He plays more like techno or tech house and he has a bunch of synthesizers and carl cox does the same He has uh, you know all hardware Sets where it’s like a live set. It’s not like a dj set But it’s not the point about playing In you know playing I mean being playback or lip-syncing.

Okay, because that’s gonna be applied to any genre of music Is who you are performing for? So what is the event? Okay, so if you are Like Um sven vat, for example, which is ben vat.

It’s been around for like probably 40 years I don’t know but for sure more than 30 years it would be jenna the love parade and it was in all like he’s somebody that Does like four hours six hours DJ set he’s still using vinyl records, right? He’s not using my records because he wants to be cool. But because that’s what he knows And because of that he attracts a certain type of audience.

So somebody that goes uh to You know exit festival Uh or ultra festival and they go there because they want to have a good time And they want to blow the blow the horn and just completely crazy. Okay Not necessarily is going to be interested in dancing to a slower You know type of dance music With like 400 people and maybe even having a chat with somebody next to you, you know So it’s not necessarily compatible because it’s the equivalent of saying There’s people that they want to go to a heavy metal Show and they just want you know to get hammered and just you know Just get out all the frustration aggressiveness everything. They’re not necessarily compatible with somebody that goes In a quiet, you know jazz club to listen to three guys upright bass piano drums playing, you know So compatible as an audience so when you’re talking about Uh, just because the practice because that the answer Uh to be the answer when you’re talking about Now, okay right now We are reaching a saturation point with the socials and the socials, you know, it can be anything It can be any platform.

It doesn’t really matter. What is that? The platforms are just a way of defining a demographics.

So So the younger demographic is on tiktok. The older one is on facebook, but it just you know, it’s just a way of like Defining demographics, but in general what we are seeing Is that the online world will become less and less real? Because it’s supposed to be a preview.

Okay of the real world, but it’s not it’s becoming an alternative reality And we’re moving into that direction anyway because of meta because of oculus rift because of the gaming industry, uh people won’t Think about the online world as a place where they don’t have to be themselves They can be anything they want they can change even who they are. Okay, and that’s cool. It’s completely cool but music Because it’s something made by humans for humans, okay Will always have that element of socialization interaction Uh being present basically so you will have people that they want to be entertained in a way that they’re Lonely together literally, okay, and that’s fine You know, what are people that they go and see a massively produced show with holograms and stuff like we will see that It’s normal. It’s a natural direction but there’s always going to be somebody even somebody from a new generation that maybe Never went to a library And you know, it doesn’t even is accurate about and you know feels like uncomfortable about sharing intimate Uh Feelings with another person can have a conversation can build relationships even in that situation. Okay or somebody which is completely alienated still They’ll think about I actually want to try that because I never tried it before so in Music provides this because music is so abstract, you know, it’s not a movie.

We’re not gonna go watch a movie together We’re not gonna go to see an exhibition with sculptures and paintings It’s something that can tune people into different ways Just by vibrations traveling through air

[Darran]
Now, you know you mentioned a lot about light and getting out and having that organic experience basically, you know And and you know, there’s going to be the virtual experience or ai experience and they’re going to be the organic experience When it comes to your career you personally with your career.

How do you balance your dj? production career with the other obligations in your life or is it are you always turned on as Coke Beats and i’m just Always doing something and i’m in this i’m in this virtual world, but i’m in the real world But how do you balance all that though? And what tips insights?

Can you help share with younger producers or djs? to give them that keys piece of advice that says like If you don’t do this, you’re gonna burn out if you don’t spend time on this, you know Just what would be a how do you balance your life? And what would be some advice you would give to other djs slash producers to also balance their life out as well?

[Coke Beats]
Yeah, so my suggestion would be first of all understand at what point are you in your life in your artistic career? If you are somebody that doesn’t have access to any scene any community And you’re completely on your own or if you’re somebody that belongs to a scene Because it’s two completely different realities If you belong to a scene You’re probably going to stick to that scene and see where it goes and how it goes And because otherwise you’re gonna go the other way which is being completely on your own And for me I experienced both so I had not right now right now. I’m on my own And it’s it’s a reflection of the time still but up until five or six years ago I was part of different scenes.

I was part of tokyo scene Uh in japan in denmark in copenhagen, you name it I had a lot of experience in different scenes and being part of that Which helped me to build the network obviously, you know, which i’m still connected to nowadays but my suggestion is If you’re starting now if you’re a dj that you know started like You know either as a passion or you you want to give it a try and see if you can make a living out of it You still need passion even if you’re thinking about it as a work because it’s that’s what you’re paid for you’re paid to Entertain people and to make them feel something because otherwise it’s you can’t work in the art in the art world or entertainment world So understand if you’re on your own or if you’re with a community and then after that Decide if you want to go into a career That follows the music industry standards, which means Start and work with more labels and then build up the way up. Okay, or You want to go against that?

You want to show that? You want to go your own way in that direction? You need to build your own label.

