Originally live streamed on Instagram, 3/28/20, for Brujas Y Brunch, run by my pal LABellatini.
Happy 5 year anniversary to Smoker’s Delight!
This was my first mix streamed live. Since 2017, I had been trying to set up a livestream that featured art and DJ mixes. I tried here and there, but I was caught up in the day job/side job life. When Covid hit in March of 2020, I tried my best to get it together, but the equipment required to stream music from the DJ mixer directly was sold out. There was a mad rush of DJs flocking to Twitch once venues started shutting down. That meant I had to settle by pointing my phone at the speaker. Luckily, I recorded it via Serato’s recording feature. I forget to start it, and thus missed the first half hour.
This mix is all over the place. I graduated from Beat Junkie Institute Of Sound’s Foundation program earlier in the month (see the last post) and was getting comfortable with turntables again. I bought a bunch of new music in the year leading up, and was eager to drop them in a mix despite not being 100% familiar with all these songs/remixes, and it shows in the many mistakes made. Many were new to me, and I had done only one practice mix before going live. That being said, I have listened to it over and over again. It is my favorite of my Soundcloud mixes, and I own my mistakes. I need to put in more work. 😅
Plus we were ALL stuck in the house. Best believe I was 🌳🌳🌳💨💨💨& with a belly full of White Claw. It was a blast. I miss that shit.
I was able clean up the audio a bit and upload it to Soundcloud. For the album art, I went with an old piece of art I chopped up and redesigned.
The art I used for the cover is a remix of this sketch I colored up in 2016. I originally posted it here. Most of the mixes on my Soundcloud page features repurposed art for the covers. I enjoyed making those as well!
In 2022, I recorded a practice version of the Smoker’s follow up, which isn’t a sequel, but a re-recording with new songs. Smoker’s 1.5 if you will. I never managed to properly re-record. I disassembled my turntables shortly after that to focus on my career, which after 20 something years was starting to show cracks. More on that in the future.
I also stopped streaming music, because I didn’t want a DMCA strike affecting my art Twitch & YouTube accounts. I’m looking into opening a 2nd channel for mixes and games, but it’s a time thing at the moment. Recently, I picked up a DJ controller and have been playing around with new mixes. For now, I’ll post the mixes to SoundCloud and drop em here as well.
I was hoping to live stream a 5 year mix today. I was practicing & prepping tracks a few days ago, but work came a calling. I still have to wire everything to be able to go live. Soon enough I will, even if it isn’t on the same date. Right now it’s a great way to blow off some steam and get practice while I take my work breaks. I played a portion of it live at Royal Palms recently. If I memorize the entire set list, I may drop it there again. Fun times.
Thanks for indulging me. I hope to drop some more!
Peace,
Jose
