“What are you going to play?”

When I announce a new show, people sometimes ask me in the comments or private messages: “What are you going to play?” It’s an understandable question, considering the musical diversity of my DJ sets, mixes and podcasts, with tempos ranging from 120 to 150 BPM!

The short answer is — I don’t know :-)

I don’t plan exactly which tracks and in what order I play, and I usually go with the flow instead. I’ve talked a little bit about this before, for example, in the post “How I organize my DJ playlists”.

That said, I have a sort of “wishlist” – a playlist where I throw in tracks I’d like to play at an upcoming event. It could be some hidden gems I recently dug in the depths of Beatport, or some hot promos I’ve recently received and am now eager to give them a road test, or just some cool old tracks that seem appropriate to play at this particular event.

Typically, there are many more tracks on that wishlist than I need for a set. For example, I can put a hundred tracks on a playlist, even though I only need about thirty tracks for a two-hour set. There were times when I played almost the entire set from my wishlist. And sometimes I played almost nothing from it, and that’s okay.

The key here is that it’s not a plan but rather something like “it would be nice to drop some of these tracks”. Just my own feeling and educated guess, given the lineup, place, and time.