Kearney Blog Part 1 – America
I am currently sitting on a Delta plane en route to Atlanta from Los Angeles on the way home to Dublin. Thankfully I have an aisle seat so I can move my legs out from behind the seat. I’m sitting in 43 B, I think my feet are up at around row 22, long bastard. I’m listening to the Chill Out Mix of Acadia – Blind Visions from the Deeper Euphoria album, a beautiful piece of music. I have the shuffle option selected on my phone so God knows what will come on next. The plane has just taken off and I’m looking out at LA from 10000 feet, it is an unbelievably populated city, amazing to look at from this height. This was my first time playing in LA and it was a fantastic experience in a number of ways so let me go back to the start and I’ll review the whole trip from the beginning.
My journey to LA began on Friday morning at 8.30. I was flying with Delta Airlines to LA via Atlanta. The really good thing about flying from Dublin Airport to the US is that all the immigration and customs is done in Ireland, it literally takes two minutes and that’s it. It really does make things a lot easier for when you reach the US as everything is done and dusted. The plane is full and I have a window seat which isn’t too bad as it is situated in a row of two. I make my way to my seat where there is already a passenger sitting in the seat next to mine. “Sorry man, I’m in that seat next to you”, I said. The passenger looks up and to my surprise it is indeed a girl. “OH SHIT” I thought to myself. What a great start to a nine hour flight, can’t wait to disturb her when I need to use the toilet. I have major problems with regards to sleeping on planes, the major problem been that I can’t. The length of my legs is one of the reasons for this, zero leg room and no comfort. I dream of a day when I will fly business class or on a plane with a seat that flattens out into a bed. Unfortunately I am not at that level yet, someday maybe? The other reason for my lack of sleep is that I have a brain that finds itself difficult to switch off, an overactive mind that is constantly working overtime. I think this could be the unfortunate by-product of having a creative mind and also been involved in the music industry. So I’m sitting on a plane full of strangers, with nobody to talk to for X amount of hours so my brain has nothing better to do than to start thinking, random nonsense. So, to keep myself entertained for the flight I decided to purchase Gary Neville’s Autobiography ‘Red’. I read the book, 300 pages or so in about 4 hours. It’s a fantastic read and gives a great insight into football and Manchester United. I know that Mr Neville isn’t exactly everybody’s favourite footballer, I can completely understand the reasons for that (he understands this too) it still makes for great reading so it comes highly recommended from myself. He explains how he was never really a naturally gifted footballer but he worked hard and dedicated himself to his profession in order to achieve his dreams, I think it’s a good attitude to work by for a career that you love. The in-flight entertainment is very poor on Delta, in fact the in-flight service is far better on internal flights in the US as opposed to trans-atlantic flights from Dublin. They show movies but the screen is miles away (I think the screen is at the same row where my feet reach all the way to). You don’t have a choice of what films you get to watch either, disappointing. Right, I may aswell try and get some sleep, I take a sleeping tablet and patiently wait for it to kick in. I half nod off for about 20 minutes and then I’m up again, wide awake. I make it to Atlanta anyway.
From reading Delta’s magazine I see that Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world. I probably should of guessed that from the plane that landed beside my one on another runway which was scarily close. I had never seen that before. I have three hours before my connection flight to LA so I’m quite chilled out and relaxed having a stroll around the airport. It’s a really good vibrant airport with plenty to see, do, eat and drink. There are loads of US Army recruits walking around the airport, their destination I don’t know but I’m shocked by how young some of them look. Some of them look no more than 18/19, quite scary really. You’d imagine people of that age to be out enjoying themselves and making the most of their younger years but instead they are off to fight wars in foreign countries, a shame really. Maybe I got it all wrong though, maybe it was a group of lads off on a stag party or maybe I was going indeed going delirious from lack of sleep? I decided to kill some time before my flight by reorganizing all my new music on my laptop. I didn’t bring my cd case as I wanted to start fresh for the gig but this was to go against me later in the trip, all will be revealed. I’m not going to bore you with the details of another five hour flight. I didn’t sleep, my brain was on a mad one and I got to LA. I had arrived.
So I was finally here. I’ve always wanted to visit LA. I’ve been fascinated with America ever since I can remember, everything about the place amazed me. I suppose it’s from growing up and seeing so many American programs etc, maybe I just always wanted to be Zack Morris? It was very surreal to be finally in California. I’d always imagined it to be this beautiful, warm sunny place and funnily enough it was. I’m sure there are some less attractive places in LA and it’s surrounding areas but I didn’t see them (this time). I was met at the airport by Frederick, he would be my ambassador for the weekend. I was staying in Orange County which is about 40 minutes from LA. We chatted about various music related topics in the car on the way to the hotel. I was absolutely shattered by this stage so I was looking forward to getting some proper sleep. I got some food and went to sleep.
