8 DJs tell us how they stay sane on tour

"I'm in a weird position where I used to not keep any routine, but now I'm trying to. I half do, half don't. Half the time I'll go to the gym, but half the time I'll be rolling in at 10 in the morning, eating my breakfast and checking out of the hotel. It depends where I am. If you go to America, it's usually quite quickfire. The routine is usually go and DJ, go for a few drinks, maybe go to sleep and then head to the airport. But if you're in Australia or Asia, you might have the week off because you're just doing shows at weekends. It all boils down to how aggressive the dates are on your tour. If it's a show day after day after day, you've got no time to do anything. If I go to America for a month, by the time I get back, it usually takes me about a month to get up-to-date with my life. It puts you so far behind in terms of emails and general tasks.

I can't make music when I travel. I might put down a few notes, but ultimately I need my studio to make the music I want to make. What I do on the road is a lot of field recording. Me and Logos recently went to Detroit and went to that famous car factory where they did the techno parties. It was cool going to a place which was part of the timeline of techno to capture the ambience, to use in my own music. If it's a UK show, sometimes I prepare for the set on the journey there. I usually get to the hotel quite late in the UK. If I'm away for a weekend, I like to take in as much of the city as possible. I only played in the UK about five times this year, outside of London. A lot of my shows have been in Europe. A good thing about being on the road is, you're lucky you have promoters who know everything about the city. Generally, they can take you to places off the beaten track. It's rare that I go to a city and won't know someone now. I've got an international network of friends from being a DJ. Every city I go to, I've got someone to hang out with. When I started it was quite lonely, but now it's not lonely at all."

We Are Hummingbird is a charity which helps musicians worldwide who may be suffering from mental health issues. If you would like to learn more or feel that you may need help go to: www.wearehummingbird.com/

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