SWP Episode 011
Would it surprise you to know that your choice of a wedding DJ could "make or break" your wedding reception? In the video industry, audio quality is of the utmost importance to the final edit, and on today's episode, Andrew Kinakin and Myles Biblow chat about the importance of sound, playing the right music at the dance, and disco balls! Both Andrew (Kinakin Entertainment) and Myles (MylesAway Entertainment) run their own wedding DJ services in Saskatoon and have an amazing reputation for quality in their work.
Transcription of the episode can be found below the photos.
Show links:
Myles Away Entertainment Website https://mylesaway.ca/
Myles Away Entertainment Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mylesawayentertainment/
Andrew Kinakin Website https://www.andrewkinakin.com/
Andrew Kinakin Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kinakinentertainment/
TRANSCRIPT
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Matt: Hello, you are listening to The Sask Wedding Podcast. If you're a bride to be, or just love weddings, we created this show just for you. I'm your host, Matt Ramage, I'm the owner of MJ&Co. Stories, a photography and film company based here in Saskatoon. On today's episode, we have Myles Biblow, and Andrew Kinakin. Both Myles and Andrew own their own wedding DJ service companies here in Saskatoon. They both have an amazing reputation here in Saskatoon and are known for their incredible lighting setups - that's what I really appreciate them - and especially the disco balls. Thanks for being here.
Andrew and Myles: Thanks for having us.
Matt: Awesome. I wanted you on the show today to talk about what couples should know about having a DJ, wedding vibes, why would they hire you? Is it just the dance? Is it like the live... the ceremony? All those kinds of things.
And you guys have a lot of experience. By the way, Myles, I know your business name is MylesAway Entertainment. Andrew Kinakin, tell me your business name here:
Andrew: Kinakin Entertainment
Matt: Kinakin. Okay
Andrew: Lots of "Entertainment".
Matt: I probably should have clarified that before we say rolling. And you do more than just deejaying, but we're going to talk about deejaying today.
We can go into other stuff later, but yeah, I wanted you to talk about what a bride or couple should know about having your services on their day. So maybe start with what are you known for Myles you want to start?
Myles: I think we're both known for our lighting and keeping that answer.
I've spent a lot of years perfecting the whole setup that we have, the package we have is just one package to make it as easy as possible for our clients. And so that everything's as best as it can be.
Matt: And you have a really big
Myles: disco ball. Yeah. We have a 40 inch and a 20 inch disco ball.
Matt: Now what impresses me is the crate just for the disco ball. Looks like a deep
Andrew: freeze. Yeah.
Myles: Yeah. It's big. It costs more than the ball itself, but. You got to have it if it breaks. So
Andrew: yeah. Oh, how big this thing is it wouldn't fit through a normal doorway for people wa like it's put in perspective.
It's only certain vendors can have it even like it's ginormous. What's a
Matt: standard door, 36 inches. And that's a commercial, sorry, two to 36. Yeah.
Myles: And so you hate is like 45. So you need double doors for sure. Yeah. Without without a support. So what venues like grass doors or anything with double doors that don't have a beam in the middle would be fine
Matt: then you're fine.
Yeah.
Myles: Awesome. And sometimes that reminder we have to put it in the it's called Ramy, sorry. that's how they taught me and Ramy. It doesn't fit through, so they have a freight elevator. It fits in there. But once you get onto the floor, it doesn't fit through the door outside of the freight elevator.
So then we have to. Through the lobby into the regular people elevators, but it has to be out of the case so that it fits in the elevators and it's by half a centimeter.
Matt: So you're just like trying to carry it and it's glass, we
Myles: roll it at that point. Yeah. We put it on a little Dolly and roll it, but
Matt: yeah.
Okay. That's a lot safer.
Myles: Yeah. I wouldn't want to carry it that far.
Matt: How heavy
Myles: is this thing? It's actually not that bad. It's only 90 pounds without the case. Okay.
Andrew: Yeah. But people just begin awkward. Like when they see it or just again, totaling it through the lobby and they like
always
Myles: want to touch it.
Yeah.
Matt: And then this is like glass pieces or the fastest glass. Yeah. Crazy. Andrew, what do people know?
Andrew: Again, like Myles said, the idea of our setup is very well known when people show up to a wedding that one of us does, it's people recognize it really fast, just a lot of trussing and moving lights and the mirror ball and everything like that.
And the big thing is to trying to keep the dance floor going the whole night. Like it's a party. So when people hire us for their wedding, so she went to dance. They want that party. They want that fun atmosphere, the cool lighting, fog machines, the Hayes, it's a full thing we create, like we can transform an entire venue with what we have, which is pretty
Matt: unique now as a photographer that is so the lighting.
My favorite thing.
Myles: Like I, I do get that a lot. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt: Cause some of the venues that people choose are like, we're Saskatchewan. So we have these venues that are like, they're going for 300 to 400 guests, and so maybe that's like hockey rank in their local town, and then you add your disco ball.
Myles: And then you forget about the surroundings because the Hayes and the lights and everything focuses everything on the bride and groom dancing. Yeah. Yeah. Or even just during speeches and stuff, having lights on the head table and the podium help a lot too.
Matt: Yeah. For our videos and photographs, it's it's nice to know.
Even at a nice venue. Yeah. It's still nice to have actual
Myles: lighting. Sometimes the lights flicker, and then you guys have issues with video too. Yes. So our lights
Andrew: don't. Yeah. The cool thing too, is like other vendors notice what we bring too, which was really unique. Like the photographers, videographers and stuff like that.
They can see what we bring in. Like it helps them more too. It makes their job a little bit easier, which is. And if we think the clients as well, realize the difference, we can make an add to it. Like it's the little things like extra spotlighting again for speeches or the head table, or just ambient lighting on the roof and stuff around, or having their colors they want for their wedding or anything like that.
