Groove, Latin Energy, and Global Vision with Leandro Da Silva on the Virtual Sessions 9/16/25

Summary

Leandro Da Silva shares his journey as a globally recognized DJ and producer, blending his Brazilian roots with his Italian upbringing to create a distinct sound full of groove, energy, and Latin flavor. From his base in Rome, Leandro dives into recent releases like Magdalena and Saquarema, the latter inspired by his childhood memories and cultural heritage. His eclectic background continues to shape his evolving artistry, infusing authenticity into both his productions and performances.

 

The conversation contrasts major industry gatherings such as ADE and Sonar, with Leandro praising Barcelona’s unique party culture for fostering organic experiences. He discusses his collaborations with MN2S and the growth of Black Lizard Records, which celebrates its 10-year anniversary as a platform dedicated to nurturing new talent. For Leandro, success is measured less by rankings and accolades, and more by consistency, connection, and passion.

 

Health and balance are recurring themes, as he describes how fitness, sports, and family life help him stay grounded while managing the demands of touring and studio work. Looking ahead, Leandro shares his excitement for his first U.S. tour, with shows in Miami, New York, and Phoenix, marking another milestone in his expanding global reach.

 

Leandro’s reflections reveal a grounded artist with a relentless drive for growth and a deep appreciation for community. His story offers inspiration for emerging producers, showing that persistence, authenticity, and adaptability remain at the heart of long-term success in the electronic music industry.

 

Topics

0:30 – New releases Magdalena and Saquarema and their inspirations
2:40 – Growing up between Brazil and Italy and its cultural impact
4:50 – Comparing ADE and Sonar and their unique atmospheres
7:20 – Collaborations with MN2S and the importance of partnerships
10:15 – Defining his sound as groove, Latin, and energy-driven
15:25 – Staying healthy and fit while balancing long studio hours
17:43 – Views on personal success versus industry recognition
30:27 – Celebrating 10 years of Black Lizard Records and supporting new talent
36:41 – Preparing for his first U.S. tour and global expansion
46:02 – Thoughts on cell phones in clubs and preserving live experiences

Connect with Leandro Da Silva

• Website: leandrodasilva.com
• Instagram: @leandrodasilva
• TikTok: @leandrodasilvadj
• SoundCloud: Leandro Da Silva
• Weekly Radio Show: Insomniac 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 we’re sitting, I’m sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington and coming in all the way from Rome, Italy, we have none other than a long-time guest coming on the show with an exclusive mix in the archives, Leandro da Silva. How are you doing today?

[Leandro Da Silva]
Oh good, thank you for having me.

[Darran]
Awesome, yeah, long time since I’ve had you on the show, super excited to have you back on now and you’ve been very busy. I see you’re in your studio, your home studio right now, looks amazing. Maybe we’ll get a little tour of that later, but you know you have some stuff to do, you’re a busy person and doing all the work that it takes to be a DJ, producer and label owner, I might add.

Just put a couple more hats on your head right there. You have some releases coming out here soon, let’s dive right into it. Tell us about the releases, what have you been working on here recently?

[Leandro Da Silva]
Yeah, I just released one song on 146 Records under Virgin USA, Magalena, that is going pretty well. I’m really excited for this track and I have my new release coming out in two weeks. It’s an important track for me because I put a lot of my roots in this track.

It’s called Saquarema and it’s going to be released on Universal UMG Latino. And yes, Saquarema was the city where my family comes from, my mother’s family comes from. It’s a city 100 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro, well known for being the capital of surf.

So it’s very nice. I wanted to put this energy, this vibe into a song.

[Darran]
You know, I’ve been wanting to go to Rio de Janeiro for a very long time, very beautiful, big city. Of course, get down there for his festival, correct? Yeah.

The big, big, big event that happens down there. I’m sure there’s other more fantastic stuff to see in Rio de Janeiro rather than just the carnival. But, you know, very beautiful culture, very rich culture down there.

What made you move from Brazil to Italy?

[Leandro Da Silva]
Yeah, I was a child. So to be honest, my mom and my family moved from Brazil to Italy. So I grew up in Italy and she was an actress and she started doing a show in Italy and she loved Italy.

She decided that she wanted her kids to grow up here. So that’s the reason and I feel half and half. I was born there.

