We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Thomas Musil a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Thomas, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

The whole beginning of being a DJ (Full Time) is a risk in its self. Even though the public perception of DJing has got much better then in the past, it is still something that a lot of people don’t consider a “real job” so the risk factor can be big. In my case it was an “all in” situation. I had to borrow money from my mother because we weren’t a money family. Thank god she had some savings for tough times and she has seen the potential in me and trusted the process of me succeeding. I have to Thank her for that all the time, because that chance she gave me changed my life.

So to everyone who has a thought of trying something – DO IT! The worst thing is to regret not trying. Even if we fail, the experience gained is priceless.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

So my name is Thomas Musil aka DJ AUSTRALAN. As the name hints – i was born in Australia in a family of refugees that flee’d during the comunist regime.

The way how i got into this business was pretty much hard grind. As i mentioned before i had to make the risk of investing all of my families money into something i was truly passionate about. After 3 months of acquiring my first mixer and turntables i had my first paid show and it went up from that. After a year and a half i attended the local DMC competition and placed 5th. A year later i became the Vice Champion of CZ/SK in the Championship category and that helped my career a lot. I think it was the time of getting seen anyway possible was the key to success – Facebook and Instagram were at their beginnings and we had to make it work. I can say with a smile on my face that i make a living with this for almost 15 years.

I think what sets me apart from the others is my sense for technical abilities in a party environment. That doesn’t go very well because some people may consider it kind of “nerdy”, but when you give it the right direction, you can really create a great signature which proves that we just don’t press buttons.

I think im most proud of destroying any stigmas that are connected to DJing. The known topics in public are: “He takes drugs, He drinks all the time, He is very promiscuous etc”. So i don’t do any of those. I pride myself in proper behaviour because in the end you are at work. It has a huge impact on the managers view on you as an artist and i assure everyone that if anything goes wrong, i can help because i am dependable and sober. Its a huge atribute to my career. Also we have a saying in the company i work for “Beatport group” – Being a good person goes such a long way and i can say that my career is a perfect example of that. I also recommend this to any starting DJ – Don’t copy, Be Humble and behave in a way that people can be proud of you when they say your name out loud.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think any artist would agree with this is – TIME. Its a very valuable asset to have, and on the other hand its not always easy to handle such a commodity. I have seen some creatives to fail with this because they had too much time. Its important to keep yourself busy, but also not go crazy about work. There is always a balance in everything. You will figure out during your career how to work with it the best way possible and thats a beautiful thing that every person has it a little bit different. And what i love the most about it is that other creatives have a very similar lifestyle so thats great for syncing other fields of creativity with DJing.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

So my basic rule was – “keep it as simple as possible so everyone can understand what you are doing.” I make videos every monday (Monday Moods), because i thought there is a “content gap” that i could fill in and also make someones day better by listening to some music during a hectic monday. The time of mixtapes, which we used as our best way for promo, are gone. Today the people really focus on something for around 1 minute. My videos are around one minute and its a great way to remind the people, clubs, managers, big companies that i exist. Giving quality content today is key to everything.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djaustralan/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/djaustralanofficial