Brian Redd – YouTube DJ

An mp3 of the Interview is available lower in this text and via ITunes.  Full text is below and selected portions are published in Mobile Beat Magazine – to subscribe go to https://members.mobilebeat.com.

Ryan Burger: This is Ryan Burger, the publisher of Mobile Beat magazine and we’re here with Brian Redd of DJ Tutor, and many other exploits and excitement within the DJ industry. Thank you for joining us.

Brian Redd: Thanks, Ryan.

Ryan Burger: I get to do my own talk show. I feel like Jerry Springer but without all the weird people in the audience and without all the white trash, I guess.

Brian Redd: I feel like I’m on AM radio right now. This is great.

Ryan Burger: Yeah. The wonders of Skype.

Brian Redd: Yes. The powers of technology.

Ryan Burger: Well, tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got into this whole business with your own DJ service and then we’ll eventually get into your inspiration with getting involved with DJ Tutor.

Brian Redd: Well, the DJ’ing thing started way back, I guess. I was 13 years old. I was a roller skater and I got thrown behind the booth one night when the DJ didn’t show up. I had no idea what I was doing. I had a 10 or 11-year-old girl showing me what a mixing board was and what the crossfader did and a pile of records and go with it, and that was pretty much –

Ryan Burger: And it was records back then.

Brian Redd: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, records and cassette supplements is what we called them.

Ryan Burger: Cassette tapes, yeah. Cassette singles.

Brian Redd: Supplements. Those were always fun to queue up. So that’s how the DJ thing started. But the mobile thing started a couple years later at my high school prom. That was an interesting story as well. My prom date was an exchange student from Thailand and she got it in her head she wanted to do a cultural dance for everyone. No one was interested in this cultural dance but she wanted to do it. And she was explaining to me where she wanted the DJ to fade the music out and wanted me to go relay this to the DJ. Well, I’m very embarrassed; nobody at my school wanted to see this dance.

But I went up to the DJ and I explained to them that my date wanted to do this thing and she wants it faded out when she throws the rose petals. And they gave me a really odd look and I said, “Look, I know how to work this mixing board. Do you just want me to do it?” And they threw their arms up and said, “Look, have at it, buddy.” So I did it; now, of course with two very bright PAR-64 cans highlighting me the whole time and not her.

Ryan Burger: So this actually is every DJ’s nightmare of someone coming up saying, “I can spin, too” kind of thing.

Brian Redd: Yeah. But in this case they were very happy to let me handle the situation. And I did it and I walked away and they guy grabbed me and said, “Hey, wait a minute, kid. You want a job?” So I started the next week. I was 17.

Ryan Burger: Oh, wow.

Brian Redd: I started doing weddings and was kind of embarrassed.

Ryan Burger: To give an idea where you’re at, you’re up in Milwaukee neighborhood, right?

Brian Redd: Yes.

Ryan Burger: You were at that time also then? So you’ve always been –

Brian Redd: Right. This has always been my market.

Ryan Burger: In the disc jockey thing, not that you’ve obviously gotten past being 17 years old and doing your first prom dance and your hot date there you want to somehow impress, what do you do in the way of gigs and events yourself right now?

Brian Redd: Well, I think when I first started doing it, it was great. I was working with several different people, really talented individuals, and I think there were 25 different mobile systems at the company I worked for. So I learned a lot from every single DJ that I worked with and over time my — when I go to these parties anymore I’m not so much the radio personality I think that I was when I was younger. I almost had to be that person when I was younger. Now that I’m older I approach things — when I go to a wedding — how can I explain this? I try to go there as a guest who happens to be providing a service. I don’t know how to quite explain what I do.

Ryan Burger: Are you trying to become part of the family to a degree and get to know people?

Brian Redd: I want people to be comfortable with me. I don’t want to be above anyone. I don’t want to be the center of attention. Exactly. Maybe I’m kind of like a cousin. I want to be a very approachable person at the wedding or at the event, where they know they can come up to me and they can talk to me. It’s good. I enjoy what I do. I like it but I’m struggling with explaining what my style is at this time in the morning. You’ll have to excuse me; I had a club gig pretty late last night.

Ryan Burger: How often do you work? How many jobs do you do a year?

Brian Redd: Boy, that would be hard to say. At the moment I’m probably on track for — I’m well over 100 but that includes night clubs. I’m usually working at a club right now two to three nights a week. And then the mobiles vary; sometimes I’m doing one a week, sometimes I’m doing three a week. And then I also do car shows and things like that. I have no idea how many –Yeah. I’m always working. But I like to work like that. I like to keep sharp.

Ryan Burger: Because of your connection within the industry, which we’ll get into in a little bit, you probably have accessibility to lots of different types of equipment and stuff like that. Personally when you roll out, you’re not just trying some new piece out or something like that, what do you prefer to roll out audio and lighting wise? I don’t know if you’re into video or whatever. What’s your average roll out of equipment?