My family is Brazilian, so 100% in my heart, I feel Brazilian. But my culture is Italian because I did all my studies here, all my music, all my music instruction. I developed my taste and my music taste here in Italy.

So for that, I feel I’m half Italian, half Brazilian.

[Darran]
Now, are you Northern Italian, Southern Italian?

[Leandro Da Silva]
Rome, center. Rome, Rome. Italy, just in the middle.

[Darran]
You’re in Italy. I’m sorry.

[Leandro Da Silva]
Yeah.

[Darran]
No, my family is Sicilian. So, you know, it’s really, really good.

[Leandro Da Silva]
I love Sicily.

[Darran]
Yeah. You know, I’m excited to be coming over to Europe a lot more, planning on that for 2022. And I’m 2022.

Sorry. I’m thinking. I was like, I don’t know how that slipped in there.

For 2026, four years in the wrong direction, but, you know, planning to be on the ground a lot more. And we were talking about the, about that pre-show, you know, you mentioned that, you know, sonar is one of the biggest events we’re looking to go to, in addition to ADE and IMS and Ibiza. And, you know, can you tell me why, ADE, a lot of people know about it.

I feel this sonar, it probably is more known around the world. I didn’t hear about it until a few years back, but what makes sonar such a different event than say something like ADE?

[Leandro Da Silva]
I mean, I think sonar, it’s something more connected with parties. I, for example, I really love off sonar. So everything that is happening in the, in the city, that is Barcelona.

So, but it’s not official. So the parties that they are doing in the bars, in other venues, I was telling you, I, when I played at off sonar, I was playing in a vegetable shop and it was so funny because everybody was in the street enjoying, and the guy was, I don’t know, selling some zucchini or eggplants. And, you know, I love this kind of stuff.

And of course, sonar, it’s a very big event, but I think for me, it’s very funny to stay in the streets of Barcelona when there is this event. And ADE is different because ADE, I think it’s something like, it’s more like a conference for the business. So, I mean, for me today, nowadays, it’s the biggest conference that we have in our scene.

It’s, you can do a lot of meetings, meet other DJs, other managers, booking managers. So it’s very nice because you can create very good relations during ADE.

[Darran]
Absolutely. You know, I’ve had a phenomenal time each time I went in 2022 and 2023. That may have been where the 2022 came from.

But, you know, being in, even being in Berlin last year for Rave the Planet, working with Riverside Studios over there, it was just a phenomenal experience. Definitely made me feel like Berlin was one of the cities I would want to move to, or at least be centralized with. We’re setting up some things over there to kind of make Berlin our home and then branch out from there to the other cities.

But now we’re working with some awesome companies that you work with. You know, got to give a shout out to the MN2S crew out of the UK. I’m super excited to be working with Meg and then talking with Tessa over there and some of the artists we’ve had.

And it was like when they said, oh, you got Leandro coming on. He’s been one of our guys for a long time. I’m like, awesome.

[Leandro Da Silva]
The guys are great. The guys are great.

[Darran]
Shout out to them. I’d love to make it over to London as well and make it down to Rome as well, you know, in Italy. And like I said, spend a lot of time over on the ground and then work our way through the US and over to the east as well.

[Leandro Da Silva]
We’ll wait for you in Rome and we go to eat some carbonara.

[Darran]
Okay. Okay. Okay.

Now I got to put Rome on the map because I’m a huge foodie. I love food. And if you could take me out to some real Italian, authentic stuff.

[Leandro Da Silva]
I think there’s no competition, at least with food, between Italy, Germany, England.

[Darran]
I don’t think Germany is going to have the food I want. Because food in Italy is number one. Yeah.

I can definitely see that. And being over there, I’m planning to be on the ground in Berlin, but then go out to the other cities and do the festivals for like three days, cover them and all that fun stuff, but definitely branch out. So I’m definitely looking forward to that.

But I can talk about all the stuff I’m doing. I don’t want to talk about me. We’re here to talk about you and what you’re up to.

Let’s get back to those releases or music that you produce. If you could describe your music in three words, how would you describe it?

[Leandro Da Silva]
I would say groove, Latin and energy.

[Darran]
Groove, Latin and energy. All right. Awesome.

And where do you like to keep your BPM around? Like what do you expect?

[Leandro Da Silva]
In the past, my BPM was around 126, 137, 128. Now, my last tracks, for example, the last one, Magdalena, was 133. So we are speeding up.

