Shake a leg with music and pulsating lights

 Manama

Disc Jockeys (DJs) have now become part of the framework of the music industry. There are a lot of hard work and creative musings associated with DJing. Every DJ wants the entire night to progress without any joins or breaks. A DJ has to adapt to the full energy level for the crowd.

Fahad Aziz Bucheer, popularly known as DJ Westside, is surely a go-getter in the filed. What makes him outstanding is his popularity in nightclubs of Bahrain, and his passion driven choice of songs.  The 29-year-old DJ shares his goals and ambitions in an exclusive interview. Excerpts:

What did motivate you to become a DJ? Where did you hone your skills?

I love music and I have been collecting music albums since 1999. When my friends saw my collection, they encouraged me to become a DJ.  Their inspiration took to me start my ever first DJ at Funland Icesktaing Centre, Bahrain.

I learned the ropes from there. Later, my skills in advanced level were moulded by DJ Ruby Fays from France and DJ Madjam and DJ Crow from Lebanon.

What kind of music are you listening to now? Who are your favorite musicians?

Now I mostly listen to hip-hop, the new album for Dr Dre, and my favorite artistes are Dr. Dre, DJ Chuckie, DH Jazzy Jeff and DJ Outlaw.

The coolest place where you worked and what style of music are you playing?

The coolest place I have ever worked was Club Cielo, but now it’s closed. I feel sad for that. I play every kind of music. But what make me happy are EDM, Oldskool and Hip-hop.

Tell us about your goal in future, and what makes you different from others?

My goal is to become one among the top 100 DJs in the world.  Every DJ is different from one another. What makes me different is the style that I adopt in spinning, and I am sure that people love it.

How would you define your style? What do you do to egg on a passive crowd to shake a leg?

I define my style as ‘fusion style’. If I want to make the crowd active, I will play a floor filler track and hype them up in the mic.

How do you keep your music collection up-to-date? How do you select the tracks for a particular event?

 I do my own remixes and bootlegs plus. I buy exclusive tracks to be unique in my music sets.  To be up-to-date, I have to do a lot of hard work.  I have to sit in my studio so often to develop my own track set.

The software and hardware you can’t live without… Are there too many choices in the music technology market these days?

For production work, I use the Logic software, and for DJing, I use Serato Scratch Live.  My hardware is Rane Serato.