DJs Scratching on Favourites

Published in Nov-Dec 2019 Issue

There is no better way than ending 2019 than listing out some of the best DJ gear from some of the best DJs in the country.

DJ Ali Merchant

Ali Merchant known for his official remixes of “Tamma Tamma Loge”, “Bad Boys Mashup”, “Gulabo”, “Aao Raja” and his music video “Butterfly” that has crossed over 9 million views, made his debut as an actor in Hindi daily soaps and went on to become a reality star. Established as one of the best DJs in the country, Ali has played alongside international acts like DJ Snake and shared the stage with him at the Sunburn Holi Festival, one of the largest Holi festivals in the world. “The recent Da-bangg Tour at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai was definitely one of the biggest Bollywood Concerts I have done to date”, he says. DJ Ali is getting ready for his next gig at Prism, in Hyderabad, ranked in the world’s top 50 clubs. About the gig, he says, “It’s going to be an Audio-Visual Experience with loads of special effects”. A secret tip he shared with us “I do a lot of my homework setting up the cue points at the perfect times…as the set involves a lot of on deck mashups and edits”.

Lost Stories

Since their journey began in 2009, Lost Stories have risen to prominence and have been responsible for creating, spearheading, and captivating the world with their talent. The duo (Prayag Mehta and Rishab Joshi) have received immense support from the likes of Armin Van Buuren on ASOT, BT, Markus Schulz and more. Having performed at the Tomorrowland Music Festival (Belgium), Mysteryland (Netherlands), Marenostrum Music Festival (Spain), Sunburn Music Festival (India), Supersonic (India), and many other music festivals around the world, the boys have been ranked among the top DJs of the country. Their fan-based crossed all bounds when they collaborated with Armaan Malik for the Cover of Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” which hit over a million views in just a few hours after its release. Talking about their favorite event so far the duo commented, “Supporting Alan Walker in Colombo last year with 20,000 plus fans screaming and dancing, will be an event we will never forget”. Though they are not sure where their next event is taking place they love to be hands-on with the setup. “We use Rekordbox a lot when it comes to our performances. We end up playing a wide range of music and rekordbox really helps us get a bird’s eye view of our entire set, helping us set our important cue points, harmonic mixing points, emergency tracks all of which help us build some really big moments in our sets”. “Also the Akai MPC is a great tool for live and in-studio as well”, they added.

DJ Akhil Talreja

DJ Akhil Talreja is known as the Tapori King of Bollywood Music and according to the DJ himself, Tapori music relates well with the crowd, which in turn makes the crowd relate with him. He has single-handedly redefined Bollywood retro remixes for today’s generation. With super hit albums like ‘Akhilicious Vol. 1’ and ‘ReRun’, DJ Akhil’s constant deliverance in music has made him one of the favorite picks for gigs not just in India but overseas as well. DJ Akhil Talreja has co-founded his own institute called Party Map DJ Academy for budding DJ artists. Talking about his upcoming projects, he will be on a Nepal tour soon where he will be spinning at Prive in Kathmandu. The set up will be for a capacity of 1000 and he will be using his favorite Pioneer gear. On why he opts for Pioneer he says, “Over the time Pioneer has always been the first choice because of their user-friendliness, stability, quality, & top-notch features”. Though for Akhil there are plenty of memorable events, he takes each event seriously to make it memorable not for him but for the crowd. For all the upcoming and new DJ’s he has a tip, “Do a proper pre-gig analysis as every gig is different with a different crowd. Motivate by speaking to yourself.

DJ Sartek

Sarthak Sardana, popularly known as DJ Sartek, is the first Indian DJ to be signed to the legendary Hardwell’s Revealed Recordings. He is also the first Indian to be signed by Cloud9 Music Publishing. He is not only a DJ but also a music producer. Sartek is one of the only Indians on the Beatport Top 100 charts. DJ Sartek has also played alongside the likes of Justin Bieber, Martin Garrix, Hardwell, Armin Van Buuren, Afrojack, Alesso, Steve Akoi and more. Sartek supported Justin Bieber on his Purpose world tour in India, playing for more than 50,000 people, which is also his most memorable event and playing alongside Hardwell at the World’s Biggest Guestlist Festival. Sartek is definitely looking forward to performing on the mainstage at Sunburn Goa in December. Regarding his set up for the festival, “My setup will include a 4 X Pioneer CDJ 2000 nexus 2, a DJM 900 Mixer and of course a wireless mic to get the crowd going” further adding to find their go-to equipment, every DJ goes through a trial and error phase and play around with a lot of different gears. “Over the years, I’ve released more than 10 original songs and it’s a real challenge keeping them relevant to the ever-evolving audience. As a way to have my own original songs incorporated in my shows and keep them relevant, I love to mix and mash them with current hits. Apart from this, I always get my team to capture raw footage of me playing new music so that I can go back and review the impact each song had, which tracks were well received by the crowd and similarly adjust my sets for the following shows”, he adds.