But I’m trying to create something a little bit different and maybe more personal. I’m trying to put my roots, so the Latin energy, Latin vocals, Latin percussions, Latin groove into something more modern. So I’m using a bass house bass.

I’m trying to combine different germs, trying to build something unique. So let’s see if it works or not. But I like to experiment sometimes.

[Darran]
You know, I always love it when a guest on my show does not know the next question I’m going to ask, but they basically set themselves up for the next question I’m about to ask, because I don’t send any of my questions out. You don’t know what I’m going to say next, which is awesome. But I was just going to ask you, do you sometimes make music completely out of your own genre that never gets released?

[Leandro Da Silva]
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think all the producers do that. We sometimes I love Afro House and OK, I want to produce some Afro House track.

Then I go to a techno show. Oh, I want to do some techno track. Then I go to a drum and bass.

But of course, then you have you have a brand that you you need to know to be also consistent with your own style. So, of course, I’m not releasing techno music. I’m not releasing the drum and bass music.

But of course, I would like to produce everything. And this is the main problem of of the producers, because for that, it’s very important to have a good manager, to have someone that give you the right advices to say, OK, but this is not right for you right now. Maybe you should release this kind of music.

Otherwise, producers could produce everything. I mean, at least people that really love to stay in the studio to produce music. But this is also the right way to learn how to produce.

I mean, it’s not just to stay close in your specific type of music, but also try to do other other genres, also to listen to it. I love to listen to rock. I love to listen to classic music, everything.

I’m not good with music.

[Darran]
I grew up working on a hip hop television show in the 90s. So I was listening to a lot of rap, hip hop back then and then transferred into electronic music. And, you know, I still I have an appreciation for hip hop, rap music and that.

But a lot of my library is more electronic music now, you know. And have you ever thought of creating another alias or branching out just to have side projects that you could launch on that would be under a different alias? Like I have another.

LDS.

[Leandro Da Silva]
I guess that would not be a good one to use. Yeah, I to be honest, I started with an alias that was Liu Aguiar and I used to produce like melodic techno music. I released the let’s say Solomon labels.

But then I when I when I start to produce house music, I decide to use my my real name. And this some DJs has this behavior like a little bit snob. How I say that now I know I just like to play minimal tech, deep house music.

And I think that that’s the something completely wrong for an artist, because an artist must have must have an open mind. You can think just to one unique genre.

[Darran]
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I just I know artists that have had 68, not 60, sorry, 60 labels, but not 60 aliases, but a multitude of aliases over the years just because, you know, they wanted to protect their original brand or their name that they were known for. And I was doing an interview with somebody recently in the last few months, and they said they used to release back in the day, they’d release on white labels or release out there under a different alias because they didn’t want to know people to come bother them for to make tracks.

So they released in a name people like I can’t find who did this, but it was really them and their alias. You know, this is this is back in Wax days, back in records days, you know, back when there wasn’t really the internet out there to go and find. Yeah.

[Leandro Da Silva]
And of course, this is right. But this is marketing. It’s not anything related to creativity.

No, exactly. I’m not I’m not saying that it’s wrong. It’s right.

Of course, you can. I mean, if someone follow you because you produce you produce groove house tracks, you can’t release like hip hop songs because your fans are gonna be confused. But but that doesn’t mean that you don’t like to do it.

You cannot listen to this music without saying this is not good.

[Darran]
Totally. You know, producing dance music or music behind a computer in the studio spends takes hours behind the computer, sometimes doing this, you know, and making sure your beats your tracks are going out and they’re exactly how you want them. Making that saying that that means you’re sitting in a chair a lot of the time.

How do you stay fit? How do you stay make sure you don’t put on that extra 25 pounds like I put on getting back into the chair after my hiatus after a few months by being stuck to this chair from seven in the morning to five in the afternoon, five at night, five days a week.

[Leandro Da Silva]
Sometimes Yeah, yeah.

[Darran]
How do you stay fit? What are some practices that Leonardo, you know, uses to kind of stay healthy in this game? Because health is important.

[Leandro Da Silva]
Yeah, absolutely. First of all, I have a very comfortable seat. And then I practice, I practice a sport.

No, I play football, I play tennis, I go to the gym. So I try to, you know, if I stay more than five, four hours sitting in front of the computer, then I need the break. It’s very important to balance your time, you know, not say like 10 hours, because that’s not good also for creativity.