High, good quality microphones. Like the stuff you don't think about a lot that goes a long way. Like an outdoor ceremony too, like having good quality speakers. Let's talk
Matt: about outdoor ceremony. It's you're not just there for the day. Should, I've been to weddings and a park.
Especially with, COVID yeah, Andrew's done it done. One of the PR I remember very hot day. Like I've had it, I've had it in a park where it's small and they think they don't even need a mic. Yeah. I was in the front row. You need a mic and I couldn't even hear the couple,
Myles: They're facing each other.
They're not facing the audience. Yeah. So soft-spoken,
Matt: so can you help with that kind of thing too?
Myles: Yup. We both have generators if if it's in the park, there's no. We'll put it far enough away that you hope, hopefully don't hear it. That's your
Andrew: quiet ones now, too. So yeah, it's really silent. So like you said, they go in Saskatchewan, too, not everything's in Saskatoon or it's a place that there's not much power, so you go on a farm or something like that.
We can bring power to that and supply it. And like you said, the outside, there's wind, there's other factors and people are, some people are more hard of hearing or they're further away or whatever it is, but this way, like everyone can hear the ceremony thought, just watching something happen when the winds gusting.
It makes a big difference, like you don't think about before it, but after Sam rack, ah, I really should've had hired someone to help me with this or some stuff you don't think about that can be really beneficial. That's why it's nice with our packages. It's one, one stop shop where every audio and lighting needs.
So you just include the
Matt: ceremony, no charge. Depends. Tell
Myles: me we have a few preferred vendors that we can include the ceremony if it's onsite. If it. Somewhere else, not at the reception venue, then there's additional charges.
Matt: So if I get married at the barn at wind's edge, let's say, and then my reception and ceremony are both there.
Like Sarah outdoor ceremony and then indoor reception. Yeah. That would be all included.
Andrew: It's bad. Especially if it's back to back, say your ceremony rolls into your reception, even want like a 10:00 AM ceremony. No, one's going to do that. You want something and there's like a large span in between, there's there's labor costs and things like that go into it.
And if it's outside extra setup and stuff, but certain venues have it set up where we can just plug it in and play essentially to allow. So our really, again, preferred vendors and stuff, we work with a lot that are just amazing people to work with and it makes our jobs easier. Like we said, we all help each other out as wedding vendors, which is nice.
Matt: I know for our wedding films, I'm like, doesn't matter if it's outside. You did Sydney, actually, this portrait behind me, Sydney and Smiths, that was the one you did. And it was super hot. We did a film for them. And so we hooked our audio up to. Mike, which was really nice. We still, I think we still hit a mic on the groom.
Yeah, that's backup though. Like
Myles: sometimes the JP doesn't remember to move the mic to the.
Matt: Yeah, but like the way these might sound like, actually their day, I think might've been windy, but yeah. And like you can't tell no. And then you can hear everybody, you can hear the
Andrew: vows, stuff like that too.
Like on our end, we can hear it. Like we're not too far away. So for that, they can take you take your low end down. So all the extra wind gusts, like it's just minor things that people wouldn't typically do, but it makes it sound that much better. Like stuff you don't even think about what can go a long way when you've done it over and over again, like having backups of everything to like.
It's the little things that really put people above. So
Matt: couples can just come, they don't have to have their friend go to long and McQuaid and rent a speaker, battery powered wireless speaker that they're trying to pair a phone because they're going to play their music songs from a phone over Bluetooth.
And then it like unpaired. Yeah, I've seen it or someone
Myles: calls them.
Matt: Yeah. I'm sure
Andrew: you've seen some horror stories in the past. I'm going to ha Ken work for sure. Yeah. But again, the stress free aspect is so nice and special day. Like your wedding. Yeah. You don't have to worry about, you wanted to make as stress free as possible.
I think we offer that and couples are at ease knowing that we're there for them. So yeah. I love it. Yeah.
Matt: Yeah. In your opinions, you're going to be biased. And I totally expect you to be I'm biased. People should hire a good photographer not their uncle or something unless their uncle is good. But what's the best reason to hire in your opinions.
Hire good DJ.
Myles: Oh, there's so many like your first dance, for example. Lower end DJs. We'll just have a little laser projector and one of those jellyfish lights, and then you get a bunch of green, blue, and red dots on your first dance photos. Not really. Not really great. And then music selection, sound quality.
There's a
Andrew: lot. Yeah. I think with having a professional wedding DJ, it goes a long way. Like I said, the lighting's the one thing, like being able to be. And audio quality, like you mentioned as well. Like actually it actually sounds really good and you actually have the base and cause we bring a lot of audio stuff too.
It's not just lighting is making everything sound good from speeches all the way to the day. And that's really important as well. Like for lightings, again, it's very well known. Like for the last 10 years you think about Myles of entertainment, you think mirror ball, and like that epic shot of the first dance.
And it just it's people hanging up in their rooms, they hang it up and they're like, it's. And they remember that. That's what people like. That's
Myles: what people remember is the awesome time they had. Yup.
Andrew: Yeah. How's the big thing too with a lot of weddings. People remember that. Whether they remember, did they stay till one?
Am they leave your earlier? Not all weddings have to be a party, but the people who want to party, it's a big part of their celebration. They want to do. That's what we can. And that might
Myles: be the only time that year that they were able to get out and let loose because they have kids or whatever button.
Matt: It's a big thing for couples to leave their children at home and be a guest somewhere. And if it's worth being a guest and they're having fun. Yeah. I love it. I had another question here, which I like we'll talk, we'll go over that later. But now I want to talk about music songs I listened to in love while I drive compared to songs that make for a good dance.
I've been at a few dances with Yuma. And for some reason, when I have ski to play feelings by maroon five, you do it. And the dance floor emptiness. And so I've stopped asking you to do it now, do you play whatever people want? What should people know about
Myles: music, the bride and groom?
