Mar-T’s Top 5 Tips to The Art of Being a Successful Resident DJ

Martin Vega, better known by his stage name Mar-T, was born in Barcelona and raised in Sitges, a small town located near to the aforementioned vibrant city. Growing up in the coastal town meant Mar-T was exposed to electronic music at a young age, and his passion for the genre continued to grow year-by-year enabling him to secure his first club residency at L’Atlantida.

In 1999, Mar-T took his passion for djing to the next level, starting a residency at Ibiza’s iconic superclub, Amnesia – a position he holds to this day. It was at this club where the Spaniard really polished, perfected and proved his skills as a DJ, combining his wide-reaching, eclectic musical palette with technical ability and an understanding of how to react to a crowd’s energy.

Recent Amnesia residencies have seen the talented Spaniard share a booth with the likes Marco Carola, who Mar-T performed alongside from 2012 to 2014 during Carola’s revered MUSIC ON night and more recently with Loco Dice, Henrik Schwarz and Pan-Pot, to name just a few, during his current Wednesday night residency for HYTE.

Outside of Ibiza, Mar-T’s also had the pleasure of performing to crowds at some of the world’s leading clubs and events such as the Amnesia tent at South West Four this Sunday (27/08) where Mar-T plays alongside Marco Carola, Sven Vath, Loco Dice, Pan-Pot, Matador Live, plus very special guests: The Martinez Brothers, you can grab tickets from here. 

Ahead of this weekend, we asked him to drop us our Top 5 tips to being a successful resident DJ…

1. In my experience which is mainly focused on all my years in Ibiza the first tip would be to have patience as to be able to be a resident club DJ at an important club, patience will be essential. Normally you will find it easier to get a job at the club doing something else which in some way can be related to the DJ booth, for example: hostess, video jockey, light jockey, maintenance etc… Once there, you will need to work hard and be able to find the opportunity to be tested as a DJ.

2. Once you have achieved to be resident, listen to all styles of DJs and learn from them. Each of them will for sure teach you something either good or bad. It’s also important to learn from their attitude, if they are stupid or not friendly, if they are cool… study them and try to understand why they are like this, being a resident DJ is like being a doctor, and knowing how to react to each situation will make you a great resident because been a resident DJ is not only about DJing, it’s also about making the guest DJs feel comfortable and in the future maybe they will help you grow your career.

3. It’s essential for a resident DJ to know about the tools used in the DJ booth. The person’s technical skills must be at a high standard and must be very sure about themselves as if there is a technical problem, in 90% of the cases they will be supposed to solve the situation and need to look calm even if they’re super nervous. This gives confidence to the guests and the owner of the club as they know they have someone in the DJ booth which can solve all kind of situations.

4. When you are DJing you must give your best and give the crowd the best possible quality of music. When I go to a club to play and the resident DJ is playing cheese or doesn’t have good taste in music I can feel it when I DJ after him/her. If the resident is good, they can sometimes even make me nervous 🙂 This is really good because it gets the best out of me and that is what a resident DJ should do but at the same time he/she must be respectful and know how to make a good transition to the guest DJ.

5. For me a very important tip is to be cool with everybody. Try to control your ego when you feel you’re growing as a DJ and be friendly with everybody who works with you in the DJ booth and the guest. At some point they will all help you and if they don’t, at least you know it’s not because of something you’ve done or your attitude. If you turn into a ego DJ you will loose all this. I hate resident DJs who 15 minutes before you finish your set are already next to you waiting for you to finish making you uncomfortable. Many of them later come to me asking me where to send demos to Wow! Recordings and I just don’t care anymore… it’s a question about respect.

Mar-T will performing in the Amnesia tent at SW4 this Sunday (27/08) alongside Marco Carola, Sven Vath, Loco Dice, Pan-Pot, Matador Live, plus very special guests: The Martinez Brothers.