So my homework, it’s try to, to balance the time, you know, I know sometimes you you feel excited about a project about a song that you could stay for hours, but I say no, okay, now I need to stop. I go to the gym, I go to do my stuff, then I come back. And I sit again in front of the desk.

[Darran]
You know, yeah, it’s definitely like I said, I’m thinking about getting a standing desk myself. So I’m at least on my side, I like to move around. And especially for me, even sitting here and talking, I’m a person likes to move around and talk.

They may call that an Italian thing. I won’t be stereotypical. I like to use my hands when I talk and move around.

[Leandro Da Silva]
Maybe you have some grandfather or Italian grandmother. Oh, no, I’m 25% Sicilian. Ah, yeah, you told me that.

Yes. Oh, that’s normal. That’s your genetic.

[Darran]
Yeah, it might be that. Come on, we talk. You know, all of this of building yourself as a career as an artist and look at the market.

How would you define success nowadays as a DJ, producer in the industry? Would that be a Beatport top 10 hit, sold out tour? What are your thoughts on this in the way that the digital world has transformed the industry over the last, I mean, I’d say 20 years, but even the last 10 with the rise of social media?

[Leandro Da Silva]
Yeah, I think the digital world completely changed the electronic music, and at least how people consume music. Everything gets faster. People don’t have attention.

They are not patient also, but also in the promotion side, you release a song. If this song in the first two weeks didn’t receive the right exposure from the portals, you don’t have like already a million of streams for the label, for the managers. OK, let’s go to the new one.

They don’t have time. They don’t want to spend time to let the music grow, you know. And how to measure the success?

I don’t know. I mean, I can divide that into answers. There is the personal success.

For me, personal success is do what I love. And it means what I love, like the music I love and already do this job as full time job. For me, it’s a win.

You know, it’s not something easy. And I am very, very thankful and happy for the lifestyle that I have, because I live doing my music, doing my shows, and that’s already great for me. Of course, there is the global success.

That means being number one on Beatport, receive millions of streams on Spotify, so be on editorial playlists on Spotify, do sold out shows. I think nowadays there’s not one thing that change your life, change your career. It’s like a mosaic.

So you need to have any piece in the right place. So you have to have the shows, the successful tracks, the right collaboration, the right labels, the right manager, the right booking manager. So if you put everything together, there’s a good career.

[Darran]
Like MN2S, right?

[Leandro Da Silva]
Like MN2S, of course, it’s part of the success.

[Darran]
Yeah, I know. Just give a shameless plug there. You know, you’ve been listed in, I’m not sure this is from your bio, but you’ve been listed in DJ Mag’s top DJs at least three times.

Would you consider that a very high accolade, like an honor to be notably mentioned in such a prominent publication? Is that still something that artists strive for now? I mean, I remember back before, and DJ Mag was always really awesome in print.

And now that it’s gone online, it’s obviously reached probably hundreds of thousands of more, maybe if not millions of people. So what has that been like being listed up to three times? Is it kind of like, oh, this is awesome.

I made it again. Or is it like, oh, I want to get out, I want to be in the top 10. I mean, is there a mechanism or any grinding force that you have to be higher on that list?

Or is it just an honor being on the list in itself?

[Leandro Da Silva]
Do you want a diplomatic answer?

[Darran]
I don’t want to get you in trouble. That’s one of the things I promised I won’t do with people on the show, is get them in trouble or political, into politics. But you know.

[Leandro Da Silva]
Of course, when I made the campaigns for DJ Mag, it was something that I really wanted to achieve. It was not because I wanted to be in the list, because for me, music art is not a competition. But of course, it’s important for the marketing, especially in the Asian market.

It’s very important to be on top 100 DJ Mag because Asian clubs used to book DJs only if they are in the top 100 DJ Mags. Something is changing right now. DJ Mag top 100 in the years has been something very great, very big.

I think nowadays they are not the mirror of what’s happening in the scene. When you decide who are the top 100 DJs, it’s only based by votes, something related to the marketing. And this vote is not published.

I mean, they don’t say, okay, Martin Garrix received two million votes. No, everything is hidden. So I think there are so many interests in DJ Mag.

