Back In 'Aktion'

My Return to DJ-ing

So back in 2012 following a near-ten year DJ career I decided to take a break. At the time, I had achieved a solid reputation. Notable achievements being:

• Ministry of Sound ‘Clubbers Guide’ Tour Resident & Headliner (Scotland/North)
• Stereo Sushi Resident DJ
• Colours Resident
• Local & Worldwide Radio Show (Kinda Groovy, Colin Sales Live)
• Established warm-up DJ for big events, warming up for the likes of David Guetta, Eric Prydz, Dimitri From Paris, and more.
• Weekly Bar Residencies in Glasgow
• Various singles and and album released with S.U.Z.Y (and others) on vocals seeing a good degree of success and support from major DJs across the industry (Roger Sanchez, Laurent Garnier, Grant Nelson, and more).

I felt I was putting a huge amount of effort into securing further DJ work, but wasn’t really getting anywhere. There was lots of effort for little return in a very saturated market. One particular offer to play a bar gig for £30 was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

So I hung up my headphones.

But one thing stood true: I still had a huge passion for the music.

A decade passed, Covid had caused chaos, and following the Cambridge Analytica scandal I had deleted my social media - including WhatsApp. I became interested in the privacy and security of my own personal data and started to live a value of independence. I subsequently became a customer of hardened end-to-end encrypted services including Proton, Signal but I generally figured that I’d be a little private person using Apple’s ecosystem and wouldn’t have to be concerned about privacy and security.

Now throw in some USA geopolitics, Apple’s decision to pull it’s Advanced Data Protection tool from the UK, and then some Amazon Web Services (AWS) outages into the mix (amongst others), and it became clear to me that in order to maintain my privacy, digital independence and security - including avoidance of US surveillance (yes, as a UK citizen - this is a thing!) I was going to need to switch some of the services I used to something more European or UK-based.

Let me be clear, I’ve nothing to hide - except my own data. I prefer to control who has access to it, and not give that decision to my phone or my browsing habits.

So I took the decision to end my dependency on Apple’s ecosystem.

Part of the problem with Apple was that it was getting even more ridiculously expensive. But the threat of tariffs on new iPhones meant this could go higher, so I felt that I knew I was making the right decision.

I bought a FairPhone (Gen 6) and migrated from iOS to the de-googled /e/OS mobile system. I moved away from Apple Music to Deezer (because Spotify collects LOADS of data including health info, WTF?), and I also converted my old Apple Macbook to MX Linux (just for fun and to experience Linux at a low level). I do still have my current Macbook Pro which is a newer model and will likely last me through the next decade, but my full intention is to switch right over to Linux going forward.

But crucially, my love for the music hasn’t gone away.

The Spark That Brought Me Back

A close friend decided to buy himself some new decks - a standalone Pioneer unit and I ended up using it to DJ at a private party which was absolutely brilliant fun and really spurred me on to invest some time and money back into the artform.

So I splashed out on a Pioneer XDJ-RX3, recorded some mixes (I hadn’t lost my skills, thankfully! ) and put them out under a production alias ‘SubTraKtion’ which I’d already use around the time my headphones got hung up. Unfortunately, YouTube took down some mixes already, but everything I have is on my Mixcloud and Soundcloud pages.

I chose the name ‘SubTraKtion’ because a) I love basslines, especially on a good subwoofer! b) I used to use Traktor Pro software, so the ‘Trak’ is a nod to that, plus c) ‘Traktion’ is of course a word to describe ‘movement’, so I felt that worked pretty well.

Where My Sound Is Today

Whilst I still absolutely LOVE House music, as you can imagine over the last two decades my taste in the various sub-genres' of House has developed.

I’m a stickler for a good bassline, and the evolution of ‘bass house’ has been interesting - I like to combine that with garage, tech, and minimal/micro house sounds, and that’s what ‘SubTraKtion’ is all about. But, at the same time, I love funky & soulful tracks, and big-room sounds with lots of energy, that love will never go away.

So, here I am, back online with my own website. Ready to go again for maybe another decade (or more!) of House whether it’s mixing or producing. I intend to log my progress on this very blog which I’ve aptly named Kronicles (a little play on using the ‘K’ in the new name).

But first, I need to set a few DJ/Producer goals, and get my first Podcast up and running, then begin work on producing some new music.

I also need to get my social channels up and running.

As an advocate for privacy-first, open source and digital sovereignty - I won’t be on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok etc (only Insta for a short period for ‘promotional purposes’.

Join The Journey

I’ve registered accounts on Mastodon, Pixelfed, MakerTube, and this blog on Writizzy. These are all federated UK or EU-based services which don’t steal, sell or hand over your data. Hopefully you can join me on there - drop me a little follow or subscribe (for free) to my video channel (on MakerTube).

Lots to do - lots to mix, and lots of good times and good vibes to be had.

I hope you can join the ride with me. Big fun incoming!

Colin (SubTraKtion)