Mac Miller Quotes

Playing a room, it's a real dictator-type situation - you can really move the crowd the way you want to. In a festival, there's a sea of people, and it's harder to lock in on any one group.

The role of a DJ is being able to keep people on the floor for X amount of hours so you can't just push buttons to do that, you have to have good tracks and a knowledge of where to take people.

I'm really not one of those deejays who go, 'I play music that I like.' I play it for the crowd. I believe that's what a deejay should do.

At the end of the day, they're happy if you do the obvious songs towards the end of the set and you've got to try and make yourself happy by doing certain songs at the front end of the set.

A lot of work and thinking goes into my DJing. I want the entire night to progress seamlessly and when I have to adapt the energy on the fly for the crowd on any given night, I can do so with harmonic mixes that I've practiced over and over again. I am far from the only DJ that does this and it's something I take pride in being able to do.

Anyone can be a DJ but it's understanding how to read a crowd and keeping them on the floor is what takes years of experience.

When you deejay a party, a good DJ's job is to take care of the crowd. If people want to hear Britney Spears, that's what you're supposed to do.

When I go to see people, I always kind of hope they are going to play some kind of songs I know. So you've got to know your audience. It's kind of something that is a blessing and a curse in a way. You're obligated to play some of that stuff that people know, but I don't think that's all you have to do.

When you're DJing, there are songs I love to play, but I know people are going to walk off. It doesn't matter what I like. You have to be able to play the popular song and slip in one of yours, in such a way that they don't notice it. You've got them in such a roll that you get them back into what they think they like.

I can read a crowd pretty well. I know what to play and know how to keep it interesting for them and for myself as well. Most of the other DJs are more like producers so they become famous because they make hits and then they start DJ-ing. But I'm more from the other way around.

To me, it's pretty much the same thing - I just love playing music. But the cool thing about DJing is that I get to play other people's music, I can mix it up between our songs and a variety of musical genres. It also enables me to be more intimate with the audience.

If you start adapting to audiences, you're really second-guessing the situation, and it becomes a bit more like cabaret.

For me, I have the highest amount of respect for DJs. There's a real skill set and ability to hold a crowd's attention for four to five hours, especially with an R&B/hip-hop and open-format music.

I've always had an ear for rocking a party. Just knowing what people like.

When I first started to do music, I was kind of doing what I thought people would want me to do.

Being asked to carry a major show with the restrictions that are thrown on you is very limiting. I'd rather hit it hard, do it right, and walk away.

I played 'Rewind' so many times in the club to see which parts were working, see how the crowd reacted to it.

I had to learn very quickly how to perform, how to act, how to look, to always say what I wanted to say in my songs.

You're in there, you're having a match, and you're feeding off that crowd. That's the gasoline that fuels the match, and that's how you make your decisions. If you're not listening to that crowd when you're working, you're missing the biggest part of what working is all about.

That's the thing: when I'm on stage, I don't care; there could be ten people there, there could be ten million people there. But if I'm offstage, I'm, like, counting the people. I know exactly where everyone's standing, how far they are from me.

I wanted to be a disc jockey.

When it's my show, I know that everybody is there to see me - but I like a challenge, and I like the fact that at festivals, not everybody is there to see me, but I have the chance to convert people.

I did a few DJ gigs at empty clubs, sort of as a warm-up set before Flume was a thing. I did one when I got big enough, and I had five friends come down, and they were the only ones dancing. That was one of my earliest ones. I was super nervous.

When I'm playing, I play what I want, but I make sure that the crowd is going to love it at the same time. It's like a balancing act, a mix of two, a perfect circle... if you do it right.

You're playing for yourself. And if you're not playing for yourself, you're an entertainer, doing it for the crowd.