DJ Shaan

DJ Shaan is one of India’s most-followed DJ and among the first DJ to play at the prestigious Tomorrowland and The Box at the Ministry of Sound in London. At the age of 15 he debuted at Sunburn Goa and now works with some of the best names in the EDM industry likes Dash Berlin, Swedish House Mafia, Tiesto, David Guetta, Hardwell, Kaskade, and Micheal Woods. His very first track “Light up the World” was picked up by Statement Records and quickly rose to the Top 15 on Beatport Charts. DJ Shaan’s upcoming performance will be at the Fire Music Festival in December where he will be set up with the DJM 900 Nexus 2 and CDJ2000 Nexus 2. He has performed in numerous festivals like Djakarta Warehouse Project, Tomorrowland, Budweiser Storm, Hardwell-The World’s Biggest Guestlist, Ministry of Sound, Sunburn and more but his most memorable is the “Sunburn Goa 2013”. Shaan reminisces why the event is memorable, “It was the single biggest moment in my career and I think more than anything it really defined my fan base in India. It was one of the toughest Sunburn’s for me; playing 3 sets and sometimes longer than expected but hey that’s my job as a DJ and I absolutely love it”. While performing the gear he uses is pretty much standard. He adds, “To be honest but I try to do a lot with the gear I have. I don’t like having a programmed set or a lot of pre-made mashups, I prefer to do it all live. In the sense, I like to fully DJ to the extent that is possible in a live capacity. Rekordbox is something I use heavily to add cue points, notes of songs, make sure the keys fit and add in pre-programmed loops so it saves me time during live sets”.

DJ Shadow Dubai

DJ Shadow Dubai is a multi-award winning Bollywood DJ who has officially produced for Pitbull, Sean Paul, Guru Randhawa, Badshah, Bohemia and more and collaborated on remixes with the likes of Jay Sean, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Arijit Singh, Jazzy B, and Diljit Dosanjh. Donning the title, Master of Global Collaborations, Shadow has brought together, powerhouse performers; Sean Paul and Badshah to collaborate on his production, ‘Move Your Body’. ‘Aaja Ni Aaja’ with Bohemia, which reinstated Shadow’s numero uno position as a musician in the Urban Asian market followed by this single. Over the years, DJ Shadow Dubai has performed for large crowds all over the world, has featured in Bollywood Soundtracks and performed for megastars. Though talking about his memorable event he says, “It’s been quite a journey but if I had to choose a single event I think performing at Imagica on the Mumbai-Pune highway for a New Year’s Eve show was one event I will never forget. There was a crowd of over 15 thousand people; from families to youngster, it was such a diverse audience that I got to perform for and having people come from all over just to watch me headline that event was the best feeling in the world and an absolutely thrilling experience”. DJ Shadow will next be performing at the Flying Saucer in Lucknow with an audio-visual set along with lighting, special effects, and great music to give the complete Shadow experience. The set will include a DJM 900 Nexus 2, CDJ2000 Nexus 2, CO2 jets, CO2 gun, confetti shots, and a 350-400 sq.ft. LED wall. As a DJ, Shadow loves to treat his audience with an element of surprise. “Every single show, I put in a lot of thought behind creating a unique experience whether it’s through songs people may not have heard or doing things differently every time I go up on stage. I aim to take my audience on a journey where even though they’re standing in the same place, they feel like they’ve been on this whole ride by the end of my set and that’s why it’s called the ‘Shadow Experience’”. A secret that DJ Shadow Dubai shares is to always acknowledge that your audience knows best and be able to read the crowd and cater to their tastes.

DJ Suketu

DJ Suketu has churned out some of the most successful remixes of all time. Remixes like Bin Tere Sanam, Woh Lamhe and Kya Khoob Lagti Ho became an overnight sensation. He nurtured his skills with DJ Cut Master Swift at the DMC headquarters in Burnham and he went on to win the DMC in 1999. He has collaborated with singer and composer Atif Aslam and recreated Woh Lamhe which till today remains an eternal favorite of millions. Suketu also performed at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi alongside Shankar Mahadevan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Sivamani and Raghav Sachar which is also one of his most memorable events. Over the years, Suketu has worked with many composers & musicians on numerous projects. Amongst them are Pritam, Adnan Sami, Himesh Reshamiya and Shankar-Ehsaan-Roy, Salim Merchant including international artists like Flo Rida, Sean Kingston, and Iyaz. Next on the list for Suketu is a party for Sony where he will be setting up with a Pioneer DJ console set up with flying sound and LES console and back drop set up. A tip that he would like to give new DJs is “Always, no matter what, which and where the event is, go prepared and on the other hand be open and adjusting to the situation and crowd”. When performing Suketu never forgets his Stealth 128 GB Pen Drive with his music playlists bounced/exported from RekordBox with his set hot cues and loops. All the tracks are analyzed and sorted key wise so he can do harmonic mixing as and when possible.

DJ NYK

DJ NYK aka Nikhil Sahni is a DJ/Producer/Radio Host/Visual Artist & Coach who has successfully brought together two disparate worlds of Bollywood beats and Electronic Dance Music. Blending and transforming both traditional and unexpected sounds, he has synthesized and resynthesized the two in ways that most artists cannot comprehend. Termed as the ‘King of Remixes’, DJ NYK has won many awards and accolades. He is the first DJ to introduce music Podcasts power-packing it with the greatest and latest Bollywood and Dance music. DJ NYK has performed and played at venues all across the globe including Club MTV parties and Bollywood concerts. His first International show in Hong Kong at Club Sugar at the young age of 20 and his concert show at Dubai World Trade Center with more than 10,000 people in the audience are some of his memorable events. DJ NYK’s next event is a college festival in Odisha where he has designed a special arena called ‘Electronyk Show’ where he will be using his unique element Synchronized Visuals. “The show will not just be music beyond genres but also synchronized visuals and lighting. I have a separate rider for Electronyk Show with a fixed number of lighting fixtures, special effects/pryo technics, & an LED wall for visuals usually ranging from 40 feet wide to 20 feet tall,” he said about the event. One tip DJ NYK would like to give young enthusiasts is “To mix harmonically and in key when playing Live. This technique not only makes your DJ sets flow better, but will also sonically improve your sound since you are playing tracks that compliment each other”.