You need to build your own system One choice the choice number one, which is going with the labels and record labels, etc, etc Is more about being able to understand and to trust The people you’re working with because you’re going to be focused more in being a good dj and making music The second direction which is the one was extremely popular like 10 years ago of independent musicians independent producers and stuff like that It’s where you want to give probably to an audience that is already there And this is the choice of usually people that are Artists that are part of a community you want to build your own structure If you want to be your own structure, you need to accept the fact You can’t be just an artist.

You need to learn a lot of stuff that Are a part of like marketing and knowing what is good for your line You know get a photographer, you know work with photographer if you’re part of a collective So one direction is quicker work with the labels or try to get signed And and then probably work with booking agents, which are part of those labels the other direction Which is you go on your own way. It’s slower because you need to learn Uh, I mean still quicker than 10 or 15 years ago because you have you know internet it’s a lot quicker nowadays But it’s not gonna happen in one year. It’s gonna happen like in two in three years while if you work with the label And if you get like three four good releases In the range of nine months, you could be playing a big festival in nine months.

Yeah The situation is that if you work with the labels the choice number one It’s going to be really difficult if you want to change genre or if you want to be More, you know like multi-genre. Okay, or maybe you’re not multi-genre. That’s what you want to do so whatever choice you make remember that it’s about Short-term decisions With long-term consequences.

[Darran]
Yeah, no matter what direction you go So, you know success doesn’t always last forever, especially for an artist What do you do to save up for the future? What do you invest your earnings in or what do you suggest to other producers out there? To look to do just in case that bubble does burst one day and you know Now I need something to fall back on or or i’m not the hot i’m not the hot flavor the The the core the month the year the day the week You know, i’m not getting bookings anymore.

What do you what do you would what do you invest in? What do you what do you do to save up for a rainy day?

[Coke Beats]
I like my passion since uh since when I was a kid was to make music So, you know and and then i’m also dj and i also play guitar and different instruments But my main thing has always been to make music to me that was the very very first thing since I was like 16 the magic of like You know at the time there was no gear like nowadays. It was just a pretty pretty crappy, you know, like desktop computer Uh, you know very slow softwares and stuff like that But uh the magic of being able to make something that touch people and and they want to listen to it um to me That was the real deal So which means you’re basically a producer at heart. Okay producer as in music maker composer at heart So that’s what that’s where your passion lies to so if you’re thinking about And then you have a passion for dj and all the kind of stuff if you’ll start I can talk for People that start as a producer If you start as a producer Uh, you’re gonna have to be a little bit of an entrepreneur so It means that the element of success That you see most of the times on socials Is for performers rather than producers So performers they are naturally liked by people. It could be a small amount of people And then that kind of like organic, you know element that they have I mean even in the most untalented person If they’re completely untalented, maybe they’re good looking, you know, there’s something that always has to be a magnet, you know for people But they’re a performer so they don’t sit in the studio like for two months to make a track, you know so the world of producers in the world of Artists that makes the magic behind that, you know, the backstage behind the curtains, you know so in that case It’s it’s there, you know The tricky thing is but it’s gonna be hard to be extremely successful so for a producer It’s harder to have a hit than a performer, which is fun if you think about it So if you look at the amount of producers that had hits like real big hits It’s always low lower than performers now There are performers but they’re also producers, but it’s really hard to find a producer that is a popular performer Even if you think about extremely big names like tiesto Delegata, it took them 30 years to build that name, you know, and the music has always been good throughout the years But they had to need they needed to get good singers, you know good performers Anybody Diplo is the same thing. DJ Snake is the same thing. They can write great songs, but they’re not the main performer And if they’re the main performer that happened several decades after or at least like five or six years after They actually started a career.

So if you’re a producer, how do you make it? What is the definition of success? The definition of success is not a hit definition of success is have a clear idea of Is your standard of living what you want to do?

Like if you want to go and move to berlin It’s going to cost less a lot less than going to la and move and live in la But is berlin the right place or should be la depends? So because in the end You will have to make a living out of the only thing that you know to do the best Which is doing music which means you will have to work with other artists. You will have to sell songs You have to make remixes and charge for that so if you’re more into You know pop hip-hop house and stuff like that Then berlin is I don’t think it’s a great place for you.

I mean at least at the moment on a surface level So it will be probably quicker to go even to you know, atlanta or london or paris, you know Because they have a history of producers that do that music that already had success. So it’s pretty clear that I mean at least In person you’re gonna make more connections there for free just because you’re there And then you need to let the music speak and the last point to answer your question is about What is the investment of a producer what you should invest? Whatever you invest whatever you do Producer It’s always going to be about the music like you need good music.

You need great music. What is great music great music is Within a genre. So for example, if I do house music, okay people have and You know definition of what is a good house song, you know They might they might not like the lyrics or whatever but it’s that definition what people call, you know quality, right?