We have a must play on. I do not playlist. If they have a must play on there. Yeah. We have to play it. If they come up request a song, of course. But a lot of times
Matt: most popular do not play
Myles: songs. Oh, for sure. The chicken dance. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Macarena.
Andrew: Yeah. Chacho
Matt: slide. Yeah. Patio lanterns.
Myles: Ah, no, that's not chef at that on the must play a few times.
Andrew: What's another, yeah. All those ones. Yeah. Or do not plays a lot of the time. Don't want to hear they want like a unique, more unique wedding, like different music. So or cause every couple of different like music they like is different. So again, having that play and do not playlist, we can facilitate the kind of group that's going to be.
Like having a live DJ is really cool. Cause you actually, can you play off the people in the audience? That's why it's before every wedding. And we don't have a set list of songs are playing. It completely changes for whoever they are. And that's, what's really unique. And for song requests was through the cooler custom DJ booths are like TVs.
So you can text us song requests as well throughout the night too. So it makes it quest songs like live as the party's going and we can sift through what would play, what work, what might not work. And some songs, just people request, just, we know don't work a lot of the time I
Myles: listened to in the car while you're sitting in traffic and maybe singing along, but yeah, at a dance, you can't move to
Matt: them in this.
So do you like, how do you ever, I'm sure you got a request here and there for the odd song. Yeah. It's not on the do not play list, it's gonna. Empty the
Andrew: dance floor. Yeah, I, yeah, it doesn't get played sometimes, but be usually
Myles: people have fairly understanding of that. Yeah. If the bride asks again, then you do whatever, it's their wedding. Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew: If they come up, like we talked to the couple at any time throughout the evening that in the group. Or whoever they are over the couple is they can come up and request a song. We can we'll play it like immediately. If that's what they want to hear, it's their party. They want to listen to a dance
Myles: with sometimes like the wedding party we'll have a song that you've never played at a wedding dance before, and they just go wild for it.
The
Andrew: coolest experience you can have a wedding is a song. Again, you typically wouldn't play at a wedding. It's like a random song and you play it and they just go crazy. Cause maybe their sports team liked it. Or there's like at their bachelorette party, they played it or like it just Stallings, you went and you play it and it hits and it just really.
Thank you, mark. Okay. That one worked and it's really cool. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt: So then what do you do? You go, you do the, do you not play less than must playlist? You get the vibes just from that alone. Yep.
Myles: And then we take requests as the dance is going to, is that typically
Matt: that makes it easy and you have access to almost every song ever, no, you're not just playing off a Spotify playlist.
Myles: We can just play off of Spotify actually. Like legally you can, I don't know. Software thing, it's a software thing. Yeah. Like our DJ software can't pull songs from
Matt: Spotify. Like it needs the actual file. Yeah. Like you're not streaming.
Andrew: And we can manipulate it better to like the actual song file.
As people might not be familiar with deejaying yeah, we don't play three and a half minute song. We won't play typically the full song, mixing it back and forth or someone requests a song and maybe it's a slower. We kind of plan it out. Hey, we're not going to play it now, but we'll play, in a little bit and like 10 minutes or so after it what is your up and down,
right?
Matt: Is there this rhythm? You're yeah, you're riding up and down and people only have so much energy to discern. It's actually hard. I got to go get a drink, gotta get a drink, go to the wash room,
Myles: take their shoes off, whatever. Yeah. Yup. Or the groomsmen with their shirts. Pretty common.
Andrew: It does happen. Yeah.
Matt: That's funny. So when it comes to what you offer, what's the first thing couples should know. Besides if this is their first time going to a wedding and they haven't had anyone in their family or friends who had a wedding with you, maybe they've even been to a wedding, but it just hasn't had a DJ quite like you guys with.
Myles: I would maybe take a look if you're shopping around for different companies, I take a look at what they have for photos and video available. Video is a good telltale sign. It's live footage from an event. It tells you exactly what you're going to get yourself into. And obviously reviews, but everybody has reviews.
So
Andrew: I think what, yeah, go ahead. I think the biggest thing would, we would talk about, it's Hey, everything's in click the inclusive part of it because people, when they look through their wedding DJ, cause everyone's on a budget for a wedding or they got to pick what's your top priority for it.
They want in the wedding and then what's on the lower end. So for the DJ, where does that rank on your like scale of how we want to spend your. And then for that, of all the time Kay I want this, I want like lights or I want a place, or I want, I, we have a projector, but I don't know if I can pay for extra projector or extra microphone for my second MC and like all these things where it's Hey.
You get us, it's all done. It's all taken care of. Like they don't got to worry about, they don't have
Myles: so I chose a big one because how many times have you been at a wedding? And you've seen somebody messing around with PowerPoint and trying to get it to play on a projector, but the desktops on the projector and they can't get it.
Separated. Audio, audio speaker,
Matt: the audio is full blast unplugging. Oh,
Andrew: the sound. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt: That happened at our last
Andrew: letter C yeah. It ha again, that stuff happens and it doesn't happen every wedding obviously, but a lot of people don't want to risk it because, like I said, it's the one day, but I think that's a big part too, is just letting them know.
We take care of them and we can, we're ready to chat anytime or call, text, whatever. And we reach out like, we're not just a company, we're people, and we want to make their experience very special, unique. The best thing, referrals for us as people at the weddings. Yeah. That's
Myles: who we don't do a lot of advertising
Andrew: book us again.
Cause they were, they experienced it. Like we want to do that again. We love that. We want that for our wedding and they'll book, for the next year or the year after like years in advance sometimes. And that's the biggest compliment for us, I think. Yeah.
Matt: So what, I'm, what I'm getting from all this you get the gear, you get the light show and it's a little bit better than a Spotify playlist with a three-second crossfade right.
