Djuma Soundsystem – Tribal Rhythms, Authenticity, and Finding Balance on the Virtual Sessions 9/15/25

Summary

In this Virtual Sessions episode, Djuma Soundsystem, also known as Mikkas, joins from Copenhagen to share insights into his career, creative process, and philosophies on music and life. He describes his style as deep, tribal, and organic, shaped by influences from folkloric sounds across Africa, Latin America, India, and East Asia. His label, Iseki, emerged from a global party concept that grew into a full imprint during the pandemic, carrying forward the ethos of community, rhythm, and connection.

 

Mikkas reflects on production as a slow, detail-oriented process where he invents the wheel every time. Preferring collaboration, he emphasizes music’s social nature in contrast to the loneliness of touring. His modest bedroom studio setup shows that inspiration, not expensive gear, drives creativity. He acknowledges the challenges of staying healthy on the road, leaning on meditation, conscious eating, and psychotherapy training to manage dopamine spikes between highs on stage and quiet airport moments.

 

The conversation dives into modern club culture and technology, including his critiques of social media pressures and phone use on the dance floor. He notes how DJs have shifted from hidden figures in booths to performers treated like superstars, sometimes at the expense of the music itself. For him, authenticity and connection are central, whether in intimate clubs or on global festival stages.

 

Mikkas also shares stories about hearing his music used in a wedding ceremony, curating Ibiza Live Radio shows, and supporting emerging artists like Native P through his label. He believes success comes from creating unique sounds that reflect personal moods rather than chasing trends, urging young producers to embrace imperfection and learn from mistakes. Beyond music, he seeks balance through nature retreats, Buddhism, and lifelong learning.

 

Topics

0:24 – Describing his music as deep, tribal, and organic
2:00 – Collaborations and inspiration behind the track Yoruba
2:58 – Origins of Iseki as a party concept and community
5:19 – Meaning of Iseki and drawing from folkloric traditions
6:17 – Studio setup, production style, and working mostly in the box
8:33 – Slow production process and value of collaboration
11:18 – Managing health, wellness, and dopamine spikes on tour
17:00 – Social media pressures versus artistic happiness
19:10 – Phones on the dancefloor and the loss of focus on music
28:22 – Supporting emerging artists and shaping unique sounds

Follow Djuma Soundsystem on Instagram @djumastudio for tour updates and new releases.
Discover the Iseki label and events at Iseki Global.
Stream Djuma’s music and guest mixes on Ibiza Live Radio.

[Darran]
Hey, everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions presents the virtual sessions. I’m your host, Darran. And right now I’m sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington and coming in all the way from you know, Mikkas, I totally forgot to ask where you’re coming in from today.

Where are you located right now?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
I’m at home. I’m in Copenhagen. I’m originally Norwegian, but I live in in Denmark.

[Darran]
Nice. Well, Mikkas, thank you so much for being here, aka known as Djuma Soundsystem on the show today. I got some awesome questions to ask you.

But first and foremost, I want to know if you you’ve been in the industry for a while now. And if you could describe your music in three words, what three words you choose to describe it?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Well, they changed a bit over the years, not because my music necessarily change, but the genres do. So maybe I will say, deep, tribal, organic, deep, tribal, organic.

[Darran]
And you said it’s changed.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
I used to call it Afro house. But if you say Afro house today, people think kind of music or something, a bit of pop. And that’s not really what I do.

[Darran]
So and your recent release that you just put out, it’s your your Ruba, your Ruba, your Ruba, your Ruba, what was the inspiration behind your Ruba? What got you got him working on that, putting that out?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
I have a couple of friends from Munich in Germany. And they have been asking for a while to do something with me. And I was like, Alright, I got a little time.

Let’s try to do something. And I had a nice vocal I wanted to work with. And we we ping pong a bit over the internet.

We were never in the studio together. What’s happening?

[Darran]
Oh, yeah, you can tell sometimes I get news and comments and things that come in can be a little distracting from time to time. No worries. But that was released on your label.

Is that is Ziki? You see key? Ziki?

Tell us a little bit about is Ziki? What could we what could one expect if they were to go to your label? And say, Okay, we got your Ruba?

We got a Ziki? Is their entire catalog up in there of all your stuff that you put in there? Is this something that’s like, have you had different labels over the years?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Or, you know, I had hundreds of labels over the years. Is Ziki was to begin with, actually, I started it when I lived in New York in America. Okay, I started a concept, a party concept.

I wanted to make like a community, sort of like open source kind of box, I had the idea for what to put in it. And I would invite people to make a Ziki parties when when I traveled around. And if they liked the idea, they could sort of take it further themselves.

Okay, so for a few years, it was just this event thing, this community, and I started having fractions in Berlin, in Johannesburg, in Goa, in India, in Copenhagen, good few places, I made the Ziki parties in Dubai, Istanbul, Tulum, all over the world, really. And then the pandemic hits. And it all kind of fell apart.

So you know, when you’re stuck inside what to do, and my manager said, you already have your radio show in Ibiza, that’s called the Ziki show. And and you already have the events, you have the whole concept, why don’t you make a label? Which I was a little bit like, yeah, I hear it’s a lot of work.

I don’t know if I have the time. But he was like, dude, you have nothing but time now. Like, okay, I have no excuses.

So I started the label. So that’s where it came from.

[Darran]
Yeah, I’m checking that. Is there a particular theme to these? I mean, I see, you know, is Ziki is an homage to the original or the eternal original rhythm?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Ziki means the original rhythm, the original rhythm, the word means. And yes, it’s tribal music. Okay.

