What happened at Coachella and is Grimes a real DJ? - Ep #17

Ever found yourself nursing a toothache while the world hums along, blissfully unaware? That's just where our latest episode starts, with a hilarious recounting of my dental debacle - think split tooth, root canal, and the shadow of an impending implant. But this isn't just a tour through the tribulations of chewing rice cakes; it's a springboard into the chaos that unfurled at Coachella during Grimes' set. We peel back the layers of this technical tumult, discussing the pressures that artists like Grimes, with her high-profile connections and massive Spotify following, face in the unforgiving spotlight of live performance.

Shift from enamel to the turntable's arm - this episode isn't just about teeth-grinding tension, it's about the art of spinning through adversity. My co-host and I share our tales of DJ distress, including a wedding gig that nearly went off the rails. With a narrative that's as much about empathy as it is about troubleshooting, we muse on the importance of composure, creativity, and readiness in the face of mishaps. Whether you're a music enthusiast or a fellow performer, this discussion serves up an insider's look at the electrifying, yet unpredictable, world of live performance - and how, sometimes, your next big hit might just come from the playlist on your phone.

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Transcript

Ilia: 0:17

Welcome. Welcome to another episode of the Clever DJ with Ilya and Nino.

Nino: 0:22

Welcome guys. This is our 17th episode, number 17. Number 17. All right, buddy, how are you doing? Man, I'm good, you good.

Ilia: 0:32

It's been a rough week but I'm pretty good, I know.

Nino: 0:35

I heard about your tooth, bro.

Ilia: 0:36

Oh, it's split right down the middle. I know man. Thank God it was a root canal no, tell them what.

Nino: 0:46

What happened to your tooth?

Ilia: 0:48

so this is a banter um podcast, so you know what like if this is the first time you're listening, or listening to us or watching us on youtube don't judge us you're gonna hear some banter, but lots of people are tuning in because of that too, so I was eating. This is ilia by the way I was eating a rice cake literally the most innocent thing. Oh, they're trying to be healthy. Instead of eating bread or something, I was munching on rice cakes and celery are you sure it wasn't rock?

Ilia: 1:21

I remember that I had a bit like stuck in my tooth. I was like whatever, like I'll take another bite, and then it was caught in between and you knew and I think I had a bit caught on that side and then a bit on the other side and just kind of created like this like crane situation and just like snapped it, bro.

Ilia: 1:37

And the thing is I don't know if it would have happened later down the road. Maybe it was already cracked inside. But um, when you have a root canal, they tell you put on a crown, because the tooth is already dead. There's no blood flowing through it, so it's a weaker tooth. So at least with a crown the crown will break. You'll just replace that right.

Nino: 2:00

There you go.

Ilia: 2:00

Because it broke all straight to the root, like a part of it was flailing around. That's gross. And I had to wait three days until I could see someone Because it was in that situation. They have to extract the tooth. I don't know how many thousands of dollars I have to pay for that now. So I got a workaround situation. So I don't. It would be workaround situation so so I don't. It would be so hard to talk. I don't think I'll be able to. No, probably not. They told me they'll have to put me on like painkillers. It'll take like three, four months at least to to heal you gotta record while you're on it, bro no, we're gonna pre-record some episodes.

Nino: 2:40

No, bro, I'm telling you you should do it. Man, that's funny. I going to be laughing at you the whole time.

Ilia: 2:47

I think they said that the recovery is actually pretty good. And they said as long as you take the medication they gave you and you do it exactly how they tell you, you shouldn't experience too much discomfort. Okay, that's what they said. Today I was in quite a bit of pain and they barely did anything to me Anything right. You did anything to me anything right. So that, compared to drilling into my gum, into the bone, bro, waiting for it to heal for four months, bro, and I got a, I got a destination wedding in a couple months. So there's no way they even said it's, even if you wanted to, we don't want you to travel with that, with the pressure changes and everything. Your sign says you can't do that, bro.

Ilia: 3:20

So so if, if this temporary solution works for like ever, I may just keep it like that.

Nino: 3:28

So don't worry about it. At least it's in the back anyway, kind of.

Ilia: 3:32

It's the second. Apparently, it's tooth number five Tooth number five. For all you dentists out there, it's two teeth behind the left fan, okay.

