23/06/2026
I’m still struggling to find the right words after this weekend.
On Saturday, I had the chance to play at the Daad Stage at Daad Festival, and ever since then, those moments we’ve shared keep replaying in my mind.
I’ll be honest.
I knew this performance would be different. I knew I was about to stand in front of a huge crowd, and I also knew that mentally it wouldn’t be easy for me. Opportunities to play in front of so many people haven’t come my way very often, and during the hour before my set, my mind was filled with doubts, fears, and endless questions.
Was I really ready for this? Could I handle a stage of this size? What would it feel like to play a vinyl set under these circumstances?
Anyone who has played vinyl knows that there’s nowhere to hide. So much depends on your state of mind in that exact moment. Your hearing, your sense of rhythm, your focus. How present you are. How quickly you find the right tempo, when you decide to make a transition, how you react when something unexpected happens. On a stage this big, all of those things suddenly feel much heavier.
Walking onto that stage wasn’t easy.
Then the moment came.
I pressed the start button on the turntable, and somehow every negative thought disappeared. The pressure was gone. The noise in my head faded away. There was only the present moment. The music. That special state where you’re no longer thinking you simply let yourself be carried by the flow.
There were unexpected situations. There were mistakes too. But that’s vinyl. It’s alive. It’s human. It’s real. And maybe that’s exactly why I love it so much.
As the last record of my set was spinning, I finally had a moment to take a breath and look around. Through the lights, I could truly see how many of you were standing there.
It was an incredible feeling.
Thank you to everyone who was there, dancing, listening, connecting, or simply sharing a small part of that journey with me. It meant more than I can put into words.
Moments like these remind me why I do this in the first place.
🖤
