S4, EP7: DJing the modern wedding (guest spot on Cut The Cake podcast)

Eddy: Welcome to Project Engaged, a podcast for fun loving couples planning their non traditional wedding.

Aleks: We’re wedding DJs Aleks and Eddy Mac from Melbourne. We run a business called One More Song, and our tagline is No More Nutbush.

Eddy: In this podcast, we’ll share our wedding experiences and chat to some of our past couples.

Aleks: We’ll also interview bold wedding suppliers who share our philosophy of your wedding being a celebration of you as a couple and one epic party.

Eddy: Let’s get into today’s episode. And we’re back for yet another episode of Project Engaged. My name is Eddy.

Aleks: And I am Aleks.

Eddy: And we are wedding DJs from Melbourne. Aleks is also a celebrant.

Aleks: Thank you very much. Yes, that’s correct. So this little intro is basically for those who are new. Those of you who have been listening for a while will know exactly who we are.

Eddy: For those of you who are new. Welcome.

Aleks: Yes, welcome.

Eddy: And for those loving having you here.

Aleks: And for those who aren’t new, thank you for continuing to listen to us.

Eddy: Very much appreciated. Everybody’s very much appreciated.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: So today we have a bit of a different episode.

Aleks: Yeah, we do. So we were on the other side of the podcast mixing desk. I don’t know what you call it. Basically, we were interviewed by another wedding podcast. Yeah.

Eddy: So much fun.

Aleks: So much fun. It was great fun.

Eddy: Cut the Cake. Maybe you have heard of it.

Aleks: Yes.

Eddy: Cut the Cake podcast with Mel and Tania.

Aleks: That’s right. Yep. That’s right. Really great podcast. We were very honoured to be invited to chat about deejaying the modern wedding and no more Nutbush.

Eddy: That’s right. And you may have guessed by now, Cut The Cake podcast, they also interview a lot of wedding suppliers at the top of their game.

Aleks: Yes, that’s right. That’s right. So, yeah, as I said, we were very, very honoured to be asked to join Tania and Mel. And this episode is really just. Just goes into so much detail about what is involved in being a wedding DJ, what our style is, what our vibe is, what our couples are like. And we also have a lot of practical tips as well.

Eddy: We do. It was a lot of fun being interviewed.

Aleks: I was a little bit nervous, if I’m honest.

Eddy: But we did actually go down the rabbit hole pretty hard.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lots of detail and lots of tips about. Lots of tips, I should say, about, you know, what’s hot, what’s not on the dance floor and that sort of thing. So we really do drill down into, you know, even talking about specific songs and things, which.

Eddy: And as the title of their podcast suggests we do talk about our philosophy behind not playing the Nutbush.

Aleks: Yes, exactly. Yeah, that was. That was a hot topic that Tania and Mel were very interested in hearing about. So yeah, we hope you enjoy it.

Eddy: Enjoy, guys.

Mel: Hello and welcome to Cut The Cake, the no BS wedding podcast. Sharing industry secrets and wedding day intel couples are craving to plan and enjoy their wedding planning process with actual info you need and plenty of laughs along the way. I’m Melanie James, aka Melly Rain, and I’m joined by…

Tania: Tania Hall, aka the event Wanderer Co. And together we are your hosts, bringing over 20 plus years of wedding and event industry insights to your ears. Music undoubtedly plays one of the most pivotal roles in crafting the atmosphere and sustaining energy throughout any event or wedding. It sets the tones from the first steps down the aisle to the final dance of the night. So finding the right DJ for your day is absolutely crucial.

Mel: In this episode of Cut the Cake, we have an amazing chat with Aleks and Eddy from one more song DJ, who are the King and Queen of curating the perfect music experience for events and weddings.

Tania: We discuss the role of a DJ beyond the turntables and why personalisation trumps tradition every time when it comes to music. Oh, and also why the nutbush is totally banned from their vocabulary.

Mel: So, with that said, here is Aleks and Eddy from one more song DJ. Welcome everyone, back to another episode of Cut the Cake. We are so excited to have Aleks and Ed from one more song DJ. We have so much to talk about with you guys. Can’t wait to get into it. But before we get into some nitty gritty questions, can you first of all, just introduce yourself, give us both a little bit of an overview of both of you and what it is that you guys do at one more song DJ.

Aleks: Good question. Good question. Well, thank you for having us on. So we’re One More Song DJ’s. It’s just us. We are both DJs. We don’t DJ together. We DJ separately. Common misconception that we are.

Eddy: We’d murder each other if we go together. Honestly, we do the odd livestream each year and after that recording’s done, we just.

Aleks: We don’t talk.

Eddy: Drive in opposite directions as far away as we can. But we’re good at working on the business.

Aleks: Yeah, just not. Not on the decks, not on the tools. But we mainly work with fun, non traditional, party loving couples who get married. Mostly kind of inner city Melbourne venues, but also a little bit in the.

Eddy: Surrounding areas, a little bit of Yarra Valley.

Aleks: You see a bit more, a little bit less these days as we kind of work more in the inner city. And our tagline is No More Nutbush.

Eddy: No.

Mel: Which we are going to get into very soon.

Aleks: I have a very specific question around that.

Tania: I did notice that on your website and I was like, this is interesting.

Eddy: The great qualifier in or out. As people hit the website, it does flash up and you’re either going to jump straight off because, you know, we’re not for you or you’re going to go, this is fantastic. We love these guys already.

Aleks: Yeah, yeah. It kind of hits you. It slaps you in the face when you go to the website. Just going back to like our, I suppose our background because we didn’t really talk about that. So Ed’s been deejaying for a bit longer than me, I think, like twelve years or, I don’t know. We lost 15 now and worked for a few agencies around Melbourne as well, so had that experience of both being a DJ as well as working in the office. So as an entertainment booking manager. So you kind of got a really good insight into, you know, the business side as well as obviously the deejaying side. But you’ve been, you sort of started in bars and clubs.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah.

Aleks: Bridy O’Reilly.

Eddy: Yeah, well, I’m originally from Adelaide, so I played, you know, the odd club and bar there and sort of earned my stripes and then moved to London, played a bit around there and then. Yeah, came back to Melbourne. That’s when I started doing weddings links, which I just fell in love with, obviously, which is why we’re here. And as for Alex, how far back should I go? So Alex has a background in marketing and in the corporate space, so she was able to take all of that expertise and apply it to Tuamo. So I trained her as a DJ. She has all of my bad habits and she just ran with it, which is fantastic. So, yeah, we do work on the business together. We obviously where we DJ separate.

Aleks: Yeah, that’s good. I think the, I think the interesting thing about my background as a DJ compared to other DJs is that I was trained specifically for weddings and private events. So, like, I don’t even, I don’t even remember you teaching me. You were very good. But, um, it was a breeze, but we basically took like, went straight into what, you know, a wedding’s like, like, in terms of like, dance floor, you know, what sort of choose what sort of like, mix of genres and stuff. So it was, um, yeah, it’s quite unique. A lot of people kind of start working bars or clubs or whatever, but I was just like weddings and events and I’ve actually never played in a bar. So that probably actually leads into my question for you, which is what makes one more song different from the other DJs that are out there at the moment? I think that there are a lot of soul practitioners. So kind of one man, one man band.

Aleks: That’s a corporate speaker, sorry, soul operators. And then you’ve got the kind of. So, you know, obviously when you’re working with them, you’re dealing with them in the lead up kind of to us. And then you’ve got the kind of agencies where you’re working with a booking manager or entertainment manager, but then you kind of passed on to your DJ.

