Dj Mowgli on the Virtual Sessions presented by The DJ Sessions 7/23/25

In this episode of The DJ Sessions Presents: The Virtual Sessions, host Darran Bruce sits down with DJ Mowgli, who joins remotely from Dubai alongside his manager, Miloša.

 

DJ Mowgli shares his inspiring journey from humble beginnings as a student in Russia’s remote city of Perm, where he discovered DJing in the late 1990s. He recounts the challenges of sourcing vinyl records, building connections to import music from Europe, and how he unknowingly started mixing by splicing cassette tapes as a teenager in Saudi Arabia.

 

The conversation dives deep into how DJ Mowgli taught himself beat matching on vinyl, navigated the transition to digital DJing, and why he remains dedicated to teaching students the fundamentals—insisting they master beat matching before ever touching the sync button.

 

The interview explores how the DJ industry has evolved, from carrying crates of records to today’s reliance on social media, digital libraries, and instant access. Mowgli contrasts the soulful experience of mixing vinyl with the convenience—and potential pitfalls—of modern technology.

 

He and Darran reflect on how audience behavior has shifted, with people more focused on capturing content for social media than truly dancing in the moment. They also discuss the challenges for talented DJs to break through without massive followings, and ideas for fairer booking systems.

 

DJ Mowgli’s passion for music’s authenticity and connection shines throughout this engaging conversation, which closes with a promise of an exclusive mix for listeners.

 

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: DJ Mowgli (joined from Dubai, with manager Miloša)

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🔑 Topics Covered:

• DJ Mowgli’s Origins:
DJ Mowgli shares his unique journey starting as a student DJ in Perm, Russia, in 1999-far from Moscow’s limited DJ scene at the time. He recounts the challenges of finding vinyl records before the digital age, highlighting how he built a network to bring fresh tracks from Europe by train.

• The DIY Spirit:
His passion for music began with cassettes in Saudi Arabia, unknowingly mixing songs by cutting and splicing tapes together. He talks about how he risked his school funds to buy turntables and a mixer in Moscow-an investment that launched his career.

• From Dancer to DJ:
Before spinning tracks, Mowgli was a club dancer. A chance encounter and his unique dance style led to his first gig-a city celebration for 100 years of Perm. That moment marked his transformation from enthusiastic fan to professional DJ.

• The Vinyl Era vs. Digital Age:
The conversation dives into how DJing has evolved: the soul of vinyl, the warmth and exclusivity of rare records, and the significance of crate-digging versus today’s instant access on platforms like Beatport.

• Sync Button Controversy:
Mowgli passionately explains why he teaches students to ignore the sync button-emphasizing the importance of beat matching by ear. He believes DJs should master the basics before relying on tech shortcuts, comparing it to learning to drive a manual before switching to autopilot.

• The Business Side of DJing:
They discuss the modern DJ’s reality: it’s not just about music anymore but social media, content creation, and branding. Mowgli shares how vital yet challenging it is to keep up with social presence while working a full-time job in Dubai.

• Festivals & Ibiza Highlights:
Mowgli recently attended Universe’s opening in Ibiza, mingling with Carl Cox, Jamie Jones, and more. He reflects on how the vibe in legendary clubs has changed: people film shows for Instagram rather than lose themselves on the dance floor.

• Audience Etiquette:
Both Darran and Mowgli agree: constant filming kills the vibe. They share ideas like phone-lock bags and live streams to encourage real-time crowd engagement.

• Success in the DJ World:
They explore what defines success: Is it massive follower counts? Big-name bookings? Or the raw connection with people through music? Mowgli’s takeaway: stay true to the craft, nurture real connections, and remember the DJ’s job is to move people, not just play tracks.

• Looking Ahead:
Mowgli hints at an exclusive mix for The DJ Sessions and shares his plans to collaborate more internationally-despite the modern hurdles of social reach and booking politics.

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📌 Key Quote:

“Use what you have to survive—but know the craft first. Then let technology help you, not define you.” – DJ Mowgli

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👉 Follow DJ Mowgli:
Instagram: @djmogliofficial – Links to all his channels: SoundCloud, Mixcloud, YouTube.

🌐 The DJ Sessions:
Check out past episodes, exclusive mixes, VR events, and more: thedjsessions.com

[Darran]
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions Presents, the virtual sessions. I’m your host, Darren, and right now I’m sitting in the studio in Seattle, Washington, and coming in all the way from Dubai, we have none other than DJ Mowgli, and he has a guest in the studio with him. DJ Mowgli, who’s that guest you got in the studio with you right now?

[DJ Mowgli]
Hi everyone, happy to be there with you. It’s my first time to be in an interview like this in Seattle. Wow, it’s nice, more energy.

This is Miloša, it’s my manager, and we start also soon to do new project together, like two DJs together.

[Darran]
Awesome, and so you started a while back DJing. I mean, this isn’t something, you’re not new to the game. I believe 1999, and you started this in Russia, right?

Started DJing in Russia.

[DJ Mowgli]
Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[Darran]
1999 in Russia, I was 25 years old, and electronic music was just really becoming a brand. Like in 99 it was getting pretty popular in the United States. You were doing this in Russia, and you websites like Beatport and online digital distribution didn’t really exist.

How were you getting music in Russia? How would you get music there to play in Russia of all places?

[DJ Mowgli]
Yeah, actually I’ve been a student in Russia in one city, name is Perm. It’s an oral area. It’s by train, 24 hours from Moscow.

It’s a small city. If we see how many cities in Russia, it’s a small city with one million people. For Russian, it’s not a big number.

In that time, when I started learning by myself as a DJ, there is only a vinyl. There is no CDs, no flash, nothing. You have to buy a vinyl to be a DJ.

It’s so difficult because, as I say, we are so far from the capital, from Moscow. Also, in Moscow, there is no magazine for DJs for the vinyl. The history coming for me as a DJ, I’ve been in one party when I start playing music.

I meet one DJ. He came from Moscow to this city. He played one song.

It’s Arabic tribal in the vinyl. I’m like, wow, I hear something familiar with the language. I go to him.

Hi, how are you? I’m a DJ. Listen, I like this song, this track.

Can you tell me, please, where can I get it? He takes it and gives it to me as a gift. It’s so nice.

Thank you so much. But I’m a DJ. I need more music, not only for listening, to play in the gig and all this.

He gives me his contact. After that, we meet in the same city. He told me a lot of information.

He’s traveling to Europe and buys a vinyl from Europe and brings it to Russia as a business. In that time, I make with him a deal. Listen, let’s do the next step.

I’m going to buy a vinyl for myself and I want to sell a vinyl as well in my city. In that time, because, you know, like from Moscow to Perm, it takes a long time. He sends the vinyl by train with anyone who travels into this city.

Give him some tips, please. Give it to my friend. I take it, I listen, I take what I want.

I invite all the DJs. Guys, if you need new, fresh songs, fresh tracks, let’s do this one, this one. After that, we return it back to him.

And this is coming like every week, every two weeks, we get a new record. And it’s like, you know, you know, that’s time when you play some song. Nobody knows this song.

Nobody has this song. And people all the time waiting for you because they know you’re going to bring something fresh or you have some, let’s say, some very famous track. Nobody has it.

