Beyond the DJ Booth
Brian B and Joe Bunn tackle questions about the private event DJ industry, share music, gear/gadgets, and stories from their gigs.
Beyond the DJ Booth
S2, Ep.4: Tongue Twister Towns and Tech Tricks
Ever found yourself tongue-tied trying to pronounce town names in North Carolina? Join us on a hilarious adventure as Brian B bravely attempts to master the unique sounds of Southern living, all while drawing amusing comparisons to regions like New York and Florida. As we share in the laughter, we also bring you a sneak peek into a nifty gadget that will forever change the way you capture selfies and videos using your phone's back camera.
On to the art of crafting unforgettable weddings, we unwrap a treasure chest of strategies tailored for DJs striving to enhance their performance and planning prowess. From the benefits of filming with a dual-sided screen to the power of digital tools like DJ Event Planner and Vibo, we provide solutions to streamline communications with couples. Personal stories enrich the discussion, illustrating how a disciplined approach—yes, even with the help of Apple Notes and an Apple Pencil—can prevent mishaps like playlist mix-ups and ensure seamless document management.
Feel the pulse of spontaneous DJing as we recount the exhilarating rush of adding a surprise Sugar Ray track to a set, making us reflect on the power of adaptability and keen listening. By tuning into casual client remarks, DJs can unlock a pathway to unforgettable experiences that leave a mark on guests. With heartfelt thanks to our listeners, we invite you to subscribe to "Beyond the DJ Booth" for more stories and insights that promise to elevate your craft while bringing entertainment and joy each week.
RESOURCES & LINKS
Our website. Please leave a review! - https://www.beyondthedjbooth.com/
To book Joe Bunn: https://bunndjcompany.com/
To book Brian B: https://djbrianbofficial.com/
Joe’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djjoebunn
Brian’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djbrianbofficial
DJ Event Planner free demo: https://www.djeventplanner.com/signup.php
Brian B's Coaching Options: Https://www.thdjscreativeedge.com
what's up everybody. Welcome back to beyond the dj booth podcast with your host, joe bunn, and brian b.
Brian B:Brian bonacici, b-u-o-n-a-s-s-i-s-s-i well done yes sir star on that chart. You know what I mean there's no way your daughter knows how to spell her last name. She does not. Does not, but she has got my signature down now she does so she goes like like it was really fast. She doesn't even spell anything right. Light forgery.
Joe Bunn:A light forgery on checks uh from a five-year-old. How old is she? Four, four, okay, right, right, gonna be five this year. I was thinking you know how long have you been here now? Two years.
Brian B:It'll be three coming up in April.
Joe Bunn:All right. So over two and a half years in the South, by way of Manhattan, I need to run you through some town names in the state the great state, the best state, north Carolina and see how you say them. Oh, wow, because if you're saying them wrong you're going to be outed as an imposter. Okay, as a Yankee.
Brian B:Well, it's kind of like New York. Let me just give you one that you can go with.
Joe Bunn:Houston.
Brian B:Yeah, that's one. I know that People say Houston all the time Because it's spelled Houston yeah and I yeah.
Joe Bunn:That's Soho. Yeah, I do know that one. I didn't know what Soho means. Yeah, okay.
Brian B:Yeah, Same with.
Joe Bunn:and then Noho, what's another?
Brian B:one Drawing some blanks on something.
Joe Bunn:I knew that one, because I'm sure that I went there.
Brian B:Yeah, houston, yeah yeah, okay, give me these North Carolina ones, okay we're going to start.
Joe Bunn:We're looking up W-I-L-S-O-N. Wilson. No, there's a T in there, it's just Wilson. Yeah, but there's yeah. You would say like I'd be, like I'm from Wilson.
Brian B:Oh, wow, and that's just the accent doing that, that's just the way.
Joe Bunn:People definitely from Wilson say it, and then most just common redneck North.
Brian B:Carolinians, I think I saw like a sweater that had that with the T on there. Yes, you did.
Joe Bunn:Wilson, I agree, there is no T in it, but you would add it. Got it Okay next.
Brian B:This is B-E-A-U-F-O-R-T Correct Beaufort.
