I absolutely don’t do anything remotely like the guy in this picture.

Last week I did gig at an unusual venue - not a club, not a bar with live music, but a coding school / co-working space where I happen to teach. It was interesting to see that certain things we take for granted as electronic musicians and/or producers still haven’t filtered down to the mainstream. Note that I don’t mean the insiders’ mainstream but the real mainstream. Things work like this for them: 

If you’re a guy who lugs your setup in a backpack, plays without a band and doesn’t sing, you’re automatically a DJ. It doesn’t matter if you only play your own music. It doesn’t make a difference if you put up a performance with visuals, weird outfits or whatever. No argument will convince people otherwise.

Yes, electronic music has been out there since before the 60s and in pop music at large since at least the 80s, but we’re still "different”. The “you’re a DJ” thing is very hard to kill. It’s even funnier to me since I’ve never played with turntables or CDJs in my life. You’ve read that right: not even once!

The above picture also bears no resemblance to what I do.

I’m honestly not even sure I should bother. Maybe the best option is to simply say "yeah, I’m a DJ” and not care about making elaborate sets with my own tracks where I can change things on the fly. In those situations I should probably just fire up Traktor and mix my stuff with other stuff and leave the real live sets for places where people are actually open to see a live electronic act.