In that time also, the radio stations, they don’t have access, big access for those songs. And also there is a lot of promo label, promo record. There is like 20, 30 pieces in all the world.

You have one of them. Wow. I have it here as well.

[Darran]
You know, you know, do you remember the first record that you ever got?

[DJ Mowgli]
Yeah, I remember as a gift. But I start, by the way, I started my career very like strange for me as well. Because when I go there, I am nationality from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

And when I go to Russia in that time, we don’t know, we don’t know nothing about music. We don’t know nothing about clubs, you know, not like this times right now. We don’t know nothing.

We are zero for information. But in that time when I’ve been in Saudi Arabia and I’m a student, I have a cassette from local music in Arabic. And also I get from a couple of my friends.

They are not from Saudi Arabia. They are from different country who’s living in Saudi Arabia and work in Saudi Arabia. They give me some cassettes, for example, for Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Snoop Dogg, all this in that time.

And let’s say I start in 1993, listen to the music, okay, like normal person. And I told you a history. It’s like, it’s crazy.

I don’t know I’m a DJ in that time. I know it after that time. You remember the small cassette, when you put it in the car or in home, and the song is played, it’s finished, there is a stop for a couple of seconds, after that, the next track.

It’s normal. What I do, I take the vinyl, I cut it, I slip it together, and I play it like a mix. And I don’t know this is what’s the name, mixing, you know.

We don’t have YouTube in that time. We don’t know what happened in the world. There is no competition for a DJ or DMC DJ or all these things, you know, very well.

And I use it for my friend. I give it like a gift. After that, some people give me money for some cassette.

Okay, I need this song, this song, this song, put it for me for one cassette. And I make like small business, but I don’t imagine this is how the music, it’s work, you know what I mean? Or how is the mixing, it’s work.

When I go to Russia, I came to the first big club in this city, and I stay like a stupid person, I’m sorry. I don’t understand nothing. There is only play house music, and there is no words, nothing, and people like enjoy the riff.

I like, what is this? What’s happening here? What’s the music?

I don’t understand, because I didn’t hear it before. Like, you know, we are listening for normal songs for any artist, you know? And I asked one person, what is this?

He told me there is a person named a DJ. Okay, DJ, what’s the meaning of DJ? That’s a guy who plays this music for you to dance.

And I asked him, what does he do exactly? He gives you to dance nonstop. You don’t wait for another song to hear it.

You dance, you dance, you dance, until when you’re tired. I said, wow, it’s awesome, something in you. Man, any information, how can I like be one of this?

He told me, it’s so difficult. You need a lot of money, you need a lot of equipment, you need a lot, a lot, a lot. And he is true, yes, in that time.

You imagine that’s time in Russia, you cannot find in my city tutoring table. You have one with this person, another with that person, you bring it together and do a party. It’s how is it difficult in those times.

I said, okay, that’s good. I meet the DJ, I introduce myself, I tell him, listen, I’m interesting, it’s so nice. Can you only tell me what you do?

He said, oh, come, I’ll show you. This is one label, this is another vinyl, you do this, you do that, there is a mixer, you connect with them, and the music going outside. I look like this, I don’t understand nothing.

Really, I don’t understand. And I forget about it, because it’s so difficult for me in that time. You know?

After a couple of maybe weeks, one of my friends, he invited me to dance in the club, to be a dancer. I start to dance, I start to move, he told me, listen, you are so unique, you have this kind of style, it’s so nice, you are not white, you’re a little like your color, it’s a little different for us. Do you want to be a dancer for us?

I said, yeah, let’s try. And I try to be a dancer in the club. In that time, my relationship with the DJ going so strong, you know, it’s like, we are a friend right now, we work together, we came in together.

And I came to him again, I told him, listen, I don’t need nothing from you. Can you write for me, please, what I have to buy to be a DJ? He told me, you need two turntables, one mixer, one headphone, and speakers.

I told him, write it for me here, you write the information, and I fly to Moscow. I go to Moscow, I go to one of my friends, he didn’t know nothing about the DJ, but he live in Moscow. I said, listen, man, where can I buy this kind of equipment?

He take me to one place, it’s named Garbushka, it’s like a big mall, and there is some equipment. I meet one person, he told me, I can order it for you. I said, okay, bro, order it for me, how much cost me?

And I pay all the money what I have for my school. I don’t have money to pay for next year for my school. I swear, I don’t have money.

I give him everything what I have, because it’s so expensive, still expensive to buy a turntable, not cheap. And after two months, I take the equipment, I bring it to my home, I call this DJ, listen, come visit me, I have something to you. I give him, I remember this like today, I give him one bottle of wine as a gift.

I tell him, listen, bro, this is for you, can you switch on this equipment, please, for me? You imagine? I don’t know how to switch it on, I swear.

He told me, wow, from where? I’m like, he’s emotionally like he want to cry. Nobody have this equipment, and you are a new student in this small city, and you have this equipment, wow, awesome, brother, I’m going to bring my vinyl, I show you how it start.

Yeah, he go directly to home, he bring some vinyl, he teach me only how to play. I buy from him those vinyls, and I take some of them to only make a practice, I tell him, thank you so much, bye-bye. And I stay in my home maybe 10 days, I don’t go to university, I don’t go for anywhere, I only play music in my underground room alone, learning at least how this equipment work, you know what I mean?

I like it, I enjoy it, and I go to the one shop not so far from my home, he buy a CD from an international artist. You know, I buy for Akonfold, I buy for DJ Sasha, and there is one DJ, I remember the name, I don’t remember the name. Anyway, I buy three CDs for, I tell him, give me the famous DJs in the world, he give me those three DJs, okay, one is trance, one is house, and I don’t remember another style.

And I start listening the music, and listen what’s happening exactly. Right now I have a vision, how it should be, look, you know what I mean, in my mind, ah, he start to mixing, you know what I mean?

[Darran]
Do you remember the first event you played as a DJ? Yeah, yeah, of course, yeah, yeah, of course. What was the event?

[DJ Mowgli]
Okay, it’s a history. When I am dancing as a DJ, when I am dancing in the club, I mean like a dancer, one lady coming to me, like see, there is a small story, I make it short, everyone in the city know me as a Mowgli. Okay, by the way, Mowgli, you know it’s from Django book.

[Darran]
Yes, Mowgli, the young boy who got lost in the woods.

[DJ Mowgli]
Yes, yes, and in Russia, it’s Mowgli. In Arabic, it’s Mowgli. It’s similar.

And they know me like a Mowgli, Mowgli, Mowgli, Mowgli, one lady coming to me, listen, you are DJ Mowgli, I am not a DJ in that time. But she see me all the time staying behind the DJ booth. I told her, yes, because I’m planning to be a DJ.

Listen, I am not from this city. We have like… Like celebration of a city day?

Yeah, I came from a small city, we have a celebration for our city 100 years. We want you to come and play in our celebration. I said, yeah, okay, no problem.

This is my home number. Call me, we make all the details. And she invited me after three months.

And this is my first gig I’m playing. Like, it’s different for me, because in that time, the emotion, I’m scared. It’s first time I touch for the public, you know, there is people, there is dancing.

But I play in that time, all the newest record, the hits what people know already. And it’s nice. And I made good money, by the way, in that time.