Joe Bunn:It is Beaufort here in South Carolina. Same spelling Beaufort, but in North Carolina Beaufort, you're right. All right, okay, check, I'm one for two.
Brian B:Yes, next, oh man, d-u-r-h-a-m. I'm going to say it not the way it should be said, but I think it's going to be the way it's done here.
Joe Bunn:Yes, durham, I wouldn't even go the um part, I would just be like like dermatology, yeah, wow, okay, I'm not doing too hot, it gets harder.
Brian B:Do you know this one? Have you been there? No, the outlets there, tanger outlets. Okay, this is m-e-b-a-n-e. Yeah, my bane, it's close, nevin, nevin oh, that was not close, that was way off. Next one for four topsail. You do know that one. Well, we have one in florida, so we have tops, tops, okay, okay. So it's kind of like, yeah, and that's the way they say in florida as well. Yeah, interesting because 99% of people are gonna say top sale, yeah, yeah, definitely topsoil.
Brian B:Okay, I thought I'd stump you there, you know this place sounds like a another hawaiian spot curie beach it is curie beach, not cure beach yeah, curie beach all right I think that was the last one, wasn't it? Oh, oh with your favorite place.
Joe Bunn:Yeah, man, fight bill, I don't know, I mean it's you're putting too. I mean, yes, technically it should be fayetteville, right, but those people there, most people, say it's almost like f-a-y-d-v-u-l fable when you say that's likequon Like Fayetteville.
Brian B:Fayetteville. Yeah, yeah, they don't really pronounce the T.
Joe Bunn:They're leaving out some letters Okay. I think you did pretty good. I feel like you were 50 for 6. Yeah, 50 for 6. Something like that, yeah.
Brian B:Well, I got a gear thing for you today. Ooh, find, okay, so you're on your phone.
Joe Bunn:Okay, what would you call this? The internal camera that is forward facing, so like when you're looking at this way?
Brian B:yeah, never the good one. No, you want to be using the back right.
Joe Bunn:Oh, I've I got targeted by this. The other day you purchased it. I did go ahead.
Brian B:Go ahead, talk to me so I've always never had good luck with you know, taking video this way, the selfie camera. Yeah, you're speaking about totally so this allows you to be able to yes, see it. I gotta see what you're seeing bro so I've got two pieces that it comes with here actually has a remote too, which I did not bring, okay, but it's literally a portable screen.
Brian B:Yeah, by king ma the manufacturer. Okay, I'll let you guess where that's coming from. Probably, but price point thirty dollars, no, thirty, that's it. That's coming from probably. Price point $30. No, $30. That's it. That's. It Comes with a proprietary mount that is magnetic, okay, so what you're going to do if you're doing it on the backside here, put it like this Oops, I'm sorry, it's got a little spring to it.
Brian B:It actually also has a mount, so you can screw something in there and then this just sits in here. Okay, like this, it's magnetic, okay, so if you wanted to see yourself, power button.
Joe Bunn:Yeah.
Brian B:So you're seeing it pop up here. It'll tell you that you need to connect via the Wi-Fi, not the Wi-Fi that you're on. That has its own proprietary.
Joe Bunn:Wi-Fi Right right right.
Brian B:So I'm going to jump on that real quick. Here we go. Step two is oh, I need to cast the screen. Here it is, as you can see. Wow, you can see yourself in there. Right, so you could be recording content this way?
Joe Bunn:Yeah, there I am, and now you can see it $ there I am Now, you can see it $30.
Brian B:Where would this come in handy, I think, if you're at a show and you wanted to film yourself DJing with the good?
Joe Bunn:side of it. You can put this there and you can be monitoring yourself of what you're doing with that screen. Dude, 1,000% Isn't that crazy? That's a great shot. I did get targeted, but it was expensive. I thought $30. And you just charge it up. But it was expensive, I thought $30.
Brian B:And you just charge it up, stick it on that, charge it up, yep USB-C. I think so. Usb-c, yeah, USB-C, Yep. So it goes in the actual with a nice little bag yeah a little satchel. Yeah, a little satchel, I love a satchel.
Brian B:I love the word satchel and dongle a few times for some gigs, and it works great, you know if you just need something you're in a pinch or just need to record something content wise, you know, and you're just like I love that I have to line it up, re-record it two or three times we'll put the link down below.
