Last year something amazing happened. I connected to a group of super-talented musicians through a project I did with my friend Jackson and Gennaro at the Groove House near Lisbon.

We got together to figure out how we could make the music scene in Lisbon better and so we embarked on a journey together. We spent a couple of very intense afternoons together debating the music industry (always interesting) and afterwards, we jammed to integrate everything that had been said during the day.

The thing is though, I don’t play a music instrument. Sure, I can shake a shaker or yell something through a mic but I am not going to steal the show with that. And although I enjoyed the jam a lot, something was missing.

The answer came at the end of the evening when Daniele and Gabor asked me if they could play with me on one of my DJ sets. The former is an amazing sax player and the latter knows how to work a drumkit. So of course, I said yes and a few weeks later they came to my house and we set everything up to play together. On that first try-out, I figured I could jam along with the music happening in the room but I just couldn’t find the right tracks and, after my brain short-circuiting for a moment, I realised that the DJ couldn’t jam along but was perfectly capable of guiding the jam.

And that’s how NEW LIVE started. We started a monthly event in a beach bar in Ericeira to rehearse as much as possible and I got to learn what it’s like to be in charge of a band and setting up a stage technically with a growing amount of artists.

Turns out. It’s a lot more challenging than setting up a DJ as I had been used to all my life. Hooking up a sax player and DJ gear to a little band mixer is doable but over time the group of musicians has grown and the amount of mics and inputs has too. Add the fact that you want to record everything every now and then and you want to give them stagemonitors, and it spirals out of control quite quickly.

The most elaborate set-up came this month when I wanted to record our set. I had a drummer with two mics recording in stereo, three guitars, a trumpet and the decks of course. I had an extra monitor for the drummer and all channels were recorded as separate channels in Ableton. Oh, and the mixer should have had a channel extra.

Needless to say, this is a lot of fun and it is stretching my abilities as a sound technician to their limits but it’s is so worth it! The feeling when everything has come together when playing and the most random amazing things start coming together. It’s just awesome.

And it’s been a journey for me too. Being a DJ for over 25 years is nice but this project is really pushing my musical boundaries and I couldn’t be happier with how it’s evolving! And it turns out it’s much easier to promote the band than it is to promote myself.

Thanks to Daniele, Gabor, Alex, Joban, Simon, Edoardo, and Dario!

And let me know in the comments if you’re interested in listening to our set and I’ll share the recording with you!

Last year something amazing happened. I connected to a group of super-talented musicians through a project I did with my friend Jackson and Gennaro at the Groove House near Lisbon.

We got together to figure out how we could make the music scene in Lisbon better and so we embarked on a journey together. We spent a couple of very intense afternoons together debating the music industry (always interesting) and afterwards, we jammed to integrate everything that had been said during the day.

The thing is though, I don’t play a music instrument. Sure, I can shake a shaker or yell something through a mic but I am not going to steal the show with that. And although I enjoyed the jam a lot, something was missing.

The answer came at the end of the evening when Daniele and Gabor asked me if they could play with me on one of my DJ sets. The former is an amazing sax player and the latter knows how to work a drumkit. So of course, I said yes and a few weeks later they came to my house and we set everything up to play together. On that first try-out, I figured I could jam along with the music happening in the room but I just couldn’t find the right tracks and, after my brain short-circuiting for a moment, I realised that the DJ couldn’t jam along but was perfectly capable of guiding the jam.

And that’s how NEW LIVE started. We started a monthly event in a beach bar in Ericeira to rehearse as much as possible and I got to learn what it’s like to be in charge of a band and setting up a stage technically with a growing amount of artists.

Turns out. It’s a lot more challenging than setting up a DJ as I had been used to all my life. Hooking up a sax player and DJ gear to a little band mixer is doable but over time the group of musicians has grown and the amount of mics and inputs has too. Add the fact that you want to record everything every now and then and you want to give them stagemonitors, and it spirals out of control quite quickly.

The most elaborate set-up came this month when I wanted to record our set. I had a drummer with two mics recording in stereo, three guitars, a trumpet and the decks of course. I had an extra monitor for the drummer and all channels were recorded as separate channels in Ableton. Oh, and the mixer should have had a channel extra.

Needless to say, this is a lot of fun and it is stretching my abilities as a sound technician to their limits but it’s is so worth it! The feeling when everything has come together when playing and the most random amazing things start coming together. It’s just awesome.

And it’s been a journey for me too. Being a DJ for over 25 years is nice but this project is really pushing my musical boundaries and I couldn’t be happier with how it’s evolving! And it turns out it’s much easier to promote the band than it is to promote myself.

Thanks to Daniele, Gabor, Alex, Joban, Simon, Edoardo, and Dario!

And let me know in the comments if you’re interested in listening to our set and I’ll share the recording with you!