DJ Life, Building A Personal Brand & Mental Health - Danny T - #147

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, friends. welcome back to Modern Wisdom. My guest today is Danny T and his manager Casey. Danny is a local lad from the north of England, but over the last few years, he's gone from being a normal club DJ to touring all of Europe. He recently sold out Leeds First Direct Arena. And I wanted to find out, how do you build a personal brand around a very competitive market, lots of other DJs out there? What are the principles that you are using and how can other people apply those to their lives? We talk about online followings and how they are not the be all and end all for success in any highly competitive market. We get into mental health and party culture, how young people are growing up now and what they value. It's a really interesting insight with someone who I really think is at the forefront of a very positive movement in terms of how DJs are seen from the UK. So yeah, massive thanks to Danny and Casey for coming on. But for now, please welcome the wise and wonderful Danny T.
It's Danny T. Hi Danny, how are you man?

**Danny T** (1:27)
I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.

**Chris Williamson** (1:29)
What a pleasure. It's been so long coming to get you on here.

**Danny T** (1:32)
I know. We've just been speaking for about 20 minutes before this though.

**Chris Williamson** (1:35)
Yeah, but that's what you, you can't get straight into it. There's got to be a bit of foreplay. You get what I mean? That was the cunnilingus before we get to the- Oh, so good to see you. Yeah, hi Daniel, how are you?

**Danny T** (1:44)
It's been a while.

**Chris Williamson** (1:45)
But it's not just you.

**Danny T** (1:46)
It's not.

**Chris Williamson** (1:47)
Who have you brought with you?

**Danny T** (1:48)
This is my other half, my manager.

**Chris Williamson** (1:53)
Introduce yourself.

**Casey** (1:55)
I'm Casey, Danny's manager, and I say friend.

**Danny T** (2:01)
He reels me and he keeps me from getting myself in trouble.

**Chris Williamson** (2:05)
What's it like being Danny's manager, Casey?

**Casey** (2:09)
Fun, alongside challenging.

**Chris Williamson** (2:12)
What's the challenges you come up against?

**Casey** (2:15)
Mostly toning down his wild ideas.

**Chris Williamson** (2:18)
Have you got any wild ideas that you've not let through recently that you can say on camera?

**Danny T** (2:23)
You delete a few Instagram stories.

**Casey** (2:26)
Yeah, I mean, the post-it view that semi-naked before your show was a, that was a bit of a battle between us as to whether or not.

**Chris Williamson** (2:33)
That got censored, right?

**Casey** (2:34)
No, it went up.

**Danny T** (2:36)
I won that one.

**Chris Williamson** (2:37)
Okay.

**Danny T** (2:38)
Yeah.

**Casey** (2:38)
I won that one. But this is just sort of a routine back and forth between what's allowed and what's not.

**Chris Williamson** (2:43)
I understand.

**Casey** (2:44)
But it's all part of the fun craziness that is Danny's personal brand.

**Chris Williamson** (2:48)
I get it. So Danny, you're a DJ, I guess. You play music, right?

**Danny T** (2:52)
I do.

**Chris Williamson** (2:52)
You press play on a deck.

**Danny T** (2:53)
Once, just press it and stand there and leave it to your hands a little bit.

**Chris Williamson** (2:58)
But you've had, like last few years, for the people that don't know about Danny's surge through popularity, especially recently, that you just sold out, Leeds First Direct Arena.

**Danny T** (3:08)
Yeah, yeah, floor standing sold out.

**Chris Williamson** (3:11)
How many people is that?

**Danny T** (3:12)
Five and a half thousand.

**Chris Williamson** (3:14)
Five and a half thousand people. And you're just, I mean, you're a very good DJ, but you're just some fella.

**Danny T** (3:19)
Yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (3:20)
Do you know what I mean?

**Danny T** (3:21)
I think that's one thing that makes it more popular is the fact that I am just, Some fella. Could be everyone's pal. Like, it's not like, oh my God, I've got to go see this superstar. It's like, I know what his dogs are called, which is part of the kind of how the followings come. Cause people just want it to be part of like the life that I was living at the time, which has got more sensible over the years, but the parties have got bigger and bigger, haven't they?

**Chris Williamson** (3:51)
So, you know, you're probably a pretty good role model for the local club DJ that is now taking it to the absolute nth degree, right?

**Danny T** (4:04)
Yeah, if they're really wanting to push themselves and go further, yeah, a lot say they want to, a lot don't really want to put in the work. They think it was easy. Think it was, they think what they've seen is the route rather than what I've actually done that they won't have ever seen. They just think that like, they can, oh, we can do that now. I mean, we can go there now. I'm not saying they shouldn't try, but they need to try hard. No, no, I get it.