But for me, tribal doesn’t have to be African. It can also be Latin. I had a lot of a lot of Indian drum samples, sometimes vocals, some East Asian, anything that resonates with me.

So I guess it’s a mix of the, the modern and, and the organic, I guess I take most of my inspirations from, from more folkloric music. So, yeah.

[Darran]
And, you know, when you’re in the studio, are you doing a lot? Is it you hardware, software, acoustic, analog?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
I’m actually very much in the box kind of guy. I’m actually in my studio right now. If you want to see it.

[Darran]
I can turn the camera around.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
I think I have the camera on blur. So I don’t know how much you’re gonna see. But yeah, there you go.

Yeah, a little bedroom studio. I made a sound, the bass traps and the sound walls.

[Darran]
Nice.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Just a couple of nice speakers, a MIDI keyboard. And that’s it. The truth of it is I’m, I’m quite rarely home.

So it’s maximum a month or two a year. Oh, wow. So to have too much hardware does not make sense for me.

Yeah.

[Darran]
Well, you know, and obviously, spanning the years and even coming from a musical family upbringing in a sense myself of seeing what it went like with four track, eight track, rack mount, synthesizers, you know, all the fun bells and whistles that you could use as a band musician growing up with that with my brothers being a band, you know, to now, yeah, I mean, I have a MacBook Pro 13 inch MacBook Pro, and we get the decent one, and you’re pretty much ready to go. Now, audio wise, obviously, you’re gonna, like you said, put some bass traps in there and make it sound all good.

You know, get your stuff out and maybe test them.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Just have a pair of decent, quite affordable headphones.

[Darran]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. What are your headphones of choice?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Um, I’m usually on the road, I’m using Audio Technica, but they break a little bit easier. So I wear and tear them quite fast. But they’re good for for DJing and production.

Okay, let’s say. Yeah.

[Darran]
How many tracks? Oh, go ahead. Yeah.

I was gonna say about how many tracks do you produce when you’re at home? I mean, do you produce when you’re on the road as well?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
I’m bad at it. I’m a slow producer. I spend time making music.

It’s not some some do it in a day or two. I’m not that guy. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

But I sort of invent the wheel every time I like I like the details and make my kick and make my snares. And yeah, so I’m slow. I trying to shake it off the kind of perfectionistic thing.

But it’s also more fun to make music with someone because music is a social thing. So and the traveling and the DJing is it’s a lonely thing. And that’s also why I made the label so I can do it with other people.

[Darran]
Yeah, I mean, one of the things we’re exploring here a lot more at the DJ sessions is not just about the glitz and glamour of the side of the business, you know, the DJs up on the stage, you know, or you know, even the production of the music, you know, is there, but a lot more of the back end that people don’t really understand you hear about it. Oh, the touring that the loneliness, like what you mentioned, on the road, the battling the fatigue, the staying healthy, all those things to really stay focused in this game. A lot of people think that my job is all I just turn on a camera and talk to people.

It’s like, No, I mean, for the most and most part, it may seem like a comfortable interview to you and I that we’re doing this, but I’m on stage, I’m not necessarily performing, but there is a performer, there’s a level of etiquette or something you have to do, of course, be taken seriously. That does, sometimes you can get desensitized to this and not think you’re actually on stage. To me, this feels natural now after doing it 1000s of times.

But for some people, they get scared getting up on a stage and playing as a DJ or getting in front of a camera, you know, and all that fun stuff. I guess you could say my stage fright is gone. But there have been times when I’ve gotten a little nervous here and they’re interviewing somebody or, you know, a last minute interview, and I’m not prepped for it.

And I got to come up with things right off the top of my head when there’s loud music and everything going on backstage. But what are the best ways? What are some of the ways that you stay healthy and focused and dialed in when you’re on the road and when you’re not on the road?

Do you practice same health, mind wellness practices in all aspects of your life? And what are some of those tips and tricks you can give to people out there to do or you do? Maybe not tips and tricks for everyone.

But what do you do for yourself?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
I can actually talk about these things for hours. I struggled a lot in my life. I had lots of hardships and battles I had to overcome and went to psychotherapy.

And it intrigued me so much that I actually took an education. So I actually have a second job as a psychotherapist. So some of the things that works well for me, and should probably work well for everybody is to try to kind of have your dopamine levels a little bit stable, which can be a little bit tough when you’re a DJ, because in one second, you are the king of the ball and you have all eyes on you and you’re drunk and you party and one hour later, you’re sobering up in the security in an airport all by yourself. So you can imagine how those dopamine spikes go really high and really low, very fast. And I think in all aspects of life, it’s a little bit like in Buddhism, if you can enjoy the small things, the same way you enjoy the big things, you’ll be way more stable in general.

So that’s one of the things that I try to do in my life. I try to practice meditation and conscious eating and appreciation and physical movements helps as well.

[Darran]
I like that because that’s a very good piece of advice, because I tend to be more on the positive side of things. I mean, I’ll laugh at myself for stubbing my toe. I will have fun when I watch my friend’s dog, you know, who’s sitting right next to me or my cat jumps in the middle of the studio or, you know, or have fun in all sorts.

But I like that, have as much fun as you do doing the small things that you do the big things. I think that’s, you know, you don’t put in the way I’m interpreting that is not putting so much pressure, you’re right, that dopamine cycle, that dopamine drain that like, or if people get the FOMO, you know, fear of missing out, or, you know, you see that a lot with influencers, that in eventually they go offline, and then they’re right, their dopamine kick goes down, and they feel unwanted, and they feel not alive, because there’s nobody following them, or nobody praising after him, or everyone’s moved on to the next subject, even if they take a simple break, they could take a day or two away from that if they don’t manage it.

