Morgan Page: Online Mentor

DJ Times, March 2019

Morgan Page has been a successful DJ/producer for more than a decade now. In addition to making Grammy-nominated hits like “The Longest Road,” he’s traveled the world playing the finest clubs and most prestigious festivals, he retains a Vegas residency at Daylight at Mandalay Bay – the whole bit.

But if you check out his website, you’ll not only find the basic bio/pics/tour info, you’ll also encounter a formidable “Morgan Page Quick Tips” section, which offers impressive text and video content tackling tech, business and general artist topics. Up-and-coming DJs, take note.

As he dropped his new single (“Gone My Way,” a club-banging collab with Pex L on Armada) and prepped for Miami Music Week, where he’ll play the Armada Invites Pool Party on March 30 at The National, we caught up with Morgan Page.

DJ Times: What’s in your studio these days?

Morgan Page: I use Ableton Live for pretty much everything. I’ll often cut vocals with Pro Tools. I’m in love with all the UAD stuff – the Distressor, bx_subsynth, SSL G Series compressor, and Precision Maximizer. I just got the new Apollo x8p, which is a really innovative bridge between software and hardware with their unison technology. I also really like everything FabFilter makes. I use their reverb on nearly every track.

DJ Times: Tell me about the “Quick Tips” section of your site?

Page: The Quick Tips are basically a giant knowledge base that I’ve built over the last seven years. Whenever I get an idea for a technique or something really helpful in the studio, I write it down in a spreadsheet. Soon we’ll have a physical product that makes the tips much more visible and tangible, and I’m experimenting with Instagram videos that demonstrate the tip. The whole idea is to reduce the complexity of making music so it’s more fun. It’s knowledge compression.

DJ Times: It’s really a unique part of your site, something that’s genuinely useful.

Page: The MPQT community has grown a lot! It’s actually a more international fanbase than even my music, so it’s fascinating to see where the traffic is coming from. I’m excited to see where it goes and how it can develop and benefit creatives in other fields.

DJ Times: Do you think it’s important for a DJ/producer to create an online persona – as an authority figure?

Page: I think it’s important to be true to your voice. I love discussing creativity and techniques, and binge-learning is really important to me. It’s not about gear-lust or aspiring to achieve wealth; it’s about sharing inspiration and knowledge that can unlock someone’s inner potential. It’s self-realization through small bite-sized tips. I think there’s a lot of value to sharing this as a public figure, as opposed to a more anonymous teacher.

DJ Times: Any examples in your experience that lead you to create this type of content?

Page: Initially, I created the tips just for myself so I wouldn’t forget them. It was a gift to my 10-year-old self, like, “Here, use these and save yourself some stress and anxiety!” Some of the advice is cautionary, like… don’t sell your publishing, and some is more specific and practical, like… make sure you are doing automatic backups to the cloud and physical media. In my experience, I’ve lost hard drives, I’ve had computers crash onstage at festivals, and ultimately, I had to take ownership of my mistakes. I write the tips to save others headaches and hopefully, they follow my advice.

DJ Times: It’s nice that you don’t leave out the business tips.

Page: The business tips are really hard and not as juicy as the creative areas, because they are so specific to the leverage an artist has in their career, and the current climate of music. As a new artist, you can’t walk into the record label and say you want to keep your masters unless you’re already getting hundreds of millions of plays – and then why do you need the label? One tip I like is that an artist shouldn’t sell their publishing – they have other options like admin deals.

DJ Times: “Taking charge of your own career” is a big theme here.

Page: It’s important to understand that nobody is going to swoop down and open the doors of success for you. I thought this would happen for years. Everything has a price and, if someone is doing this, they are probably taking 50-percent of your income. It’s up to you to build compelling content and attract a core fanbase. This will lead to management and label interest, and your terms will be better than if you’re chasing everyone down.

DJ Times: Ever thought about teaching?

Page: I’ve been doing some guest lectures at schools and, so far, it’s been really interesting. My tips are essentially a remote mentorship, but I think there’s room to expand. There’s a lot of value to being somewhere in person doing Q&As, and I love that spontaneity.

DJ Times, By Jim Tremayne