Brian Redd: Well, a mixing board; just something solid, Balanced Outs are always good. I like to use a laptop. I’m using MixMeister Pro software, the Pro 6 version. I feel that by using this — I get a lot of slack from people on that. You should mix with decks and what is this? This isn’t real DJ’ing or whatnot. But with using the MixMeister software it allows me time to do other things like go out and mingle with the audience and find out who these people are and what they want to hear during dinner instead of messing around with the crossfader for no real good reason during a cocktail or dinner hour. It allows me to line up playlists, things like that. I really enjoy the software. And I bi-amp my system, not because I want to rip people’s heads of but simply because I want them to experience a little bit of bass and I like to take that ultra sub-frequency bass off of my top caps.

And for lighting, most of the time I’m going pretty mellow with lighting. I’m using a couple of LED park hands, DMX controlled. Typically I’m using two programs, a fast chase and a slow chase with a fade so I can use the same four park hands for strobbing, dancing, or for a nice color wash for a slow dance.

Ryan Burger: The flexibility of LED and DMX; the combination is fantastic, I agree.

Brian Redd: Yeah. It’s nice and I know there’s a bit of a — it’s a little bit of a learning curve for some of the old school guys but once you get into it’s good stuff. Did I answer the question?

Ryan Burger: Yeah. I think you covered it very well. So a combination of different pieces but you basis in the MixMeister software. You’ll bring in other elements as you need to but that’s your baseline.

Brian Redd: Absolutely. I do have a set of CD-Js I’m working with right now. And I’ll mix a live set here and there; I enjoy doing that. But for the most part MixMeister is a really, really nice tool for me for the road.

Ryan Burger: These events, the weddings or the corporate events, how do most people hear about you?

Brian Redd: I use an agent and I love using an agent. They handle all of the advertising and it’s nice. They keep me real busy. There are advantages and disadvantages, of course, but most of the work that I do is agency work. Other than that, it’s referrals from fellow DJs.

Ryan Burger: The word just gets around. I mean, between Chicago and Milwaukee there’s more than enough business for all the DJs around there so just find your little niche.

Brian Redd: Absolutely. And everybody out there who’s worth their weight is an independent anyway. And they all know that. You can’t be two places at once so if you get a good lead you ship it off to a friend.

Ryan Burger: You’d rather trust it to somebody you know that’s going to take care of them.

Brian Redd: Right.

Ryan Burger: Where do you see your business going in the next couple years? I mean, do you want to be working more? Do you just want to be working for a higher price? Do you ever want to get into having other people work for you being a multi-op kind of situation or where do you want to go with this?

Brian Redd: I tried multi-op once. I’ll never go there again. I just don’t manage employees well; I’m probably too nice. And I don’t like to see things disappear that I put into a mobile system. I don’t like to see strobe lights and music and what not just kind of vanish mysteriously or break mysteriously so I’m not interested in that.

I think what I really want to do — and this might sound odd — but I really want to get more into some real hands-on customer service because I don’t get into that so much at the agency. I want to be able to have meetings with my client. I want to be able to discuss some options with them, discuss some floor plans with them, some lighting options with them and things like that to really custom tailor their event; because right now the way things are working with the agency it’s primarily handled via e-mail and telephone and things are pretty much predetermined by the time I’m aware of the client even existing at all, the price is determined and everything else. So I’d like to change that. I’d like to get more hands-on with my clients before the gig.

A lot of my guys and a lot of independents are doing that right now. It’s working out really well for them. It took a while for the concept to soak in with me but I’m real comfortable with it now

Ryan Burger: Okay. The other half of your DJ life, DJ Tutor and everything around it. I mean, I got to know you — I know we had talked before Mobile Beat Vegas ’08, or this year, but that’s where I got to know you really well and know what you kind of got your fingers into there with what Jonathan has done overseas, you brought over here. Tell us a little bit about the history of Tutor, how you got involved in it, and what your goals are for everything you’re doing there.

Brian Redd: Oh, yeah. DJ Tutor. That’s a whole different very, very bizarre concept for people. Some people get it, some people don’t. Jonathan Lewis — also known as ellaskins over in Aberystwyth, Wales, United Kingdom — started doing beat mixing tutorials, turntable tutorials on YouTube in this probably 150 year old chapel that he lives in.

And it just was very bizarre. You Google “DJ tutorial” or “DJ help” and these videos would pop up from this nut who was in this old church, there’s stuff everywhere, the place is just a mess and he’s just got his camera there and a totally ragged old mixing board. He’s usually in a hat or maybe he doesn’t even have a shirt on and he’s doing this amazing tutorials on how to beat mix. And that’s something I needed some work with, needed some help with. I had rented several DVDs in the past or bought how-to DVDs on the subject that weren’t very helpful. But just by watching a few of his videos helped me to go the next level.