Andrew: Just a bit marginally. Yeah. Yeah. Having a live DJs, I think really unique. And it's we've talked about over there, even like it's, everybody's different. Every wedding is different. So having a set playlist, a lot of the time just might not work for that group of people. Again, like the ebb and flow thing has to happen.
And if you want to request stuff and everyone has different. My
Myles: favorite things with request is when you're mixing a song and you're playing a little bit of the next. And the song that's currently playing. And then somebody comes up and request that song because they don't realize that they heard it, but they want to hear it.
And then you show them that it's up next. And they're like, what?
Yeah.
Matt: Yeah. I love it. Okay. I have this one wedding. This is last summer. They did their ceremony, had the Bluetooth speaker that came for free with the venue. And I'm sure the Bluetooth speaker. A thousand dollars. Like it wasn't a big thing. Probably not. No, you don't think so? No. It looked like it'd be expensive.
Okay. Like it doesn't matter. Anyway, what happened though is like they had the song that was like their song they were supposed to walk out to. Yeah. And then, you get the Bluetooth, Bluetooth pairing as theirs. Like they just said their vows. It was probably the most beautiful ceremony.
And then we had a I ended up helping them pair this phone. Cause I'm photographers are a little techier than your average person. So I'm sitting at the back, we're trying to we're filming it. And Chris was Chris and crystal were with me out that way. Did you know, we got finally got it working.
And then, three minutes later probably to get this phone going and then finally it played, oh man. So did obviously the wedding's still beautiful and I'm sure the couple doesn't look back on it, but we edited. We edited their final ceremony film to not have that part.
So then they would remember it at least as intended. But yeah, I remember that kind of being a funny moment. Yeah, and even levels and all those things how many weddings have I gone to her MC goes up to the mic. The music gets turned down. The MC leaves the mic and the music gets left off weddings with wedding dinners without music.
It's like almost eerie. It's yeah. Yeah. It's people don't know it, but they're like, they're waiting around for the
Myles: thing. Know when you're just shopping in a store and there's no music. It's yeah, something's weird in here. What's going on,
Matt: terror, terrorists are
Andrew: coming in or something.
Something's up my last event, even they're like, there's gonna be music for like cocktail hour and stuff. I'm like, yeah, let's play throughout. It's like background noise, like good. Cause we were at event last time. There's no sound. It was so awkward. I was like, it just like you don't like, you don't tell me to think about somebody, but yeah, it's weird if it's not there.
Just some ambient noise and yeah, like we said, with the levels with mikes, even if you have a single mic for it, like JP or something like that, and there's passing the one back. One person might be a lot louder, quieter, louder than the other. So the person you're quieter
as
Matt: as the DJ, you can,
Andrew: your work for it.
And you can adjust the levels as they actually like, talk. So it's cool to like the live DJ part helps a lot.
Matt: Yeah. And then the lighting you mentioned and it's not just the disco ball, but it's like the other lights you do bring, you do often. Uplighting and stuff like that. Yeah.
It's included as well. It's just included. Yeah. I find like all those little things, as far as vibe goes and I know what you're saying, the little, the kit, I don't know where you buy it from Costco or something. It's like a, it's like a light stand with a rack of four lights.
Yeah. Yeah. The gig bar. Yeah. Maybe some people have two of them. Yeah. And they're really rich, maybe, but I find when you go from that I don't know. It feels like it doesn't really add much. And then you go from that. It's not nothing.
It's definitely, it's better
Myles: than nothing
Andrew: for sure. Yeah. Either starting out or that, just what they have with them. Cause like lighting equipment is expensive. It's really expensive stuff. Like a big investment, any. Cameras or anything else? Like it's an investment in the long you been into it, the more you can invest in your company and yourself, but a lot of the time to those weddings, like I've talked to videographer friends, like they bring their own lights for the first dance to lay up the dance floor because there's not enough lighting on the dance floor and they want it to look good.
So it's, yeah.
Matt: Th they're not spotlights. That's what, yeah. Yeah. Like Myles has like a spotlight on the dance floor. Another thing I actually really it's just as far as intimacy goes, it's nothing to do with photography, but. Some venues have really large dance floors. And I find actually like dance floors that are too big, they don't feel full, even if it
Myles: is a lot of people, that's actually on the sixth page of the booking agreement.
It's like some recommendations for planning out the night. And that is one of them like Manhattan, you can always move a table, but having a huge dance floor is not good. Yeah. Manhattan
Matt: ballroom is huge. Huge, so big. And I have done a couple of weddings with
Andrew: you there. Yeah. And center to. And it's not near the bar, so it's just every kind of thing.
You don't want an, a dance floor. We always make it work. Yeah. But it is a recommended thing. Have our DJ booth and stuff, close it down. Still have, are typically closer. Somebody don't allow for it, but if you can make these changes and with your floor plan, we work with them too with the floor plan and all the dimensions we need and height and power and everything.
Matt: Yeah, I think that. It just really makes for great experience. I know you guys like to turn it up to 11, so that the sound that's, you had definitely have a reputation for that. And I know after 10 what's the rule after 10:00 PM. It goes full blast or something
Myles: like that. 10 30, 11. We'll turn it up.
Yeah. Then it's just like the vibe changes a bit. Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. Depends the venue though. We can get like noise complaints. Yeah. You gotta be careful,
Matt: like you have way more power than you need, right? Yeah. Are you even at half
Myles: power? It depends on the venue. Sometimes we do get to pretty much full output, but
Andrew: yeah.
Yeah. But you get, yeah. You get definitely a hotels and stuff. They noise complaints come in like the new year's Eve. 9:10 PM. The first noise complaint happened and they had most of the hotel rented out, but it was still like second, like we're on the top floor at the second floor complaint. This is Sheraton.
I'm assuming, oh, this is the new hotel across from the university. They have a holiday at the holiday Inn express and holiday Inn suites.
Matt: Okay. I didn't know. I haven't photographed
Andrew: there yet. So my first wedding there too,
Myles: but the venue is right on the top floor with windows looking over the Husky.
