DJ Aqeel is in Delhi at least twice a month for his shows, and he calls it his favourite city in the world. Recently, he played at Playground at JW Marriott Aerocity.
Excerpts:
How has the knowledge of music developed in India?
When I started out 20 years ago, people hardly knew two or three genres of music. Exposure through channels like MTV, Vh1, YouTube, Channel V, Spotify, helped grow an awareness. Today, it is very easy as a DJ to play anything you want. In the last decade, house music has become very popular. There’s EDM, progressive, trap and many sub-genres as well. We also have many international DJs coming to our country.
Who has been your inspiration?
I have been inspired by David Guetta and Tiesto. But it is very important to have your style as a DJ because that is what makes you different from the others: How you address your crowd, how you judge your crowd according to their age group and play the music accordingly. If I do copy them, there won't be any difference between their music and mine.
How difficult is it to make music that appeals to people of different age groups?
I play music for age groups ranging from 18 to 50. Initially it was difficult, but experience has helped, and the fact that I have seen people’s taste in music change. Now, our country produces good music. Musicians and producers have learnt from abroad and they are producing songs that already sound like remixes. Guru Randhawa is dropping a song every two weeks, with a video. DJ Suketu is my favourite.
Which is your favourite genre of music? Did you always want to become a DJ?
I like EDM and progressive house. I grew up listening to bands like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Pink Floyd.
I wanted to become a pilot. When I was flying to Delhi once, the person sitting next to me was a pilot. I told him what you are doing is was what I wanted to do. But life is unexpected and you never know what it has in store for you. I am happy and satisfied with what I am doing.
DJ-ing was not that popular in India when you started doing it. What made you take it up?
Dj-ing was my hobby and 20 years later, it is my profession, but I still treat it like my hobby. It feels really good and it's a very exciting life.
You get to travel, make lots of music and meet a lot of people. DJ-ing wasn't popular when I started and no one played Bollywood music. I thought it is the only vacuum. I felt like something was missing. So I took that opportunity, started playing Bollywood. It worked because literally no one was doing it. I am quite excited about my record label on T-series.