Joe Bunn:Let's hit this question, okay, mike cataldi, my guy out in phoenix, arizona, what does your planning and wedding preparation process look like and what are some of your favorite discovery questions that you like to ask during your planning meetings with your couples? So this, I'm assuming the show is booked, right, yeah, right, right, right. And then you're getting into like the minutiae of how do you want this thing to go down do you do one planning meeting only, or do you do multiples?
Brian B:I'm a one-er. Yours is late, though Way late.
Joe Bunn:Like the week before, damn near, yeah, wow, under two weeks. The one time that I didn't do it and this was recent history, maybe three or four years ago I got the weddings mixed up. Did I tell you this story?
Brian B:Yes, you did, yeah, and.
Joe Bunn:I started playing the wrong playlist, wrong playlist, and I was like three songs in the girl came. I was like yo, what are you playing? And I think she like even said it in the review oh, no, like she got me and you've always operated that way and I've never, never, had somebody be like I don't have time for this shit right now.
Joe Bunn:Yeah, I'm surprised I was too when we started this policy and even with all my djs, nobody's ever said, man, we just hit that girl up too late, or that guy up too late, you, you know they're pissed off about it. We've never gotten that kind of blowback or feedback, so we've stuck to the policy. That's incredible.
Joe Bunn:So by that point I mean it's all planned out again, man, when you hit a certain milestone or a certain point in your career. The majority of the shows that we do are going to be with some sort of planner. Now I don't necessarily want to say that's like Kathy with you know, raleigh, wedding planner teamcom, it could be the person that's assigned to that wedding that is working at that hotel.
Joe Bunn:They're either going to have given us a PDF whether it's a wedding planner or somebody from the hotel with at least the basics. Then the couple does have the opportunity to go in that portal on DJ event planner and fill out the rest. Right, you use Vibo for that very reason. Now I've got 90% of it and then I'll have a few questions that are either for the planner A lot of the time the planner just says I want all questions directed to me or the couple. You know I'll have a few questions for them.
Joe Bunn:So a great question that comes up a lot for us is do I play the whole song again for the special dances or fade it? Are you doing a private last dance? Who's giving a toast and in what order? And then, what is their status? Who is Kelly? Kelly could be a girl, man or a woman. Oh, no, kelly's the father of the ride. Yeah, I need to know that. Right, I can look at that planner man honestly and in less than 10 minutes, list out, let's say, six to eight questions, right, and once I've got those, I basically take all of that and put it on two sheets on Pages on the iPad, and the beauty of Pages is it's in the cloud. So if I update it on the iPad, it's going to update on my phone, it's going to update on my laptop. Blah, blah, blah.
Brian B:So you know, I just heard this actually this week.
Joe Bunn:Yeah, J-March with Vivo. Actually this week J March with 5.0.
Brian B:Yeah, you know that. You can take your PDF, drag it into your Notes app and if you have an Apple Pencil, you can edit the PDF, scratch things off do everything with it. So if you had it, it doesn't even have to be on your phone. It could be your Notes app on your iPad is what I'm saying Sure, sure, sure, sure.
Joe Bunn:I'm just curious.
Brian B:Don't have to recreate it in pages.
Joe Bunn:Right.
Brian B:Literally, it's an edible document at that point.
Joe Bunn:Sure.
Brian B:Within notes.
Joe Bunn:I had no idea that you could do that. I don't think I knew that.
Brian B:Let me go back to one more question. Okay, so a week prior. You really can't mess with too much at that point or get too creative with anything with a week to go as far as, like you know, doing anything, have probably sent in an email a few weeks or even months prior.
Joe Bunn:So in my Dropbox right now there's a folder that says for upcoming shows and there might be some wedding in February where some bride has sent me an edit of my girl and thriller that she's going to do with her dad, or she asked for it months ago. Can you guys do this? I sent it to Randy, made him do it and then he sent it to me and I'm just sitting it there February 14th 2025, susie and her dad special dance or whatever I've labeled it. So anything like that has been asked for long ago. So it wasn't necessarily a planning meeting.