Eddy: Sort of line typically won’t get access to your DJ and the leader. In fact, there are some fantastic agencies out there. So I don’t want to, you know, shed any darkness on that. But sometimes you don’t even know who your DJ will be. So with us, you know, you get the choice. If one of us is available, then, like my barber, you’re like Alex’s vibe, like, awesome. But we also kind of cross pollinate as well. So that’s, I guess, one of our competitive edges in that, you know, we might be on different weddings. We will be on different weddings each weekend. And after the weekend’s done, we will pull up our set list, talk about what works, what’s new, and, you know, who was dancing to what and what the vibe was like before the dance all kicked off.

Eddy: So we’ve got that intel with each other as well, which I think is maybe a bit of a special sauce that kind of differentiates us from the rest.

Aleks: Yeah, I was going to say, like, some people take nice leisurely walks and have a coffee and brunch on a Sunday, or we just sit down and go through our set list. We are practitioners, so we are professional musical practitioners. So I think one of the other things that sets us apart, and it’s kind of based on our background as well, is, you know, that we really focus on helpful content for our clients. So we work a lot. You know, we have a really extensive blog. We obviously have our podcast project engage. Give it a bit of a plug.

Eddy: Are you allowed to plug your own?

Aleks: We’re all one team here, so I might get these guys on teachers. So, you know, it all works. But yeah, we worked a lot on, you know, producing content that helps out clients in not only like, wedding planning, obviously, the music side as well, other bits and pieces choosing their other vendors, their venue. And obviously we also have a lot of resources when it comes to music.

Eddy: Yeah. So we’ve got. We sort of alluded to this before. We do a yearly live stream. All the kind of new wedding trends in terms of the music that we’ve been sort of seeing flesh out. I think gimme, gimme, gimme has been overdone now. So I need some of the other questions you have. So that’s a big thing for us. We also have, I think, between us, probably over 50 or so mixes that people can access to get a bit of a vibe from the types of tunes that we play. We have short sample mixes on the website which will give you a flavour as well.

Aleks: Yeah, and we’ve got live stream. All the live streams that we do. We do put up the video and audio so you could actually see us like behind the decks and what we look like and that sort of thing.

Eddy: Energy and our vibe and our bad dancing.

Aleks: Yeah. So, yeah, so there’s a huge focus on actually helping clients in the lead up as well. That’s awesome. So in terms of the services that you provide, is it strictly weddings or are we open to all different types of events?

Eddy: I’d say we’re probably about 95% weddings. We do do some events, yeah, it’s really wedding heavy. We do do some corporate events. We do do some private parties. What we found though is that if you are a quote unquote primarily wedding DJ, wedding DJ practitioner, as we say, it actually is super helpful for other types of parties because you’re going to have a range of ages and different demographics and you need to know a variety of styles from all of the genres, all the years. So we find that wedding DJs are often, dare I said, some of the best types of DJ’s outside of the club for all sorts of parties.

Aleks: Do you find that with your corporate events, it’s clients that have seen you deejaying at weddings or have been previous clients at a wedding and now want you to do a secondary event for them? Yeah, we do quite a bit. Like we’ve. We’ve got previous brides and grooms book us for their corporate in the year party, which is fun. I just did a second one for a bride whose wedding I did in 2019, so now I’m kind of the go to for their corporate gig. You’ve had a few of those sorts of examples as well. But we do get. We do get quite a few inquiries now that, like, it took a while for corporate parties to get back after the sea thing, you know, that we don’t talk about now they’re back. We do see, like with corporate clients, they do come back year on year and, you know, you get that kind of midi rush and then you get an end of year, obviously, the Christmas season, you get quite a lot coming in. But we do get, people are interested in booking a wedding DJ for the corporate because I think, as he said, it makes sense.

Aleks: You’re dealing with so many people also, you’re used to dealing with high pressure in high pressure situations. And I don’t think there’s anything more high pressure than a wedding. So, like, corporates, a breeze. Like, everyone chills.

Eddy: Like, it’s fine, everybody chill, okay?

Aleks: Like they freak out, the senior people freak out. Their mic doesn’t work. It’s like, okay, you’re not about to walk down the aisle. Just relax, it’s fine. What do you prefer, weddings or corporate? I prefer weddings. Um, I like reason for that.

Eddy: See, obviously I love weddings, but it’s nice to throw in like a corporate and, you know, just for a bit of a change up here and there. Um, I think weddings, they all have a very good structure to them. There’s, there’s a good amount of background time that we can build the vibe up.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And once it hits dance floor, you know, you’ve got people there that obviously have been invited there as their special guests of the couple, which is really, really great. Some corporate functions. I think people feel like they have to just be there because it’s a work thing. So there’s a different vibe.

Aleks: Sometime they almost don’t want to have a few drinks and get on the dance floor. They just want to sit back and go, I need to be good. Yeah, well, it’s funny, I find the opposite, actually. Oh, really?

Eddy: You can really tell a lot about the company culture as how people, like, behave at the, you know, sometimes a weird kind of vibe is there and weird dynamics between staff members. But the best corporates are the ones that, you know, they’ve got a great culture. Everyone really wants to be there. They, they love their boss and they’re there for a good time.

Aleks: Now, you guys touched on this earlier, and I do want to dive into it a bit more because I think this definitely does set you apart from so many other DJ’s out there. And you do have slathered all over your website and on your instagram page. No more nut Bush. So the mic is yours. Please elaborate why you guys are just not into the nut bush and why you? I’m assuming will never play it. It was actually. We came up with that tagline based on what our clients were telling us. So we didn’t start off with that. It was just something that kept coming back in.

Aleks: The music brief from couples was, we don’t want anything corny like the nut bush, the Macarena chicken dance. They’re the kind of top three. And no more nut Bush. You know, a bit of alliteration. We love that for marketing. And so really, it echoes what our couples think, regardless of what their family wants. A lot of our couples just don’t want to be associated with probably what they say is, I don’t know, like tacky weddings. And unfortunately, to a lot of our couples and their networks, that type of music and doing like a. Something that is reminiscent of a primary school disco is just not cool. Is that right?

Aleks: Yeah, I’m blaming. I’m blaming our clients, basically.

Eddy: Yeah. We were very much led by clients on that. And it’s funny that Alex mentions the difference between what our, say, clients or couples want compared to, like, a general punter at a wedding. A funny story about the nut Bush and the request of the nutbush at a wedding. This is a couple of years ago now on our business cards. As you can imagine, we have No More Nutbush on the back of them. So, you know, when you hand them out, you always get a bit of a kick out of it. But I remember someone requesting the number. Bush particularly. I said, oh, you know, what was the first time I did this, by the way?

Eddy: I’ll give them a card and I’ll see how that. How that kind of goes. Gave this person a card and they were so just disgusted that I’d have that on a card, that they tried to tear the card up, but we’ve got really good stock, so they couldn’t. They could actually tear. We spend money on our cards, so they couldn’t tear the cards. So they then proceeded to just look at me and just peg the card and it hit me in the head. And the funny thing about that situation was I wasn’t even angry because that’s passion.

Aleks: Yeah. So you gotta hand it to them.

Eddy: I gotta answer, you know, they did apologise to me after, like, it’s all good. But I thought, yeah, this is great. So he creates an emotional response no matter what it is, which is all good marketing.

Aleks: Right?

Mel: Oh, my goodness. I was literally going to ask, like, have you had anyone actually request it? And it has it backlash.