Nino: 3:41

But if it was in the front?

Ilia: 3:43

It's still in your smile line. No, you can't really see it.

Nino: 3:46

Honestly, you can't. It's this one right here. Yes, you can. Okay, don't smile too big. Yeah, exactly.

Ilia: 3:55

All right, let's get back into this. Oh, it's not recording what, I'm just joking. Yeah, do this to me. So we are. We're gonna talk about something that everyone's been talking about. Yeah, last couple days um coachella grimes oh my god, just you know, not because we have nothing else to talk about, but like we did speak about this stuff on the podcast over and over again and I know I'm the beginner one here but know I'm my buddy here and you know- my mentor.

Ilia: 4:27

He's been teaching me several things that are ingrained in me right now, so I can't not talk about it, and so we have to talk about it.

Nino: 4:37

It's everybody's talking about it. Everybody in DJ community is talking about it, so we have to talk about it, and I really understand it.

Ilia: 4:51

I understand what she did there, or what she didn't do, and some things I had to research because I wasn't sure why it was happening. Yes, right, but because, um, I just didn't know why that happened, right. But now that I did research, I don't think I'd ever be in that situation myself.

Nino: 5:02

So so basically, let's, let's, let's summarize what. What happened so coachella? So coachella is this festival happens uh once a year, uh two weekends right uh big artists, not just djs like doja cat and all those other big, big artists, are um headlining on those, uh, those days.

Ilia: 5:21

Yes, so takes place in california and um, it's a beautiful show. People pay a lot of money to go there and then grimes elon musk's uh ex-wife or something like that she's his ex-wife.

Nino: 5:36

No, I don't think they're ever together they have children, they have three kids together? Yes, she.

Ilia: 5:42

Uh, you know she has. I checked she has like 6.7 million listeners monthly on spotify.

Ilia: 5:47

I mean, she's not nobody no but let's just say there are way bigger artists than her, so I guess it's who you know. Yeah, exactly man, um, but again, uh, I'm I'm not trying to lay into her, I'm just saying how could you do this? She had a meltdown on stage behind the booth had a meltdown, yelling. I didn't even know about the I still until I started watching the videos. I did not know she was yelling and making all these sounds and swearing and stopping the music and starting it every, every vowel of the alphabet um and um.

Ilia: 6:27

I just I I couldn't believe that meltdown, like I obviously felt bad for her, but at the same time she literally threw her assistant under the bus.

Nino: 6:38

So she was literally um, before the show she usually prepares everything right, and she before this, this show she got her assistant to prep the tracks for her and she, like she, was saying that oh, I should have done it myself. If you want something done, right, you have to do it yourself. So, literally she's putting him under the bus and he responded he did.

Ilia: 7:02

Yes, I I believe that was his tweet or or something Like he said don't throw me under a bus. Like no need to throw me under a bus, so I'm pretty sure that was him, and that's kind of a low thing to do to someone. And also, some people said she looked and sounded like she was under the influence. I thought so and when I was watching, it.

Nino: 7:25

It kind of and sounded like she was under the influence.

Ilia: 7:26

I thought so when I was watching it it kind of did look like she was on something. She was literally slurring all her words and just the way she was talking, not just the slurring, the manner in which she was talking.

Nino: 7:38

Yeah, she sounded like totally she was on something.

Ilia: 7:42

And it's funny. What I don't understand understand is, if her assistant knew what, what was going on, why did he never go on stage and fix it for her?

Nino: 7:52

well, he was, she was on stage, she was alive in front of people, right? So?

Ilia: 7:56

so was it was better to let her have that meltdown. I think going on stage for a second and helping her out well, that made. I think that would have been okay yeah, but maybe, maybe, he, but maybe he got upset.

Nino: 8:05

Maybe he got upset that she was throwing on him one of the doubles.

Ilia: 8:09

I think that's why.

Nino: 8:10

No, let her burn, Crash and burn sort of thing, right.

Ilia: 8:14

It's really messed up. I mean I feel really bad for her that she went through that experience, because I had some small mess-ups as a DJ, just sweating buckets. Can you imagine, coachella but that's the thing.