Joe Bunn:It was just an exchange of maybe a couple of emails or something like that.
Brian B:And so they might not talk to you from the time that they sign all the way until a week before.
Joe Bunn:But, they are getting a trickle of emails, helpful emails. Or have you made your payment, or have you turned in your planner? Or we would like to get all your playlists from Spotify, or you know like they're never like left alone for 12 months or nine months. You know what I mean. There's always a little bit of communication.
Joe Bunn:And again anytime they email me or the office or their DJ, they're hearing back the same day. I don't let my guys go more than 24 hours without responding, unless it's on the weekend when we're discovery questions that you ask in the first 10 minutes, that you're trying to assess these people. I think that the main things I want to get are that open dance Spotify link more than anything else. I want to know what to stay away from, and every once in a while I'm shocked.
Joe Bunn:We don't want to hear Mr Brightside. I'm like I would have played Mr Brightside. We don't want to hear right more than anything else right I also want to know.
Joe Bunn:Most of the couples I'm doing are very in tune and have been to a lot of weddings by this point. What happened in the last wedding I would love to know was a band or dj. Were they any good? They were bad. Why were they bad? Well, the same songs, blah, blah. This guy was awkward on the mic. Whatever I'm like, yeah good, good to know. Like I'm not going to be that guy, you know what I mean. Like I'm like a therapist and I get more times than you can imagine every year. Well, what do you do if people aren't dancing? I don't have an instance where I can just say now might not have been 200 people jumped up at once and started dancing, but I don't have an a really reference for this.
Joe Bunn:They've sat through a ceremony, then they had cocktails, then they had some food and then they had some more drinks. The progression is these lights are coming down, we're turning this shit up and we're going to have a party.
Joe Bunn:It's just a known sequence of events that is happening right now. What about you? I mean chime in on this because I know you are a lot different than me in that this is much more because you were kind of cringing at this question a little bit, not because he asked it, but because it's so different for you because it is so bespoke, I guess.
Brian B:Yeah.
Joe Bunn:So customized, so tailored, and you're doing so few events that each one is highly unique or different, so you don't have this cookie cookie cutter set of like. I can open this page and go all right. Here are the questions right now and then and I don't think there's anything wrong with that right, I don't everybody's got their own style.
Brian B:Two things I'd say if they're booking me, it's different than my team, so let's just go ahead and put that there same. So if they book me, I like to do an initial session with them at least 10 weeks in 10 weeks after signing or 10 weeks before the wedding after they signed, I do what I call a creative session yes and I call it actually a music foundation meeting and I'm setting the foundation musically for what they are looking for.
Brian B:So I'll have reviewed their Spotify playlists yeah, all those different things and then we'll sit on the session. I'll show them some edits of things that I put together Not many, I mean, we're talking about like five or six songs that you made that I'm pulling from my own library. Sometimes I'll have made something, but it's rare. But I'm just saying like maybe like they'll say hey, we really like this Justin Bieber song, but we've heard the original at 10 different weddings. Can you show me something a little bit different? Or I might just suggest it like hey, you've heard this at three probably of your latest, latest weddings. A good example of this would have been pink pony club.
Brian B:I had an after party recently and she's like I love the song but, I've heard it at every wedding I've been to. Like is there any way to flip it a bit, and so I had like three or four different versions of it and said, hey, did any of these resonate with?
Joe Bunn:you, are we more on the hip hop tip? Are we going more like dance? Yeah, exactly.
Brian B:And the other thing I'll say that I do with this meeting it lasts 30 minutes, oh okay, maybe 45 if I wanted to extend it, for whatever reason.
Brian B:Okay, all of my meetings are now recorded on Zoom, and what I do is I put it into a folder for that couple, I dump it after the wedding's done, sure, and then we do another one, and this is the last one 60 days prior To the wedding, to the wedding, and the reason for that is they've had time to marinate on things. If I need to do anything unique or I need to be on the lookout for certain songs, maybe they've a new artist has come out all of a sudden and they're like we really are digging this person. Can we add some more of that flavor to it? Or whatever the case may be, I've got 60 days to kind of be on the lookout for it, or at least to keep it top of mind than like the week before and stressing myself out to look for some of this stuff Also recorded and this is something new that I've never done before. Usually I'd record those, maybe make some notes, whatever, on the way to the gig I'm playing back those sessions, oh shit.