[Darran]
Would you feel that, you know, starting in vinyl and seeing everything transfer into the digital world, that obviously the doorway, the gateway to entering or the barrier to entering DJ has become so easy. I mean, you have literally six year olds that are now DJing. And the access to music, there’s no barrier there anymore, too, because of like Beatport.

And the research of music is no longer there, because the internet, you know, basically, you know, one thing you mentioned in some of your notes for me today to talk about is your thoughts. I mean, being a turntablist, you were an original turntablist spinning on vinyl. And there is the controversy.

I feel it’s died off a little bit because there’s some new controversies coming up. Maybe we’ll talk about this in a second. But DJs that use the sync button, you know, and again, I know you’re going to ask me this question.

Yeah, you’re a vinyl purist. I get it. I get it.

I know the argument from the vinyl purist back in the day. I don’t DJ. It’s a misconception that a lot of people think because I do a DJ show that I’m a DJ.

And I have to simply say, No, I’m an executive producer. I just I play a DJ on TV. I literally get up there, I press a button and I and it even says in my bio, I’m not a real DJ, you know, but it was just created as a joke, because I’m kind of a funny guy.

And people always ask me if I’m a DJ. It’s like, well, I play one on TV. But I’m not real one.

So you know, the sync button, though, if I were to get into DJing, for me, not knowing anything about vinyl purism, or the startup, I mean, yes, I’m sure every DJ knows that it started out with records, and there were turntables and the CDJ. And now you’re gonna be DJing literally from the cloud. You know, in the near future, it’s it’s there, I think, but you know, it’s not widely accepted is I would probably see the sync button as an asset to help me do my mixes just starting out, you know, as a tool.

And but I wouldn’t know if I was 12 years old, 15 years old, 21 years old, that would just be natural. The sync button just comes on every piece of gear. Yeah, you know, and because getting vinyl nowadays is so tough, who’s really pressing vinyl, then let alone setting up vinyl, accessible platforms, when they go out and play live, you know, it’s just nobody has techniques just laying around anymore.

Every nightclub is invested in the CDJs. So you’re just coming with your flash drive, and plugging it, you know. So, you know, in a lot of the tracks you want to get, they aren’t pressed on vinyl, like my best friend, he’s straight vinyl has thousands of records.

He has never touched a CDJ or knows anything about digital, and he won’t. He’s like, no, I don’t want to learn. I got well, then I guess you’re never going to play my show, dude.

[DJ Mowgli]
Yeah, because you feel the soul. It’s different. Yeah, it is.

[Darran]
It is. And you can tell the difference in the quality of the music you can hear. I think the originally going back, if you’re in the nightclub, and you hear that.

Oh, it’s nice. You know, the crackle, you know, it’s there. You just hear it.

You know, that is there. It’s phenomenal. It would be awesome to see a revival that come back.

Unfortunately, with the amount of information and just turning out, you know, it’s, it’s getting those souls.

[DJ Mowgli]
I have a question for you. You drive a car, right?

[Darran]
Yes.

[DJ Mowgli]
Okay. How many years?

[Darran]
Oh, I’ve been, I’ve been driving since I was eight years old.

[DJ Mowgli]
That’s good. Me too. Okay.

What you can say for me for the drive, the car, like Tesla or something, or driving by yourself?

[Darran]
Yeah, no, I hear you. It depends. For a busy guy like me, I want the car to drive by itself.

I don’t mind.

[DJ Mowgli]
Yeah.

[Darran]
But I get it. I mean, I get there’s some, you know, some level of understanding your mixing skills, you’re going to understand it better. Unfortunately, there’s just no barrier to say you have to learn on turntables before you get CDJs.

No, no, no.

[DJ Mowgli]
I told you my opinion. It’s right now. It’s not about exactly vinyl or CD or as flash memory.

It’s not about this. And this is all the time I teach it for my students. I teach DJs from a long time ago.

I still have some time, some people who want to learn the music. When my students start to learn the music, I teach them the important basic information, how to match beat. This is for me as a teacher, this is the important.

If you know how to match beat, use a sync. Don’t use a sync. It’s not my problem.

For me, you can hear, you feel the music from left ear and right ear. You know the difference. You know when you can finish the tricks.

You know how to mix it. All these things, it’s more, let’s say, more luxury for you. If I’m, for me, I don’t use a sync.

I don’t use it at all. Not because I don’t want to use it, because I don’t need it for myself. I hear very well.

I can mix it directly. I can’t find the mistake in millimillionth of a second. I can fix it directly and continue to play.

You know what I mean? The problem with the DJs who start to learn, we are in this kind of world, people want to know everything so fast. They don’t want to lose the time to learn.

I want to be a DJ, tomorrow I want to play in Tomorrowland or Ibiza. I swear. That’s what people like looking for.

I want to drive a car, I want to tomorrow take a driver’s license. It’s similar. You know what I mean?

This is the human thing when people want to, I think, when we have in that time, sync button, I think we’re going to use it. You know what I mean?

[Darran]
Yeah, it’s going to be something, I think, if you’re right, if you’re training people how to be a DJ, I think the first thing you do would be to turn off that sync button or even say, here’s some records, ones that you can really screw up and wreck. Beatmatch. Play music and beatmatch here.

Learn how to adjust the speeds. What’s that? Sorry to stop you, but I would add about Mowgli because he’s the one who taught me how to be a DJ as well back in the years.

So the first lesson that we had, first he explained what means which button and where do you look here and there. And then the second thing he told me, do you see this button? What does it say?

I’m saying it says sync. I have no idea what does it mean yet. So he said, you see it, you forget that it exists in this life at all.

And the way he teaches, you know, I’ve never ever touched this button, even when I did practice by myself, just because, you know, the way he put it in words, the way he taught me that, you know, that’s not a real DJ button.

[DJ Mowgli]
Like it’s not something to be used by a real DJ.

[Darran]
You have to use your ears. That’s all what you’ve got. That’s how it’s supposed to be originally.

And he believes in origin of a DJ that, you know, you start from vinyl first and then you go more, but you use your ears. It’s good that you have like all these technologies to make your life easier. And as you said, also maybe AI soon will, you know, replace all the DJs as well.

[DJ Mowgli]
But that’s not the, that’s not the original thing that you would really enjoy because at the first place you have the, like humans, we have a soul that speaks throughout the music and AI cannot do it anyway.

[Darran]
So for the sync button, that’s what Mowgli’s perception is.

[DJ Mowgli]
You just don’t see it. It does not exist.

[Darran]
You couldn’t be more than correct. And you know, if I did learn how to DJ and my friends came over and my resident crew said, Oh my gosh, Darren wants to learn how to DJ. I mean, I got decks that I got here.

There’s one right there. You know, I could, I could be doing this in my free time. I just don’t have the time to search for tracks and master my perfection and skill.

I’m producing a show and got a million other irons in the fire, but it’s always been something I’ve respected. I mean, since the first days I went out to the nightclub and watched DJs playing on vinyl and watching the transition go. I mean, it wasn’t even until almost 2005 that we did our first broadcast television shows on nightlife and talking to DJs.

Even then it was kind of getting into the CDJ realm. You know, but 2009, when we really launched the DJ sessions, things were really moving in that digital frontier by then. But I just never sat down and I get the concept.

I get it. People would say, you’d be great at doing it. I know I’d have fun up there.

