I realise this may sound a bit weird but let me explain -

I played a gig in Antwerp last night, which generally went really nice, but pretty much for the entire duration there was a guy standing in front of the booth, who barely moved and was non-stop filming me.

Like I’m not even kidding, when he first pulled out his phone he kept recording for a good 15-20 minutes and it REALLY threw me off.

I‘m from a scene where people barely take any recordings inside clubs, most clubs won’t even allow it so not only am I not really used to ppl shoving their phones in my face but it also reads as a bit disrespectful to me. Like, you‘re there to enjoy the music…. Enjoy the music, this isn’t boiler room.

Sure, if you want to keep the memory, take a short vid and go back to having fun. I’m not saying this is the issue… I‘m generally fine with people taking clips of me playing but to have someone in my periphery who is clearly so out of the moment, not dancing and just staring at me through his screen made me feel incredibly uncomfortable to the point where it was impacting my performance and enjoyment thereof. Not to mention that it was a total vibe kill for the front row.

I tried to ignore it and to not acknowledge him but looking back I wish I‘d said something or politely handled the situation in another way.

To be honest, I was already struggling a bit after my headphones broke 3 tracks in. And now I can’t stop thinking about the fact that some random creep has these 20minute recordings of me in somewhat visible distress just sitting on his phone?? Nothing got posted (or at least I didn’t get tagged) and he never approached me after my set. I couldn’t even tell wether he was enjoying the set cause he was wearing a giant hat and sunglasses and due to the lighting it was difficult to see faces from the booth.

I realise this all sounds like I‘m being „too sensitive“ but when you‘ve been objectified by men more times than you can count there is something that feels inherently violating and gawky about being filmed by anonymous men.

I‘m just curious to hear some opinions on this. How do you feel about being recorded and phones on the dancefloor in general? How would you have handled the situation?