Brian B:And I'm doing it at two speed, yeah.
Joe Bunn:And I don't have time to sit there and listen to an hour. Yeah, you know the drives and you're not watching it because there's no watch. No, so I'm just playing it on my phone and it of some things that we talked about See and eliminates the confusion of multiple shows, because you're bringing it back to this meeting for this couple.
Brian B:Totally Damn son that's cold, are y'all?
Joe Bunn:listening to this shit, yeah.
Brian B:I had one where we did literally three sessions. Yeah, I had three sessions with this client and she had kind of updated things throughout, said some things in meeting one that she didn't say in meeting two or three. I'm like, oh, I need to remember that. So it was great to play it back.
Joe Bunn:You know what? I was talking to somebody I think Nate Acosta was on he's like super sharp. Yeah, this dude knows content. He's like bilingual, he's like killing it down there in Dallas. Anyway, he was talking about that AI fathom. Note taker, yes, notetaker, yes, that you see a lot of people in the background. Have you seen, like what it spits out at the end of the meeting?
Joe Bunn:I'm using something like that okay, well his basically spit out this pdf of the. You know he was basically saying when I meet with couples, I run this uh notetaker in the background, ai, and it spits out a pdf of like here were the key points, right, here is what we talked about. Here are the deliverables that I'm going to give you. Here are the things I still need from you on these planning meetings. Right, and it was, I mean, laid out like a gorgeous pdf. Yeah, all from this note taker, which is whatever the minimal price was.
Brian B:I think there's like five of them that are really good, that are really good, and some of them will even tell you like this is when they got excited, like this is the most exciting part of the call like so it gives you energy? Yeah, yeah, just like I don't even know how it knows. That's crazy. Anyways, that's just something that I've been doing recently and it's been a game changer.
Joe Bunn:Yeah, I'm like it's the thing that I do where I'm like practicing the name casey and savannah smith casey and savannah right yeah, just the whole day, right, anytime I have a conversation, I'm just bringing up their name this bride specifically just threw it in there.
Brian B:Oh, I love velvet rope. The janope, the Janet Jackson album.
Joe Bunn:Who doesn't?
Brian B:Who doesn't right, I'm like, but she never put that in songs in there.
Joe Bunn:She just mentioned it as an aside. I'm like ooh, I'm going to look at that album which cuts do I not have already prepped for that that I want to have in there.
Brian B:So it was like it's still just a reminder of like oh, I was listening.
Joe Bunn:But it's almost like man the whole day and especially when you get there, becomes nothing but listening. You know like how many times have you heard something during a toast Like I heard this thing about Creed the other night during the toast? They were like this dude loves Creed. There's no Creed on this list. They didn't even really give me a list and it was a three-hour dance set. I'm like bro, you got Creed edits Bro. We dropped higher and I thought the building was going to call, I know, I told you.
Joe Bunn:Then we dropped with Honors, wide Open or some other edit. You sent me Just again like a verse course Super short yeah. We were going nuts yeah mental.
Joe Bunn:There was another one. A member of the wedding party came up to me. I was at the bar getting a soda, and it was during dinner or whatever and he was like are you DJ Bun? I don't know why people call me that. I'm like sure, yeah, I'm DJ Bun. He was like I won't be mad if you drop Someday by Sugar Ray. I knew I had it and I used to love Sugar Ray.
Joe Bunn:I'm like is that going to go over? And it went over, wow, and it was just like we've're listening to Sugar Ray tonight. Yeah, and just dropped it right in in the middle of the set, wow, and it just went off. Wow, I mean, would you have just played that off the rip? No, not off the dome, exactly. Anyway, you've got to always have your ears open, I guess, the whole day. Yeah, this is good man, good episode. Yeah, you want to put a? And friends, family. What does Trago say? Beautiful party people, beautiful party people. Thanks for listening to Beyond the DJ Booth. New episodes every single week, wherever you listen to podcasts and the full-length video on YouTube on Joe Bunn's channel, and that's it.
Brian B:See you next week. See ya, bye.