Aleks: Yeah, it happens pretty often and the people can be persistent that’s with any request, really. But, you know, we have a section in the brief that the couples fill out that says, you know, what are your do not plays. And the Naples is often on there as the first thing. So it’s a no. Like any guest, I don’t care who you are, if the couple says no, it’s a no. If they’re really persistent, I’ll say, cool, come back with the bride, groom, whoever, and they never do. Or we’ll get a have a knowing look across the dance floor and a shake of the head.

Eddy: Absolutely.

Aleks: It’s an absolute note. I’ve only played it once at a wedding in six years. And that was in an ironic way for a lovely scottish groom who had all his scottish family over. And he said, can you play a nutbush? Just because they don’t understand this dance that the Aussies do to it. So it’ll be really funny. And it’s ironic because this particular groom was so fussy about music as well. And that is the only wedding where I’ve played the nut. And it was only because it was ironic.

Eddy: Look, on the other side of the coin, we completely understand that there can be family or friends in jokes and, you know, there can be a little corniness injected into weddings at the right time. And we think that’s great and we’re not opposed to that whatsoever. I think for us it is just that almost like a gatekeeping situation where we just aren’t the right DJs for couples that want all that kind of stuff.

Aleks: Because if you want that, you want other stuff that we probably wouldn’t play either.

Eddy: Yeah, exactly. So there are the DJ’s that are more than well placed to spin that kind of stuff. It’s just not us. But there’s always exceptions to the role, obviously, too.

Mel: I think it’s a very, very clear distinction from you from other DJs, which I love, because you can tell from the get go that you’re not in, quote, like the traditional DJ and you are going to bring the party. And I personally love that vibe. So, hey, that’s what the tagline is. Fantastic. Why don’t you just add, like, no nut bush chicken dance Macarena right on the end, like really just get them all out.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah. We’ll put a little star and we’ll just have in the disclaimer down the bottom, like all the tracks that we just.

Aleks: It’s funny because there’s like, you know, you mentioned there’s some tracks, like three. Some guilty pleasures or whatever. All these other tracks that are also controversial, like, I don’t know, the horses, which no. Really divides people. We wouldn’t. I don’t think we would go out of our way ever to play that type of music. Like the pub rock kind of pub sing along. That’s not really our, like, vibe, obviously, for couple ones are absolutely. And there are some couples who have, you know, really very funky, cool. I mean, obviously eclectic music tastes that are like, you know what?

Aleks: This is just something, I don’t know, from when they were younger or whatever, you know, it’s just a huge song or they’re like a private school crowd. Private school crowds, you, you know, often get kind of horses at the end. So. Yeah, it’s one of those things, isn’t it? Like someone could come out with no more horses tomorrow.

Eddy: Yeah, I think there are. Yeah, I think there are DJs that sort of try to. To mention that they don’t do anything.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And some couples like, yeah, we love this. We might soul, funk, disco, all this cool stuff. But we understand that our crowd is going to really enjoy the horses later on, so let’s just throw it into the mix. So it’s really a balancing act between, like, as much as it pains me to say this, but putting the branding of the couple musically on their dance and then balancing it out with what people are actually going to dance to. They’re not going to dance to this ultra cool, like, Melbourne rooftop bar vibe all night. So that’s.

Aleks: But those are good weddings.

Eddy: Can’t play, like, Krangben for the whole night. You’ve got to throw some September in there at some point.

Mel: Yeah, 100%. You know, when like, a new song will come out and everyone is obsessing over it. They play it and play and play and play and play it to the point where you just get so sick of it. Is there any songs that you guys would kind of predict at this point that a newish. And you’re like, give it twelve months or even six months and everyone’s going to be like, no, I think it.

Eddy: Depends on how new. So one that we’ve found now is the Rasputin re edited. Not a lot of no list now.

Aleks: Because it’s just been Tania’s, like, yeah.

Eddy: A few years before that it was the Jabelle sax song that was. Yep. Overdone. Let’s. Let’s kill that. Um, but we’re finding at the moment it’s Rasputin and even gimme, gimme, gimme by Abba that, that sergeant slick remix that’s been done to death as well.

Aleks: The one thing I would say is about new, really new songs. So most of our couples, like, in terms of age, are probably a little bit not older, but maybe, like, the youngest would be, like, late twenties. Most of them are, like, in their thirties, I would say, and up. We’ve got class right into their fifties, sixties. But I would say, like, a lot of them say they don’t love, like, new commercial songs. Like, part of that is, I think the really young couples love, for young guests, love the stuff they hear on TikTok or Instagram reels. It’s like remix to death, but they only know 30 seconds of it. It’s actually really hard to play at an event. And I’ve had a couple of, like, weddings where I’ve had younger guests and that you literally, like, after 30 seconds, there’s that makeba whatever song that went around, you know, on TikTok or whatever.

Eddy: Did he sing it?

Aleks: No. You could play it later. You know that one, so. That one, yeah, I know the two. So I had actually requested and I literally just played the 30 seconds that’s on TikTok because, like, no, then, like, everyone’s dancing. Woo. And then it goes into some weird verse that no one knows. So, yeah, we’re seeing a little bit of that. So a lot of our couples actually don’t want super new stuff unless it’s, like, dancy stuff, because they love to go to festivals and, like, electronic music, like Fred, again, for example, is really popular.

Eddy: You also run the risk of polarising the older crew that might be there as well. So maybe the parents or even the grandparents not having any idea what’s playing. Sometimes it’s not a problem. They’ll just dance anything. You get those really magic dance laws where. And you’ve had a few of these recently where everyone’s going to dance. Everything matter what you’re playing, as long as it survived. I wish all weddings were like that. Um, but you do. You do have to play things that people just won’t dance to, things they don’t know.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And even though there might be a small amount of people that would know those TikTok things, it’s going to be very small amount of people, which are probably on the younger side.

Aleks: Yeah. And they’ll only dance 30 seconds anyways.

Eddy: Yeah.

Tania: It is one of those things, like, you know when you’re on the dance floor and if you know the soul, you’re all into it, but the second it ends and you’re like, I don’t know the next song, time to go and get another drink. And so it’s that whole, like, yeah, I remember that from many a party. It’s like, oh, I cut it and it’s like, off my go.

Aleks: I think it’s. It’s interesting as well because it’s such a big day for the couple and obviously you still want people to go get a drink and go to the bathroom and mingle and go to the photo, but whatever. So it’s not a bad thing when people go. So you kind of have to rotate the dance floor. So you’ve got a group of, you know, the couple with their friends, but then they go off because they’re gonna take photos or something. So you might play, I don’t know, three old school r and b tracks in a row or something because you’ve got that vibe going. But then when they leave and there’s like, you know, grandma’s there, you might put on some beatles or whatever, like, you’ve got to constantly mix it up and watch who’s on there. Who you trying to get back on. I mean, that would be similar in a bar, right?

Eddy: We call it reading the crowd. You may call it radio.

Tania: We’re going to hear the end of these amazing, completely random question here. What is the most out there song that you’ve ever had requested? Like, you’ve had to search through everything to try and find it?

Eddy: It’s a good question. I’ve got one story. So quite a few of our couples will, on their RSVP, as part of the RSVP, ask for one or two songs that will be on the dance floor. I don’t remember that particular song, but I’ll give you the artist. And it was towards the end of the night and, like, great wedding. It was at glasshouse inside, um, in Cremorne. And this gentleman came after me, like, tatted it, like, everywhere. Like, really cool looking dude. Like, rings everywhere. Really tall, like just a cool guy, you know, like, where do I look?