And he had quite an audience going. He had been doing it for probably about two or three months when I said to myself, “This guy has nothing to watch so I’m going to do a video or two just to give him something to watch.” And I think by video number three my phone rang and he got creative. He found my phone number and he said, “Look, dude. We need to partner up on this. I like what you’re doing. Let’s do this together.” And then about two months later DJTutor.com went online.

Ryan Burger: So how long have the two of you been as a so-called partnership on DJ Tutor at this point? And tell everybody a little bit about your side of Tutor.

Brian Redd: Well, let’s see. It would be January of 2007 is when we actually kicked into gear together and I tried to focus primarily on practical mobile stuff, mobile DJ work; where he’s more focusing on beat mixing, hobby DJ’ing and things of that nature. He has a much bigger audience than I do but I think what we’re trying to do is even bring more people into the community to make it come full circle and get everyone involved, the club guys, the hip hop DJs, you name it. No matter what kind of DJ you are we’d like to see a pop up videos. We’re not trying to steal the limelight on this. We’re just, I guess, trying to spearhead it for everybody.

Ryan Burger: Cool. What are you putting on average — three or four videos up every week? I mean, the style from everything I’ve seen is get the content out there. We aren’t going to pretty it up for you, but get the content out there, get something new up there all the time. I see when you’re at our shows you’re posting videos every day. It’s like basically it’s the renegade video camera.

Brian Redd: Yeah. Look out. Here he is. You can’t escape. Yeah, they were joking around — a few of the vendors were laughing about that a couple of weeks ago at the show. Yeah, I try to get videos out — I don’t know. I try to get three to seven out a week. Some weeks I do more, some weeks I do less. I try to do it on a by request basis. I get a lot of e-mails, people asking me for videos on subjects and I always try to take that into consideration because that’s what people want to see.

And I think at first I was thinking to myself, “I better not post this video because it’s not going to get a lot of attention. Maybe a lot of people aren’t going to be real concerned with this subject.” But then in retrospect it’s like, you know what? Who cares. Who cares. Let’s just get it up because somebody wants to see it and maybe somebody else will get something out of it. If someone needs something to be explained with a video, if they’re a visual learner and that’s what they need to see, then it goes out. Sometimes it takes time to do it. I try to do them right. I make a lot of mistakes. Sometimes I go back and redo things. But, yeah, try to get three to seven up a week.

Ryan Burger: How many total videos are up there? What’s your YouTube count or views or whatever — however they keep track of that kind of stuff?

Brian Redd: I’m over 480 videos right now. 484, or something like that. I’ve been lazy this week.

Ryan Burger: And they’re usually 5 to 10 minutes long. It’s not like they’re real long stuff.

Brian Redd: Short attention span all the way, which is perfect for me because I have a short attention span.

Ryan Burger: Just with all the ADHD going on?

Brian Redd: Very much, yeah. I can’t sit and listen to anybody talk for any longer than about 10 or 15 minutes. I was an absolutely terrible student. So for me to do 5 to 10 minute videos on subjects, perfect. Get it out there and shut up. This is it. And if we need a part two, we can do a part two but you can watch it in your own time.

Ryan Burger: Where do you see you personally going? I mean, tell us a little bit about where you want to take your business personally and with Tutor. Where do you see yourself going in the next couple years?

Brian Redd: That’s a good question.

Ryan Burger: I guess I should have warned you about that one in advance, but, yeah.

Brian Redd: That’s okay.

Ryan Burger: I know you’re going with me and some other people to the U.K. for a conference. I mean, are you going to be a world traveler and try to hit every cement you can imagine?

Brian Redd: Taking a lot of passport stamps coming up here pretty soon. It’s amazing how the industry has jumped on board with this and supports it. It makes me feel good that they find what I do worthwhile and they want to reach out and educate the public. Like yourself. It’s fantastic because the reality of it is I’m a mobile DJ in Milwaukee. I’m not anybody who you would have heard of otherwise if I hadn’t done YouTube videos. I’m not the greatest DJ out there, by far; I’m not the greatest DJ in my market. But I’m the one who wants to go out there and help.

You know, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. Right now I tell you as far as my business goes I’ve had the best year I’ve ever had and I think a lot of that has to do with my overall attitude adjustment I had this year on what I do. And the sky is really the limit. It’s amazing the opportunities that pop up with this, with not only my business but the DJ Tutor thing itself. I’m very careful and selective about what I get into with the DJ Tutor thing on that business end, but it’s always free to the public and we’ll see. We’ll see what happens.

Ryan Burger: I think that pretty much covers it unless there’s something else you want to get out there that people don’t know about you. Otherwise, look for the guy behind the camera with — you can only see one of his eyes. The other one is set behind the — look for him wandering at the conventions.

Brian Redd: I might want to interview you.

Ryan Burger: Yeah. Be at the DJ Times shows, the Mobile Beat shows, the BPM conference in the U.K. We will see you somewhere. Only see one eye but he’s usually around having fun.

Brian Redd: Always have the camera with me.