Crafting the Perfect Ambiance:
The Role of Music in Shaping the Dorje Experience
From the minute I decided to open Dorje, I began curating a playlist to be played in the studio on our iPod. Remember those?
Music, along with incense and plants, has always been a key part of the Dorje experience. While no one was using the term back in 2006, we were “crafting an experience” from Dorje’s inception, long before it became a buzzword.
Longtime clients will remember the original Dorje location—an 800 sq. ft. space in a carriage house at 217 ½ Alexander, beneath our friends at Love Hate Tattoo. In fact, it was Jet, the owner of Love Hate and a longtime friend, who planted the seed for me to open Dorje in the soon-to-be-empty space beneath his tattoo shop. But my friends, that is a story for another blog…
To best utilize the space, we built a T-shaped wall that effectively separated the area into three sections: two piercing rooms and a lobby/showroom. Due to limited space and city restrictions, the wall couldn't be built to the ceiling. Consequently, there was no choice but to have the music in the lobby be heard in the piercing rooms and vice versa.
“It’s beautiful how music carries the essence of where you first heard it, who you were with, and the weather around you. Music holds memory. It’s truly the greatest form of art, capturing moments of life in every melody.”
-Jubin Nautiyal
Dorje Adornments circa 2006 — You can see the T-shaped walls with our studio speaker cleverly tucked away.
This presented an interesting challenge for me. I wanted to maintain the relaxed, chilled vibes that my clients and I had come to expect from the piercing room while still keeping the energy up for clients waiting in the lobby. At that point, I was playing a lot of late 90s and early 00s chill-out and ambient sounds from bands like Air, Sneaker Pimps, and Goldfrapp, as well as artists signed to the Warp Records label. The solution to the challenge? House music.
Dancing was one of my first forms of joyous movement, and I spent many late nights and early mornings on a dance floor. In the years prior to opening Dorje, my listening focus had shifted towards deep house and more downtempo house music, taking inspiration from mix CDs produced by record labels based in NYC and London. It provided the perfect level of energy for the waiting room while still being mellow enough to keep anxiety at bay for people receiving piercings.
The first playlist I curated was a mix of downtempo, broken beats, deep house, trip hop, and Afrobeat. It set the tone and vibe for the sound of Dorje that continues to this day, 18 years later. Just like the studio, the playlist has evolved and become more refined, thanks to tools like mood boards and note apps (included below). Perhaps most importantly, it can now be shared outside the studio, thanks to digital streaming services like Spotify.
Little did I know that almost six months to the day after I pressed play on that iPod at Dorje’s opening, I would press play on my first set of Pioneer turntables on the opening night of TiLT nightclub in Rochester, marking the beginning of my DJ career.
This playlist was intentionally created to recall the early days in the original Alexander street space with warm basslines, and smooth grooves but with an updated, elevated sound, and a few unexpected surprises. Much like my original playlist it works as well in the lobby as it does in the piercing room (or anywhere else you need a chill but uplifting vibe).
It might be one of my favorite playlists I’ve curated so far and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Thanks for listening,
Nick Dorje
Fall Behind: The Autumn/Winter 2024 Playlist
A/W 2024 Moodboard
Our autumn/winter playlist focuses on chilled out vibes with warm bass and was curated by Nick with the help from the staff.
Theme:
A luxurious getaway with an unexpected twist and a tryst.
Feels like:
Crate digging in CDMX, wine bars in Mallorca, boutique hotels on the Amalfi coast, sun breaking through the clouds post storm, blood moons on Arrakis.
Sounds like:
Thievery Corporation, Erykah Badu, Crackazat, Francoise Hardy, Jimpster, Air, Khruangbin, Abicah Soul, Quantic, Elis Regina, Black Coffee, Astrid Gilberto, Kyoto Jazz Massive, Hooverphonic, Petalpusher, India Arie