Nino: 8:32

Nobody, no, honestly nobody's gonna notice. Uh, your mess ups well not, if it's that well no, no, honestly, if she, if she just didn't do say anything, nobody would have noticed. No, no, trust. No, the music was going to of course she could have played. She could have still played it off.

Ilia: 8:51

She could have. So her music was doubled. The BPM was doubled Apparently, and I don't know that because I don't know how to play on CDJs. I've never really had much experience on them, so that's something I'm learning. But apparently there's a button there. And if you press it, it undoubles it, it goes back to normal. Is it also on Serato?

Nino: 9:13

or is it just on cdj? Um, I think it's a record box. I mean on record box, is it yeah?

Ilia: 9:19

can you, so you don't actually have to have cdjs for it it's?

Nino: 9:22

I don't think so okay, cool, I didn't know that, uh, but you know what?

Ilia: 9:27

what I'm? I'm a beginner and I guess I'm allowed not to know. Yeah, true, but if you are Grimes going to perform in Coachella, I think you should know the software inside out, yeah, and the hardware inside out.

Nino: 9:41

It was her fault too. She should have practiced her sets beforehand, right Practiced in the live scenario as much as she could have.

Ilia: 9:49

But that wasn't the actual DJing being bad, because apparently she started off, she killed it in the beginning she killed in the beginning yeah, but then this happened. It was. It was just the inexperience of the software of of just is she. Is she an actual dj?

Nino: 10:06

I don't know, man, she's really an artist, like she's a singer, songwriter, producer. She's not, she's a dj she's not a dj dj okay, sort of thing, I think it's just one of those like um, she's singing and producing, writing her own music, and she has to dj to like kind of uh present her music sort of thing, right, and she's using it and a lot of people said this is why no sync button, this is why DJ and learn to DJ by ear.

Ilia: 10:38

And she was saying no, because I couldn't hear the monitors. Maybe she's right, but I call BS. I don't think she couldn't hear what, so everyone else did and she didn't. Exactly, I don't think so man. Everyone else heard it. Their sets went fine, but hers didn't. Somebody sabotaged her? I don't think so man, everyone else heard it. Their sets went fine, but hers didn't. Somebody sabotaged her. I don't know, man, maybe I wasn't there maybe, maybe.

Nino: 10:58

But who knows right she could be. She could be just making herself look good saving face, whatever, right?

Ilia: 11:03

um, an excuse, right? So rather than talking about her forever, you know we'll finish this list we have here and just like related to what we spoke about before, but, um, I mean, so there's a few things we wrote here.

Ilia: 11:17

She couldn't do the simple math of divide by two, so if it's at 220 bpm, have that have that, and if you don't know where the button is, then just lower that, that, that bpm, uh slider lower. Lower it to 110 or 80 or whatever is half of whatever song you're listening to right now, right? So why didn't you do that? That math or what did you say?

Nino: 11:44

you could loop it right, you could loop it and then you can go on your literally your cell phone and and divide it 200 divide by two. Yeah, oh, it's 100 and then just move it, oh my god nobody's gonna notice if you, if you looped it for like 10 minutes, everybody would still be going. Ah, because you're on stage, right you're an artist at that speed.

Ilia: 12:05

It sound like drum and bass. It did sound pretty funky, meets dubstep, meets whoa. So, yeah, it's, it's just. It just feel, feels like she was so green, yeah, she was so not ready for a dj performance and that's why it happened, not because she doesn't know how to dj, not because she she never learned how to transition correctly, it's all the other things.

Nino: 12:32

It's how to be professional on stage, how to correct a mess up, you know, yeah, and her just professionally screaming in in the mic like not it just randomly, just ah, no, not even because of it, just she's just frustrated, it just showed yelling she didn't need to do that, yeah if you want to like. Yeah, professionalism, it's all about being just like keeping your calm, keeping it cool when you're on stage. Yeah, Make it look like that you know what you're doing. You're doing everything on purpose.

Ilia: 13:08

Right, yeah. So I'm sure Elon Musk had a laugh watching this. Oh for sure. I would say no, he probably felt bad for but elon musk? Elon musk is a troll, yeah he does not feel bad.