And we are talking about money, a lot of money, a lot of money that people invest in marketing to be on the list. And yeah, of course, I won’t say it’s not important, but I think the scene, we are in 2025, we have a lot of data. And I think a top 100 based on real data, on streamings, on tickets, on sales would be much more interesting than a top 100 based on votes and just on marketing and who spend more money to be on the list.

That’s my personal opinion.

[Darran]
No, it’s funny you bring that up. And the reason I bring that up too is because we recently just launched on our site, a DJ ranking list of what we’ve compiled over data, shows, touring, revenue, tons of information that we’ve put in there. And it’s not a pay to play list.

It’s based on data that we can find out there online and work with other affiliate companies to gather that. And we compiled that for 2025 based off 2024 numbers, because you can’t know who’s top in 2025. It’s not over yet.

So we would update that once a year to be current. And we have about 20,000 names listed in that directory, which is really awesome. We’re looking to expand it and go further down the line as it grows and be up to date.

And we also track what the top current trends are in music and what the top 100 are producing and using, not the top 20,000 yet. That’s just a huge database. And that has to be literally almost manually inputted to do that.

So we’re really excited about that. But yeah, I mean, I wonder how our list compares. I haven’t compared it yet to the DJ Mag Top 100 to see what’s out there, taking into consideration all that data.

But congratulations on that. It’s still a feat in itself. But if our list is 20,000, and those are being recognized DJs, and there’s now, I think it’s 1 million, 1.5 million actual DJs. I don’t think that’s including corporate. I mean, they could be doing corporate gigs and events and weddings and birthdays and bar mitzvahs. But I think this is more in the entertainment realm, is how our measurement system is calculating that, doing concerts and shows of that nature.

So really, really awesome stuff. And to get up there, you mentioned this earlier about how it is, there’s the show side of things, but then there’s the back end and the marketing side of things. And one of the measures you do use is, or one of the, sorry, measurements, one of the avenues that you use is working with a company like MN2S.

And Chris, and the label services over there. In addition to working with companies like MN2S, what measures do you take to actively promote yourself, your releases, your career? And how important is it to have a solid PR company helping you out or doing your own PR for an artist nowadays?

[Leandro Da Silva]
I think everything starts from the music, of course. Music is the raw material that we work with. Of course, after that, you need a solid PR campaign, you need a solid promotional agency, because you can do good music.

But if this music don’t arrive to know people, you keep your music on your laptop. So it’s very important to be surrounded by professionals that know how to do their work. Nowadays, it’s very important, the social network, because it’s a free tool that you have to promote your music.

So Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, I think everything counts. And when I release a new song, I do campaigns in every social media. I use PR companies, promotional companies to bring the attention of my music to other DJs, to the playlist curators on Spotify, to the playlist curators on Apple Music.

Yeah, it’s everything. It’s so divided now, because before, it was just important to be on Beatport. Nowadays, everything counts.

[Darran]
Yeah, and it can be a full-time man, it can almost be two people’s full-time job managing all of that. A lot of the behind the scenes stuff that people don’t see going on, they say, well, how come that person’s successful and this person’s not? I used to give an analogy back in the day of in my home city of Seattle, that out of there’s a million people here, just using as a baseline figure, that 100,000 of them would have the idea of wanting to do a television show.

This is before YouTube, of course, before digital distribution. And those people, as 100,000, if 10,000 of those people or 10% of those people actually went and read a book or took a class or bought a video camera and wanted to start educating themselves, money was that next barrier that jumped them up. You could get some freebies in there and stuff, but out of those 10,000 people, maybe 1,000 of them would actually go study and go get some classes and learn how to film and understand how to produce.

And then out of those 1,000, there might be 100. And out of those 100, there might be 10. And out of those 10, there might be one.

And you look at the one at the top and say, how did you do all this? And it’s like, well, I did all the other stuff. We were just…

Unfortunately, a lot of this entertainment game is money backs it up. And if you’re putting out product that it’s not a revenue generating product or the audience isn’t resonating with it, you’re going to be… It’s like, how are you going to sell something if nobody is liking it and you’re focusing just your own world?

You have to figure that out and make it digestible for the rest of the world in order to get that and then make the money and then maybe go do your side projects and do your other things once you have the revenue coming in. But because the barrier of entry to DJing and to music production is now nil. And now with AI coming into play, I’ve been seeing some things come through and just conversations I have, I don’t know if my phone is listening to me or what, but Meta is just throwing me ads or like AI content generation.

