Close-up of a Pioneer DJ controller jog wheel and mixer, used by DRIGUO

From the studio to the DJ booth

Producing a track and building a DJ set make me listen in different ways. In the studio, I might spend hours deciding whether a bassline, vocal or extra layer helps one section. Behind the decks, I think about how one record changes the energy of the next. Both perspectives are part of the DRIGUO project.

My productions explore melodic, progressive and Afro house. As a DJ, I also enjoy deep and darker house, with occasional disco touches. I want to discover how those sounds can fit together in a set, and how thinking like a DJ can help me make clearer decisions in the studio.

Listening to a track as a producer

When I am producing, I tend to ask what a part contributes. Does the bass support the main idea? Does a vocal need another phrase? Is a new layer helping the arrangement, or competing with what is already there?

That close attention can be useful, but it can also make it difficult to hear the whole track. I can become attached to a sound because I have spent time making it. Thinking about a wider listening journey gives me another way to assess its role.

Thinking beyond one record

A DJ set asks a different question: what should happen after this? The answer involves more than matching a tempo. A change in density, mood or vocal presence can affect how the next record feels.

This is a perspective I want to bring into my arrangements. I can ask whether an entrance gives the listener enough time, whether a return feels earned and whether a section needs another element at all. These are questions to explore through listening and practice.

Giving my own music some context

One useful experiment would be to place a production between two records in a practice mix. That would let me hear how it enters, what energy it carries and how it leaves. I would listen to the sequence before making another round of changes.

A practice mix cannot tell me how a room will respond. It can still reveal whether the arrangement behaves as I intended. If I later play the track publicly, that experience can become a separate part of the story, with its own observations.

Getting back behind the decks

Now that I am based in Geneva, I want to rebuild connections in Europe and find opportunities to play again. Releasing music and returning to DJing are both part of that direction.

I want this journal to follow the relationship as it develops: a studio question, a musical decision and, when there is something real to share, what I learn by putting records together. Herebia is a starting point for hearing my own music within that wider project.

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