He walks into the room mild-mannered and polite, and asks for a cup of tea, agreeing instantly to try out some masala chai . His fashion, like his mannerism, is relaxed: it arrests attention and engages simply, without demanding any excitement. And his music is much the same, instruments and genres blending experimentally, intriguing listeners without pushing them out of their comfort zones.
DJ Dauwd has been to India numerous times before — his music has been taking him around the world for about 10 years — and this past weekend, he finally made his Chennai début. In a chat before his post-midnight gig at The Park, the Berlin-based artiste admits that he is yet to explore the city, but has much to say about the techno music scene in other parts of India, particularly Mumbai.
“It is very different to the scene in Berlin. Back there it is very much scene-oriented, whereas in India — in Mumbai for example — people are really trying to etch a scene out of almost nothing. And it’s working! People seem to be getting it,” he muses.
People and their responses to sound is something he keeps an eye out for: it differs from city to city, and is a fresh relationship that needs to be built each time, especially in a gig like his where movement can only follow mood, which needs to be created through a rapport between the artiste and the crowd. “I always try to base things on a sense of humour, and not be too serious about what’s going on. I think, through that, you can develop a relationship with the crowd straight away. When I say sense of humour, I mean adding music that you don’t expect, and breaking the rules of it a bit, instead of a straight techno house sort of thing. If you do that, you can play much easier, you can engage them and enjoy yourself, once you have created that relationship.”
As much as he plays with people’s responses to sound in different cities, he also watches out for the music itself, where he goes, to help expand his repertoire. Berlin, with its well-developed music scene in the genre, can feel saturated sometimes, says Dauwd. But it does give him the space and scope to experiment sometimes. “I did this project in Berlin called African acid is the future : it was about collaborating with more people. We recorded music of live artistes: not interfering with the music itself, but creating scenarios where we could just perform. We didn’t have a studio, but recorded the music at the events. It was then mixed in the studio and presented as a studio piece. We worked with people from Zimbabwe, tribal women from Kenya, a group of women from deserts in Niger, and a few others that I won’t mention just yet. They will come out with the label,” he says.
Projects like these are not a one-off. For his next project, he will be going to Mauritius in August to work with local musicians. “I experiment with all kinds of genres. The idea is to look beyond what you are doing. In Berlin’s scene-y atmosphere, where people are really into techno house, your inspiration is just more techno. That isn’t a bad thing, it gives you the chance to go deeper into the music.” He adds, with a smile, “But I like to go and immerse myself in other worlds, and then still make the kind of music that I do, with those influences. Maybe not even sonically: sometimes the influence is just in the mood.”
