Those who believe that DJing doesn't have anything original about it should look at the flight schedule of DJ Aqeel. The man in demand takes at least 180 flights a year to different parts of the world. Cynics say it's all about hype. Yes, it is! After Mumbai, Aqeel has brought his popular night club Hype to Delhi's Shangri-La's Eros hotel. Averse to making night clubs a dark, shady place, Aqeel has created a cool ambience which can literally play with your moods. “When I started, people used to ask whether I play for a shaadi band. The perception has changed and Delhi is no longer only about Punjabi and Bollywood music. I am going to play only largely House music, some Hip Hop and one or two Bollywood songs here and there.”
There are certain stereotypes associated with DJs. They are perceived as night birds, who come out at dusk and soar as the decibel levels rise.
“Yes, some people do think that we have erratic lifestyles but it's largely a false perception. I take my food at eight with my kids and then move out to play at 10. You should always have something in the belly before you start dancing and drinking. I advise this to my audience as well. By three in the morning, I am back home. I sleep for five to six hours and then rush to my office. I have conditioned myself in such a way that five to six hours of sleep is enough for me. On Sundays I catch up with my sleep during the daytime.”
A doting father of two, Aqeel says his kids know what their father does for a living. “They have been to my club and seen me playing. By the time I wake up they are already off to school, so I try to be at home when they return.” Kids have played a role in Aqeel's music as well. Remember that “Nahin Nahin Abhi Nahin” remix that catapulted him to nationwide recognition? “When I was doing the remix, my wife was in the last stage of pregnancy so one day I came up with this one-liner ‘Shake It Daddy' and it became the punchline of the song!”
Old tunes in new bottles
Purists hate his remixes. “I know, but they should realise every generation wants its music and some of the old songs have been revived because of remixes. See, in Bollywood most of the time the longevity of the song depends on the success of the film.” He gives the example of the Kishore Kumar-Asha Bhosle number “Tu Hai Wahi”, which faded from public memory because the film Yeh Wada Raha hardly made a dent at the box office.
“Also, once a song is picturised in a certain way, it gets interpreted in a certain way. Remix gives such songs a fresh lease of life. Take ‘Keh Doon Tumhe'. Its picturisation was rather bland for today's generation but it was perked up by the remix. However, I agree all remixes are not good and all videos don't go with the words. Most of the time, the creative person has no control over how the video is shot. Like in the case of ‘Tu Hai Wahi', which hurt the sensibilities of many people,” says this unalloyed fan of R.D. Burman and Kishore Kumar. “Nobody can touch R.D. What these Vishal Shekhars are trying now has already been done by R.D. decades back.”
Perhaps that's the reason the remix market is going down. “That's one of the reasons. In the last two years, ‘Forever' (Aqeel's latest album) is perhaps the first remix album to hit the market. The music companies have begun to include remixes in the original, not realising that remix works when people get hooked to the original. They do it as they feel the nightclubs will begin to play the remixes as soon as the music is launched. And for every song you play in the night club you have to pay some royalty to the label. So the music company makes the money; it is the creative part that suffers. Then there is piracy. Nobody likes to buy music anymore.”
The profession seems to come with an age bar. It appears like a profession for the young. Aqeel agrees about the perception.
“Even I used to think this way early in my career, but as I gathered experience I discovered that some of the best DJs in the world are above 60. Today age is just a number for me, because every day I learn something new about music, something new about what audiences want.”
Do they really want something different? “Well, the world over night club music is getting quite similar, but the type of audience does play a role. The DJ should know who his consumer is for the night. The corporate choice could differ from a student crowd.”
Aqeel can't recall any situation when he failed to connect with the audience. “My manager does a detailed meeting with the organiser before the event. You should know whether the audience would relate to some new sounds or do they want to dance to something they are used to.
Aqeel says strands of classical instruments are very much in demand in the night clubs. “Portions of tabla and sitar work really well. I know everything is getting electronic, but recently for ‘Forever', I got an organic orchestra to play and I was surprised by the texture.”
Looking forward to more such surprises….