Eddy: Almost, like, dauntingly cool, I suppose.

Aleks: Like, whoa, you’re into it.

Eddy: And he’s like, oh, you’re going to play my song. And I’m like, oh, I’ve got like, like, what is it? Like, you know, in this point, I was into, like, sing alongs and those really high energy things to bring us home. And he’s like, oh, it’s a nine inch nail song. And I’m like, oh, no, that one actually never made the list to me because the couple would vet, obviously everything they didn’t want. Unfortunately, nine inch nails wasn’t, wasn’t on the list. But the poor guy. Yeah, he looked robbed.

Aleks: Sorry the couple didn’t like your songs. I mean, the cup couples, I would take, I would say take out like 70% of the guest requests. So it can be, yeah, it can be a good thing or. But, yeah, the results are a bit mixed.

Eddy: Yeah. So probably the crate and, like, you really struggle to play a nine inch dance.

Aleks: I think. I think sometimes, like, I can’t probably name any specifics, but, like, people will come up to you and, like you were saying you’re at the height of the dance floor. Like, I don’t know, you’re playing like, those commercial dance bangers going into, like, singalongs and stuff and they’ll request, like, a real downer, like Celine Dion. I think someone requested Celine Dion. Like, we have a ballad. I’m like, no, there is a time for a ballad and the dance floor is not one of those legs. Well, actually, funny that you mentioned that, Tania, because we sort of have a. No ballads no more. So even during background, we don’t play. We try and keep things light and fun and upbeat from the get go.

Aleks: So we might play some, like, neo soul kind of cool, groovy stuff, but no ballads unless it’s like pre serv, you know, pre ceremony aisles.

Eddy: I go far as far as, like, Alicia Keys and the ballad side of things. That’s the, that’s the limit. I wouldn’t go, Del, I’m going Ed Sheeran. Ed Sheeran. I’m not, you know, but our clients appreciate that, unless it’s an ironic sort of thing.

Tania: Is Ed Sheeran done like, because obviously he, oh, I can’t even remember the name of it right now. That song, the one where he dances and all that type of thing. That was like in song quite a few years ago. That’s it for the weddings and because everyone was into it and it was like the most requested song and, yeah, it was crazy.

Eddy: We don’t really play. There’s one, there’s one old wolf. I’ve got a remix shape of you, which is okay but super snobby, but.

Aleks: It was too easy. We’re just fussy.

Eddy: You mentioned, like a certain year of a certain song. Because in a previous life, I remember playing weddings when I worked for an agency before Wong Wu Song and pretty much it by 50% of weddings. The first was all of me. John legend party started, was happy, was happy by pharrell. And I think now I’m like, as clients I look back, like, did you really make a good choice there? Those songs are gone. Like, she’s a classic. Like, come on, guys.

Aleks: I think just, just on that point with time, as time goes on, yeah, the good stuff kind of stays and the crappy stuff just fades away and reminds you of, like, just crappy radio music. I think that’s the stuff. Like, look, it’s a tricky balance and it’s always dependent on what our couples like, but we have our preferences. Like, in terms of new artists that you might hear on the radio, we have preferences of artists that we would play and then others that we would definitely not play, but our clients luckily agree with. So it’s all kind of dependent on what they like.

Eddy: You know, you do a leapers some of your weekends, some of your doja categories, like, just the stuff that’s a vibe with some of your drags I’m not sure about. Definitely.

Aleks: Yeah. But dua Lipa’s, you know, got that really groovy, funky sound that works really well at an event and you’ve got other artists kind of the more like trap or whatever. The new version of r and B is just really melancholy downers. Like with you, it’s got, like, it’s very monotone. Like, it doesn’t. Not much highs and lows in a track and it just doesn’t. We’re trying to get people ready to dance as soon as they walk in the door. Like we’re building them up. Playing that kind of music just is.

Eddy: Not going to get you anywhere on the most part. I mean, it’s all subjective, but on the most part it is more upbeat, happy, fun vibes. Less of that downer, ballady, monotonal, sort of cool.

Aleks: So in saying that, then if a couple’s coming to you and they’re looking for their DJs, what should they consider when, you know, starting to go down the rabbit hole of Googling, you know, finding that DJ that’s going to be, as we like to say, their person for the potential day. Yeah. There’s so many things to look at, isn’t there? I mean, obviously, like Google reviews are a very starting point in terms of the website. I would say if you’re looking at the. Have a look at the website and then with all the other platforms, just cheque that it all matches up like that, they’re the same consistent kind of person. Does that make sense to me?

Eddy: I think you’ve hit the nail on the head when you said there. I think the risk that you run sometimes is not being able to even meet with your DJ before signing them for your wedding, I think it’s really, really important that you develop a one on one relationship with that person that’s going to be at your wedding, much like you would your photographer, much like you would your celebrant and other key suppliers. So without that relationship, it’s really hard to get a gauge on both sides preferences, what that DJ is good at, what you really want from them. So I always say if I can have a beer with that person and enjoy myself and they’re a good fit. So if couples kind of have that mindset and make sure that they can meet that person that’s going to be there, that’s going to bring those vibes, that’s like paramount.

Aleks: Yeah, but as you’re doing your research to make the shortlist to meet the people.

Eddy: Sorry, I went.

Aleks: No, no, you’re there. Yeah, definitely. But as I usually do, people do like to be the stalking, you know? Yeah, obviously. Instagram. I think a lot of our couples actually find us by talking to their other suppliers. So a lot of, like, celebrants that we work, that we work with regularly, photographers. And it’s kind of nice for the couple, too, because they often comment like, oh, it’s so nice. You all know each other and you’re going to work together on the day. There’s this synergy and everyone’s hugging and taking photos together and laughing and there’s just such a nice vibe.

Aleks: And I think the couples enjoy that as well. And it means that, you know, that, you know, if you bonded with your celebrate, for example, and they recommended the DJ that they work with, you know, they’ll be in a similar kind of vibe to your, you know, to your other vendors. So I think that’s important. I think also the stuff we talked about before, like content, like, particularly like listening to mixes and, you know, Spotify playlists and just seeing the types of tunes that the DJ plays to see that it’s the right bit. So obviously with us, you know, straight away, we don’t play the Nutbush. So you kind of get a sense of what watching will play, hopefully. And by listening to our mix and stuff. What else? Obviously, Instagram. The usual.

Eddy: The usual Instagram thing, I guess. I guess, like coming back to Instagram, I guess it is a validation tool. You know, you, you notice when you’re looking for DJ’s that their website’s nice and polished. You want to make sure that there’s plenty of activity going on there. Instagram, it’s not going to be as polished, but it’s going to be real gritty content, behind the scenes things and things like that that you should look out for.

Aleks: Yeah. And that they’re actually doing weddings, like.

Eddy: Yeah, that’s helpful.

Aleks: So, like, see videos of dance floor footage. Also, you know, cheque out where your DJs featured on real weddings to see if that weddings are kind of a good fit in terms of the atmosphere you’re going for. Again, the other vendors, the venues that they work in. So, you know, looking at directories, hopefully your DJ has a blog that talks about some of the weddings that they’ve worked on. Goes. You know, we, on our blog, we do like little real wedding features. So we’ll, you know, talk about weddings that we’ve done, what the music brief was. We’ll even create a Spotify playlist with our actual set list in it so you can see what we played. So you get a really good sense.

