DJ Kittens Teaches You How to Make the Perfect Playlist

Whether you’re trying to soundtrack your next party, pump yourself up for a workout, or impress your crush with a mixtape, making playlists is a time-honored tradition for every music lover. Maybe you used to dub-blank cassettes or burn CDs, but now it’s never been easier to drag and drop songs into a playlist and crank the tunes right away.

With that power, however, comes responsibility. Do you let the convenience of technology seduce you into making a lazy playlist full of rookie mistakes? Or do you put a little thought into the project, and wind up with something that will provide hours of enjoyment? To crack the code, we turned to Kittens, a DJ affiliated with Fool’s Gold Records who’s been making waves on the L.A. scene for the last few years. Here’s expert advice from Kittens on how to make the perfect playlist.

“Whether you're making a playlist for a friend, yourself, or to share in a club setting, as a DJ…your No. 1 task is to know who your listener is. What is their vibe? Are they more music savvy, craving new sounds they haven't heard before and rare selections? Or are they someone who goes ham to the radio all day? Are they all about future sounds or do they have a penchant for classics? Once you have this sort of figured out you can move forward with some direction.”

“I 1000 percent romanticize the era of the mixtape. No, not the ‘fire’ ones that randoms try to sell you on the street or sneak in your email, and not the heavenly ones that Drake and Future grace us with…but the ones that were handcrafted with thought onto ancient relics like cassette tapes and CDs. Before you'd commit to making something like this, you had to kind of map out a story or an overall vibe at least. So that's your next step…how do you want this playlist/mix to make people feel? Is it sad or hype or what?”

“No matter if I’m DJing a big festival or making a mix to throw on SoundCloud…the first couple tracks are always the most important to me. They set the tone [for] what's to come, without going from 0 to 100 and aggressively throwing it in people’s faces. You're telling a story. This is your introduction.”

“This is the best time to flex your music knowledge. Even if your 'audience' is just one friend that only likes Future because they heard DS2 for the first time last week and otherwise knows nothing…you can find so many ways to put them on to things they will like! Dig for some lesser-known tracks and similar artists, or even nerd out to research where their favorite artist of the moment pulled their inspiration and samples from. Don't always go for the low-hanging fruit by just filling up your playlist with obviously known hits...that’s boring.”

“There is a time to change a song and that time is NOT in the middle of a verse or chorus before a phrase has ended. Would you cut someone off while they were in the middle of telling you a story? Mid-sentence? Nah, that’s rude. So don't do that when DJing or making a mix. It throws off the flow and just makes people uncomfortable. If you don't know what you're doing technically and just want to share a cool mix…effects are your best friend. Throw an echo on the end of that track, or fade it out with some reverb before you start the new song and you won't have anyone giving you the side eye.”

“I [don’t] stick with one specific genre for an entire mix or playlist, especially when I’m playing live. If you think a song would sound interesting in your mix or you're just personally hyped on a track then put it in. It should make some mild kind of sense at least, though. Don't go putting some heavy metal track right after D'Angelo. Some kind of flow between the overall sounds or a clever connection between two songs is a great reason to switch genres.”

“Oh look, another excuse to bring up my 'playlists are stories' analogy. We've had our introduction, the climax/peak, so now you want to wrap things up for the conclusion. What do you want people to walk away with? This is the last thing they're going to hear so make sure it either represents your overall playlist/mix sound as a whole or makes a statement of some sort that reminds your listener of the theme. Usually ending with a track your audience knows well and has good feelings about goes over really well—spark their nostalgia or have them singing along and you're golden.”