I know I’d have fun picking tracks and making the crowd move, but I like being kind of the executive producer behind the scenes, making the show happen. There’s enough people out there that want to be on stage and want to be doing that. I’d rather be helping them out in what I can do best is negotiating deals, contracts, booking appointments and doing all that stuff and setting it up than taking away from somebody else.

It’s not the Darren Bruce show. I’ve always told people that for years. Even though I’m the host, I could have made a DJ show all about me, but I’m like, no, I want to feature other awesome talent.

And now I’m featuring and talking to awesome talent halfway around the world.

[DJ Mowgli]
Thank you. Thank you so much.

[Darran]
And we’re going to be getting an exclusive mix too. That’s something else that’s really awesome. We’ll get a mix from you as well.

We can share and sharing that with the world. I think that’s my passion. So you could kind of say I kind of move back and forth between two keyboards at the same time.

And I don’t, I don’t know. I DJ with keyboards. I don’t know.

[DJ Mowgli]
Yeah, I understand. I work in the radio. So you work for different radio station here in Dubai and as well in Russia when I’m here as a student.

And I understand like you play, like you play, stop, play, stop the equipment. It’s different. But when you are a DJ, you, how is it?

You remember I told you from the beginning, you asked me regarding from where I get the vinyl and from how to play this vinyls in the back time in Russia. We have by myself, I have each vinyl, I have history with it. Believe me, I have history with this one song.

Right now, you have a flash memory with 1000 songs. You don’t have any history. You know, it’s sad, but this is the technology.

This is the world right now. But in the back times, you come to the home, you start to prepare your vinyl one by one. Oh, this is this mix, this side, this mix, this side.

And you take it with you all the time. After one week, you go to the doctor. Listen, I have a pain here from the bag, you know.

And when you go to the club, people waiting what he bring with him. What is the new? Because the new should be in that time.

I don’t hear it in the radio. I don’t hear it in another club because you are, I guess, DJ. You have to bring something new.

After that, when you play this song, this song is going to be a hit, hit in this country or this city. Everyone, oh, I know this song you play, DJ Mogul. You don’t imagine.

Sometimes I make my first CD in 2002. Yeah, I think 2002. This is my first mix.

I make it like Oriental, like Arabic songs and like, let’s say, house music. And I give it like a gift in my friends. After that, I make more copies and sell it in the magazine.

People think I am the producer. I make this music. I hear your song.

This is amazing. You do good song. It’s not my song.

I play only the music for another artist. No, no, no. This is your song.

You know what I mean? People in that time, they didn’t have an idea. There is no information, no internet, no magazine, not a lot of magazine.

In Russia as well, because it’s still opening after UCCR. After this one, because in 1993, 1995, the city start open and bring the fridge, the TV, and all these things. And imagine also the music.

Yeah, that time it’s so good. But we come back to the sync. See, if the DJ use it because he want to do another job, he created some effect.

He created some, like for example, James Hyde. He use all the time, all the time, a sync in all his set. He play like four tracks together and all this thing.

It’s awesome job. If you don’t use the sync, you cannot do this one. You understand, you know?

If you don’t do it, you don’t use it, you cannot do it. Because you cannot match four in this faster time if you didn’t do it. Because you don’t use only the sync.

You use a lot of function in record books to make it properly in beat matching, you know? I play four, five, six track in the same time in the vinyl. It’s good, but it’s long mix, you know what I mean?

It’s not catch like mega mix or fast mixing, you know what I mean? We cannot hear you. We cannot hear you, brother.

[Darran]
You’re right. If you’re doing like three, four decks, you know, the fire engines are going by. No, you’re doing multiple decks.

You know, it is, I can see it’s being used as a tool like that, but you’re right. I don’t want to say anyone out there is being lazy using it because I don’t need any hate mail, you know? But, you know, definitely learning how to properly mix is definitely a key.

[DJ Mowgli]
Use what you have to survive. I say it to myself, I say it, use what you have to survive. Yeah.

This is what to do. It’s normal life, brother.

[Darran]
Now, you were recently in Ibiza, and I say, I learned how to say, some people say Ibiza, some people say Ibiza. How do you say it?

[DJ Mowgli]
Okay. I say it like, oh, see, I speak Russian, English, okay? And Arabic as well.

It’s three different songs by each language. And when I go to Ibiza, they say Ibiza. Ibiza.

Yeah. In Spanish, they say Ibiza. In Arabic, Ibiza.

Okay. In English, you know, this is how it’s done. Yeah.

Yeah. This is, by the way, look, this is the t-shirt from Universe.

[Darran]
Hold on a second here. Hold on a second. I got something to do.

Boom.

[DJ Mowgli]
Okay. Okay. This is the t-shirt of Universe, and they sell it for the opening.

I’ve been in the Universe, like, opening. I meet there Adam Keen, Carl Cox, Ahmed Spain, James Joynes, all the artists. And by the way, I’m going to show you, this is all the names.

Yeah.

[Darran]
You have to zoom in. You have to go over those names. What are those names?

I can barely see them, but I’m old. Ahmed Spain, Carista, Carl Cox, Jamie Jones, Joseph Capriati, Michael Beebe, Mita Ghami, Salom Lechat, the Martinez brothers.

[DJ Mowgli]
Yeah. And I meet all those DJs in the stage. I’ve been behind those DJs.

I make some, like, some small conversation with Ahmed Spain, and I make some photo with the artists. It’s awesome. This club, man, you don’t imagine.

I mean, maybe you see some videos from the opening and all this one. And I go a couple of days. I’ve been in the Fisher party and David Guetta.

A lot, a lot of artists. I’m in Verburen. It’s been in Ushuaia.

It’s not in Universe. And I buy this ticket from the opening party. It’s nice, man, to have it.

Yeah. I like it.

[Darran]
Yeah. Awesome. You know, I’ve been working on getting some of those names on the show over the past few years.

We just kind of got re-back into the whole mix of getting out there and knocking on doors, getting out to the festivals again. That’s super exciting. It’s always great to be on the road, in the place, in the moment, and meeting people from around the world.

It’s kind of one of our new goals is to, we’re based out of Seattle, and we used to have the artists, when they came to Seattle, we’d set up interviews with them in person. You know, Pandy kind of changed that around. And a lot of people, before 2020, I mentioned this in a lot of interviews, we wouldn’t be doing a Zoom interview.

People didn’t know how to do a Zoom or didn’t know how to do an online live. I mean, I was doing live streaming for 10 years. So I was probably the guy that could set it up, but it was just very complicated.

People didn’t know how to do lighting, just basic lighting, basic audio, Zoom etiquette, I guess is what you’d call it. So, you know, being able to talk with people, but there’s nothing like being on the ground. I remember being at ADE in 2022 for my first time in Amsterdam.

And just, you know, people were just so relieved after two and a half years of being able to see people in person again, be at an event again, being surrounded by people, networking, and getting that collaboration or that feeling of connection again with people that they normally only talk to via email, or, you know, we’re Zooming for two years. So, yeah, it’s really awesome being in the presence and being around people and just that it can be very uplifting to say, to say the least, you know, and you played at Universe, correct?

[DJ Mowgli]
No, no, I didn’t play in Universe. I’ve been in the club with, in DG Booth and all these artists. I’ve been not like an artist, a normal person, like, you know, those names, like, it’s so, like, big.

