Hard Techno in a Vintage Store

Before Stray Sessions, I had this idea of recording DJ sets in unconventional spaces around Miami. I knew the concept itself wasn't new, so I didn't want the location to just be a backdrop. I wanted there to be a reason behind where each session happened and how it came together.

Q4 felt like the right place to start. It was a vintage store I already had a personal connection with, and a space that felt completely removed from where you'd expect to hear a techno set.

I personally knew one of the owners of Q4 from being involved in the Miami scene over the years. I straight up asked him if I could use the space, and to my surprise, both of them were on board. They even suggested having people there, which wasn't something I had originally thought of. I knew the space would work because it was visually interesting enough to turn some heads. Once I got the okay from the owners, I set out to get everything ready for the set.

Once we had the space, we had to figure out how we were actually going to record and set everything up. One of the first things we did was go out and get a webcam that could capture the whole room. I knew I could use my MacBook camera for the angle facing me, so with those two cameras we had a pretty simple setup for recording the set.

Sound was another thing we had to figure out. We had two speakers as a backup, but we really wanted a proper PA system. Q4 came through with a connection and helped us get two PA speakers for the night. With the cameras, sound, and lighting figured out, we finally had everything we needed to make the first session happen.

Promotion for the session started pretty simple. Andre from Q4 designed the flyer, and the original plan was really just to have Q4 post it and let it circulate from there. We only put it out a few days before the show, so everything was happening on a really short turnaround. The flyer started getting some traction, but at that point I still had no idea how many people were actually going to show up.

At the same time, I was promoting my song Break That, which was dropping the day before the show. I started tying the two together and basically telling people that if they wanted to hear the track, they could come hear me play it at Q4. Joselyn handled pretty much all of the marketing for the actual event, from creating the TikToks and Reels to figuring out how we were going to push it online.

About two days before the show, we started posting the videos we had made. I posted a couple throughout the day, and then around 11 that night I put up one more TikTok. That was the one that took off. It caught the algorithm out of nowhere and suddenly started putting the event in front of way more people than we expected.

Before that video, I really had no idea who was actually going to show up. Once it started gaining traction, that changed. At the show, I ended up meeting people who told me they had found out about it directly from TikTok. We didn't spend anything on advertising. Everything happened organically.

We got to Q4 around 5 PM with doors opening at 7. We had about two hours to figure out where everything was going, set up the table, get the lighting in place, run the cameras, and make sure the sound was working.

The biggest issue we ran into was with the PA system. For a little while, we just couldn't get the speakers working properly. I was handling all of the audio myself, so it turned into me troubleshooting everything on the spot until I eventually got it working.

By the time we finished, everything we had spent the last few days figuring out was finally in one place. The cameras were running, the lights were up, the sound was working, and the store was ready. At that point, there wasn't really anything left to do except open the doors and see who actually showed up.

We started the set around 8. At first, it wasn't packed. Most of the people there were friends who came out to support us, and looking back, I probably would've waited a little longer before starting. But it's Miami, and people show up late.
As the night went on, more and more people started coming in. Eventually, the room started filling up and people were actually reacting to the music. I started paying attention to what was working with the crowd and adjusting what I played around that.

While I handled the DJing and recording the full set, Joselyn documented everything happening around it. A lot of what we have from that night came from her being in the crowd recording the moments I couldn't see from behind the decks.

Going into this, I wanted the set to be fun while still sounding impressive. The original plan was a mix of hard techno and hardstyle, with hints of electroclash. More than anything, I wanted people to genuinely enjoy themselves.

I had prepared the entire set ahead of time, but I ended up going through everything I planned in just the first hour. That left me with another hour to fill, which ended up being completely improvised. I started pulling tracks from my library, mixing hard bounce, hard techno, dubstep, and trance, and playing whatever felt right for the crowd.

The second hour ended up being a lot more spontaneous than I expected, but I think that freedom made the set more interesting. It reminded me that sometimes it's better to go with the moment than stick to a plan.