Eddy: Well, the more that you find with everything we just listed there, if they’re ticking all those boxes, you’ll just know straight off about they’re passionate about what they do, which is really, really important. You’ve got to be, I mean, not telling you guys anything, you got to be passionate to be in this industry. You can’t do it like. Yeah, so just, just, you know, obviously make sure that they’re super passionate and you’ll get a good sense of their vibe with. With everything that research.

Mel: Yeah, yeah, totally. And two things there. Firstly, blog, I reckon that’s such a great idea. I would never think about that for a DJ to like showcase your real weddings because I think it’s such a valuable thing for couples to see, obviously, how you work and the vibe you bring and the type of solos you playing and stuff like that. So I think that’s a great idea. Maybe. Shame on me, but I didn’t realise that as a DJ, like, you would share your setlist or your Bible, whatever, on Spotify and stuff. I reckon that’s amazing. I did not know that.

Aleks: You clearly didn’t do your research before that. A lot of didn’t. Clearly a lot of. A lot of. A lot of DJ’s worried about and.

Eddy: I’ve never understood why. I feel that a lot of DJ’s, they sort of feel like they’re protecting their ip from other DJ’s, but your client is not a DJ. It’s. It’s a couple that wants to hear what you’re playing. So I’ve never understood that, but yeah, it’s a. It’s a great. It’s been a great tool for us.

Aleks: Yeah, actually, that reminds me. Probably should plug that a bit more. Thank you, Mel, for reminding us.

Mel: No, I think it’s a great idea. And I like, personally, as a planner, I would direct people to that, to cheque you out. Like, yes, you can direct people to Instagram and their website and stuff like that, but you guys are such a music audio platform. That is such a great way to show people what you do and what you’re all about. So I think that’s a great, great move by you guys.

Aleks: Yeah, I think we kind of pick weddings that, because sometimes you’ll get weddings that are pretty similar, like, pretty sort of standard in terms of the flow. But we try and pick weddings that maybe had a little bit of a different brief. So, you know, if a couple’s really into, like, really funky disco, we’ll upload the full mix so you can see exactly what we played, how we played it. Like, it’s recorded live, we don’t edit it. It’s literally what we played on the night. And then the Spotify playlist just shows you at a quick glance exactly what we played in the order that we played it. So. Yeah, that’s a good point.

Eddy: No, but, like, I think that the questions that we get from couples that perhaps haven’t listened to our music, do you, like, leave gaps in songs or do you just, like, put a mix on and don’t do any deejaying or dance or. And I think that’s, like, a result of what they have seen at some of the weddings they’ve been to. And I guess, you know, clients want to know that you can maybe blend a song in and drop a song at the right time and understand how to phrase music. And once they sort of hear that. Okay, cool. That’s great. I’m at ease now because I’m not going to have these awkward silences between songs and things like that, or opposite.

Aleks: Which is like, train wreck mixing just for the sake of mixing. Very, very good point.

Mel: I think that’s one of the other things, too. Like the amount of people that I just see looking for, like, so talking about in music and outreaching into Facebook groups and going, oh, why can’t I just put a Spotify playlist on? Why do I need a DJ? Well, great. Knock your socks off. Go for it. However, there’s an art and a skill in what you do, and I don’t think people, like, they probably don’t understand it, which goes to show, they probably don’t understand the music that they’re talking about and, you know, that they’re wanting to play. They’re just like, oh, you stick a playlist on and away we go. And it’s.

Aleks: It’s so much more than that. I think they don’t. Maybe they don’t value music or it’s just not a priority for their wedding.

Eddy: Which is totally fine. And if it’s a smaller gathering, maybe just a dinner that you can sit down, dinner post ceremony. That’s an awesome opportunity to get a nice, curate curator playlist and put that on the background. But yeah, I think it’s funny that you’re only really going to know what’s up after the fact, but it’s too late. Too late. Yeah. So it just means that you can’t go back in time.

Aleks: I think it’s the. Yeah, I think the problem is that, um, you know, you’ve got, you think about like, so we’ll DJ, you know, for 5 hours at the very minimum. And like, that’s 5 hours of creating an atmosphere. So without that, like that, if that’s important to you, like having a fun, upbeat atmosphere, then you’re gonna lose that. We’ve seen the Spotify playlist that like couples have put together for like their engagement parties or whatever, and they’re just all over the shop. It’s like Calvin Harris, you know, there.

Eddy: Is that build, but there’s also. You’re watching people as well. It just means you can make changes and change the mood and change the vibe and watch for even when people are sitting down and they’ll be popping along to a song. So you’re like, okay, cool. So they like this, they’re gonna like x, y and z. So I’ll just put that in the bank there and, you know, we’ll wait to dance floor. But it’s. Yeah, it is a weird one. And I think people, you know, you only have, usually only have a wedding once and that, you know, it’s. It’s one of those things that people just sometimes don’t think about.

Mel: You did mention literally just before, which kind of leads me into thinks this next question to me, and I’m sure you would agree, a DJ 100% makes or breaks the atmosphere of a wedding. Like, if you’ve got a good DJ, right, party on. Great times. Like you said, they can read the room, play what’s appropriate, all that type of stuff, and bad DJ not so good. It just all goes belly up. So how would you guys suggest as DJ’s, how do couples create, I suppose, like, the ultimate fun atmosphere, particularly when they’ve got a DJ involved.

Aleks: Big couple energy.

Eddy: Yes.

Aleks: Big couple energy.

Eddy: Couple has to, like, arrive with that big BCE, big couple energy and that will just put everything to the next level.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: Their tribe will be energised. Their guests will be energised. Us as DJ’S. Absolutely. We set the vibe. We play the right songs at the right time, but without the crowd coming to the party and the couple really wanting to be there and tear it up on that dance floor, it just makes our job ten times aside.

Aleks: Yeah. Yeah. Are we stolen bce from the wet shed?

Eddy: Yeah.

Aleks: So, ladies, thank you. Amy and Mel We love that eco energy. You definitely notice a big difference. So, yeah, the energy that you bring to your day makes a huge impact. There are other things that you can add as well to your reception to make it super fun or your ceremony. Things like, you know, late night espresso martinis, always go down a tree. Fun things like photo booth. I want to plug the stuff that we have that you can add on as well. Photo booth.

Aleks: Or actually not even if you don’t want to kind of go for a photo booth, even just having dance floor props. So, you know, like the, I don’t know how long the heart sunnies will be around for. They’re still around for a while, but, like, having, like, a box of, like, props and polaroid cameras and we, we often find those props bleed onto the dance floor, make for great photos and people feel a bit more loose when they’ve got the sunnies on, too.

Eddy: I had a cardboard cutout of the groom recently, and the real human flesh groom didn’t dance, so they got a cardboard cutout that was dancing. Unique things like that that can really elevate. Elevate the night.

Aleks: Yeah. Yeah. Other fun stuff as well. Audio gif book we think is fun. Obviously, that’s not so much maybe in terms of, like, contributing to the dance floor, but as people get drunk, the messages get funnier. But, um, stuff like that is really fun. A fun way to capture, you know, and you often get comments as well. You can hear the music in the background, you get. Get comments from people like, we’re having the best time and, you know, we haven’t stopped dancing and it’s just fun. Yeah.

Aleks: Another fun way to kind of capture the. Capture memories. And people get a kick out of it as well. I think they do. It’s still pretty.

Eddy: And coming back to something I mentioned before, having guest requests on those rsvps, if they’re vetted correctly does give those guests a bit of buy in. So when that song comes, I was like, oh, my God. Like, Auntie Jill’s like, this is my song. Like, girls just want to have fun.

Aleks: And get on the dance floor. Auntie Jill.