And this is one of the problems right now, to be in some big venue or big party to play in this kind of, you know, you remember, like, I don’t know, in the old times, you came to the club with your vinyl and you listen, I’m a DJ. Do you wanna hear my mix? I can do something for you.

Right now, this will not happen. You have to have a manager, you have to do a lot of marketing, social media, Instagram, all this social media. It’s so, it’s so difficult, not like before.

For me, it’s so difficult, not like before. Yeah.

[Darran]
No, the thing is that now you can be an amazing DJ, but for example, if you are not good with social media accounts and stuff, for example, you have like 2000 followers only. And then when you go and submit for Tomorrowland or stuff, they’re gonna tell you, oh, you don’t have followers that much. So now they look at number of your followers that, I mean, it became, I feel it’s a little bit unfair because, for example, you might see some DJ, which is not that good, which is using sync button, for example, and he’s just like three months old DJ, but he’s performing somewhere backstage, you know, and he would stand next to Tiesto, for example.

And actually this is what we want to achieve. And this is what I’m working on to bring Mowgli with that kind of big names, because I guess by the years of experience, they almost the same experience. I mean, they started almost the same year, but so I feel it’s a little bit unfair that, but I also understand that now it’s a new century and new wave of everything online, everything, social media, everything’s TikTok, Instagram, et cetera.

So now it little bit changed in a way that from one side, it’s good that you can promote yourself through online. It’s very easy. You know, there is no, like you don’t have to struggle as you did before, like going on the radio station with your vinyl and trying and find people.

Now it’s way easier from one point of view from another, still at some point, it’s a little bit unfair. You know, it would be awesome. And there are some tools out there, but they’re not all brought together.

And I actually just wrote a note about creating one. You can’t read my handwriting because it’s in shorthand. I write like a doctor, but I’ll tell you a little bit about the idea is that, you know, I use a database that I go to, to find the world’s top DJs and it’s an unbiased report.

It’s not commercial. You don’t pay to get into the list or anything. They base it off a number of factors they put in there.

It’s great, but it’s not always up to date. And it would be awesome if there was some way that somebody could culminate the right information so that, I’m not trying to say that somebody doesn’t deserve to have a hundred thousand followers on Instagram or TikTok, and they’re getting booked based on those numbers. If they are good and they’re real followers, awesome.

But you still have a person who’s been in the game for 30 years and they might have 3000 followers and they’re phenomenal and they’re not getting paid for shows based on that fact alone. So, you know, some type of ranking system. I know there are things out there, but nobody’s been able to bring it together.

And one of the things I just thought about launching today was a new ranking system of looking into that, getting grants or whatever, of how we would fund that information. And it’s a completely impartial type thing, but it would be based on so many different factors that would assign points that would rank DJs and you would submit your information into this list. And we’d get the list and everyone would start out at zero, obviously.

And as the data started to be populated, they’d be like, okay, this is… It could be a name, it could be out there. But if this DJ is we’re watching their followers grow incrementally, if we’re watching them do releases, if we’re watching them book gigs, if we’re watching what the size count of those gigs are, so it can kind of track, who has this, who has…

That’d be really an awesome thing if somebody came out and did nothing to say anything against the DJ Mag Top 100, Mix Mag Top 100, or our research site that we go to to find the world’s top DJs and genres and all that fun stuff. It’d be great to make a database like that. I’m sure maybe somebody’s tried it before, but there are sources to pull all that information in.

The problem is it’s not centralized. And that would give, I think, a real fair, impartial view of somebody. It would take into consideration the years that you’ve been in a DJ as well.

Be like, look, you got these new kids, they’ve only been on… Like you said, they’ve been on the block for three months. They might have a track or two produced.

Yes, they’re putting stuff on on SoundCloud, but all of a sudden they had 100,000 followers. That doesn’t seem realistic. And so maybe the social rankings isn’t really the power ranking there that says they’re so awesome.

Unless that 100,000 person can push a button and you then track, say, I’m gonna book you for a show. And I think this would be a big factor too. I’m gonna book you for a show, but I’m gonna give you a specific link that you’re gonna use to promote, and we’re gonna see how many tickets you really sell.

Because if you had 100,000 followers, there’s 100,000 DJs I can book that are probably just as good as you.

[DJ Mowgli]
Actually, nobody doing like this. For me, the important is the quality. As we spoke before, how is the quality?

Okay, you are a DJ. I’m happy. You are welcome.

You have 100,000 followers. It’s okay. But let’s come to the main problem.

I call it like main problem. The main problem right now, the people different, not like before, regarding how to listen to the music and how to feel the music. Okay?

And back days, like in 90s and 2000, all this, you come to the club. We know very well you play that track. Nobody have a phone.

Nobody make a video. People enjoy the vibe. People enjoy the music.

People dancing from his heart. You know what I mean? He feel every beat.

He feel every bump, every kick. He know. He remember all, everything, how it’s happening that night.

Doesn’t matter he is drunk or not drunk. I talk about totally how it’s happening. Right now, if we go, I’ve been in Ibiza, for example, in May and June.

I’ve been in Ibiza for more than 20 days. I go for all the clubs. What I know, what I hear, it’s working.

Some clubs like Amnesia, working long, long time ago, Pacha, Ushaya, Haipizza, all the clubs. Okay? Why I go there?

Because I want to know, how does it happen? Like, what’s the difference between Ibiza and another countries or another clubs? And yes, there is a difference.

For me, as a DJ, there is a huge difference. But what’s the problem? People don’t come to the club to hear the music.

People come because this person, he is a famous. Second, like, there is something happening inside the club, people come on for it, not for the music. Like, people staying and they don’t dance.

They make a video to post it on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, all these things. I’ve been in Ibiza, I’ve been there. Oh, see me, I’m also this kind of person.

For me, this is so wrong. This is not fair for the music. And also, it’s not fair for the DJ.

Because when you stay as a DJ, and if you’re by myself, when I stay as a DJ and play for the crowd, all the time, I see how is the people feeling my music. I’m gonna say they are happy or not, they are enjoy or not. Because all the time, my ass in the crowd.

And the DJ, he came, he played, people only filming for him, and nobody dance. I don’t know how he can be happy. I’ve been in Bacha, in 8th of June, Salomon, he play, and I stay in front of him.

And I stay all the time only dancing, and I like, enjoy the riff all the time. All the people around me, they take their phone, make a video. He is like, he took by his hand a couple of times, people showing him, I see him by myself.

Dance, don’t make a video. Enjoy the moment, brother. You know what I mean?

This is the big problem.

[Darran]
You know, I saw a meme the other day, and it was funny. It was a meme of Leonardo DiCaprio, and he’s standing like this. You could tell he was photoshopped in the background, looked like he was at a rave.

He says, I just came out of a 25-year coma, and I used to go to raves. Now, I’m at a rave, and everybody is in the audience going like this. And then he goes, and he’s kind of like, where am I at, and what happened to rave culture?

You know, just like this weird look on his face. And yeah, you’re right. It’s a huge thing in the industry.

This transcends not just, it’s music industry. It’s art. It’s any visual thing that’s being put on out there that people are literally going like this.