That's
Matt: neat. Yeah. That's
Andrew: really cool. Just with hotels, you gotta be conscious of other people too, yeah. Sierra 10, the best bro, all that kind of stuff. Because other people there in the hotel that may have to sleep or whatever else, so you gotta be conscious, but it just, it's tough because you're having a service for the couple and they paid you to have a party.
Yeah. And then sometimes you get noise complaints and you feel it's a delicate balance. Yeah. When somebody is, you can just go full out and it's pretty fun. It's really fun. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt: So people know they want you. Actually for the bride or a couple or grooms, doesn't matter for the people who don't know even what they want.
Yeah. What would their first step be?
Myles: I don't know, check out our social media again.
Andrew: I said, promo videos are big. Like video can show a lot. And again, the vast majority of weddings you've done and all the amazing other vendors we've worked with, there's lots of videos and photos compiled up and maybe they've already booked the photographer videographer or the venue even.
Yeah. You can ask your venue or them like, Hey, have you heard ofMylesAway look closer? Have you heard of, I've heard ofMylesAway. You're connecting entertainment before and the vendors can recommend. Yeah. We've worked working in the past. They're awesome. A lot of NDAs recommend us.
Yeah.
Matt: I think that goes to show a lot. And then our blog, we don't usually show dance photos unless you've we show some yet, like we, we bring our own lighting, but it's people love that disco
ball
Myles: shot. The photographers are like always excited when they see us, they're there.
They're happy. Cause they know that they know they're going to get good footage and
Matt: I have a kind of interesting story. This was really unique. I can't remember the, it doesn't matter. I wouldn't say it anyway. I can't remember who was the Dean. This couple wanted the disco light shot. And so they had a live band.
So I think, I don't know exactly. I can't remember all the details, but they did have a disco ball. And then they expected just because they had it from the ceiling. Yeah. There's more than just that. Yeah. What makes the disco ball shot magic and why, Can you tell her special insider
Myles: listeners?
So some of the other companies in town have disco balls. Some of them know what they're doing with them. And some don't you got to have a very direct light hitting the ball if it's like a floodlight or even a spot. When it hits the mirror, it gets reflected back. So if there's a wide beam coming out the ball, there's going to be a wide beam coming off the ball, where if there's a narrow beam of light coming to the ball, a narrow beam of light comes off.
And that's when you get those beams of light coming off, the disco ball, that makes it look so
Matt: magical. No, that's part one. Yeah. You can't photograph a beam of light. How do you make it? So you see it,
Myles: right? Ah, so we have. There's fog and there's Hayes. And there's a difference between the two. And then there's also differences in the fluid that you can use that make the particulate in the air, react better with light.
And also some of it smells bad and like fog machines, the cheap fog machines, they smell really bad. And that's when you get people with asthma and stuff being like, I can't breathe in here.
Matt: It makes the air heavy. I know what you're talking about.
Myles: And the stuff we use is high quality. It doesn't smell it.
Doesn't. It doesn't bother people with asthma and
Matt: stuff. And I find you don't need even a lot to make that, make it photographic. But yeah, I had this one client and they wanted the disco ball shot and I was just like,
Myles: now there's just lots of all of your face. Okay. I can't,
Matt: there's nothing. There's nothing I could do because like they didn't have Hayes and they didn't have
Myles: direct light out and they didn't have direct light.
Okay.
Andrew: What's the, yeah we have other companies reached out to, to. Sometimes send clients our way click, Hey, they want this certain shot. They want this look. Yeah, you got to talk toMylesAway. You got to talk to Andy. He got, you gotta they do that look, cause like we can try our best, but like they want that kind of shot then it's cause it's a lot of equipment involved and trusting rigging and it's not just a stationary mirror ball.
Like it's actually on a motor too. And the, how fast it rotates and all the things that go into it that just make it look how people see it, like at the dance.
Matt: Now you guys have, you can make a buck, like the amount of lighting you're bringing and the, is adding to that ambiance, do you have styles you go for different parts of the night?
Like absolutely. You can go like totally agree. Yeah. Yeah.
Tell
Myles: me about that. Go ahead, Andrew. Okay.
Andrew: That's a great, that's a really good. So for our, like our lighting set up a, we have our own like computer just for lighting. So we have two lot, we typically bring two laptops, one for music and one for lighting and the lighting one, every song's different has different BPM has a different vibe as I'm gonna feel.
So some songs were like, Hey, this is certain colors. We'd like to use it for that song. Like for example, like September, we'd like to, with lots of colors and stuff like fun, upbeat. And then later on the night we got like some crazy. Like heavy, there's a big drop or something in the song.
We have a jet fog machines. We have strobe lights. We can like stroke all the lights to together. And it just depends the vibe. You can really change what it looks like. And that's what makes it really unique. So it's not just one setting or like just doing one thing or one color auto writing or like it's auto to music we're doing, we have typically have two people running it.
So one person just running lighting, one person just running off. So it's a very, hands-on every song is different. Every transition and the person wearing the lights has to know the music to, to when to do the certain things and change the lights and change the mood. And we have tons of different presets we've done.
And before every wedding too, when we show up, we actually have to adjust the light too. Cause every venue set up is different. And the differences, do you have to make
Matt: perimeters or tell it like this is center or is it a 3d kind of visualization
Myles: on the not so much on the computer, but there's a, like an X and Y graph that we move the lights to and programming to for each venue.
So then for
Matt: the first dance, yeah, you
Myles: hit the writing's going around and it's. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Andrew: There's no messing around. My favorite thing is that, oh yeah, for the first dance, we take everything as a blackout because we're our lighting. We can every light in the room we can have off for the reception and we can slate the whole room, essentially.