Eddy: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So just. Just getting buy in from, like, first of all, being present as the couple and having your guests really bought into the wedding day and the dance floor itself, I think, goes a long way.

Aleks: Yeah. And this is one that I think, mel, you may have mentioned as well. Just, like, thinking about the run sheet and the order of things as well. So one big thing I spoke to a couple about this before we recorded was, you know, don’t have your, like, sunset photos or one dance floor song in. We talked about bringing in a couple energy. If you’re not on the dance floor at the beginning or you do your first dance and then you just shoot off, people is gonna be like, what’s going on? And you just lose. It will just fall flat. So thinking about, you know, talking to all of your vendors, the vendors that we work with are awesome. Everyone will have their input into their own.

Aleks: You’ve got someone like Mel, you know, obviously kind of putting that together for you is great, but little things like that actually make a big impact as well. To the adversary of the day, 100%. I could not agree with you more. So what you’ve just said actually lead perfectly into the next question around the playlist. And obviously, you know, Auntie Joan going, please play, girls just want to have fun.

Tania: When selecting your final playlist for an event, how much input do you get from the couples? Ergo, how much vetting have they done of their guests requests before they come to you? Basically.

Aleks: So we don’t have a pre prepared playlist at all because obviously, as we talked about, you don’t know what’s gonna happen on the night. What we do is we take a brief from the couple. So we have something called the party brief. It’s an online questionnaire they fill out and lead up. It’ll guide them through all of their music preferences. So you can kind of tick the genre you like would like to hear the most. So sorry. We’ve got some, like, vibe playlist kind of group different genres together. Like a get funky Sunday sesh. You can tick the ones that you like the most.

Aleks: You can throw in a link to a Spotify playlist of requests. We kind of take all of that information and our experience, prepare everything, obviously, including key moment songs. But then on the night itself, we’re working song to song most of the time.

Eddy: Yeah. And we’re careful also to sort of encourage our clients to think more about artists and genres rather than particular songs to an extent. Obviously, they’ll have their die hard favourites they really want to hear, which is totally cool. The reason why we’d ask for artists instead of particular songs for everything is that there are artists that have great tunes that we can play for background as well as for dance fall later on. So it really builds in some flexibility for us to be creative. The best weddings that I’ve ever played, basically the ones where I am given the most. The most creativity with obviously their preference.

Aleks: Yeah, I think it’s important. There’s a balance of strike.

Eddy: There is. There is definitely a balance to strike there, but I think it’s every DJs worst nightmare to have a list where you cannot stripe from that list. You must stick to this. And even worse, I’ve seen some sort of person stories where they had doing the order as well.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: And that’s like. That is Spotify players material that is.

Aleks: Literally just pressing play. So we have. And all of our couples vary. They all want a great party. Some of them are really fussy music lovers and some of them are a little bit more open and don’t mind as much. So, you know, some couples will give us literally, the couple for Friday have given me like 30 hours of playlist like requests in Spotify and for a six hour wedding, I think. And I just said, cool, I’m just going to jump in and just pull out the stuff that I think I want to play that will work. And you can tell straight away there’s stuff on there that I won’t play and then I’ll obviously building my own stuff, but that’s only in our preparation folder. It’s not a playlist as such. We’ve got like a number of folders divided different parts of the night.

Aleks: The couple’s requests, guest requests, their Spotify requests, other stuff that we think might work. So we prepare about double the amount. So for a six hour waiting, 12 hours, and then we’ve got our entire library to go off as well. So. Yeah, so you get a lot of input? As much as you’d like, but at the end of the day there’s no playlist delivered. It’s a lot of the work is actually done on the night based on library.

Eddy: Yeah. I think there’s more work done in prep than people would realise.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: So I often kind of say we’re the opposite to a photographer in that we do a bunch of work in the lead up, whereas, like, they do all the editing after we’re sort of after the work, we’re kind of the inverse of a photographer.

Aleks: Yeah, that’s a great way to describe it.

Mel: Out of curiosity, because you’ve now got my brain going into overdrive. Say, the couple which create their RSVP and they had the word artist request instead of song request. Would that be something that would actually be more helpful for you guys as DJ’s, as opposed to saying, right, he’s just the one specific song that I want.

Aleks: Plate. Oh, my God. I’m actually. That’s a post for tomorrow. Thank you.

Eddy: Absolutely.

Aleks: That’s so much better.

Eddy: Absolutely.

Aleks: Yeah, I’m changing my designs. I’m changing all my designs. Requirement. Yeah, that’s awesome. And I think that’s. Yeah, that’s really helpful. And there’s stuff that, as you mentioned, that we can play throughout the whole day.

Eddy: I think it kind of flips thing as well. Like, it’s easy. I love, like, I love the Nutbush – it’s great, but if, you know, would you say Tina Turner? I don’t know. If you would, you probably say Whitney Houston. So it will change.

Aleks: Well, we can disagree. There you go.

Mel: Are you like, like, when you guys have dinner together or you’re, like, having a drink or something? Are you just constantly like, no, this song. No, this song? No, this one’s better. No, this one’s more popular.

Eddy: Oh, yeah. It’s a curse. Curse. Because whenever you’re out, 30% to 40% of your brain is literally integrated at all times. You’re like, oh, I’d like, you know, this song is good in this part of the wedding. That’s not gonna be good in that part of the week. We often joke, like, when we finally retire, we’re gonna be like, oh, we can actually just listen to music just to enjoy it and not actually think, where does this fit in a wedding.

Aleks: Guy I know I’ll, like, turn around to Ed and be like, why haven’t I played this during cocktail hour? And he’s often like, shut up. Stop talking about work.

Eddy: I’m also thinking the same.

Aleks: And then he’s like, mental note. Add it to.

Eddy: Yeah, get me my phone out. Shazam.

Aleks: Constantly in notes on your phone, typing in songs, and just add to lists.

Eddy: Yeah, it’s the DJ’s curse.

Mel: I can imagine. I want to talk about some logistical side of things, because that’s just where my brain goes all the time when I’m talking weddings and events and I want to talk about equipment, and I think specifically around, like, as the DJ’s, that you are solos. What equipment do you bring to venues on a wedding day? Like, is that something that couples would need to source externally from you guys? And if you do have a bit of a cool setup, because I know some people do.

Aleks: I’m sure you do, knowing how you guys operate, what is your setup? So it depends on what the venue has going on with sound as well. So some inner city venues that we play have an in house sound system, so that changes a little bit, which is why we always meet with couples to talk about this stuff. So an example of that is like, a half acre in south Melbourne will have their own. So that. And they actually provide a big booth as well. So we’ll normally just bringing our decks in those sorts of situations and other bits and pieces, cables that we need, et cetera. But our standard kind of setup for a reception is a kind of sleek black booth, DJ decks. We’ve got a couple of wireless mics, and we’ve got two kind of sleek, what I call columnaray makers. You’re welcome.

Aleks: So we basically come with everything that you would need for a reception in terms of both music and announcements.

Eddy: For one room.

Aleks: For one space. One space. This is where it gets tricky.

Eddy: Yeah, we go down the rabbit.

Aleks: Yeah, well, so in some cases, I think this is probably something that we’ll talk about. But in some cases, you might have cocktail hour in different space and we might be booked for that time. In most cases, I would say we bring a small speaker that you would see a lot of celebrants use, which is like the bose s one pro. It’s really good and you can charge it ahead of time. You don’t need any cables, you don’t need to power or anything. And we’ll curate a playlist for that part of the day. Normally it’s 45 minutes to an hour through some DJ software on an iPad, so it blends nicely for that part of the day. So that’s kind of a separate bit of equipment. And that’s the same for ceremony as well. So we can do that for ceremony and look after tunes for that part of day.

