An Interview with DJ 69Beats

“Exploring, practicing, and leveling up will always be a good thing.” – An Interview with DJ 69Beats

We talk to competition DJ 69Beats about DJ tech, battle planning versus party preparation, how his approach to DJing has evolved, and much more.

There is a common misconception from those outside the DJ world that being a successful DJ is just pressing a few buttons and dancing on stage. Few people are better-positioned to disprove this theory than the Poland-based DJ, 69Beats. For nearly two decades, 69Beats, real name Wojtek, has dedicated his career to endlessly sharpening his DJ skills with whichever tools are available to him.

In this interview, we speak to 69Beats about how he prepares for his broad range of DJ performances, how he uses modern music technology to define his own signature sound, and his advice for DJs hoping to carve themselves a successful career in the industry.

Thanks for taking the time to speak with us! Would you mind introducing yourself and what you do?

My name is Wojtek. I’m a DJ, and I’ve been playing in clubs and festivals for almost 20 years. My main activity is playing in clubs, but I’ve always been a technical DJ and a nerd, which got me into battling.

I won the Redbull 3Style competition twice in my home country of Poland, along with some other online DJ battles and challenges. Since last year, I’ve been judging and consulting for the DMC World DJ Championships too.

You mentioned you’ve always been into battling, but presumably, you weren’t battling as soon as you first touched a pair of decks. What was it that first got you into the world of DJ battling?

I was not into battling from the very beginning, to be honest. Because when I started, I just wanted to learn how to mix music. And that’s it. I was surrounded by mostly House DJs, so it wasn’t exactly a battle environment.

I’m the kind of person who changes tastes and hobbies very often, so I got bored with just mixing House music all the time. I started playing more Hip-Hop and R&B, and began to learn scratching. This helped me to explore different areas within DJing, then I got interested in battling a few years later.

I actually started participating in battles quite late in comparison to most of the DJs we know from the main championship battles, such as DMC and Redbull 3Style. I was in my late 20s when I started battling, so I’d already been DJing for around 10 years.

You briefly touched on it there, but what was your first DJ setup?

I first used club-level DJ gear in 2006. It was Pioneer CDJs and a Behringer mixer belonging to my friend. He taught me the very basics of DJing, then I bought his mixer off him around my 18th birthday and got some Denon CD players. Fortunately, the CD players had cue points and a scratch function, so this was the very beginning for me. These features helped me transition into the Hip Hop and R&B world of turntablism later on.

We understand you now use Algoriddim’s DJ platform, djay PRO. When did you discover djay PRO, and what are some of the main features that set it apart from other DJ platforms?

I first tried djay PRO in 2022 during the pandemic, when everyone was in lockdown. I’ve always had a good relationship with DJAngelo, who is an ambassador for Algoriddim and djay PRO. He was the person who first introduced me to the software. I first used it on the iPad, which really interested me as it meant I didn’t have to carry a laptop everywhere or install multiple drivers.

It has so many innovative functions compared to what I was using previously, which is a lengthy subject. I could talk about it for a long time! One of the main advantages of djay PRO is that it was just plug and play; everything worked without having to set up custom MIDI mappings or do all these weird hacks.

You’ve mentioned being a club DJ but also doing some DJ battles, too. How does your preparation differ for each of those types of sets?

When I first started out, preparation for DJ battles looked very different from traditional club sets. I used to think that all types of DJ battles required an extremely high level of technicality. While this was true for more technical DJ battles, it wasn’t necessarily the case for the more party-oriented ones. So I was preparing battle sets with as many tricks and micro-routines as possible.

Unfortunately, I learnt the hard way that tricks don’t automatically win you battles. Especially more party-focused battles, where it’s more about what happens on the dancefloor and making sure people enjoy themselves. Over time, I gained more experience and learned how to combine the technical side of battling with the performance side.

