Life Behind The Decks - Mental Health As An International DJ - Cristoph - #111

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Oh, hello, humans. Welcome back to Modern Wisdom. I've been looking forward to this episode for ages. One of my very good, very old time friends, Cristoph, has joined me today. And we're talking about the world of mental health and the realities of being a world star international DJ. Cristoph is supporting Eric Pridze on New Year's Eve gigs. He's playing all around the world, multiple international shows, festivals, cream fields, headline slots, support slots for the world's biggest DJs. And he also had one of the biggest tracks of the last 12 months, which was Breathe featuring Camo Fat and Jem Cook. But the reality of this lifestyle is actually a little bit different. And today we get to hear the other side of the story. Hearing about what it feels like to be an international DJ who lives in airplanes, airports and hotels, essentially in isolation until they're then thrust into this incredibly energetic, high adrenaline, high paced environment where there's alcohol everywhere. It's chaotic. They've got to play this music and then they need to get themselves back around, sorted, ready for the next flight to go to some new time zone is pretty eye opening. It's all well and good saying that some people have it worse, but I challenge anyone to go without sleep for a few days, be in and out of planes, deal with a bunch of hangovers and try not to semi lose their mind. And today we really get to hear some very personal stories from Cristoph about some times where he's, he's not hit rock bottom, but I mean, well, he hit the toiletries aisle of Asda and you'll find out what I mean by that later on. I found it very encouraging to hear someone who is so well regarded in the DJ world opening up about these sorts of discussions. Obviously we had the death of Avicii not long ago and hopefully if people like Cristoph continue to come out and make the DJing world take a little bit more care about mental health, perhaps we can avoid some more tragedies in the future. Hopefully this will open your eyes as well. If you enjoy the episode, please do not forget to rate us five stars wherever you are listening. It'll only take as long as the intro and it will make me very happy indeed. And please welcome my good friend, Cristoph.
I've managed to get a hold of him, Cristoph, welcome.

**Cristoph** (2:39)
Thanks for it.

**Chris Williamson** (2:40)
It's a pleasure to have you on. I've managed to grab you in between flying around.

**Cristoph** (2:42)
You have indeed, sorry for the delay. I know we've been trying to get this sorted for a good while now.

**Chris Williamson** (2:48)
Forever. So where have you been recently? Where have I got you from?

**Cristoph** (2:51)
America for predominantly the whole of the summer. And then the last bit there was America, South America, and then straight from there, from your last show in Ibiza, which was one hell of a journey type of thing.

**Chris Williamson** (3:03)
And we've just, so just before we've started, you've had to take a call to sort out India via Australia.

**Cristoph** (3:10)
Around the UK for the next few weeks. And then literally go from here to America, back here to India, to New Zealand, to Australia, to Bali, to Australia, to back here, and then eventually come home. Like when I say here, I mean like the UK. Yeah, it should be good. And I would pretend my sister was away for Christmas, so she was kicking off. But I'm like, I'm only joking. Yeah, I just joking. I go back to America for New Year and stuff like that. So I've got a bit of downtime in December, which I don't know if I want or not.

**Chris Williamson** (3:46)
I was gonna say, what does it feel like when you slow down now? Cause obviously like the whole dream, a lot of people will be some DJs that are listening, some promoters, other people that know the party world, and they see that DJ flying around the world, playing their own tracks, getting paid to travel and see all these different places. What does it feel like when you slow down now?

**Cristoph** (4:06)
To be honest with you, my team always make me take time off, and I'm always kind of reluctant to do so. Then towards the end of say the six weeks that you've been on tour or something, you begin to realize that you are running on fumes and it's just the adrenaline getting you through. And I mean, I always look at it this, you don't know yourself through promoting. People pay serious money for DJs. People pay serious money to get into clubs and to buy the drinks and things like that, especially in the likes of Ibiza and stuff. So if you ought to turn up with what I would class as a face like a smacked arse, do you know what I mean? It's gonna, it goes out to the crowd and the crowd look back and think he's not fucking arsed about, he's not interested at all. When really it's just, you're a bit tired of stuff. So I always try and be as upbeat as I can when I'm not really one of those DJs who stands there and gives it all the hands in the air.