Aleks: Normally you only need kind of one extra speaker for that.

Eddy: Yep. And some venues that have, say, trickier layouts or they’re really long or they’re quite large. We’ll have our standard setup that Alex mentioned, and then we might throw a satellite speaker further down if it’s, you know, tricky or if there’s a weird wall or something like that. Just so sound is dispersed everywhere where we’re pretty meticulous with this and we want to ensure that, like, we’re not absolutely smashing grandma. That’s sitting like a few metres away with our main setup would rather kind of intersperse speakers around the venue where we can. Where it’s safe to do so. So again, everything at a lower volume, but it’s just fills a room nicely. So there are, there are ways that we can kind of work around that too.

Aleks: Yeah, normally our either we’re plugging into the venue sound system, in which case we just bring our decks and other bits and pieces. Otherwise our standard setup is normally enough if it’s one decent sized space. A lot of venues have in house mics as well, which means they’ve got in ceiling speakers. So you’d have to worry from a sound perspective for like speeches and stuff. But in terms of like for music. Yeah, there’s. There’s a few venues that, you know, like, say like cafe type venues might say they’ve got a sound system, but it’s really just like, were they playing cheese while people having brunch? Not really appropriate per dance floor. So in those situations, we would just bring our speakers in most of the time, just so couples know. Yep.

Aleks: I don’t have to hire anything extra.

Tania: So you said earlier as well, like, you know, you can turn up for 5 hours, potentially. Do you do the music just for the reception into the evening? Ergo, the dance floor, the most important part? Or will you potentially come in earlier and do the music during the ceremony, cocktail hour, that type of thing?

Eddy: Yeah. Where it makes sense. Absolutely. We can do everything from the first moment someone walks into the venue or ceremony space, all the way to that last song at the end of the night. Yeah, it really depends on the preference. You know, I’m a big fan of, say, an acoustic artist that does the ceremony. It’s a really nice touch, I think. And then, you know, the DJ starts for maybe cocktail hour or as a reception begins. So I’m a big fan of that. But yeah, to answer your question, we can.

Eddy: We can do everything from, from the very beginning. And sometimes that’s just easy for couples. Just, you know, would send them an extra questionnaire that will cover pre ceremony vibes, their key moments, songs for ceremony and the post ceremony vibe. And it’s. Everything is just done by one vendor. It’s. It’s all good. They don’t have to worry about it. So. Yeah, we can.

Aleks: Yeah, I would say for ceremony as well. And I’m sure Mel, you tell people this, you need an extra 2 hours just for ceremony in terms of music, because you need half an hour as people arrive, or. Sorry. And including cocktail hour. Half an hour. People arrive half an hour for the ceremony and then at least an hour for cocktail hour afterwards. So our ceremony normally covers.

Eddy: Yeah, I’d say at least huddling hours, people. Right, because the oldie thing. An hour and a half.

Aleks: Oh, they’re so early. You get so early.

Eddy: Yeah, they’re like, bad. They’re there so early.

Aleks: The other thing to mention as well is it also depends on the venue. So in some spaces, it’s basically one space that you get married in and have the reception in. So we can actually play from the decks so you don’t need any additional equipment. Some examples of that, like Glasshaus inside. Where else? Loads of places. Noisy ritual in Brunswick. The fall.

Eddy: Rupert on rip.

Aleks: Rupert on Rupert the hall. There’s loads of inner city venues that. Where you can do that. So it’s really easy for us just to, you know, hit play on your key moments songs and set the vibe and be quite flexible. That part of the day.

Eddy: It works in well sometimes when there is a celebrant, so that, like, they don’t have to bring their speaker in. And, you know, invariably, when it comes to vows, everybody speaks differently on the. Some people. Some people are louder. And we’re able to obviously augment that sound where we are from our, like, mixing deck to make sure that it’s right for everyone that is on the mic. So we find that celebrants are really appreciative of that when we are there on our decks, where it makes sense.

Aleks: Yeah, definitely. Oh, my God. They would be so appreciative of that. Some of the vows that I’ve heard. Beautiful. But they’re so loud or you just can’t even hear them.

Eddy: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aleks: So true.

Mel: Now, outside of one more song, I know both of you have a couple of projects and other things that you work on and services that you offer. I would like both of you to sort of talk about them in a little bit of detail because I know, like, you’re really passionate about them, and I would love for our listeners to learn a little bit more about them.

Eddy: Yeah, look, I was very interested in deejaying and music before I went down the wedding path, so I just love spinning tunes. It sounds weird, but I love getting on the vinyl turntables and spinning and working on my techniques and things like that. That’s something that I’ll probably do even after I still have retirement a lot today. Even after. Which it’s not gonna happening soon, by the way. And that’s just something. I absolutely love it. It’s a joy for me to do. And it’s obviously different for Alex because she was trained specifically as a wedding DJ. So I’ve always had that passion frog from the get go.

Eddy: So that’s kind of my little hobby, my little retirement hobby, as it were. The final is the vinyl side of things.

Aleks: It’s not really separate for one more song because Ed can play vinyl for when he.

Eddy: Yeah, I wish I could tell you I did have a project completely outside almost song, but unfortunately it is. It’s tethered somewhat.

Aleks: Yeah, they’re all related. I became a celebrant this year as well, which is fun. Just so exciting. I can see you being like a real kick ass celebrate. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. So most of my. I’ve got a few weddings booked in. Most of my couples booked me in for the full day. So big day for sure.

Aleks: There are a few people who do in Melbourne, not that many. So I basically work with them as they’re celebrant, get them married and then move into being the DJ and or MC. Both of us MC as well, by the way, party rocker, which is a lot of fun. So that’s been something new that I’ve added on. The other thing that we’re both working on together is a micro wedding concept, or side hustle, I should say, called little love gatherings, which we’re very excited about. Basically. We joined up with a photographer, Meleah from love, good images, and a friend who used to work as an event manager at Panama and the hall in Brunswick. And basically we are running these micro wedding days. So we run three of them in a day. If we care.

Aleks: We’ll see how it goes. Fingers crossed. So, yeah, we just love the idea of kind of the micro wedding, but with big vibes. So you’re not missing out on the fun. It’s 3 hours. There’s still a decent amount of time we’re throwing in our photo booth. I’ll get you married as a celebrant. Eddie will be playing tunes as soon as people arrive. It’s cocktail style. You still get your first look, you still get your portraits, etcetera.

Aleks: And you get 2 hours of boogie, basically, which is, you know what, a lot of dance floors around 2 hours, two and a half hours. So you’re still getting that decent amount of time for. For fun. So that’s something that we’re working on. What else can we say about that?

Eddy: I just think, you know, it’s a concept. I think it’s going to get more and more popular. I think we’re going to see a lot of vendors joining forces and doing similar things next year. We were involved with one this year, which, which really gave us the inspiration to go out and do it ourselves. But I think. I think it’s great because you’re not really. You’ve kind of eradicated the lull times, sort of in a normal wedding where people like, um. Like, what do I do now? I’m sort of standing around. Yeah, there’s none of that.

Eddy: It’s all like, pre so ceremony party time. So it’s not for everyone, obviously, but for those couples, they’re like, this is definitely our vibe. And you know what? We can go to a pub with our crew after. Anyway, it’s. I think it’s a fabulous idea and I’m very, very excited about it.

