After making a long journey to DJX, John Edney found the cultural differences between Australia and America and how it impacts the success of his business.
Melbourne, Australia – In The Land Down Under, “tall poppy syndrome” is a cultural phenomenon where individuals who stand out through success, wealth, or ambition are criticized, mocked, or “cut down to size.” In America, conspicuously striving for success and/or operating with confidence (earned or not) is just another day at the office.
This past August, Aussie mobile John Edney made the long journey to DJX in Atlantic City and found that the cultural differences between Australia and the America needn’t impugn how he goes about his business or how he feels about its success. To hear him tell it, DJX had him thinking differently. After his long return home, we caught up with Edney.
DJ LIFE: Tell us about your company…
John Edney: I’m the sole operator of Edney Celebrations, a Melbourne, Australia-based wedding and entertainment company. I kicked things off when I was just 15-years old, back in 2005… so, somehow, I’ve now been doing this for more than 20 years.
DJ LIFE: Where did you grow up and what got you first interested in music?
Edney: I’ve lived in Melbourne my whole life and grew up with an array of musical influences, thanks to my parents. I have distinct memories of listening to The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, along with some awesome Australian bands, including INXS and Skyhooks. Alongside the music, I always had a fascination with audio equipment, making things loud, playing with EQ and manipulating audio. Bizarrely, one of the ways I learnt timing was censoring tracks in real-time! Looking back, I was probably learning some of the basic instincts of DJing before I even knew that’s what I was doing.
DJ LIFE: Do you remember a song that inspired you?
Edney: Around the time I became a DJ, I was really into tracks like Roger Sanchez’s “Turn on the Music” and Mylo vs. Miami Sound Machine’s “Doctor Pressure.” I was also listening to Ministry of Sound CDs, and hearing tracks properly mixed together, seemingly with no beginning or end, blew my mind. I couldn’t believe that was possible, and naturally I wanted to figure out how it was done.
DJ LIFE: What got you into DJing? Did you have a mentor?
Edney: During high school, a mate of mine, Tim Raines, who I still DJ with to this day, asked if I’d be interested in learning. He took the time to teach me what I needed to get started on a Pioneer CMX-3000. I also distinctly remember seeing Tiësto perform at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympics and thinking, “I’d love to do that.” Twenty-two years later, I’m still working on the Olympics part!
DJ LIFE: What’s the story behind your mobile company?
Edney: It was born in 2005 from a love of music and audio equipment. Interestingly, I was never the biggest partygoer myself, but I learnt pretty quickly that I loved being the person who could create the atmosphere. Around seven or eight years ago, I made a deliberate shift towards weddings and corporate events, and I’ve never looked back.
DJ LIFE: Are you a full-time DJ?
Edney: I’m now fully self-employed, although DJing is only one part of what I do. I’m also a marriage officiant, or, as we call it in Australia, a celebrant, and I MC weddings and corporate events. Outside of performing, I work with other small businesses to improve efficiency through workflow and systems management, and provide industry and product advice to software developers working within the wedding and events space. It’s become a pretty diverse career.
DJ LIFE: How many events do you do each year?
Edney: On average, around 60 to 70 events each year. Approximately, 80-percent of my weddings involve me combining the roles of celebrant, DJ and MC, which makes for some very long days, but I love being able to take responsibility for the energy of an event from the ceremony right through to the dancefloor.
DJ LIFE: What’s your breakdown of events?
Edney: Around 70-percent of my workload is weddings, with most of the remainder being corporate work, plus the occasional private party or bar gig.
DJ LIFE: How does your company market itself?
Edney: I’ve had a very successful run on social media over the past few years, with many millions of views on my celebrant content across Instagram and TikTok. That’s become a huge driver of inquiries and has naturally led people into my DJ and MC services as well. Increasingly, people aren’t just searching for a celebrant, DJ or MC, they’ve seen my personality and work online and are specifically asking for me. Google, AI discovery, word-of-mouth and strong venue/vendor relationships are also crucial parts of my lead generation.
DJ LIFE: What DJ gear set-up do you usually use?
Edney: Right now, I alternate between a Rane Performer 4 and a Rane System One, but I’ve just recently been given access to the new Denon DJ PRIME 4 G2 and participated in the Australian launch alongside DJ YO! MAFIA. Once I’ve spent a little more time getting used to the Denon ecosystem, it’s fair to say I’ll be all in. My equipment is routed through a Soundcraft Ui24R digital mixer and an LD Systems MAUI 44 PA. I use Sennheiser HD 25 headphones, along with uplighting and movers from Both Lighting controlled through a SoundSwitch Control One.
DJ LIFE: How has your business changed in the past few years?
Edney: I’ve found more than ever that my vibe attracts my tribe. Putting myself out into the world through social media means people increasingly want me, rather than simply wanting any DJ who happens to be available. That’s awesome because I enjoy what I do so much more when I don’t have to push as hard to impress someone or squeeze myself into a box they’ve created for me. People have usually seen me online before they inquire, so they already have a pretty good idea of what they’re getting. It’s incredibly liberating.
DJ LIFE: What have been its challenges?
Edney: The flip side is that putting yourself out there can be intimidating. Australia definitely has a bit of “tall poppy syndrome,” and I’ve held myself back in the past because of that. Learning to stop worrying so much about what other people in the industry might think has probably been one of the biggest changes for me.
DJ LIFE: What events do you most enjoy and why?
Edney: I will never not love weddings. I’m also finding myself really embracing corporate and sporting events. They’re different rooms and require different skills, which I really enjoy. But there’s also something very cool about occasionally ending up in a local dive bar where people are more interested in the vibe than whether you’re going to play one of those songs you’ve already heard 100 times at weddings that year.
DJ LIFE: What have been the three hottest songs for you in the last six months?
Edney: A friend recently introduced me to HUGEL’s “Where She Come From” – what a banger! I’m loving Remi Wolf’s “Cinderella” as an early-in-the-night tune, and, although it’s a few years old, “Down Wid Da” by ATFC & David Penn remains a favorite. Really, though, anything David Penn and ATFC put out is pure magic to me.
DJ LIFE: Having visited DJX, what do you think are the main differences between the mobile-DJ scene Down Under and here?
Edney: In Australia, we suffer from tall poppy syndrome, majorly! Our market can sometimes be afraid to really put itself out there through fear of judgement from peers. I’ve certainly held myself back for that reason in the past. One thing I found really refreshing in the USA was the confidence. People seem far more comfortable saying, “This is what I do, I’m good at it, and here’s what I’m building.” There’s much less holding back. From what I saw, DJs in the USA also seem to cover a broader range of events, many of them cultural.
In Australia, DJs who specialize in weddings don’t always need to branch as far outside that market. With Australia’s population being less than 10-percent of the USA’s, the overall well of events is naturally more finite, too. What DJX reinforced for me, though, is that the two industries probably have far more in common than they have separating them.
DJ LIFE: What did you take back to Australia from DJX?
Edney: First and foremost: confidence. I’ll probably always have some level of imposter syndrome, but DJX gave me the opportunity to step outside my own market, look at what people on the other side of the world are doing and realize that I already get a lot of things right.
Every session across the show gave me something. Sometimes it reinforced something I already believed; other times it completely changed my perspective. I came home thinking differently about networking, taking opportunities when you don’t already have something booked, collaborating with your peers, marketing yourself and being more deliberate about where you want your career to go.
The conversations outside the sessions were just as valuable. I travelled halfway around the world knowing very few people and came home with genuine relationships in an industry that suddenly feels much smaller. I also noticed how many DJX presenters had written books, which got me thinking: Maybe it’s my turn to write one.