Is like if you have if you have a very good house song But you give your song in a usb stick right to a dj for example Send the email and then they put it in a club Where they have best sound system and it sounds horrible you failed because You you didn’t think about the mixing you didn’t think about the mastering if you don’t know how to do mixing and mastering You don’t have to do it yourself invest And pay somebody I mean nowadays you could get like I was checking actually because I work with very good mastering engineers And which the labels, you know now the labels pay them, but I know how much they get that much they charge and I can say that Some of the biggest mastering engineers in the world per song They’re not going to charge more than 300 dollars Which if you think about it’s not a lot because we’re talking about like 10 years It would be a grand would have been two thousand dollars for mastering. Okay mixing is still pretty expensive 900 1000 dollars per track If you want to get somebody which is at the top, but like if you want if you want to get the top And techno mixing engineer, you can still negotiate, you know, you can still come down You want to make sure that whatever music you’re producing? Is produced at the top standards of that genre because that’s that song will stick with your name and people will associate with you You know And you don’t want to have people that say oh the song is good, but it sounds bad You know something wrong with it, you know And it’s good if you have somebody that says I don’t like the song but it sounds really good, which it does happen many many times

[Darran]
Exactly. No, you know, that’s one of the biggest things i’ve heard a ton of times is people Not mixing mastering their songs sending them in and they’re getting rejection all over the place and You know, they don’t even want to take a class They don’t want to do that or they don’t want to pay somebody to help them out and have that done for them You know that can really put a damper on things And one of the tests that I hear some people use is i’m you brought it up is they use the car test? They go and listen What’s it going to sound like if it’s playing in the car?

Maybe that’s it may sound good on your studio speakers, but what does it sound like in the car? What does it sound like in the club? You know You have some friends that can hook you up with a nightclub and get in there and put it on the loud sound system and go Absolutely, wow That sounds this is too hot or that doesn’t sound good you know or have your friend get an opening set at a club and Maybe, you know see if you can network like you said earlier and and be in that community and say hey Can you maybe drop my track and at the first track or first couple tracks when nobody’s there?

Just so I can see what this sounds like And they’re like, okay cool. I can do that for my mix and then cut it out and go to something else You know, that’s a good way of testing that out. Well, you know, we’re gonna wrap it up here really quickly We are expecting an exclusive mix from you another exclusive dj sessions mix for you super excited to be getting a hold of one of those But is there anything else you want to let our dj sessions fans know about before we let you go?

[Coke Beats]
Yeah, um, i’m very active on instagram because uh, there’s so many platforms around So if you you know, if you want to know more about my music my upcoming releases, feel free to connect over instagram Uh, that’s the platform that I use to communicate, you know with my existing fans or I have a lot of producers that follow me um Mostly from the producers community So instagram definitely is the place to go which is official Coke Beats or even if you just type Coke Beats Uh, you can see that is the only one verified because there’s a bunch of Coke Beats And also people that clone my page and several issues in the past But when I got verified at least you know, but that’s the one to go to Yeah, I know it’s crazy but um, yeah, that’s the thing and you know, if you’re if you’re creating music, uh The the most the biggest challenge is to stay consistent because you’re gonna have you know down times You’re gonna lose motivation.

But in the end it’s challenge as in Life is literally testing you to see how passionate you really are about that Music about about what you do Absolutely, I think that’s this Consistency is one of the biggest pieces of advice that I give to people looking to start getting into doing online Programming online shows.

[Darran]
They always say what’s the number one tip you guys I say you got to be consistent You don’t need an excellent microphone. You don’t need excellent speakers. You don’t need excellent lighting you spend all those thousands of dollars You just need to be able to have a content that is there that people know when you say you’re going on at a certain Day in a certain time.

They’re going to subscribe to that. You better fulfill that subscription because the moment you don’t They’re switching the channel or going somewhere else You know, so consistency is a huge one again Coke Beats. Thank you for coming on the dj sessions one more time Where’s the best place people can find out more information about you?

[Coke Beats]
Official Coke Beats on instagram.

[Darran]
Awesome. I threw it up there for everyone to see well, you know again We’re gonna stay in touch with you. We know you got a lot of stuff coming up.

We like to stay in touch It won’t be a year that hopefully this time it’ll be hopefully in six months We’ll follow back up with you see what’s going on and and stay in touch with the Coke Beats Thank you for coming on the show today.

[Coke Beats]
Awesome Thank you, Darran.

[Darran]
You’re welcome On that note, don’t forget to go to our website the dj sessions.com You can find us on meta x instagram tiktok subscribe to our podcast in the apple music store all those and more At the dj sessions.com You got 600 news stories exclusive interviews exclusive mixes like the ones coming from Coke Beats You know up on the site and more merchandise and all that our download our app to take us on the go Get into our vr nightclubs and and more at the dj sessions.com. I’m Darran coming to you from the virtual studios in seattle Washington and that’s Coke Beats coming in from dublin for the dj sessions presents the virtual sessions and remember on the dj sessions the music never stops