I recently a few years back, we ramped up operations over here at the DJ sessions increased our output by 800%. And not knowing what that was going to do. And I went from about six to eight interviews a month.

To the month we did that we jumped up and did about 57 interviews. And I did 57 interviews, one hour interviews in one month. And through a time span, we clocked in 2022, from May of 2022, to about October, November of 2020, I did 180 interviews, like one hour interviews, no sending people questions, no preset interviews, no, no one knew the questions I was gonna ask or anything like that.

And that just, I mean, I wasn’t eating, I had no, I wasn’t sleeping, I was busy editing or putting something up or looking for the next interview, just because I wanted to see what could happen and really ramp it up. If I had to take on that much, much now I’ve wound it down to I have 32 spots a month, Monday through Friday, Monday through Thursday, this time and this time is available, you know, to manage all that, but we’re not, that’s not like we’re looking to grow. But yes, you have to time manage yourself with this and be prepared for those kind of downturns.

I just had a big thing happen. Not just time manage yourself, but dopamine manage yourself. Yeah, dopamine, I like that.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
We all have these escapism things, you know, some people are addicted to shopping or sex or drugs, it’s a classic, alcohol, scrolling. And we sometimes need to just check what are my dopamine spikes, where does it come from and why are we doing it? So, and for me, it’s a little bit problematic because I know I could be a way bigger artist if I managed my social media better.

But for me, it’s kind of a choice. Do I want to be popular? Do I want to be happy?

I’m a little bit older now, I’d rather want to just be comfortable than chasing this, for me, a little bit ridiculous thing about, hello, I’m still here, see me, look at me, like me, it’s like, well, you know, I bring this up quite often.

[Darran]
It was a few years back, I saw an article, something came out and, you know, before social media, it was, you know, 20% marketing and 80% your music creation, music talent, you know, he did now it’s 80% social media and 20% talent is kind of how it’s becoming where people like it’s getting ridiculous because it’s bots creating content for fake bot viewers.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
So it’s just bots eating themselves. I don’t know.

[Darran]
Yeah. Yeah. And all the while the bot companies that do that make the money.

And the social media companies that see that the click ads, you know, make money. But then you know, the thing, one of the biggest things that is coming up a lot more, and I’m definitely know you’ve seen this happen over the years is the use of cell phones in the club and taking away from the experience. And now people wanting to be their own influencer, or I’m not saying anything bad with people going and doing this, I’m not attacking anyone, don’t get me wrong here.

But people going to the experience, instead of enjoying the artist, they’re trying to capture and make their own short movie or background and do their own thing to then share out there rather than participating in the event when you and I started this 30 years ago, the DJ wasn’t even in the scene, they were up in a booth up over here hidden. And you went to the club and the music was playing, you might see the DJ and they’re like up there, you’re like, Okay, hi, or you might, I want to go put in a request. That was for years is going to the DJ booth, slide them a 20 or 10 or whatever and say, Hey, can you get my song into the mix.

But DJs were not the focal point of the scene. And you know, now it’s that you see nightclubs, they’re coming in and saying, Hey, we’re gonna put stickers over the phones or, you know, or, you know, very prominent artists that I verified last week, is that they request that no cell phones are allowed during their performance. You know, really?

And yeah, pretty big name, pretty big name. Lane eight. I’m sure you’ve heard of them.

Maybe you can they do that?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Do they listen to it?

[Darran]
I assume it’s part of their their rider part of their contract, and the security is informed that they see people using it. I would love to see the writer of what that plays out. There’s clubs here.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Well, you’re not allowed to film and if you go to Berlin, it’s yeah, Berlin is big on that forever. And I don’t know, I don’t like to be told what to do. You know, I don’t like taking away my, my liberty.

But if that’s what’s needed, and I’m okay with it, you know, and it does get ridiculous. Some of this. Yeah, it’s, it’s a weird.

It’s a weird performance. Because like you say, it used to be the music was the story, because we’re not that interesting to look at. We’re turning some knobs.

So it’s weird to put the DJ as a superstar, because what can we do? We can do this, but it doesn’t. Not too much more exciting can happen, you know?

So yeah, I don’t know how to get back to it, though, to put the music in focus.

[Darran]
I think what Laney does, I think they put stickers at everyone’s phones at the door. So you still have your phone, you know, you just not sitting there like this. But now that here’s the funny thing, the new iPhones, just remove the sticker is not more complicated than that.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
But it’s a nice message to send.

[Darran]
Yeah. But, you know, the new iPhone software that just came out, you’re allowed to now film that way and your front facing camera so you can capture what you’re doing while you’re watching the music like yeah, and watching the show. So that’s kind of interesting.

I don’t see how that plays out in new round of social media and people capturing events. But here’s a question for you. You said weird experiences.

Where’s the weirdest or what was the weirdest moment you’ve ever heard one of your tracks play? The weirdest or most unpredictable moment?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
wedding video where they actually walked down the aisle to my music. That was a little bit special.

[Darran]
How were you able to find that that particular instance that use? No, they sent it to me. Oh, okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
I love your track so much. We decided to get married to it. Like, wow.

[Darran]
Nice. And speaking of music, you have a radio show on Ibiza live radio. How long have you been doing that for?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
It’s a couple of years now. Yeah. I had it on a different station before.

And I think three years on Ibiza live radio where we are now. It’s a bi monthly show. I usually do one and then I have a guest on the other one.

Okay. Little bit of talking but mostly music. And it’s going really well.

