“I’m so happy right now!”
Tucked away in North London is a space bursting with creativity and music: specifically on Sunday afternoons during the 3o6 studios’ DJ workshop events.
On August 23rd, the sold out second session of the studio’s FLINTA DJ workshop series, run by the founder of HYPERLINK, Talia Andrea, got off to a running start. As all the attendees were arriving at the studio, it was great to see everyone mingling and catching up with people they had met in the previous session, as well as newcomers arriving alone and ready to get involved. As a newcomer myself, I was instantly welcomed into the space and any nerves washed away. The vibes in the room were welcoming and vibrant, creating a great environment for collaboration and mutual encouragement throughout the session.
To start the session, Talia introduced herself and her brand HYPERLINK. Originally a one-day event called FEMMESTIVAL set up to showcase female music and talent, it has since expanded into a creative community platform for FLINTA individuals working within the UK hyperpop and electronic music scene. Following Talia’s introduction, we all went around the table and introduced ourselves with a fun fact. Unlike most ice breakers, the fun facts in this session covered a plethora of topics: from raising bunnies, to owning and designing a clothing brand, it was an enthusiastic and creative cohort for this session!
After the introductions, we jumped headfirst into a re-cap of the first workshop: transitions and fading. Talia took us all through the key points from last week’s session, covering all the basic yet essential buttons for audio volume, audio fading, and the perfect timings to transition between songs. Each of the attendees then took turns on the decks to brush up on their skills from last week. Whilst looking at everyone practicing on the decks and socialising whilst waiting their turn, Talia exclaimed, “I’m so happy right now!”. It was incredible to see everyone bonding and encouraging one another throughout the task - there was a real sense of community and support flowing from every individual at the workshop.
Then, it was straight into the new skill-building portion of the session. Talia took us all through the free-to-use platform Rekord Box, where you can store your music library, practice mixing tracks, record your sets, and much more. As this was quite a content-heavy segment of the workshop, Talia kept things on track by answering each and every question that was thrown at her and coming round to each of our laptops to ensure we were all on the same page.
To end the session, our final skill on the agenda was how to loop tracks. Talia, always consistent in her teaching, gave us another informative and descriptive run through of the task and then it was straight onto the decks to put the theory into practice. Talia showed us two methods of how to loop: one option where you can press one button to create a 4-beat loop automatically, and another more manual way to create a longer loop. Talia also shared with us some of her real-life gig experience and examples of when is best to use this skill, whether that’s to buy yourself some time and lengthen the track, or to create a longer build up to a beat drop or transition. This contextualisation of the task really helped us all to imagine the thought process that would be needed in a real-life situation where we may need to loop on the fly.
As the session came to a close, it was great to see everyone asking each other for their Instagrams and planning to catch up at the next session, all filled with excitement and enthusiasm to learn more. We all left with some homework: come to the next session with some songs ready to practice track curation and building a set list.
If any aspects of this fantastic session sound like your vibe, we’d love to see you for the next workshop series! Keep an eye on the 3o6 Studios Instagram and Eventbrite page for details about the next drop.
Words by Katie Duerr