Aleks: It’s obviously for, like, non traditional couples who don’t mind, like, don’t want the long lead time, don’t want to do the, like, full, you know, planning process. Some people just don’t. Maybe they’ve got a small network of family and friends, so you can have up to 30 people total.

Eddy: Your vendors are chosen.

Aleks: All your vendors are chosen for you. You share the cost of the florals, and they’re quite substantial for the ceremony, which is kind of cool.

Eddy: It’s sustainable, too.

Aleks: It’s sustainable. We love that, don’t you? Yeah. But the concept, we’re hoping that, you know, once we’ve done the first one, we can kind of take it to different venues as well, offer winter dates and that sort of thing.

Eddy: So, yeah, the Airbnb of wedding, a micro, witty micro.

Aleks: So many, so many taglines.

Eddy: We can use a lot of sound bites in this episode.

Aleks: All right, so before we wrap things up, because we’ve had an amazing chat, is there anything else that you guys want to add about deejaying, about. About client inquiries or anything that you think our listeners need to know when they’re out there hunting for, you know, their DJ at the end of the day.

Eddy: I just think, I mean, you probably get this same answer over and over again. Just getting early. Don’t leave it too late. We’re getting inquiries now for the high dates in February of next year, and we’re fully booked. And they’re fantastic inquiries. Wonderful people wanting to get a really, really high energy party DJ but most of them will be already booked, so. And I know that obviously in years can have openings and it can be a last minute thing, you know, a la our. But getting early, that would be my number one piece of advice to couples that are looking.

Aleks: Yeah, I think this is, like, a little bit further down track, but when you’re working with your DJ, no matter who they are and you’re thinking about the brief that you want to give them, think about tunes that you like. Don’t think about wedding tunes. Think about tunes that you like, artists that you like, festivals you’ve been to, songs that were big when you first met, that were big in the club, you know, when you were going out in your party days. Think about all that stuff and then let us decide what classes you DJ, decide what’s going to work and what work. So sometimes we’ll get, you know, those Spotify, like, playlists that clients will send us with their requests and I’ll jump into their profile and actually have a look at their other playlists they put together, like road trip 2020 or whatever. There’s so much good stuff in them, I won’t even tell them. I’ll just sneak it in and they’ll be like, how did you know? And I’m like, oh, I’m just not that good. So, yeah, it doesn’t have to be wedding music. Nothing is secret on Spotify.

Aleks: Nothing is secret. Yeah, that’s right.

Eddy: Yeah, that’s right. We walked around, get all the dirt.

Aleks: On you sweet stalkers. But anyway.

Tania: All right, so on to the most important question of them all. And we get to get two answers out of you guys as well, which is really cool. What is your favourite cake flavour?

Aleks: We have quite a similar one.

Eddy: I’m really boring and I just think, like, just something vanilla for me. Yeah. It’s not a very exciting response to.

Tania: That question, but are we, like, talking vanilla mud cake, vanilla sponge?

Eddy: You know, I could go good.

Aleks: Vanilla sponge or creams? You like fresh and buttercream?

Eddy: Well, see, this is where I get crazy. I’ll go buttercream.

Aleks: See, I don’t like buttercream. I’m not a fan. I’ve had some amazing wedding cakes, though, so don’t get me wrong. Oh, you like citrus? I like anything tangy and citrusy. Anything lemon. I’m not a big chocolate person. Really?

Eddy: No.

Aleks: Except for that. Have you guys had that Tony’s chocolate? No. Oh, you must have. You must what? The branding looks like Willy Wonka, you know?

Eddy: Yeah, you can’t miss it. Is that wheels and cold.

Aleks: It’s the best chocolate you ever try. Please try some if you don’t like it for you.

Eddy: That’s how confident I am that year with you.

Aleks: We have that on a recording as well.

Eddy: It’s fine. Fine. They’re on sale for $7 at the moment, so.

Aleks: Seven? Yeah, it’s worth every. Every dollar. I had a couple give me a bar and I think we ate the whole thing that night when I got home. Chocolate present as soon as. Yeah, well, I know I’m definitely going to jump off and order some chocolate because, Jesus, that sounds amazing. And then I’ll be calling you in if I don’t like it, for whatever reason, but I feel like I’m going to like it. Oh, so good.

Mel: Okay, now, finally, I’m sure everyone is loving this chat with you guys, but if they want to connect with you or hire you for their wedding or their event, where is the best place to direct them? What’s your Instagram website? Give us deeps.

Eddy: Awesome. So onemoresong.com.au is probably the best place to start because all of our links to everywhere are there and you’ll get a really good vibe. You will be slapped in the face to the. No more nut bush. That comes straight up, which is a great way to start. Instagram is one more song. DJs, what else do we have?

Aleks: Like you said, all the links to everything else on the website. The best way to inquire, though, is to go through the website. So there’s the book, a DJ page. You can put your date in there. We’ll ask you some questions, including why tunes are important on your day. It’s also got our pricing. So we do have our pricing on our website, on the services page, but it also hits you again above the inquiry form, just to remind you, make sure you’ve seen it. So, yeah, you can get all that.

Eddy: Yeah. And that would just mean that with our backend CRM system, your date will be flagged in our system as, you know, somewhat reserved or busy. It just means that sometimes we may miss an Instagram message from time to time how busy we are. So, yeah, if you want to hit us up, definitely hit that book DJ page and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

Aleks: Amazing.

Mel: Well, I have thoroughly enjoyed this chat. I’ve definitely learnt a thing or two, which is amazing. And I’m sure it’s given our listeners such an incredible insight into particularly what you guys offer from a DJ perspective, your fun spin on everything. So fingers crossed, the inquiries just keep on coming with you guys, so look out.

Aleks: Thank you. Good for you guys too.

Eddy: Yeah, it’s been so good. I’ve had a lot of fun. It’s nice to be. I’m gonna say on the receiving end that it’s nice to be, like, invited to a podcast and hosting one so it can be. It’s actually very different nerve ratcheting, to be honest.

Aleks: Well, look, I couldn’t think of two better groove packed practitioners we could have asked. Thanks so much, guys. That was loads of fun. Thanks for inviting us on.

Eddy: Thanks, guys. had a ball. So there you have it. Our interview with Mel and Tania from Cut the Cake podcast.

Aleks: Just a whole hour of us just talking about ourselves. We could have gone on for another hour, I reckon. It was so much fun.

Eddy: Isn’t it one of the longest episodes that they’ve had?

Aleks: Yeah, it is, actually.

Eddy: Which I think is quite, quite cool we’ll give ourselves. A little pat on the back for that, I think.

Aleks: Yes. And it’s timely that we’re recording this because we just ate some Tony’s chocolate, which we do literally have it on.

Eddy: Our kitchen bench at the moment. That is so serendipitous.

Aleks: It is very serendipitous. But, um, yeah, hopefully that gave you all a really great insight into who we are and. And just to understand, really, what goes on. Because, you know, being a dj, like, it’s a bit of a mysterious thing to most people, I would say mysterious.

Eddy: It’s siloed as well.

Aleks: Yeah.

Eddy: You know, it’s good to talk about it.

Aleks: Such an important issue in this world is the art of wedding deejaying. But anyway, until next time, thank you for joining us again on Project Engaged.

Eddy: Stay safe out there.

Aleks: Thanks for tuning in. If you’re enjoying project engaged, please hit the subscribe button on your fave podcast app.

Eddy: You can also follow us on Instagram, @projectengaged and @onemoresongdjs.

Aleks: We’ll see you next time. And until then, have fun out there