I have amazing guests line lines up to to be on the show. And nice. The second biggest station on Ibiza now.

So it’s good.

[Darran]
Is that do you get a frequent there often?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
No, I not a huge fan of Ibiza to be honest. I’m more Berlin if I have to choose. Yeah.

[Darran]
Yeah, well, then we might have some we might have some connecting to do there because I’m we’re planning to go overseas a lot more over to the EU to Berlin at least four times a year, surrounding at IMS and sonar, and then Raven planet as well. Working with some partnerships over there.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Been a while since I’ve been there.

[Darran]
Yeah, what was that first part? How’s the scene in Seattle? How’s the season?

Seattle has an electronic music scene as it now it is probably the top form. I mean, Seattle was known for its bands and live music out of the 90s with Nirvana, Soundgarden and everything. I’ve lived here my whole life.

So I’ve seen all that change. But now our main nightclubs are electronic music nightclubs. It’s not a relatively huge market, even though there were the 12 largest city in the United States.

We have if you went just strictly on just nightclubs alone, nightclubs, not venues that aren’t on AEG, Live Nation or Insomniac circuits. Really, we got about 10 nightclubs here. You know, as opposed to Berlin, where I’ve been told there’s like 500 nightclubs.

Or maybe maybe not 500. But a lot. I think that’s exaggerated.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
But I know.

[Darran]
No, I’m joking.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
I mean, 10 good clubs is pretty good for a city.

[Darran]
Yeah, I mean, each of them have some of their different genres they play. Some bring in the circuit headliners, you know, and then obviously you have the Insomniac events and some of the bigger names that play the bigger. I wouldn’t call them nightclubs.

I call them performance venues or you know, you know, places like performance halls in the sense of things, not discotheques or nightclubs in that sense. But yeah, it’s okay. They do well.

You know, they’re fun to go out to. I’m more growing up here. I’ve been nightclub since I was 15.

So I know every nook, cranny, backroom, greenroom, doorway of every club here. I want to get out and see more of what’s out there. One of my favorite clubs and unfortunately half of it had to close down recently was the Brooklyn Mirage in New York was one of my favorite kind of mega super clubs to go see but you know, Melkwig in Amsterdam was really cool.

We’re there for ADE. It was good to see that I definitely want to see more on the ground. But the biggest thing I was at last year was rave the planet with Riverside Studios on their float.

And that was just an experience. I’d never been part of anything like that in the world.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
That was remember, before we started this interview, I told you I made a recording. I tried to fail myself doing a mix for you. The recorder fucked up.

That was at Riverside. Oh, really? Okay.

Yeah, I was there working for for three, four days. Okay.

[Darran]
Yeah, awesome. Yeah, it’s actually I know, Martin, maybe I just interviewed Martin last week. And so I guess you could say that the little cats kind of out of the bag.

That’s who we’re looking to work with over there is Martin and Albert. And, you know, Martin has a really cool project. I won’t I don’t know much.

I want to learn more about it. But what he’s working on over there outside of Riverside is huge. I don’t know if you know anything about that.

And DNL, I think, and DNL. But something huge. But I was so impressed with the Riverside Studios.

When I went there that I definitely want to go back. And I mean, just the inkling in my head got like a grain of sand was like, why don’t I move to Berlin? This is so amazingly awesome.

Cool. Loved it when I was there. Making connections from an international standpoint.

I think it’s a great launching point. There’s obviously a rich nightlife culture, their rich music culture, their rich culture there and can be a launching point to get to other places in Europe. Because we do plan, like I said, to cover ADE, IMS and Sonar next year.

Doing that in a partnership that we have is also in the UK with a company we’re looking to partner with and do some stuff as well. So a little bit more time in Europe next year for 2026. Super excited.

So we’re on the ground there. We’ll look you up definitely. In your radio show, and it’s gonna always be hard.

Now that music selection obviously has gone from going to the store, going to the record store, finding a record, and you have that one record, and there might be 5000, 10,000, maybe if you’re lucky, if it’s a commercialized record, maybe 50,000 copies worldwide. But now the barrier to entry to find music is go to Beatport, go online, find it and that copy can be available to 100,000, 200,000 people forever worldwide, you know, instantaneously, once it’s released. If you were to choose one track that you currently play right now, one track other than your own, not your own.

And can you describe why you would choose that particular track that you play right now? And why in detail why it’s such a great track you would choose to play? Something that sticks out?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
I don’t think I can, to be honest, because I, I’m a little bit ashamed to say it, but I’m like a very extreme consumer of music. I wish that I would have that favorite track that but I make a new DJ set every time I play, even though I don’t have to because where I’m going tomorrow, they have not heard what I played tonight. But I think I do it for me.

I just I just need to test this new track I got. And maybe these three records tells a story together. What do I have that could push it that direction and back again?

And I don’t know. It’s a Yeah, I wish I could be more that guy that hold on to my my favorite things that just works. Or it’s a great track.

And because now probably people have not heard it even if it was big for me, because there’s just so much music. I mean, some years ago, I was super cool because I was playing music no one has ever heard before because I got it first I got the demos and you know, now nobody gives a shit because it’s so much music. It doesn’t really matter to have that approach.

But it just stuck with me, I guess. I think. Yeah, I think I need to feel that I’m doing something unique.

[Darran]
Definitely. No, I can I can totally respect that, you know, and especially, you know, in this day and age, you know, I had somebody recently reached out to me and they said, you know, when I make a set, every set of mine is unique. I said, Okay, that’s that’s, that’s great.

But when you have a catalog of 100,000 or 200,000 songs to choose from, how would it not be unique? How would you? Why would you?

