When the Coronavirus shut us down, clubs and festivals ceased, and everyone was essentially forced inside with no definitive end in sight, DJ Times wondered: How is our tribe coping? How are DJs getting by?
So, we sent out our “Coronavirus Questionnaire” to DJ/producers from all musical genres to find out. During this period, DJ Times will continue presenting the questionnaire responses from talented music-makers from all over the world. Here’s our latest entry, this time from the U.K., the London-based electronic talent Eden Prince.
What’s it like where you’re living? We’re currently into our third lockdown, which is the longest to date. We’re essentially not allowed to leave the house apart from for work, food shopping and exercise. I’ve spent the majority of my time making music, exercising, meditating and reading.
Did you lose important gigs, or income-producing work? I lost a couple of gigs, including my first festival, but fortunately not too much has changed for me, as my main focus has been production for the last couple of years. The main challenge has been staying motivated and inspired, especially whilst making club music with no sign of clubs re-opening.
Are you doing anything now that can or will produce music-related income? Have you learned anything in the downtime? I’ve been focusing on writing more original tracks than ever before and finding good homes to release them on. I’ve also had more time to analyze and improve my creative process, as well as strengthen my technical DJ skills and songwriting.
What are you doing now that’s ultimately constructive to your music life/career? For example, any releases during this period? My remix of Siedah Garrett’s 1985 classic, “Do You Want It Right Now,” is out now on Tinted Records. For the first time in my career, my release schedule is full, which is an amazing feeling. I feel in a very good place musically and I’m curious to see how my regular listeners respond to the new sounds I’ve been working on.
In the studio, what’s your set-up? I run FL Studio on a MacBook pro. I love both the Korg and Arturia collections, as well as Spectrasonics Omnisphere and Native Instruments KOMPLETE 13, which combined give me more than enough plug-ins to work with. For hardware, I love everything Roland and have a TR-8S to create drum grooves, as well as a TB-03 for a classic 303 sound.
What’s your creation process in the studio? Initially, I like to create quickly and move on quickly, until I have a dozen or so rough concepts. Working on multiple ideas simultaneously puts me in a mental space where I don’t put too much thought into individual tracks early on in the process. This allows me to analyze less and focus on just writing in the present moment. After a while, it becomes clear which tracks are stronger than others, and I finish the ones I connect with the most.
What’s your typical DJ set-up? My typical set up is four Pioneer DJ CDJ-2000NXS2 players and a DJM-900NXS2 mixer. For me, it just works, and from experience, I’ve found that I’d rather not look at a laptop screen whilst performing.
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve realized during this period of social distancing? I’ve realized that things can change very quickly. Not being able to see family and friends has made me understand the importance of that aspect of life. Once things go back to normal, I won’t be taking being able to spend time with loved ones for granted.
Have you done anything online recently? Have you seen any DJ video streams that impressed you? I’ve done a few live-streams and I’ve been impressed by the music industry’s ability to adapt to the current times, although its proved evident that nothing compares to real-life performances.
Any theme tunes recommended for the moment? Times like these call for feel-good music and, to me, nothing feels better than disco. So, I’ll go with George Duke’s “Reach Out” and Patrice Rushen’s “Forget Me Nots.”
Any advice on staying sane & relatively positive through this situation? I would say, first and foremost, to keep active, definitely. Your body and mind will thank you for it. This situation has given me the opportunity to improve my diet and completely reset my daily routine and sleep schedule, which has made a big difference to my health. It’s also more important than ever not to be hard on yourself during these times. We can only ever do our best on any given day and it’s easy to be frustrated at the way things are right now. Focus on the positives and understand that this won’t last forever.
To check out more Life in Lockdown interviews, click here.
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