Mix Around and Find Out
It's been a while since I posted anything here. But I recorded a new mix, and I wanted to actually sit down and write about it instead of just dropping a link and disappearing again.
The mix is called Mix Around and Find Out. That's basically a riff on "fuck around and find out" — it was the first thing that came to mind when I sat down to name it, nothing else came close, so I just ran with it.
How this even happened
Back in 2023, Sarah got me a DJ controller for Father's Day. A Hercules Inpulse — nothing fancy. I had been mixing on turntables for years before that, 2x Technics SL1200s, an old Serato SL3 controller, but the turntables have been sitting in storage for a while (one of them's a little busted up, honestly), and it had been a good ten, eleven years since I had actually sat down and put a mix together.
So the new controller was a chance to start over, in a way. Except — life. We didn't have the space for me to practice in our new apartment when we first moved, so it just sat there. Untouched. For a long time.
What finally got me to open it back up wasn't really about DJing at all.
Life had other plans
Starting around June 2023, it felt like loss after loss. My father-in-law passed in May 2024. Not long after, my mother-in-law in September 2025. Then a grandmother. Then an uncle. Then my grandmother's brother. On top of that I lost my job in October 2023, we moved to a new state — Connecticut, somewhere I had zero roots — and I was trying to find work, settle in a brand new area while also being a new parent and just generally trying to figure out who I was in the middle of all of it Yeah, no vintage Porsche’s for my crashout midlife crisis!
I don't want this to be the focal point of the post, but it's part of the story, so I'm not going to pretend it isn't. It was a genuinely hard stretch. My wife, my kid, my family, my friends — they carried a lot of that weight with me. And so did music.
I listen to a ton of Glitterbox Radio, especially over these last few years — classic, disco, funky house, the kind of stuff that's just unapologetically uplifting. And at some point, in the middle of all that uncertainty, I finally cracked open the controller again and forced myself to relearn a new tool. Picking it back up wasn't really a DJ decision. It was a "I need to reconnect with something that's mine" decision.
The sound of it
If you know my mixes, this one's a bit of a departure. I've typically leaned toward nu-disco, deep house, and UK Garage when I'm behind the decks. This one's more classic, disco, and french house — faster, brighter, more uptempo. That's rooted in my 20s, in Calgary, at Cherry Lounge and Night Gallery. Some of my fondest memories of going out came from nights there, and I wanted this mix to chase a little of that feeling. Something more uplifting. Something that moves.
The technical side of it (and the long road to actually finishing)
I started pulling the tracklist together back in October, running on a demo version of Serato. That version capped me at 16-bar loops — which is rough when you're used to 32 bars on turntables. Trying to mix and blend within that constraint while also relearning a controller was its own kind of frustrating.
In February or March, I finally pulled the trigger and got the full Serato license. That unlocked 32-bar looping again, effects, and — the part that actually mattered — the ability to record. That's really the moment this stopped being "messing around" and started being an actual mix.
This is v3. There were a few attempts before this one didn't make it. And even after I had a take I liked, I sat on it for a couple months before actually posting it. Finding 45 minutes to record a clean, seamless mix is a lot harder now with full-time work, a kid, and everything else going on. I tell everyone — hit record, post the thing, don't overthink it — and then I sat on my own finished mix for months. So, do as I say, not as I do, I guess.
I also want to give credit where it's due: a lot of my mixing instinct comes from listening to other people's sets and radio shows over the years, picking apart how they build and blend tracks. EQing specifically has always been a weak spot for me — I've historically been bad about cutting the right frequencies — and tutorials from people like Phil Harris helped me actually understand what I was doing wrong. This is probably one of the more cleanly blended mixes I've put together. Not perfect — there are a couple spots I can hear where the EQ could've been tighter — but overall I'm happy with where it landed.
My process isn't methodical at all. I don't sit down with a tracklist and an order already planned. I just start playing around, find blends that feel right, and keep shuffling things until the whole thing starts to feel like a vibe. Eventually you've got something. That's basically how this came together.
A few notes on the tracks
Ne-Yo – So Sick (DFA Remix) opens the mix, and I'd wanted to play this one for a long time. It's got this great extended instrumental build-up, which is part of why I love the record — but it didn't work for where I needed it in the mix. So instead of riding the build-up out, I cut straight to where I needed people to be, with the high-pass filter pulled low. The idea was to drop you in like you're walking down a hallway into a club — the bass gets clearer the closer you get to the room. Wasn't the plan going in, just the workaround that ended up working.
Salif Keita – Madan (Exotic Disco Mix) takes me straight back to old World Cups every time I hear it. There's a TikTok soccer-highlight-edit-reel energy to this track that's just undeniable. It’s one of those songs that work for any type of dance floor.
Everything But The Girl – Corcovado (Knee Deep Classic Club Mix) has that classic Brazilian/Portuguese vocal that I've always loved.
Kerri Chandler & Roy Ayers – Good Vibrations (Mad Mix, Kerri Chandler Remaster)** — I'm a sucker for piano on a house track, and this one's no exception, with that driving piano underneath Roy Ayers' signature xylophone. Mixing out of this one was tricky — the xylophone gets up there in volume, so balancing it against the new track coming in took some care.
Steve "Silk" Hurley – The Word Is Love is a classic, no real story beyond that — just love the record.
U2 – Discothèque (DM Deep Club Mix) snuck in almost out of nowhere. We were in Ireland last year and I went down a U2 rabbit hole on YouTube. Say what you want about the iTunes thing — they're one of the great stadium bands, full stop. This track is from the Zoo TV/PopMart era, and it's stuck with me since.
Perth (KiNK) into the KiNK transition off the back of Discothèque was a real-time decision I'm still going back and forth on. I had the choice to let it ride another 60 bars before the bass dropped, or go straight into it. I went straight in. Might've been a mixing mistake, might've worked out fine — hard to say. Either way, it's the kind of thing you notice after the fact and think "I should've done that differently," and then you remember the whole point was to just finish and post it.
That's the mix
Started in October, full license in February/March, recorded a couple months ago, finally posting it now in June. Long road, but I'm glad it's out in the world. Hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed putting it together — and hopefully the next one doesn't take eight months to see daylight.
Tracklist
So Sick [DFA Remix (Vocal)] — Ne-Yo
We're Gonna Make It [DJ Spen Mix] — Michelle Weeks, Dawn Tallman, Laquana Jones
Bad Enough [Henry Street Mix] — CZR, Henry Street
Madan [Exotic Disco Mix] — Salif Keita
Corcovado [Knee Deep Classic Club Mix] — Everything But The Girl, Ben Watt
Good Vibrations [Mad Mix (Kerri Chandler Remaster)] — Kerri Chandler, Roy Ayers
Each And Everyone [Original Mix] — Gigi Croccante
The Word Is Love [Silk's Original Anthem Mix] — Sharon Pass, Steve "Silk" Hurley
Treat You Right [Classy Dub] — Dennis Quin, Cheshy
Bus Stop Please [Hayley Zalassi Remix] — Fatboy Slim, Daniel Steinberg
Discothèque [DM Deep Club Mix / Remastered 2024] — U2
Perth — Kink
Seven Mile (feat. Moodymann) [Kai Alce NDATL Remix Short Edit — Louie Vega, Moodymann, Kai Alce