And by the time you go like this to connect, to get that moment, to do this and put a bulk in, the moment’s lost. And then what are you going to pull back out again? And nobody’s going to sit and say, every year you see it, 4th of July in the United States, you say, hey, everyone, just your friendly 4th of July reminder.

Nobody is going to watch the video of the fireworks display that you’re shooting. You know, first of all, it looks like crap. Second of all, there’s no audio to it.

It sounds like crap. Third of all, you’re probably shaking your camera like this. So nobody’s going to sit there and just watch your fire.

Like, oh wow, I’m watching this for 20 minutes. They can’t hear the explosions. They can’t feel the music.

And then it’s that total disconnect. And there has been proposals. There’s been ideas.

There’s been things put out there. I’m a big fan of it. The one I’ve heard is the bags, they have a magnet on the bag.

And when you get to the event, they drop your phone in the bag and the bag’s sealed off. And you’re walking around with your bag, your phone’s in the bag. Now, if you go, you leave the section, you go to say a bar area that’s not in view of the event, you can have that bag unlocked.

Do your phone, put your phone back in the bag and go. We have to do this in every event. I was in Berlin last year for Rave the Planet, and the clubs were putting stickers over the cameras on your phone.

I mean, they’ll put one on the front, they’ll put one on the back to make sure you’re not filming in the club. Because some things can go down in Berlin nightclubs that you don’t want to share. But I wasn’t in one of those clubs.

[DJ Mowgli]
No, actually, for me, I think it’s going to be good for the DJ, going to be good for the crowd to feel the moment, to enjoy the time, to listen to the good music, dancing, speak with the people. All this happens when you don’t have something in your hand and you are busy, you know what I mean? And let’s make it, for example, let’s make a live stream.

When you go back to home, you can see what’s happening if you want to see it on the phone. If you are not happy to see it, why do you come here if you want to see it on the phone?

[Darran]
I’m all for that, or setting up the event and doing a pay-per-view. I’m looking at this in systems right now. Right now, what I had currently in my mind, up until yesterday or the day before, was that I could only block off countries for pay-per-view.

Now it looks like I might have a system where I can block it down to actual, in the United States, we have zip codes or cities. I can block it off and say, I don’t want 200 miles around these cities. So if you came to play a tour in the United States and you had 12 cities, I could block it off for 100 miles around each city so that nobody in those cities could watch.

If they had a credit card to buy that stream, the zip code would not allow them to purchase it. They’d have to go see the show in person, but anywhere else around the world, they could tune in and watch that live stream, which I can’t block it. I’m working on it.

I’m working on it. I want to get it there because I want it to be something that can be offered because if I could do a live stream for somebody and they’re on their tour and their fans want to tune in and we’re charging an extra, normal show here in Seattle, I’d say it would be 25 bucks, 20, 25 bucks. Let’s just say, but if we can get it, and then the club only holds, let’s say 300 people, but if we could get another thousand people watching that show for 10 bucks around the world and having a live chat room and know that the artist isn’t going to lose anything by people on tour, that the people in those cities aren’t going to be able to watch it because if they live there, they’re having to put, there’s ways they could get around it. I get it, but we do our best to lock it down.

[DJ Mowgli]
Good idea.

[Darran]
Is that that could be an additional revenue source and they’re going live and have a thousand people turning in every time for say $10, that’s $10,000 revenue or $120,000 on a 12-show tour that can help pay for a lot of stuff. And we’re splitting the revenue after production costs with the artists, or even if they’re just coming to Seattle and we’re doing the show here because we’re based here, we wouldn’t have that much in production costs if we had to travel all around the nation to set this up. And I think you get where I’m getting at.

And I think that’s another revenue potential that DJs or even musicians as a whole should look at. But again, it takes a lot of this to know how to set that up. It’s not something easy.

It’s not inexpensive. I’m the guy who talks to you, know how to do it and make it inexpensive, but still it’s not inexpensive.

[DJ Mowgli]
You remember in Corona time, there is a lot of show going like 3D. It’s not real. Like streaming by 3D and visual, this one.

People like it for sometimes after then, like, okay, the Corona done.

[Darran]
Yeah. When I started our series for the first 10 years, DJs got it. I got it.

But the rest of the world, I’d say, hey, we’re a live streaming DJ show. We feature celebrities from around the world, guest mixes. And they’d say, who would want to watch a DJ online?

And I said, have you ever listened to a radio show? Do you listen to BBC one? Do you listen to any of this?

You’re listening to mixes there. There’s no difference except there’s a video element to it. And then I’d say, well, we’re a featured partner with Twitch.

And they’d say, what’s Twitch or isn’t Twitch for video games? Once Pandy hit and everybody in the world jumped online, the conversation started going, oh, I watched a DJ set. Oh, I watched an interview.

Oh, I watched this content that’s being done because these people aren’t coming to town and playing anymore. And it started to click in people’s heads. I had to change the format of our show though, because what we were doing for 10 years, now everybody in the world was doing.

And I was like, well, and I’m not a DJ, so I couldn’t get up there and be like, well, now I’m going to DJ and look at my DJ show with Darren DJ. No, I didn’t want to do that. So I switched it over.

We’re still about the music, but we do a lot more interviews now because I can get people from Dubai on the show and interview, and they have a huge career halfway around the world. And like you said, pre-show, nobody, you’re not, people don’t, maybe they don’t know you in the States. They don’t know you in North America or South America.

I mean, they’re gonna, they’re gonna.

[DJ Mowgli]
Yeah, this kind of, you know, I’m, yeah, I’m, I’m all the school guy. Yeah. Let’s say like this, I’m all the school guys and I prefer all the time, maybe the, the, the old school things, but yeah, we have to go also with the people, with everything, what’s happening in you to be in the same, at least in the same level, you know what I mean?

Because if you don’t do nothing of this, what’s happened in social media, of course, nobody knows about you at all. Who are you? You are in your background home.

You are perfect DJ. You are, you play, wow, nice music, everything, but you don’t show your people your job. And this is, this is like, this is, this is, this is the DJ problem.

I, I gotta say, to be fair, this is my own problem. First of all, this is my own problem. I don’t promote as should be like, you know, if I want to be in this, but there is another things we, we, we talk about right now, the social media, it’s one of thing.

There is another thing, it’s very important. The contact, the people, the connection, this is very important. You know, if you don’t have those connection with those place, with those managers or, or there is the promoter, this is, this is another story.

The promoter, it’s another story. We talk about now with the manager, with the club, you know, if you don’t have this kind of line with them, okay, you cannot be in this place easy. This is one thing.

Second thing. I mean, if you don’t have a social media followers, 100 here, 1 million here, 1 million, the one thing. If you don’t have, you don’t have a contact, you cannot, you need someone who to like come to this place and to listen.

I have this person. He is underground DJ. Okay.

Okay. Nobody know him like another DJ, but he is good guys. Try it him, put it in, in, in warm up, put it in, in, and I don’t know, in another room where, where is people.

He going to show himself, give him a chance. This is, this is what they say. It’s not so fair because you don’t have someone to give you a chance to show yourself, to show your talent, you know, to show your, how is you, you, you know, like in U.S. and Europe and also in Arabic country, there is at some program show talent. People go dance, singing, but nothing for the DJ. Yeah. Nothing for, I don’t see a show.

I don’t know in the United States, but I don’t see a show who’s bring a DJs. Okay. And make and show what you, what you know, what you do, how you can do it.

