Cristoph | Mental Health As An International DJ | Modern Wisdom Podcast 111
Cristoph (guest), Chris Williamson (host), Narrator
In this episode of Modern Wisdom, featuring Cristoph and Chris Williamson, Cristoph | Mental Health As An International DJ | Modern Wisdom Podcast 111 explores inside DJ Christophe’s Life: Jet Lag, Anxiety, and Relentless Touring Christoph, an international DJ from Newcastle, discusses the reality behind a seemingly glamorous touring life: exhaustion, loneliness, jet lag, and mental health struggles. He explains how his career evolved from long local club sets to global tours with his hero Eric Prydz, emphasizing work ethic, musical integrity, and long‑term thinking over short‑term hype. A major portion of the conversation focuses on how extreme schedules, substance use, social media pressures, and constant travel can fuel anxiety, insomnia, and intrusive thoughts, and how he’s begun to manage these with routines, medication, and mindset changes. He also touches on creative process, career strategy, and the need for balance, structure, and honest conversations about mental health in and beyond the music industry.
Inside DJ Christophe’s Life: Jet Lag, Anxiety, and Relentless Touring
Christoph, an international DJ from Newcastle, discusses the reality behind a seemingly glamorous touring life: exhaustion, loneliness, jet lag, and mental health struggles. He explains how his career evolved from long local club sets to global tours with his hero Eric Prydz, emphasizing work ethic, musical integrity, and long‑term thinking over short‑term hype. A major portion of the conversation focuses on how extreme schedules, substance use, social media pressures, and constant travel can fuel anxiety, insomnia, and intrusive thoughts, and how he’s begun to manage these with routines, medication, and mindset changes. He also touches on creative process, career strategy, and the need for balance, structure, and honest conversations about mental health in and beyond the music industry.
Key Takeaways
Touring success often hides severe mental and physical strain.
Behind the images of packed festivals are days of no proper sleep, constant flights, jet lag, and long stretches alone in hotel rooms, which can significantly impact mood, cognition, and overall mental health.
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Work ethic and musical integrity can define a DJ’s trajectory.
Christoph credits playing long sets, reading crowds, producing at least one track or edit a week, and refusing to compromise his sound (even walking offstage rather than play the wrong set) as key to his long‑term rise.
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Unchecked sleep deprivation and jet lag can mimic or trigger serious mental health crises.
After days with virtually no sleep, Christoph describes delusional behaviour, compulsive online shopping, and intrusive thoughts of crashing his car, leading to a diagnosis and temporary antidepressant and antipsychotic medication.
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Social media portrays a curated highlight reel that distorts reality.
He emphasizes that followers see only the peak two hours of a show, not the boredom, illness, and isolation around it, and warns friends not to compare their full, messy lives to his curated posts.
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Basic lifestyle factors are powerful levers for mental stability.
Christoph finds that training in the gym, eating well, getting some routine and sleep, and occasionally going teetotal between tours dramatically improve his mood and resilience on the road.
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Human connection is a critical buffer against touring loneliness.
Traveling without a tour manager, living alone, and spending days in hotel rooms intensify internal dialogue; having someone to explore cities with or simply talk to can reduce the sense of isolation and post‑show crash.
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Career decisions benefit from a long‑game perspective, not just crowd reaction.
He deliberately shifted his sound into more accessible tech to build a fanbase, then leaned back into melodic progressive, and in clubs like Amnesia he preserved his warm‑up integrity to protect future relationships with headliners.
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Notable Quotes
“It's not all as glamorous as everyone thinks it is.”
— Christoph
“I'm a daft lad from Newcastle who's been lucky enough to follow his dream and does a job that he wants to do.”
— Christoph
“The only way you're gonna go to sleep is by smashing your car into that lorry across there… that's when I started to think, 'there's something wrong.'”
— Christoph
“What you're looking at when I'm posting things on Instagram… is a load of fucking shit.”
— Christoph
“You can't put a price on happiness… there's nothing that can't be solved if you figure out a plan.”
— Christoph
Questions Answered in This Episode
How can the dance music industry structurally support artists’ mental health beyond individual coping strategies?
Christoph, an international DJ from Newcastle, discusses the reality behind a seemingly glamorous touring life: exhaustion, loneliness, jet lag, and mental health struggles. ...
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Where is the line between necessary sacrifice for a dream career and self‑harm through overwork and substances?
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How might fans’ expectations and social media culture be shifted so DJs feel less pressure to project constant success and partying?
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What practical steps could aspiring DJs take now to prepare psychologically for the realities of touring life?
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How can creative people distinguish between genuine artistic dedication and unhealthy perfectionism or obsessive work habits?
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Transcript Preview
It can get away from you, but it's not all as glamorous as everyone thinks it is. Do you know what I mean? A lot of people, and I don't even like the word, it's like they look at the fame side of things, and I don't like it because that's not what I do the job for. I don't class myself as famous. Never once thought I, I am and never ever will. I'm a daft lad from Newcastle who's been lucky enough to follow his dream and does a job that he wants to do. And I keep telling myself that because 99% of the population doesn't get to do that. Even at the start of the year, wasn't that I'd hit some sort of depression or anything like that, but I felt like I was losing my mind because I'd came back from tour and I just couldn't adjust back to normality. It wasn't like normal life, I just couldn't get round the jet lag. So you're talking three, four days with absolutely no sleep whatsoever. And I was going on, like, nighttime drives and, like this voice in my head started coming more and more and it was kind of like, "The only way you're gonna go to sleep is by smashing your car into that lorry across there," or things like that. And that's when I started to think, " ******* hell," like, "there's something wrong."
(wind blowing) Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. I've managed to get hold of him. Christophe, welcome.
(laughs) Thanks, mate.
A pleasure to have you on. I've managed to grab you in between flying around.
You have indeed, sorry for the delay.
It's- (laughs)
I know we've been trying to get this sorted for, uh, a good while now.
Yes. (laughs) Forever. So where've you been recently? Where have I got you from?
Uh, America, uh, uh, for predominantly the whole of the summer, and then the last bit there was America, South America, and then straight from there, for my last show in Ibiza, which was, uh, one hell of a journey type of thing but ƒ%$#.
And we've just, so just before we've started, you've had to take a call to sort out India-
Yeah.
... via Australia.
Yeah. I've, around the UK for the next few weeks, and then literally go from here to America, back here, to India, to New Zealand, to Australia, to Bali, to Australia, to back here, and then eventually come home.
(laughs)
Like, when I say here, I mean like the UK.
Yeah. (laughs)
Yeah, it's, uh, should be good. And I'll pretend my sister was away for Christmas, so she was kicking off as well.
Oh. (laughs) You wind everyone up?
I'm only joking. Yeah, aye. I'm just joking. I go back to America for, for New Year and stuff like that.
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