I woke up at 6 a.m on the Saturday morning, I had about six hours sleep which is more than I usually get when I travel abroad (I suffer from really bad jetlag) so I was wide awake and fresh, I was feeling good. The great thing about LA is that it is eight hours behind Ireland and the Premiership was about to begin early in the morning at 7 a.m so I decided to get some breakfast into me. The breakfast buffet in the hotel was incredible. I’m not surprised there’s an obesity problem in America with the quality of food on offer, if I wasn’t careful I was going to have an obesity problem of my own, glutton fest. The Chelsea and Sunderland game was shown live on the tv in my room so I was chuffed with that. I worked away on some music stuff while the game was on in the background. The United game was on after it, another brilliant performance, a great start to my US trip.
Saturday was to be the day that I was going to go and see the sights of LA and Hollywood. I had been in San Francisco in 2010 and had got to know a number of people from playing there. Some people who I met last year had recently moved to LA and they very kindly offered to host me for the day and to show me around all the tourist stuff in Hollywood etc. So I met Andri and his girlfriend Noelle and we made our way to Hollywood. It was an amazing drive there.It was amazing to see all the signs and names of places that I had seen on TV and in the movies, Santa Monica & Sunset Boulevard etc. We went to the Walk Of Fame and The Chinese Theatre on the main strip. It was a lot smaller than I had imagined but still great to see in person. We then went to see the Hollywood sign. This again was amazing to witness in person, very surreal. We then headed off to Beverly Hills to have a look around and to get some food (once again absolutely unreal, fuck it I was on my holidays). Beverly Hills was an absolutely beautiful place, some of the most amazing houses I’d ever seen, a completely different level of living to anything I’d ever seen before, unreal. I was also surprised by the amount of homeless people walking around in such an exclusive area, it was such a contrast of fortunes. We were driving along the road in Beverly Hills and I innocently looked to my right, that innocence was soon shattered. There, in full view of everyone was a black homeless GENIUS having a shit at the entrance to an exclusive estate. Was I seeing things? Was I again going delirious from lack of sleep? I took another look to my right and what happened? I caught him mid wipe. Fuck sake. I don’t even know what he was using to clean himself. I don’t even want to know. I can’t but laugh at it now, what an absolute genius, nothing to lose I suppose. We then went in search of some celebrity houses. We were outside The Playboy Mansion but it was difficult to see anything from the outside. The trees were on viagra. Some of the houses in the area were just absolutely ridiculous. Tiredness was starting to kick in at this stage so I needed to get some rest before playing that night. Massive thank you to Andri and Noelle for their hospitality. So it was back to the hotel.
Now, I had planned on getting 2-3 hours sleep before getting all my music and myself ready. So, I set my alarm to wake me up at 9 p.m which would have given me plenty of time to have everything ready to leave the hotel at 10.30. So I closed my eyes and went into one of the deepest sleeps I’ve ever had. I was the former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani in one of my dreams. In the meantime, I managed to sleep through my alarm and two wake up calls. I woke up at 10.15, an hour and fifteen minutes later than I planned. I was supposed to be leaving at that time. I had no music ready, I wasn’t ready and was still the former Mayor Of New York. I hadn’t a clue what was going on, I was starting to panic at this stage, let’s call it 9/11 mode. I needed to get my act together. I was due to play at 12, it was going to take me an hour to get my music sorted along with myself and the club was 45 minutes away. I had thought about using USB’s for the gig but didn’t want to risk it for the first time at Circus. So I got my act together, started burning cd’s and was trying to get into performance mode with the help of Mr Jack Daniels. Frederick arrived to help me prepare music. I was still panicking at this stage. I’d never been late for a gig ever, I’d missed one gig in five years and that was due to a cancelled flight because of snow. Even when that was cancelled I booked an alternative flight, i went to the airport but I couldn’t check in as all the Aer Lingus staff had gone home. Another time I missed a flight due to not one but two cars breaking down on the way to Manchester Airport. This resulted in me booking a flight for 200 quid to make it to the gig, which I did. I value punctuality highly and I was starting to feel guilty for sleeping through my alarm but what could I do, jetlag is a bastard, still ,completely my own fault.The promoter Johnny had gone to a lot of effort to bring me to LA for the first time so I was feeling bad for him for being late. I made it to the club at 12.20 thanks to Frederick switching into Michael Schumacher mode, legend. I walked up to the door where the bouncer asked me for I.D. I didn’t have one. I felt like saying thank you for thinking I was under 21 but I had to get in to start my set. He relented. I was in.