You know, it’s like you’re got the same. You know, I don’t know how many you probably know this better than I do how many records fit in a crate. You know, I’m assuming 5040 something like that.

And even if you have 10 crates, now you only got and you’re using one track off of each one of those albums. Okay.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
And you had those three, four tracks that just fit it so well they were just glued.

[Darran]
Yeah, exactly. You know exactly where to find them, you know, right? Great, great.

Number one was the great, you know, or even sorting and making your crate before you went out. You know, so you can carry everything with you. But I mean, you know, now it’s like and now when you have a USB in your Yeah, or you’re online.

And you can just download straight from beatport right into the mixer and say, I’m just gonna choose this one off online and go here we go.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
You know, I think that’s what makes it a little bit boring as well. Because back in those days, if I had it like a, an idea of something I needed to find B size and things that could create that idea together. Now I type in Afro house or melodic techno and you get 15 hours of tracks that sounds exactly the same.

Which is not a very interesting story anymore. But back in the 90s, it was a bit of a challenge to try to to make that many songs feel like one song. That challenges is no longer there.

So you need to think differently. So I think it’s more about maybe building some trust and then push it a little bit into unknown territory somehow. I think that usually creates more interesting sets.

If you just give people what they want. What did you actually give them at the end of the night? You know, they could listen to their Spotify or something.

[Darran]
So you know, it’s one of the things that I don’t know how controversial this topic will necessarily be. Please don’t throw me to the wolves or put me at the stake or anything. Not you particularly, Mikkas.

But, you know, watching the online boom of DJ streaming online and putting shows out there. I mean, you’ve been doing a radio show for years. Definitely take pride and curate your sets and find a sound that’s unique.

But now with people being able to, one, have the barrier to entry to DJing is zero, you can, a six year old can do this now. DJ, the actual mechanics, not the finding the tracks and telling the story that takes time, obviously. But the barrier to access of getting the tracks is zero, go to Beatport, you have everyone lists there if you’re on a label, okay, great.

But three, going to online live stream and where you had a DJ and maybe a DJ radio show or an online show. Now anyone can go out and create that. And now you just have DJs and they’re streaming live.

Okay, but they’re not getting any viewers. And you could go and pull up a whole stream of DJ shows. And you’re right, go this DJ show sounds like this DJ show sounds like this DJ show sounds like this DJ show.

And, you know, they’re all trying to, in a sense, get that attention of people watching them. What’s something one could expect in your show that they know they’re going to get that’s different than any other shows out there. Because I know you sound like you got a little bit.

You’re not on the you’re not following the top charts. You’re finding stuff that’s probably not commercial or not heard of from what I can gather from your style. But you know, if somebody said I want to copy Djuma Soundsystems size, is that something that they can do and say, Okay, now my show sounds like that.

Is that easy to do? Or do you think you anyone on your coattails or my productions or my DJ style, your DJ style, your DJ style?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Yeah, of course, it can be copied. But it’s my shows ears between six and seven. So I don’t go ballistic on it.

Actually, it’s, it’s a little bit more where the outlet where I can play some of the tracks that also won’t be energetic enough in a club. But I want to take it kind of all the way around. So I usually do a little bit of the deep stuff and then the more energetic stuff and a little bit quirky stuff.

And it’s just what inspired me that week, I would say there’s not a particular formula to it. So the new tracks that I find are the demos I get sent. They sort of tell a story together.

I tried to find that story and present it.

[Darran]
Yeah, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s interesting seeing how, you know, I’m sure you, I’m sure you’re keeping an ear to the ground on AI. And sort of seeing how that develops and goes out there. But you know, somebody could say, I want something that sounds like Jim a Soundsystem.

I want to like this, and it’ll go out there and build the whole playlist and build the whole track list. And then go out there and go, okay, now I’m literally gonna go out there, I’m just gonna hit play play as long as they have the basic fundamentals of knowing how to beat match. And if they’re using the sync button, you you don’t even need that.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Now you need that. I know I saw a program now that will make a DJ set for you. Okay, you just give them the folder where you have your tracks.

It even makes the the whole order for you and mix it everything. All you need to do, just push one button.

[Darran]
So yeah, oh, wow, I didn’t know that existed yet.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Yep, it does already. Okay. Sure is here.

But I think all the problems with AI is, as as humans, we get greater joy from actually have worked for it. That is the big problem. So if you just push a button, how can you feel proud about the outcome of it?

How can you feel you’re achieved anything? It’s, it’s this, it’s the story be behind it, that is the human side, you know. So it’s not about just drowning in content.

But if it doesn’t have a human story, what’s it worth? You know, you, you see it with with all of arts history. It’s not just a piece of art itself.

It’s also the person that created it, or how it was created, or what happened to it afterwards, and how the reaction were at that time, and, and so forth. And that’s lost when it’s AI generated.

[Darran]
You know, that was the one thing in 2022, when I first started talking with people about, about AI, music, AI generated music, and such, that it didn’t have soul. No, it can have soul.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
And now as a Some of it, it’s a fairly impressive, you couldn’t tell the difference if it was man made or not.

[Darran]
Yeah, not I mean, It doesn’t have the story. At the time, people were saying that, and that was a few years ago. But now you’re right with the advancements, it’s like you couldn’t really tell what is, what would be real and what isn’t real.

And you know, if that’s the how, what point does it really now it’s a lot of people say, Oh, it’s, you know, the DJs go up, and they’re not DJing with headphones. To me, that’s just that’s foreign concept in itself. I guess you could DJ and by looking at the waveforms, okay, I get that if you know your, you know, your your cue points.

