How I curate my music

To be perfectly honest, it's not that difficult to curate music for a goth night. Hell, you could even open an AI program and enter the prompt, "create a DJ setlist for [x] genre", and it will do it for you. 

 Wanna see? Here's one from Chat GPT, when prompted with the command "Create a 15 song setlist for a Goth DJ.":

    Bauhaus - "Bela Lugosi's Dead"
    Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Spellbound"
    The Sisters of Mercy - "Lucretia My Reflection"
    Joy Division - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
    The Cure - "A Forest"
    Fields of the Nephilim - "Moonchild"
    Depeche Mode - "Enjoy the Silence"
    The Mission - "Wasteland"
    Clan of Xymox - "Muscoviet Musquito"
    The Birthday Party - "Release the Bats"
    She Wants Revenge - "Tear You Apart"
    The Damned - "Shadow of Love"
    The Crüxshadows - "Winterborn (This Sacrifice)"
    Skinny Puppy - "Assimilate"
    Type O Negative - "Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)"

A few problems: first thing I notice is that a lot of these songs aren't strictly "Goth". I don't necessarily have an issue with that, because my own style is to spin by "emotion". However,outside of Goth, the above set also touches on New Wave, Dark Wave, and Industrial. This is just one of the many reasons AI cannot be relied on completely, but can be a good jumping off point for ideas or feedback.

Aside from the obvious mushing of "dark" songs under the proverbial "Goth" umbrella, my main problem is: These are all pretty solid songs, right? But when arranged rigidly, with so many well-known songs all together, it somehow manages to suck. (Or who knows, maybe someone beyond my skill level could make an incredible set out of the above. Just personally, I would never play this set at a club.) 

To be real, I've played every song on that set at some point. But personally, I would never throw them together like that. (I won't even go in to the complexities of beat matching or if these even mix together in key. But at first glance, it reads like a radio slot, pretty all over the place.)

The real challenge is creating sets that are moving, unique, and flexible. 

So, how do we accomplish that? Here are a few things I consider when "curating" my sets for the night.

First off, I take into account what I played last time. Even if you only DJ once a month, Goth clubs are small communities, with plenty of overplayed music. I try to avoid playing the same songs I played during my last appearance, or even a few months before that.

Next, I take into account who I'll be spinning with. I'm really big into teamwork and communication when I share the booth. I like to know their styles and what they spin, so I can try to avoid too much overlap.

Last, with those things in mind, I'll consider my mood and what's really lit my fire lately. Some months, all I want to spin is crooning, witchy women a la Cocteau Twin's "Persephone". Other times, I feel really fired up and want to stomp in the booth along to an aggrotech track with scorched earth growls.

For example, tomorrow night I'm spinning with DJ Soundmello at 37th and Zen. I started pulling my music earlier this afternoon. There's a few elements impacting my mental "mood board" for this event:

• At my last event, I received great crowd and dance floor feedback from my harsher aggrotech sets.
• I believe DJ Soundmello also spins more electronic, so I'd like to complement that, while not leaving too much downtime with a moody goth set.
  
• Personally, I am feeling a bit feisty and in that "aggrotech" mood.
• Outside of traditional goth (which I always try to spin at least one set), I want to sneak in some unexpected surprises.

With these things in mind, I start pulling my music. Normally, I play 45 minute to 60 minute sets, which averages out to about 12-15 songs. Usually, I'll try to pull twice as much music for one "vibe", both so I can change it up on the fly, or have options should a request come in to work around. 

I think most events, I end up buying new music. I don't spend crazy amounts of money, because I don't have it. Instead, I prefer to buy single tracks for DJing. 

I really like the website Bandcamp for this reason, because I can listen to full songs as well as scrub back and forth through them, so I can get a good feel for if it will be a multi-tasking track that I genuinely like. I also take into account Bandcamp comments, to see what tracks are people's "favorite" off a release. 

This being said, I try not to buy a ton of new songs before an event. It's better to DJ with stuff you know well, at least for me. It's a lot easier for me to throw in a new wrench when I know the other songs in my library back and forth. 

So anyway, those are the basics of how I consider my sets before I spin, and what I mean when I say I "pull my music".

Not all DJs pull out music beforehand. Many people pick their sets live on the spot. Me, I have social anxiety, and plans work wonders for me [laughs]. This is not to say I don't anticipate requests and build in fluidity for them. However, I do go into each set with a theme or story in mind.

What story do I have in mind for tomorrow? Here are three unique "core" tracks I'd like to base different sets around:

• "Rongai na ikimono toshite" (論外な生き物として)- sukekiyo
• "Hass und Ignoranz"- Madmans Esprit
• "Obey"- PRIEST

You'll notice only one of those is evenly vaguely what you'd expect at a Goth club. But that's what I mean about being fluid and flexible- I like to throw in new things from my own experience that are framed well by the vibe of the night. It's great to show something new.  

This is especially true for me when it comes to Asian bands. While there's a huge stereotype that the only "Asian" bands out there are pop idol bands, I like to throw something new into the mix to see how people respond. It's generally gotten great feedback when I snuck in bands like DIR EN GREY and BUCK-TICK in the past. 

Anyway, with that all in mind, I'd better get back to work! I'm excited to see you tomorrow night at 37th and Zen!