I’m like, whoa, this is okay. I never would want to be a producer. I never want to be a DJ.

I like the organic approach. If somebody were to make a jingle for my series, I want to know they created it. Not somebody said, oh, I went to AI and I made this for you.

Here you go. It’s cool. But I can’t say that I don’t use AI for some of my back-end help either.

But it’s mainly content that I’ve created. I don’t have it generating content for me. That’s the difference there.

So it’d be very interesting to see how that all plays out. Now your record label, Black Lizard Records, how long have you had that label going for? Since the beginning or when did that come about?

[Leandro Da Silva]
It’s the beginning. It’s 10 years now. We celebrate the 10 years of Black Lizard with a big party in Ibiza this summer.

It has been a very important year for us, not only because it’s 10 years, but we changed a lot of stuff. We changed the logo. That’s the new logo.

We’ve been nominated as best hype label of the year at Beatport Awards. We have great names releasing on the label. So yeah, we are very happy with the results.

We are very happy with the music we are releasing. We have an amazing team behind. So we want to deliver always the best results, of course for ourselves, but also for the producers.

I opened this label because in the past, when I was sending my music to the record labels, I felt like the track died on the day of the release day. Nothing happens. And we try to do a good promotion to the labels.

We try to give a chance to all the producers that release on our label. And of course, everyone has his own history. Every track has its own history.

And not every track is successful, but at least we try to give a chance.

[Darran]
Mm-hmm. What’s the most important thing nowadays that record labels should be doing for the artists they represent? And are labels doing a good job with that?

What’s the number one thing that Black Lizard really, that you pride yourself, that you focus on, that maybe other labels do or don’t do, and maybe would be a key component that people should be doing more as a record label owner?

[Leandro Da Silva]
I think it’s everything connected with connections and promotion. Because nowadays you can release, you can auto-release your music. You go to any distribution platform and you can self-release your music.

So why do you need a label? So you need a label just because the label has a good connection. The label has a good promotion.

Maybe the label has a party, like we have. Black Lizard has his own party. So these are all good shots for a DJ, for a DJ producer.

Because whenever it is in a label, if the label calls me, oh, come to play, for example, I’m going to release, I’m going to play with Niki Romero at Plot Protocol recording Spartan Junior AD because I released with them. So that’s a value for me. So this is why I am, not only because of that, but it’s one of the reasons why I love to give my music to Plot Protocol.

So I think nowadays it’s very important for a record label to promote well the music. Otherwise, you can release your music by yourself. You don’t need a record label and give your percentage to and give your master to another company.

[Darran]
Yeah, and that was one of the things I back when I was working for Apple back in 2005. Well, even before that, 2000, somewhere around there. One of my longtime friends and one of the people I started working in this business with in the early 2000s was releasing his music straight out his own label, his own company to CD Baby and CD Baby would put it out to iTunes for him and all the other sites out there.

And I think that CD Baby still exists. Maybe it’s another name now, but basically self-distributing at a time when digital distribution wasn’t really a huge, huge thing until companies like iTunes came out. You can put your songs in there and sell them and be found in the iTunes search.

Like, here you go. Cool. And now, obviously Beatport controlling a lot of that and obviously distribution and having your stuff up in Spotify or Bandcamp is huge as well.

Again, that barrier to entry though, how do you sort through all the music if everyone can just throw up what they want? That’s why I was toying over here once of opening a label at the DJ sessions and I’m like, who’s going to listen to all this music that I take in for submissions? And how do we market?

How do we put it out there? Who do we partner with? I’m going to shamelessly drop that I’m glad that I got in contact with MN2S because they have a label services division, as you’re familiar with.

And maybe it’s, okay, I want to do this seriously. I’m going to work with a company and they’ll handle all that and they’ll help me out with that. Of course, there’s cost money because you’re hiring professionals to do this.

Otherwise, you’re going to have to do it all on your own and work through the forest or the vastness or the abyss one could call it now of the music industry of online music distribution. So congratulations for sticking through that 10 years in the game, throwing events, awesome stuff. I definitely look forward to seeing some stuff come out from there.

Maybe even we’ll see some of it in the DJ sessions music section.

[Leandro Da Silva]
Absolutely.