You know, there is a competition for DMC and there is some, another competitions. What’s happening in the region, for example, like I win band DJ competition in 2006, first place in 2008, third place. I, I win a lot when, when there is a competition to show how you are.

Okay. You can see a ton of people who can do a good job. You know what I mean?

But when it’s not, there is, there is, you need, you need contact. You need people.

[Darran]
Yeah. And how would you define success as a DJ? Would that be like a Beatport top 10 hit?

If you’re a producer, DJ, producer, sold out tour, what, what are your thoughts on this to really like, if you could say, this is why David Guetta is number one, or this is why this DJ is what defines success. Cause that can be very big use for a lot of people. I know DJs that say, I like to just play my local scene.

I like to play. I have a day job. I like to go out and play.

I like to play at the nightclub here. They might not be looking for, you know, worldwide stardom, you know, and that to them could be success, you know, but still doesn’t mean somebody is going to come along and pluck them up and say, come play in Amsterdam at this club in front of 50,000 people. Cause you’re good in Seattle.

He may, or Montana or, you know, some, I’m, I’m don’t know if you know your states and cities here at all, but you know, you could be a phenomenal DJ, but never be found because maybe you aren’t looking to be found, but you still consider yourself successful. But I consider the difference between, you know, success when I’m, before you answer this question would be, are you a hobbyist? Are you in this for the business?

Okay. You know, and I think that would be the difference there.

[DJ Mowgli]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I understand. See, I love the music. I told you, I start the music like from the scratch, right?

From the vinyl, how it’s feeling and all the time until now I play the music because I love the music. I enjoy the time when I play, I enjoy the people when they are happy, they are dancing. It’s not my full time.

It’s not, it’s not going to be my full time because I cannot make any income. You know, it’s, you cannot make any income like this. You know what I mean?

If you open a couple of, of interviews with, with a couple of DJs, let’s say David Guetta, for example. Okay. When he start, when he start, how he start, he find the place.

He, he been in the right place in the right time, you know, and he find the place and he play in Monday. He do, he do his, his, his gig in Monday alone with his own invested. He pay, he, he print the ticket.

He print the flyer. He invite his friend. And this is what’s happening.

You have him, you have to be invest in yourself if you want to be like a famous, but if you don’t have income, you cannot at all. You cannot, you need investor. Okay.

If you don’t have you need investor, how you get the investor, the investor should be trust you, know you, and we come back again. People know you, I gonna invest in you. You people don’t know you, I cannot like, like a small company.

Okay. There is a lot, a lot of small startup business. How it’s go, go, go a famous.

Okay. He start by himself. He invested in himself.

Some company seem, Oh, Google, Oh, this is good company. Let’s take him and they pay him millions and take this, this application or, or startup business. I go out in this, in the DG.

It’s similar. Okay. For me, I have my full-time job.

I work from 10 o’clock till nine o’clock in the night, every day, five, six days a week. When I have my day off, I want to chill. I want to relax.

I want to meet some of my friends and the life in, in Dubai, it’s not like another country. It’s, you are all the time busy, people busy. Your friend don’t have time to you.

You don’t have time to your friends. No, there is no, a lot of relationship between the people because everyone coming to work, make money, do his life and go back to his country or something like this. Yeah.

This is, I don’t know if I answer your questions or not, but this is what I think.

[Darran]
You know, no, it’s, it’s not an easy question to answer. As I, as I started out with it, it’s kind of subjective to who, you know, is, is saying what a success, you know, and I probably, if I were to come, if I were to make a database of all this, I would go to a lot of industry professionals and say, what data points do you want to see before you book somebody to come play or what data points do you think would be relevant for people to see? If I went to a lot of PR, if I went to a lot of booking managers, I’d contact a lot of booking people and say, Hey, what do you think it’s relevant for these people to see?

And I’d look at a lot of promoters and say, what information do you want to see and make a database of that information? So they go to and go, okay. I mean, there’s companies like Polestar.

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of them. They’re a booking company. They, it costs the money to be part of it.

But what you do is you go into Polestar and a smart promoter would use something like this. You can go in and look at somebody’s past bookings and past tours. Now, of course, that information has to be put into the system.

I have a story of a, of a promoter that I know that booked an artist and the artist said, yeah, we’ll come play your show for you for $25,000. And the artist said, all right, cool. Let’s put $25,000.

They booked the show and the show was a complete flop. They lost like $20,000 on the show. Had they had the information from this company, they would have saw that the same artist played a show a month before, same type of crowd, same size of crowd and got paid $5,000 for the show.

So they would have used that tool and said, I’m not paying you 25 grand. You get paid $5,000. That’s what you get for a size of a show like this.

And they probably would have said, yes, the five grand, they would have broke even on the show. Everyone would have been happy, but they didn’t know that tool existed out there to help them do that. Now it’s not necessarily a ranking tool, but it’s helped.

It’s to help promoters know when they’re booking shows like, and you can go in and dial it down and say, Hey, I have a venue. That’s 300 people show me all the people that play shows in this genre and this price range. And it goes, and then you can instantly just send out emails to them, you know, or contact those right people.

So you’re making sure you’re booking the right people for your right venue. I had somebody in this in Seattle once they wanted to book Tiesto for a club that held 300 people. And Tiesto’s fee is like $35,000.

And like, we don’t care. We’ll pay it. We’ll have them come by and play the 300 people.

Tiesto’s manager came back and said, no, we don’t play room. We don’t play 300 person rooms. He plays to 30,000 people, you know?

And plus he’s already on circuit lockdown. So you’re not going to get, even if it was a secondary set to come by and play, they just, they had the opportunity, but it was, they turned it down because it was not his genre. It was, you’re out of your league there, bro.

You’re out of here. It was, you know, come on. What are you going to sell tickets for a hundred bucks a pop and hope to make your money back?

You know, people probably would have bought them though. So that being said, you know, but the point is, is yeah. Determine what success is.

Like I said, I’m going to kind of look into this project of creating that because an idea that came up the other day was also creating a booking information, but I don’t want to become a booking agency, but being able to list that kind of booking information on our site. If you’re on the show and people go, wow, I watched a DJ Mowgli interview. Wow.

I saw the exclusive mix he did. Wow. You know, this is, this is more information about him up there.

And then they go to book this DJ, click here and boom, it pulls up all your information, you know, and, and contact information. And somebody books you not through our website, but takes you off site to book. Like they found you through the DJ session.

[DJ Mowgli]
Yeah. This is the point. The point is how, how the promoter find you, how the promoter know you, there is the tool should be a tools for this kind of thing.

Right now, if you go for, I think my opinion, if you go for famous clubs, for example, in Ibiza, they don’t going to be a book DJ who is nobody, let’s say, okay. They’re going to be, they’re going to bring only the names, okay. The names who is already famous or easy people know it to like, and do that because I, I saw this one in my eyes in Ibiza and another, and another club.

If the DJ it’s not famous, people don’t care. They don’t know who is the DJ. I swear, they don’t know who is the DJ.

They don’t know his name. They don’t know what he do, what his background. Okay.

He play music when, when, when they get up and move or make some reaction. And if he plays some famous track, oh, I know this track. Yeah.

He’s a good DJ, you know, and, and in music industry should be a test for the music. People should be here testing music. Yeah.