Nino: 13:21

No, no, especially because they're not together anymore. Uh yeah.

Ilia: 13:25

so she, she did say she's gonna come back strong and she's gonna do everything herself and you know, showing that it wasn't her fault, of course.

Nino: 13:35

She asked you. I'm sure she's going to have tons of eyes on her in her next performance and she has no choice, literally.

Ilia: 13:42

Yeah, so honestly, as a DJ and as a human being, seeing someone crash and burn like this, Personally I have a conscience. I can be empathetic, to understand how this might feel, and I wasn't happy to see her go through that. I'm not going to sit here and burn her. But these are some questions we had. These are some things that went through our mind and rather than kind of lay into her.

Ilia: 14:18

This is more like us telling you hey, this is what we spoke about, all this stuff in the last 16 episodes which led to the 17th episode. Right, yeah, um, and this is.

Nino: 14:23

This is things that happen to every dj. Every everybody goes through this type of thing, right? Yeah it's just how you handle it, and I don't think she handled it very you know what?

Ilia: 14:33

I wasn't sure if I was gonna bring it up, but because you, you made it work. I will yeah the the the event we had with the uh moving heads, with the chauvet lights, the uh moving, moving lights. Yeah, they changed the schedule on us. They made everything a lot more difficult.

Nino: 14:51

Yes, you had half an hour less to set up yes because ceremony and there were technical difficulties with the with the lights with the lights and with the plug in the in-house system that we're trying to plug in and I think that's the first time I probably saw you really stressed out. I was, but nobody else knew, bro, I was sweating buckets but I was like trying to stay cool like nobody else knew yeah yeah, no one knew I was trying. It was really tough because the wedding planner or the coordinator she was, she was harping on my ass.

Nino: 15:24

I'm like we gotta start now. Now we're late, we're late. I'm like, oh my gosh, what am I supposed to do? So yeah, I'm like okay, we gotta do it we. So we ended up playing it on our phone. Yeah, I'm like oh my god, the entrances yeah, but how well did you do it?

Ilia: 15:39

I I actually never heard somebody. We did it dj on spotify or apple music, whatever you were using as well as you did it was. It was done really well, it had to be done, man. But the thing is, you know, their system was not working and then our system had gave us, gave us issues well, that was just the lights. Yes, but you know, we didn't need the lights really for that, that moment it wasn't that important actually we did, man, it was the first dance, so that it didn't go as far as the first dance.

Nino: 16:10

It was the first, it was, it was the entrance and it went into the first dance.

Ilia: 16:14

Oh, we did not fix it by then.

Nino: 16:15

We didn't fix it because we didn't have enough time. Man.

Ilia: 16:18

Yeah, I remember the beginning, but not the end. Okay, that hurt yeah. But hey, no one knew, no one knew, Even though they were right there, no one knew. Yeah.

Nino: 16:34

And you know the bride and groom, they really uh loved like how, how we worked, which they knew we had like uh problems and and differences, but we still worked through it and they appreciated still going for uh pretty flawlessly yeah, yeah, it went well, people were happy, uh, and that's the thing we could have easily, um exposed ourselves ourselves we could easily, you know, went crazy on the coordinator, but we didn't right, we just, we kept cool, you kept cool.

Ilia: 17:01

I was nervous for you.

Nino: 17:04

Bro, it didn't look like you were too nervous. I was putting buckets.

Ilia: 17:08

That was over a year ago, I think. I still wasn't sure how bad it was.

Nino: 17:13

Yeah, it was bad. I told you after I'm like, oh, that was one of the worst that I've experienced.

Ilia: 17:18

And I experienced it kind of recently, in February, I believe. What was it? 26th, 16th, recently? Oh yeah, remember, yes, when I end up linking using the other port on my speakers to make it work because I had the wrong hardware.

Nino: 17:38

So basically, people were waiting for you to DJ. They were like when's the music coming on? Dj.

Ilia: 17:42

Thank God we had like a Bluetooth speaker with some good playlists on it. That was saving you right there, that was saving it but that's, that's how you're, that's how you prepare yeah right, that's where you bring people with you. You make sure something is gonna be there in case something else happens. There's plan b, there's plan c, um, and I had, I had this guy with me, uh, who was uh trying to learn and uh, you know, kind of have his first uh show in front of people he was totally oblivious right?