So every lights off the pitch, black in there for the first dance, we announced the couple and then the song starts playing. Like we fade up the song, they turned the lights on the mirror ball and you hear audible gas,
Myles: people, gas
Andrew: and everyone's phone on the road. It's like it's creates like paparazzi and that everyone's photoing and videoing.
And it's it's such a cool feeling being like look what we created.
Myles: And sometimes we get photographers asking, Hey can we see what it looks like beforehand so we can get our cameras set up? Sorry, it's a surprise.
Andrew: It's a surprise. We let them know Hey, by the way, Off white light. Like it's going to be fine for your camera and it's going to have enough light.
Don't worry. Like we'll give them a heads up. Cause when it goes pitch. I think every photographer, videographer just has a heart attack. Ah, then we do it and it's it's really cool. It's a really cool,
Myles: Like gas and like people see our promo videos. We have, we sometimes run them on our booth during like intermission and stuff and they see the videos, but people think videos are edited and they just look better and they're not expecting to see that in person.
And then they do
Matt: better in person. Like you don't see that you never in real life, you don't see that. Yeah. Unless you guys are doing it. Yeah. Or you go to Disneyland, Disney world, they got bigger budgets, but yeah,
Andrew: just, yeah, it's just the people's reaction. And the couples, even like we had like Briley, even for the first ad starts, they're like, we want the mirror ball.
That's what we want for our wedding. And so the first thing they book as a DJ and when it comes on, the mirror ball lights up there, there's, they look at it and they're so excited. It's just cool. That wonder look and they just makes their day a lot of the time. And it's really cool.
Like people think, oh, you're just DJs, just doing music, but like it's an atmosphere we create and it's just it's a feeling and it just it's. Yeah, it can change. Cause your DJs from, 8:00 PM to 1:00 AM, it's a big part of your wedding.
Matt: So back to these styles, your first dance is like the first sort, like you started out like.
Maybe even at what, maybe we could talk about this. If someone doesn't want the rave, like dance, they still want the disco ball is like classical, beautiful, are you still a good fit for them? You'd modify the style,
Myles: started doing it. And nobody really used disco balls and I just really liked them.
So I got one and now we're here, but yeah, I don't know.
Andrew: 'cause we, again, we adjust it for every person. So yeah, they don't want to be grape thing. Like EDM and older music are more like, not a crazy light show or sometimes people like they're more light sensitive or something like that.
We'll talk with them about it. And we are a good fit or not a good fit beforehand.
Matt: It's turn the pretty up, turn the out. And then you have a big red button that says no rage,
Andrew: fog, machines, and everything, but we need, we should have one button for everything, but we what's that
Matt: song by, by the rude or something.
Myles: when we, when Tyler is at our wedding, he loves to run the lights on that one,
Matt: like 1:00 AM. Is that the time for
Myles: that side? Yeah. After one, sorry. Sorry.
Andrew: Yeah. So all of that stuff we do try to wait until later. Again, depends the wedding depends on demographic, but we do some older music for every cause their grandparents or their parents.
And we've caught everyone dancing. It's not just about having an absolute rage all the time, but it's about having the dance floor packed and then they'll some, a group will leave and then we have a different kind of music for other people or maybe that people joining for the dance later. So it's always very different, but we want everyone to dance.
It's not just. 91 year olds the party it's for everybody to party like we're playing and you play run-around Sue or something like
Myles: that. You will love it. Eddie DM stuff gets some of the older people out in that. It's awesome to see it like three generations dancing on the dance floor to this awesome.
Matt: Their grandchild pulled them up on the dance floor,
Myles: grandmas out
Matt: there, just jiving. Do you have any favorite stories of dances? Oh, It doesn't have to be cringy. No, of course that never crunchy. I'm sure you see you're there. You're there a lot later than I am. I like we usually leave after the first hour of dancing
Andrew: things get weird at 1130.
That's when they start to come off and that's when people's clothes come off.
Myles: I've had one where the groom's underwear were stuck in the ceiling at the end of the night. I don't know how that happened, but it did happen. But like favorite things I guess, would be when we get re repeat clients not repeat clients, but their friends or their siblings.
Dustin. They're just super pumped that we're there and they're going to have an awesome night again.
Andrew: They come up like cocktail hour Hey, you're at this wedding last summer. I was at love. I can't wait to party. Yeah. And it's good. Cool. They talk to their friends at their table of stuff like, Hey, this is they're awesome.
We're gonna have a great time. It gets people going already before the dance even starts. They're free. They're drinking, they're having a good time. So by the time the dance starts, people are ready to rock the ready to party. And what's going to be a good time. Cause when people see all this lighting, it sets the mood.
I know it's going to be a good party. It's going to be fun. If you want a party. It's, they see the lighting and it's a big shock factor every single time. Like without a doubt, they're like, this is legit and
Matt: I'm sidetracking him for a second. Weddings at like venues that are like lots of windows and stuff.
I know in the middle of June, the sun doesn't set till late. Nine 30 to 9 30, 10, like it's still pretty bright, even at nine 30. What do you do then for like first ANSYS? Is that really where you're like? Yeah,
Myles: honestly, a lot of people not a lot of people. Some people like to have the dance to start really early because they want to get as much dancing in as possible, but people only have so much energy.
And then if you're going straight from speeches into a dance people, don't, there's a lot of unfamiliar people there. So different tables don't know each other. It's good to have some time for people to grab a drink, socialize, get more comfortable in the room with the people that are. So starting the dance later, I, over the years, I've noticed a huge difference in dances that start at 7 30, 8, 8 30 versus ones that start 9, 9 30.
It's the amount of people that stay the amount of dancing they do is like drastically increased with later
Matt: starting dances. And do you find people appreciate that? Like the people who do some people just want to sit at their tables,
Myles: people think about it, but yeah, when the dance has started early, the music is too loud for people to talk a lot of venues,
Matt: but I do see it clear out rooms, like the second one.