Okay, I get that. No worries there. It’s you’re putting on a show.

You probably practice that show. Awesome. But I grew up you had to have, you got to know what you’re mixing into.

You got to know what to cue it up. I mean, that’s one thing and I’m not the old Oh, it’s vinyl only or sync button crowd or now it’s digital and I’m old school and this is the right way you did it. You’re not a DJ because you don’t use 1200s or whatever it is.

I don’t get in those battles technology moves forward. But yeah, the one that blows me away is the no earphones and no headsets. I’m like are you DJing or you’re making it look easy and what images that send out to the crowd or to the masses like it’s a basketball player, just a football player, basketball player, something I just went, yeah, I make this look easy.

This is easy. You know, everyone’s gonna think it’s easy to do. It doesn’t devalue the overall experience.

If you don’t have all the fireworks and drone shows and all of that going on that people are expecting to they set this bar up for that dopamine kick that we were talking about earlier. And then they might go see a show at a local club, which leads me kind of into my next question here. If they compare a large scale festival to a small intimate club experience, those are two different environments.

And you can see people giving negative reviews on an intimate club experience because they’re expecting something that dopamine kick and remember their wildest dreams of whatever they were on or whatever they were doing. And that’s where it leads into my next question is, do you prefer more larger scale festivals or do you prefer more intimate club settings? I would say festival, I’d say anything over like 5000 people and nothing.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
You know, I can enjoy that too. But it’s different. It’s, that’s more of a show like this hard to get a true connection when people are, especially if you’re far away.

Also in a club, you only like have eye contact and communicate with the closest people. But it’s, I’d like to be close to the dancers. I feel it’s more fun.

Yeah. Speaking of being close, I think the difference between an older DJ and a young one is the young ones, they only see the Instagram thing. But I think in general in life, I think when you get a little older, your ego, you can slow it down a little bit.

Because when I was younger, I was definitely I wanted that. Ah, you know, good picture of all the hats in the air. And now I’m more like, I’m there to do a job.

I’m there for you, not the other way around. That’s absurd, you know. So I want to make sure you have a good night.

That’s, that’s my job.

[Darran]
Yeah. You know, I got something spot. Oh, something I thought that was funny.

Two instances that I saw online recently, instant number one, instance number one, there was a DJ he’s playing. And there’s a girl at the booth. And there’s a guy behind the girl, somebody filmed behind the girl, the girls at the booth.

And she’s on her phone. She’s texting is right at the front of the booth. And the DJ goes.

And you see the girl just go. You know, maybe we took my time. Yeah, it’s like, Oh, my gosh, took my I was just so so smooth.

He’s just like. And that was kind of cool seeing that captured, going back to the whole cell phones on the dance with her. But then I saw something recently where this DJ was playing.

And there’s a story that unfolds, but he’s playing and they got the security camera footage that was looking at the DJ booth. He turns around and somebody gives him a request. And this other guy standing at the DJ booth reaches over and pulls out his thumb drive and walks off with it.

Have you ever had anything while he’s playing? And luckily in the story, luckily, the guy noticed what happened because it goes, you know, obviously in the emergency mode, found out what’s happening. And the other DJ that was playing because there’s like four decks up there.

He had a drive in so he’s able to save it. But he was able to point the guy out to his like road manager, whoever it was and say, go get that guy. They got the guy.

The guy came back and ended up the you see the guy put it go and put it into a sock. Because that guy just stole my thumb drive. You know, it got they got permanently banned for life out of the club.

But have you ever seen anything crazy like that happen? Playing a show or anything like that ever happened to you? Geeky.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Wow. Yeah. I see a few crazy things, but I that never happened to me.

[Darran]
You know, um, and you know, speaking of producers or any tips or tricks, anything you could give a piece of advice to up and coming producers out there. They’re looking to be in the business. Now there’s our cat.

There’s our dojo the cat. Hey, dojo. How you doing?

Hey, where are my treats? It’s treat time. That’s what I’m saying.

But any tips or a piece of any insights you can give to new and up and coming producers out there to watch out for to mean you’ve been through a lot over 30 years and where like, nowadays, what would be something to look out for or be wary of or take into consideration when entering into this business?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Yeah, so I’ve been teaching some producer schools in the past. And what I kind of realized pretty early on was that they have a lot of technical knowledge. A lot of people do just from trying and failing watching YouTube tutorials.

So I think what can be problematic is how to view yourself like I ended up spending most of my time with my pupils talking about how to manage their careers and their goals because a lot of people they’re here and they dream about getting here but they’re walking that way. So either you have to be okay with ending up there or you need to change the direction you’re walking. That meaning to create a sound that’s unique to you.

Because there’s no point of copying someone who’s already existing. You need to have some little bit personal unique angle to it. So one of the things you can do is try to make it can be a visual image.

It works quite well. So you try to express with your music, a visual image. And other thing I try to do when I go to the studio is to feel what mood I’m in.

Because if you’re very happy, you cannot make melancholic music. Or if you started something yesterday that was very melancholic, you won’t be able to finish it today. And the other way around.

And melancholic music is more beautiful. The optimistic music is more accessible. So there’s no right and wrongs here.

But you need to feel the mood you’re in. Maybe you’re energetic, maybe working on an arrangement feels better. But if you’re a little down, maybe to try to express that emotion, through melodies can be really a great source of creativity.

So it helps to to anchor yourself in your mood. For me.

[Darran]
Yeah, you know, I definitely know that I was on last year when I came back from Rave the Planet from Berlin. I was planning to take a two month, I’m sorry, two week hiatus finish out my birthday month. Yeah, I got that from Berlin.