Ilia: 18:09

he was always asking me ilia, what should I do now, what should I do now? And I was. I was so focused leave me alone, leave me alone. I'm gonna figure this out, explode right now, and I, I need, I just need to, um, if I'm, if I'm gonna lose it, then you can't do anything, right Like you won't be able to fix anything. So I need to stay calm.

Nino: 18:33

So I wasn't really calm.

Ilia: 18:34

No, you weren't, but I made sure they didn't see it. Yeah.

Nino: 18:38

That's all that matters, man.

Ilia: 18:39

Yeah, and if I could do that as an absolute beginner, I think Grimes should be able to do that.

Nino: 18:46

Yeah. But that's a bit of a different situation right, coachella versus asd jing, then it's, it's, it happens or like a certain amount of people yeah, yeah, that too, and then and then ego comes into play too as well.

Ilia: 18:58

Yeah, she has a huge um following, yeah, like an image, right, yeah, uh. So yeah, I guess, I guess, uh, there are some points against her and then there are some some things that we understand, but, uh, I don't think she was prepared no, I don't think so either bro so what would you do in that situation?

Nino: 19:21

in this situation? Um, I would stay calm, like literally. I would play off like I know what I'm doing and just keep going Like totally, you know that I'm just, I'm professional all the way, like I, I don't want to, I don't want anybody to know that that I'm I'm screwing up, even though I am like royally Right. So that's me. What would you do, though?

Ilia: 19:46

So yeah, we know we already went through like what would you do in that situation, but we just like wanted to wrap it up like that. Um, but I really mean, in the situation of djing, in front of thousands of people, thousands, same thing, man right, you wouldn't change anything, I wouldn't change anything, I would still just stay cool and just just keep rocking man okay, you'll find a way to just get through it.

Ilia: 20:12

For sure you'll find a way. For sure I've always I I never saw you not finding a way yeah, I always do, and I'd beat match by ear.

Nino: 20:19

Yes, number one, you can just remove that sync button out of the thing for you. Yeah, yeah, oh man, what would I do? What?

Ilia: 20:26

would you do? What would you do so we already established I don't know how to use CDJs Okay, so I am learning how to use Rekordbox. It's not that big of a learning curve, but some things are different, yeah. I love that, but pretty much what you said, because I know if I lose it it's gonna be so much worse. Yeah, exactly, I may say something to explain myself for a moment and be like sorry, just like dealing with something or whatever.

Ilia: 20:56

I don't know what I will say depending on the situation, I may say something, but I will not lose myself like that. I would not have a meltdown and also, if she was on something, I wouldn't be on something when I'm performing exactly number one, maybe coffee coffee, right, nothing else.

Ilia: 21:17

Nothing else to to kind of distort myself, because unless you're an absolute pro and you know that that stuff doesn't really affect you, affect you in that way you can do it in your sleep, literally, yeah so fine, I guess, but I don't think taking that handicap of of having your brain altered, working slower or something, is really good for you who knows, it might make it better it might, but again, I wouldn't do that.

Nino: 21:45

Yeah, um so so in her defense, I think she's um an artist more of than a dj. Yeah, yeah, but you know I'm making excuses for her.

Ilia: 21:58

So she should have been ready. You have an obligation you have. You got to hold yourself accountable if you're going to perform in front of so many people especially on that stage, one of the biggest show like that shows on earth pretty much right so hopefully it's not gonna leave a big dent in her career forever. Hopefully this is gonna blow over good thing she has another show.

Nino: 22:21

Yeah, another couple of shows, right, yeah?

Ilia: 22:23

she has. She has more than just djing in her life. She has a lot of things going on for her. So and then, like you said, she's going to be able to redeem herself.

Nino: 22:35

She has to.

Ilia: 22:36

I really hope she does well, but yeah, well, there we go. This is another episode of the Clever DJ.

Nino: 22:42

Yeah.

Ilia: 22:43

And thank you very much for tuning in again.

Nino: 22:45

We'll see you guys in the next one See you then Coming up soon, episode number 18. Yes, it's coming up.