Yeah. Yep. Yep. He's got their
Andrew: coats and leave. I think we do. And we recognize too, just as we obviously love. Loud as we have lights, we understand it's a wedding. There is two families coming together and they haven't seen people in so long. They haven't had a chance to really talk yet. They had the ceremony that you just came here.
You had dinner, you only have your one table so far. Maybe you mixed a little bit, but you want to see people and still chat and enjoy that. And then we understand that. So we'll have some still upbeat music during that time. Maybe not as loud.
Myles: You just solely built it from dinner to, to a dance and the dance starts.
Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew: So it gives them an opportunity to, like you said, everyone kinda socialize talk, and then when the rate, actually, I haven't been using this
And then when they're ready to go with the party, it's awesome. But back to your question about the light. And some are especially would recommend, Hey, a later start time for the first answer is recommended. So there make the lights that much better and that much, so yeah,
Myles: we tried it, it still works.
It still works. It still looks just as good.
Andrew: Yeah, and they want maybe they want sunset photos at that time too, or whatever else. Like again, everything, every wedding is different and we collaborate with all the other vendors to see what time works best and talk to the MCs too, and what their plan is and itinerary.
And if they need a
Myles: musical cues during their speeches, if they want to freestyle.
Andrew: Yeah. Some people will wrap during their speeches. We've seen a lot of speeches in their day. Yeah.
Matt: So have you ever emceed for people? Like I know once the downstairs typically I've seen you both. Both doing you'll run like bouquet and garter top.
Yeah.
Myles: Introducing the head table and stuff. I don't know who they are. That's a bigger thing in the states. I've noticed a lot of people down there will actually hire professional MCs to do their wedding, but I've seen it maybe once here with a comedian that was hired.
Matt: Yeah. I feel like I've seen it, but never in Saskatchewan, actually it was.
But I thought it was actually interesting, the, this one, this was in DC and the DJ did it, but he did the games for them and everything. Yeah. He was so much better at it than most MCs. The shoe game was way better. Cause he brought, like he didn't even have to have shoes.
He had signs for people and then he had the parents of the bride and the groom do the shoe game too, which was even like, I don't know what you call it, but yeah. Anyway, I thought that was, I thought that was pretty interesting. And not everybody has an outgoing friend who can like. Do that in a fun way for
Andrew: everybody here, there's a personal preference.
Cause I know a lot of MCs we talk to they're really nervous beforehand and it's a big, it's a big thing. Like I've emptied weddings, like not deejaying, like for friends and stuff. And it's a big thing to do. And it's never seen anybody bomb at it though. No, because it's different. Like some people's aren't like they're not the comedian there's they're like get, here's our order of operations here for the wedding.
Let's just get it going to get things through. But for a lot of people they're really stressed or they don't want to be that person. But for Saskatchewan don't really see any like full-time MC like I've had inquiries for me sometimes. I'm already booked like DJ a wedding. I can't MC
Myles: and I have had people ask if we MC weddings, but then I'm like, I asked for clarity, if they mean are we introducing everybody and going through all the speeches and stuff?
And they say, oh no. Just like announcing the dances and that stuff, which is obviously, yeah, no problem. But. As for emceeing, the whole thing, I don't think I want to tackle that. That's a different line of work, in my opinion. I think that'd be convenient
Andrew: except then first at first dance onwards is what we typically do.
Just inappropriately putting that in there. I love it. So I think with, yeah, like sometimes I'll introduce the usual, introduce the first dance. Sometimes the MCs. But usually we're the ones from that onwards. MCs can take a break, have their drinks. And we do like that. Bouquet, garter, toss,
Matt: all that stuff.
So again, it sounds like lunch. It sounds like you guys are experts then it once or twice. Yeah, a few times, if a couple came to you just didn't know where the, where to start even with the MC. Would you take the time to guide them?
Myles: Yeah, absolutely. We know. We've been doing it for a while.
We know a lot of vendors. We know a lot. I've been to a few weddings. We've been to a few. Yeah. Yeah, we got lots of lots of knowledge.
Matt: What'd you say? What makes a great reception? Can you tell when you go to a wedding, can you even tell by the couple? Yeah, I was
Myles: like, what kind of thing?
It's going to be, sometimes it surprises you for sure. But yeah, you can tell us.
Andrew: Or people say the photographer will show up like, Hey, like the party bus was crazy like that they're there ready to party. I'm like, okay. It's 6:00 PM. Time will be like crash a little white fuck
out. I don't know. It's different. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt: A couple of fun questions. Favorite favorite game during the reception. I got, you know what my favorite joke is, it's always okay. Yeah. The hand on top chair to put your hand on top of the, from Chelsea's hand, remember this moment. Cause it's the last time you'll have the upper hand.
Yeah,
Myles: it does get a laugh every time. Every time. Yeah. There's gotta be a sound
Andrew: cause people will like YouTube. Like at first, like jokes for speeches and like that all like those always come up time and time again, like we can hear, and sometimes many of them were here cause they're like
Myles: pretty dirty and I love the dirty water,
Matt: man. I love dirty jokes and I love roasting
Myles: people.
It's a roaster. Great. Yeah.
Matt: Yeah. Yeah. So do you guys have like a blog post or something or a guide
Myles: does a lot of social.
Matt: I don't. Do you have something where you'd have a 10 best games that won't, aren't like everybody else's fraternal. Oh,
Andrew: YouTube videos for like songs and things like that. Like top 10 songs walking down the aisle, all that kind of stuff.
But I'm looking to create more stuff. Yeah. For for games and things like that. For anything wedding wise, or they can help them with. We should have a couple or not. We should make a guide together.
Matt: Yeah. Five great games for this year that you've never seen at your other friend's weddings. Yeah.
I've
Myles: obviously, I don't think I've seen anything other than the shoe
game.