Yeah, I’m 50 years old. Right. You know, and then then it turned into two months.

And then it turned into four months. Then it turned into six months. And by month eight, I was sitting there, I wouldn’t come into my office, I wouldn’t sit at the computer, I wouldn’t do any front facing work, I wasn’t doing any interview, nothing, people just thought I disappeared.

And you know, um, you know, taking that time to figure out the direction, what what direction was I going? And I liked your analogy, you know, you could be going this direction, we really should be going this direction. If you don’t stop and take a look at what you’re doing, you could be spending years.

And then realize you got to go back to the beginning and start from all over here. And you’re like, I got to do all this now this way.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
There’s no wrong direction. But if you but you live, need to live in reality. Yeah, if you dream about ending up here, but you’re walking the other direction, you, you’re going to break your neck at some point.

And, and that’s what you want to try to avoid, you rather want to say, I just want to have fun with it, then it’s okay, you know, you keep going. But if you want to do this, professionally, there are some sacrifices, because you can say making music is playing, we play music is having fun is being a child. And managing a career is the opposite is being a grown up and and dedicate yourself to doing what it takes.

So that’s kind of opposite, right?

[Darran]
Mm hmm. Yeah, you know, and again, the business of of the industry is what people I don’t think they’re prepared for. They’re prepared for the glitz, the glamour, the showmanship, look at me.

But when it really comes down to the grind, and what it takes the behind the scenes stuff people that it’s a lot. And then you got to get a there’s a good book that I read or tell people to read from time to time. It’s called getting the yes.

And you’re gonna get more nose before you get a yes. And then you got to figure out when you got the yes. What was it that got you the yes?

And can you duplicate that you’re probably gonna get a lot of nose, even though you know what that one yes gives you, just because you got one doesn’t mean that you’re gonna all of a sudden start getting a cascade of yeses in the bank, because there still might be another 1000 lessons, another 1000 nose, you got to go through, especially if you aren’t changing your concept, you might have to, like you said, break the neck, break the mold, to get you that right direction.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
And this can all come from upbringing, education, habits, bad habits, you know, that people it’s also a modern phenomenon, because we live in a perfectionist world now, where you’re supposed to pretend to be perfect all the time. Yeah. Which of course, none of us are.

We are flawed people, all of us. And I think we learn way more from our mistakes than our successes. So you need to be willing to, to do mistakes and learn from them.

That’s, that’s the best way to grow.

[Darran]
Yeah, absolutely.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
To succeed the first try every time, which is an illusion. So you need to, I think social media is quite damaging in that sense. Because it’s giving a false perspective of things in that matter, you know?

[Darran]
Yeah, I quite often bring up something I saw from Neil Degrassi, I think it’s Neil Tyson Degrassi. And he said that AI will possibly be, I’m paraphrasing, but in a nutshell, what I saw quickly, was AI will be the death of social media. One, it’s already people project an image of who they are not.

Two, now it’s actually going out there and saying, would you like to write this for you got the filters that go on. So people aren’t looking like they really look like that’s been out there for years. But now you’re having that you type in something that says, is this how you really want to say it?

Or would you like to formulate it? Like, I think you want to say, which is now putting on a complete fake persona of people’s lives. And I think when they don’t get that instant gratification, I mean, I remember years back, somebody came to me and said, How can you get so many likes on your posts, and I don’t get anything on mine.

And I said, Well, first of all, that’s not how social media, how the algorithms work. Second of all, back in the day, it used to be like this, you could post something and everyone would see it. But now they switch that up.

So you know, 5% of your people that you follow, see it and you’re the biggest misleader right there. I think with with platforms is when the term friends was used. Nobody has 500 friends, nobody has 5000 friends.

Now if you have a fan page, okay, great, you might have fans, some platforms adapted that later on, and they don’t call it friends, they call it followers. Okay, great. But when you have followers, that’s synonymous that I’m an artist, or I’ve built a following, or you just clicking people, and they’re clicking you and okay, let’s build up followers.

What does that mean? From a commercial standpoint, if I had to put a litmus test on somebody and say, Okay, let’s see what your followers are like, what’s their response rate? What’s this going?

Let’s give you this link and see what happens here. And litmus test this. And so I had somebody come to me recently, a DJ want to play on my show.

And they were like, Well, when I come, I can do this. When I come, I can do this. I go, okay, great.

And you should pay me for that. And I said, Well, okay. How does that make you different than anyone else that’s going to come play at my event?

Well, well, and they couldn’t answer the question. Because what they had was what anyone else pretty much around their same caliber could do. And they could have let in better with, hey, I know when I push out there to my followers, I have 50 I have 100 I have 300 people show up to my events.

That’s why you’re paying me. Because not only do I bring talent, I bring my fans with me. And I can go Oh, as a business owner or a person that’s curating an event, that’s going to sell tickets, that’s going to sell drinks, that’s gonna, you my good standing my business operational, that’s why I’m booking you or this person over that person is because people want to see that person, not just your followers.

Great, you can have $100,000. But if I give you a link to sell a ticket, and not one tickets get sold, what does that mean? Or you’re producing a track?

And I buy back your album, but you push it out there and nobody downloads it? Well, where does that go? What does that mean?

So that’s the that’s the showman. I think people are going to be checked on that a lot more in the next hours are bought. Not even real people.

Why does it even matter? What does it matter? So, you know, and I think people get addicted to that because they want to look big, look big, look big, look big.

I mean, that was my whole thing with my space back in the day, you know, people have 50,000 60,000 80,000. And when I went to Facebook, I started adding all my friends because I wanted to get all the people added in. No, Facebook had a cap of 5000 people.