There is a difference of genre. I’m like 100, 100% like I know this one and people right now going to the, the, the, the famous club because it’s a famous, not because of the genre, you know what I mean? Because this DJ going to be playing, okay.

They came on, for example, I don’t know, for Salomon or Armin or Dimitri Vegas or Black Coffee, because he’s Black Coffee, because he is a famous. I, I want to be in this. I want to make a video.

As we say, I’ve been here. I make it for my memory and it’s, it’s okay. It’s fair.

Of course, you spend money, you travel, you pay a ticket, you come to this place. Okay. You lose your money.

You want to get something from here. Some people want to get a video. Some people want to get a photograph.

Some people want to get a t-shirt. Some people like me, for example, want to hear a good music. Yeah.

The, the, the main thing. And, and, and if we have some tools or some, I don’t, I think, I hope I, I right now help people to, to find for them something to, to, to make this job for them to make easier. It’s like a sink bottom as well.

Someone do something for you faster, easier, and quality. This is the answer for the sink. Something do to you faster, easier, and quality.

But again, I’m old school. I like to communication with a promoter, with the manager.

[Darran]
Yeah.

[DJ Mowgli]
Explain him about myself. Give him my soul. I want him to, to feel what I feel when I play.

I don’t like when someone book me, for example, uh, because he wants someone only to play a music because he don’t have a DJ. His DJ is sick or travel or have health problem. No, I need to people to hear me to understand I do good job for them.

Because as, as I explain my students, for example, when you play like a DJ, your work, this is my opinion. Your work, not only play a music, your play, your, your, your work to make, uh, a club, make a money. How it is happen?

My opinion. You have to check the people. If all the crowd in the dance floor, it’s good.

You are a good DJ, but the bar not working. You can little go down, make people relaxed. Go, go, go do some drink, enjoy and come back to you.

This is your job. You work with the bartender. You work with the manager.

You work with, with the dance dancer. You work with the, uh, light and sound system. You work with everything.

This is what you have to be a DJ. Not like, I’m sorry, not like now to stay only put the bottom and stay like this all the time. I’m, I’m really sorry again for the DJs who is all the time working in the laptop.

All the time. He’s glides in the laptop. I don’t know.

He is playing music or he watches a movie. I don’t know. You know, give me, give me your emotion.

Show me, show me you are happy. I am here. I am dancing for you.

[Darran]
Yeah.

[DJ Mowgli]
Show me respect for, because I spend money to come to you. Yeah. To get to ice contact should be happening between me and you.

[Darran]
Yeah.

[DJ Mowgli]
You have to understand. I am feel happy with you and we’re definitely all the time. Yeah.

I don’t know.

[Darran]
We’re definitely going to get a taste of what you’re going to be, what your performance with your sets are like with that exclusive mix, you’ll be sending our way. Super excited to get that. You know, is there anything else though, that you want to let our DJ sessions fans know before we let you go?

[DJ Mowgli]
Uh, actually like see the, the, the world right now, all the world in the phone. Yeah. It’s good.

And it’s bad. And same thing. It’s good because you can, as, as we do with you right now, people in Seattle can see me in Dubai.

Okay. In 1999, we don’t have this, this kind of thing. Nobody know who I am.

You know what I mean? And, um, in, in, in the, in the last, like all the, in the, in this, that’s years, uh, you book a DJ, you go to the club, for example, in Ibiza and you find someone you like him, you take his contact and you book him in your city or your country. Yeah.

Right now it’s more easier, but it’s more hard than before because you have, you have to have a team with manager, with the social media manager, with the video, videograph, video, video operation, uh, photographer to make a video and photo and update all the time. Some people who signed for you, the, the, the information you have to take something you have to answer. You have to make, this is a lot of job.

This is company job. It’s not a DJ. See my opinion.

This is not a DJ work. You should be half people who do this one for you and your job. It’s play a music for the people.

This is what I think.

[Darran]
You know, that’s, you know, you’re right. It’s, I saw a diagram the other day. I’ve seen a few times over the years is it used to be, it was a pie chart and 75% of it was the DJ playing music, looking for music, doing what they do.

25% of it was PR media. Now it’s 75% PR media and 25% about looking for the music.

[DJ Mowgli]
Right now, 90% media, 90%. Believe me, I saw it everywhere, every time. And like, I mean, you are an industry and you understand what I mean.

Right now, people to, to, to hear your music, you have to spend 5% and 5% to, to search the music. Otherwise you have to work in the social media. If you want to, if you want, but see, this is something also fair.

If you do like this, yes, maybe you’re going to get some gigs after then you go down because you don’t do a good job. This is why, why we need, why we need the quality for, for the work. Why, why the DJ, when he start to learn the DJ and this is my, I want to say everyone who want to learn the DJ, guys, you can use syncs, but when, when you, when you learn how to match the music and hear the music after that, use what you want to use.

It’s okay.

[Darran]
Absolutely. You know, on that note, we’re going to wrap it up here. Where’s the best place people can go to find out information about you?

[DJ Mowgli]
Okay. Yeah, this is one of a problem what we have, but right now we’re working hard for, for Instagram. Yeah.

It’s, it’s here. You can see like DJ Mogli official, you can go there and there is a link. You can go for the link and you can find all my channel.

You can find the YouTube, you can find the everything SoundCloud and MixiCloud, but see again, it’s, it’s my problem. That’s a problem though. The people know because I work full time.

There is no time to, to record the new music every day or every week to post it in those social, social media. But I, we try the best to, to be, and we are happy really to be here with you and thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much to invite me to be part of your show and I will send you the mix as soon as possible, maybe today or tomorrow. And I, I hope you enjoy the music and enjoy the quality of the music.

[Darran]
Absolutely. And looking forward to hearing from the both of you in the future. We’d like to follow up with all our guests on the series, stay in touch with them because they always know there’s new stuff, new events, new news, new topics to talk about.

This is, like I said, this is our intro interview. We’re going to be more from you, DJ Mowgli and also your student right there as well on the show. On that note, go check him out at DJ Mowgli official on Instagram.

All the other links are right there. Thank you again for coming on the series today.

[DJ Mowgli]
Thank you for you. I’m happy again. And I hope to, you can, we can see you in Seattle.

I didn’t been in the US, but we keep in touch in the future. If something happened, like we can only meet and drink some coffee, if I came to US, of course.

[Darran]
Yeah. Or if I’m over in Europe, definitely I’ll put me a little closer to you as well. Looking forward to doing that more.

Thank you again for coming on the series today.

[DJ Mowgli]
Thank you and see you again, guys. Bye-bye. Thank you so much.

[Darran]
On that note, don’t forget to go to our website, thedjsessions.com. Find us on all the socials, find our store. We have music, exclusive mixes, live interviews, events, contests.

We have our new music section we’re launching. We’re also in virtual reality as well and VR chat. Check that out.

It’s pretty cool. And VR nightclub. Also our mobile app is there.

You can download it, get it, carry us with you wherever you go. But all that and more is at thedjsessions.com. Take a snapshot of that QR code or go to the website, thedjsessions.com.

I’m your host, Darren, coming to you from the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington, and coming in all the way from Dubai, it’s DJ Mowgli for The DJ Sessions. And remember, on The DJ Sessions, the music never stops.