I got on the decks straight away, I was already late so I had to make up for lost time. I had an extended set on the night which meant that I was player for longer than I usually do. I normally only get 60-90 minute sets but I was getting longer tonight and I was looking forward to playing out some tracks that I wouldn’t usually get the opportunity to play. I started out at 136, some really nice techy stuff from Reaky and Pe & Ban. This was then followed up with stuff from Stefano Noferini and Arno Cost, really good tech house that sounds amazing on a big system, they sound especially good when pitched up. As the set went on I began to up the tempo gradually with the introduction of some heavy techno and some of my tougher tech trance. I was absolutely delighted by the crowds reaction to the really heavy bass driven stuff, they loved it. I was learning more about the crowd as I was going along and a brand new bootleg of Wippenberg – UR got the reaction of the night, you’ll be hearing that in my sets for a long time. The next 2 hours were a journey through all the different types of trance that I am passionate about. I found that the vocal stuff seemed to take some energy out of the crowd, they weren’t here to stand around, they were here to dance, my remix of Battery Acid soon got things back on track. I was really happy with how my set was progressing, I was focused on the crowd and what to play next, I only had one drink for the first 90 minutes of my set, that must be a new record. With a 2 a.m curfew on alcohol in the club I was on Red Bull for the rest of my set, that wasn’t a problem. There was a MacBook recording my set through Traktor and I was delighted with how it was going. The CDJ 900′s were far more reliable than their overpriced, unreliable and erratic older brother in the form of the 2000′s. My set was flying by and I finished up with John O’Callaghan’s Remix of Beauty Hides In The Deep, always a nice way to end. A lot of people had stayed back and had a lot of kind words about my set, they seemed to really like the power and energy of the faster stuff. This is always very refreshing to hear as the faster stuff is no longer the “in sound”. It was great to know that people loved it and that they showed their support for it. Thanks to everybody at the end for their kindness and gifts, legends.
I stayed and chatted to a few people at the end of my set. It was really good to speak to people who were really clued up about their music and passionate about how I played. One particular gent had travelled from Minnesota for the gig, his name escapes me now but I appreciated the effort he made to come and see me play so thank you. I got back in the car for the 45 minute journey back to my hotel in Orange County but before we set off we checked the recording from the night. Long story short, the recording was fucked and completely distorted. I am not sure why as I had been keeping an eye on the output levels all night, it may have been an issue with the sound card, who knows. I was absolutely gutted to say the least. I had really enjoyed the set, technically it was spot on and I was excited about listening back to it and also having it as a personal memory of the night. The live recordings of my sets are a massive part of my sound and I love putting them up for download to share with others. In addition to that, they also help me to learn from how I played on the night. The parts were I am happy with and also the areas that I could improve on for future gigs. It is important and necessary to help you grow as a DJ and as an artist. I’m not perfect nor do i claim to be but i strive towards improving as an artist on a daily basis. I wasn’t in the best of moods at this stage so the journey back to the hotel was a sombre affair. It could of been far worse, I could have slept through the whole gig. Other lessons were learned.
I got back to the hotel at around 4 a.m (12 pm GMT). I had planned on winding down for the night and trying to get a decent nights sleep but the combination of playing for so long, Red Bull and the disappointment of the set not recording properly meant that I was wide awake and there was no chance of rest. The various 9/11 memorials were beginning on the TV so I watched a number of those for a few hours. Its hard to believe that it’s ten years since it happened, a terrible tragedy but an event (without sounding like a sick bastard) that completely fascinates me. I’ve watched a lot of documentaries about the event and its still hard to believe that it really did happen. It was like watching a movie unfold, but, unfortunately it was real life. I’m not sure if we will ever find out the real events of how it truly happened, I’m in no way what people call a “conspiracy theorist” but it’s very difficult to know what really happened without all the facts of what actually really did occur on the day. There are a huge amount of conflicting stories from the believers and non believers and while I don’t take any particular side I am always open to hearing different views on the matter. How did I manage to go off on this tangent after playing music in a nightclub? My sincerest apologies. Anyway, I was awake for hours and I couldn’t sleep. I eventually fell asleep at around 10.30 a.m and that was me gone for six hours. I have no idea what my dreams entailed but I think I had passed on the mantle of been Mayor Of New York to somebody else, my time was up.
Sunday was my last proper day in Orange County so Frederick had organised dinner at a really nice restaraunt that overlooked a harbour. The area was massively impressive. This was obvisouly a very affluent area, there was a lot of very wealthy people living here. I was definitely bringing the value of the area down significantly. Once again the food was superb and the service was excellent. America has very high standards with regards to both of these. There is a completely different lifestyle in California. It’s obvious that it takes a high salary in order to have a property in this area. It has both beautiful weather and a high standard of living. I’d imagine it to be very nice to place to live (if you can afford it). I was happy to be an admiring tourist. We then travelled a short distance down the coast to Laguna Beach, another absolutely beautiful area with incredible scenery. I had a few beers and chilled out. I got back to the hotel at 10 p.m as I wanted to see the final episode of Entourage. It’s a show that I only started watching last year but one of the only programs that I followed regularly (I don’t watch TV really). The last episode was a massive disappointment to be honest, I’m not going to go and give away the ending to people that haven’t already seen it but in my opinion it was incredibly rushed. Entourage was an amazing show but with a disappointing ending. It was like witnessing the greatest set of your life and the DJ finishing with a 30 minute version of Aqua – Barbie Girl. Barbie Girl in reverse.
So that takes me back to where I am now, on a plane home to Dublin. An excellent overall experience and one which I will look forward to enjoying again in the future. Now it’s time for water and two sleeping tablets. Zzzzzzzzzz.
Seeya
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