DJ Mingle is the power behind the music you listen to on mid-morning show, Lifestyle Café on week days, Live From The Capital on Friday evenings, and campus-themed show, Young, Wild and Free on weekends.
Mingle spoke to livefmghana.com about keeping the music fire alive, supporting the craft of Ghanaian artistes, his mixes and a lot more.
On the chemistry between himself and different presenters
When you are a radio DJ, the most important thing is for you to blend with which ever presenter you get. That makes the show successful because I’m not a presenter cum DJ, I’m just a DJ so the best thing is to feed the presenter with good music and communicate more off-air so as to give a good vibe on air.
It doesn’t have to be you doing a different thing and the presenter also saying a different thing so there has to be a chemistry in there, talk to the person. You prepare before you come on air, anytime you are supposed to come on air.
And I’ve been working with good presenters as well because it is because of how good they are that everything comes out as positive as it is.
On thought process before working on mixes
What I think about is the mix doesn’t have to sound one way.
It is a wide thought process. I have to cover every angle so sometimes I’m even tempted to do a mix that is 80s alone on ‘Young, Wild and Free’ but then I’d be stepping out of our target market so sometimes I’m restricted.
I just sit down, prepare so it doesn’t sound one way like that. I just want to give a different vibe every time so it is not boring when you listen to it.
How he accesses himself regards the quality of mixes
I always challenge myself to do something better than what I’ve done before. I feed on the information I get from people because they are those I’m doing the mix for. I like people who figure out the fault in the mix. I like those feedback more because it is necessary to get better.
Thoughts on the accusation by some Ghanaian artistes that Ghanaian DJs do not support their craft
Honestly, I hate that thing that artistes say that we don’t support them. I support Ghanaian artistes.
I play Ghanaian music every time. If you do good music, we will play it. And we are DJs, we can’t get every music in the world. And if you don’t push the music to us, we can’t get it.
If I see or come across a song that I like, I search for it and then add it to my playlist. Ghanaian artistes don’t push their songs to DJs. You don’t expect me to hunt for your music every time. And in Ghana, there is no solid hub that we can get music from, it’s usually free download and sometimes the quality is low so playing it on air isn’t a good idea.
You don’t expect me to play your music when it is not good, it has to be good music. That’s all. And push your songs to the radio DJs.
Also DJs get a lot of songs in their mails, sometimes they need time to go through all of it to figure out the good ones in their mails. And also, don’t send DJs music via WhatsApp. It doesn’t work like that.
How do artistes get radio to play their songs? And what qualities as good song?
One thing artistes in Ghana don’t do is build relationships with DJs. That is very necessary. You can’t be arrogant and expect your music to be played… It won’t happen. Someone might decide not to play your music because of your arrogance.
For your music to be played on air, there has to be a good relationship and the music has to be good. To have a good song, you need good instrumentals, it has good lyrics, catchy hook, sending across a particular message and the quality has to be good, too.
On how to get to the top as a DJ
It takes a lot of sacrifice. A lot of sacrifice, I missed a lot of lectures when I was in school so I get time to practice how to get better at DJing. It affected me negatively a bit because of the grades I got which upset my parents. I had to make it up to them by bettering it before I completed so it wasn’t a complete disappointment at home.
I, however knew what I wanted. If I set my mind on something, I have to achieve it no matter what. It takes a lot of practice, dedication, and you need to have an ear for quality music too. You must love music to be able to do this. You can’t be someone that doesn’t often listen to music. You have to be open-minded.
You don’t have to listen to a song with the aim of critizing it. The aim is to be open-minded and listen. For all you know, after two or three plays, it might be your favourite. You just have to be open, practice and put God first in absolutely everything.
Keep supporting DJ Mingle the brand. This year is going to be a mega year.
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