And those are generally people that I met, I wasn’t just adding random people. But you know, I went back and had to open up a second account on Facebook. You know, and I added only people whose hands that I shook or had personal direct, like, I can’t shake your hand because you’re in Copenhagen, but had a personal interaction with, you know, would be on that secondary account.

And then I went and did a wipe and wiped off probably about 2500 people from that account, you know, and then have better algorithm that is well, whatever it is now. But that being said, yeah, you’re right, you can buy that facade. And here today gone tomorrow, I’m adding the next shiny object.

All that being said, if you could take one non famous person that you know, that it’s not a direct family member or friend and put them in the spotlight, really give somebody some like, hey, this person decides that maybe they’re going over here and they need some spotlight attention over here. Who would that be? And why?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Some artists that deserve more attention?

[Darran]
Yeah.

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Well, that’s kind of what I tried to do with my label. I tried to showcase artists that I love and respect and that I feel have good music that should be shared with the world. So that’s all of them.

Yeah. There’s a good few coming out this later this year. So I’m really excited about that.

It’s, it’s a Greek guy called Native P. Native P. He’s, he’s a very nice producer, and I don’t feel he got the attention he deserves yet.

Maybe this year he will explode. I’m going to do my best to help him. And yeah, I’m trying to think if I’m working with kind of no names, but I think most of my collaborators are, are kind of established.

It’s the two guys I made Euroba with, Mikimoto and Mario D’Aragno. They are not that known, and we are making a second track together now. They’re really skilled, both of them, I have to say.

[Darran]
Yeah, nice. You know, and when you’re not doing all this music stuff, not out of the house, 10 months a year and home two months, and producing tracks, what do you like to do in your downtime, your free time? What is it like to chill out and I’m not doing any music stuff?

Or do you ever get any downtime?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
My schedule is a little too busy. I want to free up my schedule. That is what I want to do.

I love nature. I quite recently went to Norway for a week to a cabin by myself and did nothing for a week. No nets, just me, no one else.

I was a little bit scared, to be honest, just be with me, had to get to know this guy for a change. And it turned out to be wonderful. I felt like I could do that a whole month without getting tired from it.

So I think that’s one thing I want to try to do more. My downtime, I still like to learn things. So I try to learn something every day.

If it’s only 15 minutes, it’s sort of a rule I have. And it can be anything. It can be about politics or neuroscience or psychology, of course, which I have a professional interest in and health.

I guess my latest passion has been Buddhism. I’m not religious, but I find a lot of inspiring things in Buddhism because it seems to be quite focused on how to be a human more than just how to be a human related to God. It’s been around for a while and a lot of smart people said smart things there.

I think you can find wisdom everywhere, but you just have to be a little selective at times.

[Darran]
Definitely. Well, you know, is there anything else you want to let our DJ sessions fans know about before we let you go?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
Like new projects I’m working on or something? Yeah, yeah, whatever, whatever. If we missed anything.

Well, you were talking about producers, learning and stuff. I’m going to be part of a new online music school. That’s going to be fun.

I’m making a sample pack now. So he said, if you want to sound like Djuma, no, you actually can. You can get my kicks and my snares and all of that stuff.

If you’re not familiar with Iseki, you can go into Instagram, Iseki Global, it’s called there and we try to update the events we’re having. We’re also trying to be more than just a label. We’re trying to grow a community.

And our idea with the parties is not just to throw parties, but to try to throw parties in a little bit different way. So we want to bring people together and unite people. And we’re looking at different ways we can do that to make the clubbing experience a little different.

So you get to actually meet some new people and feel good about yourself. It’s actually a quite intimidating situation to come to a club. Most people feel a little bit insecure when they get in the door and there’s a rough bouncer and it’s not that welcome.

You feel that you have to behave in a special way or impress people. And we’re trying to see how we can break down some of those things.

[Darran]
Yeah, definitely. Well, awesome. Good luck in all the ventures out there.

Where’s the best place we can go to find out all the information about what’s going on with Djuma Soundsystem and Iseki?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
I’m making a homepage now. But until it’s up and running, you can do my Instagram, I guess. And like I said earlier, I’m not very active on it.

But I’m going to try to be a little better in the future. And yeah, you can get some information about my tour in two weeks. I’m going to India and then I’m gonna go to Asia, Australia, North and South America.

And it’s gonna be a world tour. I’m going to post the dates and stuff there. And hopefully you come and check my deep tribal Afro music at some point.

[Darran]
Absolutely. And you can catch that in the same type of you play the same kind of music in your show that the Ibiza radio show, correct?

[Djuma Soundsystem]
I’m a bit more clubby in a club. Yeah. It’s more more listening.

The radio show. But yeah, two sides of the same coin, I hope.

[Darran]
Well, check them out Djuma Soundsystem on Instagram. Make sure you put that D in there, but it’s silent with Djuma Soundsystem. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

It was a pleasure. We’ll be following back up with you want to hear more about that tour and how it is. Maybe catch you when you’re out on the road or flying jet setting around the world for that tour.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I know some.

I don’t want to ask you if you are coming or not to give away any hints this tour dates. I know you say you have a tour in North America. But you know, when that gets announced, let us know if you come to Seattle, we’d love to love to meet up.

That’d be great. All right, we’re gonna get going here. On that note, don’t forget to go to our website, the DJ sessions.com.

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I’m your host Darran. That’s Mikkas aka Djuma Soundsystem coming in from Copenhagen for the DJ sessions. And remember on the DJ sessions, the music never stops.