Andrew: Is it? Yeah. The other one is with the photographer. They do every single table and once he pumped the one song, I actually set the table. It's a game. Yeah. I love that
Myles: one often I find I have to put a loop on the song though.
It's they're never long enough. It's never
Andrew: long enough yet. It's cool. Cause he had to get photos of all your guests, but that's like a game, but yeah, for shoe game is the number one. Yeah.
Matt: If this is your first time hearing of this game, I'll go over it. You have there's two ways to do it the way I like it is just a couple of goes together in the game is to get a photo with every table before the timer runs out.
And so the couple or sorry before the song ends. And so the couple goes to every table, the tables, get ready to do some. And then we take a photo.
Myles: Yeah. They're not the guests. Aren't just sitting at the table and the bride and groom are just walking around. The guests at the table are supposed to be doing something funny.
And
Matt: yeah, we've seen that one where couples get lifted on top of people's shoulders. You sit on the chairs and everyone lifts the chair, or they just stand behind them, their elderly grandparents, aren't going to do that kind of thing. But yeah, that one, I actually really like the first time I saw that was only like three years ago.
Andrew: It could cause quick, cause some stuff can get drawn out. Like the wedding day is a long day for a lot of people, especially people in the wedding party they've been up so early. Like it can really draw a lot of things out, see, do the shoe game for 15 minutes. Like that's overplayed, I think do a couple quick haters.
Matt: Yeah. We said, I love you first. I
Andrew: know this part. Yeah. That's yeah. And then
Myles: it does get pretty like that shoe game can get pretty, pretty funny. It doesn't work, but yeah, there's a limit on things and like having a 25 minute slide show again is a little daunting for some people to sit there and watch for 25
Matt: minutes.
But twenty-five minutes of selfies now because that's all people have typically. But yeah, I do feel honored when it's like a few photos from their engagement
Myles: session.
Andrew: Of course. I got a thing like that three and a half minutes. It's fast, it's upbeat and it's fun. And it gets the cool thing with us.
It gets people going up out of their seat, they're moving around. They're not so like complacent, like it's yeah. It brings energy up, which is really nice. I like
Matt: that. Yeah. Awesome. This is awesome. I think we're running out of time. I could keep chatting for a little bit. Is it okay? Wow.
All right. 30, 40, I think 40
Myles: minutes. Yeah. It feels like it's been like 10 or 1543. Wow. I wrote
Matt: up my time or so I'm not quite sure. Do it again. Two things. Yeah. Latest you've ever set up. Cause I know it takes you like two, three hours to tear down. Yeah. Latest you've ever been up.
Myles: Probably for me would be,
Matt: Estan or latest shutdown you've
Myles: ever had at three 30 and then tear down, probably leaving at six getting.
Oh, 9 30, 10.
Andrew: Mine was a small town wedding. Is it a barn? And the part dance party and start to one went till four 30, tear it down. It wasn't, this was before my full setup. Like I had one start that like, cause they had fireworks and stuff before the dance and everything and it was just, yeah.
Anyway, so we took tear down. Now we got home like 7:00 AM.
Matt: Probably something like that. No, when it's a good dance, is that the best for you? Are you, oh, you'll keep you get the energy from yeah. Do you love
Andrew: fun? Yeah. I just want to keep playing. And sometimes you like, again, the whole one more song.
Yeah. It depends. Cause sometimes it can get we want to keep playing, but sometimes the venue, like it's a hard cutoff at one. Yeah. We'll get a lot of times as long as they're like, we'll get in trouble. Like we work with these venues and vendors all the time, wedding planners,
Myles: they threatened to blacklist you.
I don't know if it happens,
Andrew: but. They gotta get shut down because they have they're hiring staff, they're paying people, they got to clean up and do stuff. Or maybe the random places coming in. We're still going
Myles: to be there for another two
Andrew: hours. Yeah. So they don't realize yeah, we're still there till 3:00 AM, three 30 taken down for it.
So it's long night furthest. You've been.
Matt: I know you did
Myles: one at bam. That was at the Banff Springs hotel. That was gorgeous. Yeah. Insane. The photos were
Andrew: insane magazine. The auto magazine for that didn't yet
Myles: one of my photos was on the cover of a magazine. Really? Yeah. And you
Matt: took
Myles: it, but I didn't get credit for
Andrew: published photographer here for Yorkton Yeah.
That's probably the furthest spot, I think. Yeah. I think the reason is because for us, it's suitable, we've trained. We have
Myles: trailers, stock trailers around.
Matt: Yeah. So you're not driving a high-end a no, sorry.
No.
Myles: To go to Banff, it was back then it was $600 in fuel. Just feedback. Yeah. And
Andrew: plus, yeah.
So it's just for us to travel outside of Saskatchewan
Myles: rare right now. So yeah.
Andrew: Again, everything's a cost. So for them, it's they want that party, but it just, again, it's a lot of money to travel and for us, it's, we're staying there overnight one night or two nights depending. And it's a big time commitment.
Yeah. A lot of time, because in most places outside of two hours, you'll sleep overnight. There, two cars driving back, like we're up at 9:00 AM. We're tear down done at 4:00 AM. It's a long three hour drive home. Like it just gets dangerous at that point. We're staying overnight. It's a full process and there's, two or three of us.
So playing it safe.
Matt: Yeah. Sounds awesome. We're going to cut her off there. Before we go, though, where can people find you? Myles?
Myles: Okay. Instagram, @MylesAwayEntertainment; Website, MylesAway.ca
Matt: ...and then Andrew?
Andrew: Kinakin Entertainment - Facebook, Instagram, and all kinds of fun stuff there - photos, videos. Check out what we do.
Myles: Yeah.
Matt: Thank you so much for being here. I think that was fun. That was a good conversation. Yeah, go check 'em out. Check their social media. You can see those disco ball photos we were talking about and we got a few of them on our website too. So anyway, you guys have a good one. We'll chat soon.