I actually started to come up with battle routines when I was playing in clubs. This is where I developed some of my best routines that won me a number of battles and internet challenges. If I tried a transition at a party and it got a good response, I would explore and develop that idea more, and then apply it in battle sets.

To come back to your question, I would say that right now, the mindset when preparing for club sets versus battles doesn’t differ that much. The biggest difference is the timing: Battle transitions are much quicker, whereas I extend certain transitions in a party or club setting.

Are there any particular features in Algoriddim djay PRO that make those technical elements of your sets much easier?

Yeah! The entire pitch-shifting and key-change workflow is the main one, but also the MIDI mapping. I’m always trying to explore different universes of DJing and come up with innovative techniques that have never been done before. This means I need as many technical possibilities as I can get my hands on, and djay PRO gives me that. Most functions are just plug and play on the DJ equipment I use, but I can also map lots of different functions together with ease.

I played the piano before I was a DJ, so I’ve always had melody in my head as a musician. I kind of transferred these skills into the DJing world, and playing lots of live melodies kind of became my signature sound. Over 10 years ago, I developed a bunch of techniques and MIDI mappings that helped me to remix music in a live setting. I can experiment with pitch shifting, key changing, and cue points so that I can essentially play any song as any other song.

This technique uses something called tone play, where you use elements of one song to play the melody of another song. It relies on being able to put cue points on clean or isolated melodic elements, so you’re limited to the melodic samples you could find within a song. I used to use Native Instruments’ Traktor; it had a lot of pitch-shifting capabilities thanks to the ELASTIQUE algorithm.

Now, Algoriddim djay PRO uses the same algorithm, so I’m able to map cue points along with pitch shifting. This gives me the ability to grab a single sample in any note, and transpose it to whichever other note I need. Now, I can play any note I want, and it all stays in the correct key.

Thanks to modern DJ technology, maybe you don’t need to do this, but do you ever prepare your own edits of songs before your sets?

I do make some edits for sets, but they’re mostly very simple. Stuff like trimming certain sections down to the length I want them, so that everything happens faster. Sometimes, when I do super fast routines, I don’t have time to switch between pad modes on my equipment, or the gear I need isn’t available, I’ll use Ableton Live to create the samples I need for the routine. I’ll time stretch and pitch shift the samples that I need, then put them at the end of an audio file so that I can assign them to different cue points and play the melodies.

Have you got any big performances or competitions coming up, or are there any events or festivals on your radar that you’d love to play?

I’m not really a big bucket list kind of person. I kind of just take every possibility that presents itself. Tomorrow, I’m actually flying to Dubai for workshops and meetups for DMC Middle East. Hopefully, I’ll be judging the competition in September too. Last year, I went to China for a music expo in Shanghai and a club showcase in Chengdu. I’ve got plans to go back again this year, so I’m really looking forward to that.

Then I’ll be looking forward to DJ battles in September and October. There’s DMC Poland in September, which I help to organize and host. Then there’s DMC Middle East in October, followed by the DMC World Finals in Japan. That’s what’s on my list so far this year, but I’m down for anything else that might come up!

Presumably, you give specific feedback to contestants when you judge DJ battles, but do you have any general advice for up-and-coming DJs?

It’s always tough to give general advice. I’ve learnt over the years that the entire DJ world changes every couple of years, so the advice I got at the beginning from my elders isn’t always relevant anymore after 10 or 15 years.

One piece of advice that I think remains true is that you should try to explore the different areas of DJing. Work on different skills and develop different techniques within the craft. There seems to be a bit of a trend, or a common opinion, that DJ skills don’t matter anymore, and it’s more about stage presence and musical selection. Of course, these things do matter, and music is the most important thing, but skills are still important.

Gaining different skills and exploring different opportunities will make it easier for you to develop your own original style. This is how you will differentiate yourself from those around you. Exploring, practicing, and leveling up will always be a good thing.

Thanks again to 69Beats for talking to us about his DJ career. You can keep up with him and his travels on his YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook pages.