[Darran]
Why not? Of course. I got you on camera.

That’s a contract. So outside of producing music, distributing music, all that fun stuff, you’re going to be doing some tours. You’re touring here soon and you’re coming to the US.

Tell us about that tour and did you already have a UK or European or other component that’s in collaboration with? Or was it, nope, I’m going to the US and here I go.

[Leandro Da Silva]
Oh, well, my management is from the United States. So it’s a new deal. So we are starting tour from the United States.

Also my booking agency is from the United States. So we’re starting from there. I’m really excited because it’s going to be my first time touring in the United States.

I already played in Miami during Miami Music Week, of course, but I never did a tour. So it’s going to be my first time. I’m going to play on October 3rd in Miami at Strawberry Moon Pool.

It’s very nice. Then I’m going to play in New York. At Ph.D., it’s a rooftop from Powell Group. Then I have New Jersey, then I have Cincinnati, then I have Vegas. So, yeah, then I have Phoenix. I’m pretty excited because, you know, I’m a huge fan of movies.

So see all the cities that I only seen the movies before. It’s pretty exciting for me.

[Darran]
That is exactly what I mean. A side bonus of being able to travel to the EU next year and even starting with going to Mexico this year. I was supposed to be in New York this week, this weekend for a big event.

But, you know, traveling, yeah, you’re right. Seeing all these places, that’s a funny thing you bring up. And that we’re like two of a kind.

You love food and you love traveling and seeing the places that you only see in movies and you don’t realize how big or spectacular or amazing they are. I was really impressed with obviously Amsterdam and then Berlin. And then, you know, just seeing things that you’re like, well, I’ve only seen this on a TV screen.

I’ve seen this in Netflix when Jason Bourne is running through the cities. Matt Damon or some big star, Tom Cruise is doing their James Bond or something like that. I’m a huge James Bond fan.

So, you know, but traveling and seeing these cities, you know, one of the questions I ask a lot of guests that come on the show is, do you take time when you’re there to actually get to take in the culture of the cities and experience the foods or the, you know, not necessarily go to the tourist attractions, but, you know, go off the beaten path and, you know, find things to do.

[Leandro Da Silva]
This is what I like most when I travel. I would say I’m a DJ because I want to travel. No, it’s not for that.

I’m joking. But I really love to travel, to know people, to know the culture, the food. And my main goal for the United States is to play at Yellowstone because I’m a fan of Yellowstone.

[Darran]
And you did mention you’re going to be playing in Phoenix. Do you know who you’re working with, or is there a venue, a date announced yet for that? I don’t know the venue.

I’ll let you know. Okay. We’re working with a company down there that we have an affiliation with, Relentless Beats, and they do a lot of shows down there, lots of shows.

They do like over 500 shows a year and they got kind of, they do shows all over the place and work with partner companies as well to put on shows in many different areas. Like we were flying out to New York to go cover John Summit’s Expert Only this weekend. We were going out there to do that, but they do a lot of shows in Phoenix and bring a lot of artists.

And so if you were working with the Relentless Beats team, but they’re a cool team to work with, we’re going to have a lot of collaborations with them in the future. We’d love to see you come to Seattle. We’d love to get you in that mobile studio.

I mean, it would be amazing. That’d be awesome. But we’ll definitely hook up and see.

What city do you, other than Miami that you played in, what city would be your favorite city to visit and come here and play in the United States?

[Leandro Da Silva]
I don’t know very well the United States. I’ve been only to New York, Los Angeles, Vegas, and Miami. So probably the most famous cities.

But if we stay in the topic movies, TV series, as I said, I was Yellowstone. And then the New Mexico, because I’m a big fan of Breaking Bad too.

[Darran]
Hey, I’m not knocking anything for New Mexicanians, okay? I’m not saying anything bad.

[Leandro Da Silva]
What’s the name of the city of Breaking Bad? I don’t remember now.

[Darran]
You know, I don’t know. I know enough about the series to know who plays in it, know the concept. I’ve seen season one.

I just never dived into the whole thing. But I do love it. I know.

I do love the series and the show itself. It’s pretty awesome.

[Leandro Da Silva]
I mean, if we’re not talking about movies, but like the cities that I really want to go in the United States, I will say San Francisco. I would like to know Boston. I’m pretty curious to know Nashville.

All cities connected with music.

[Darran]
You probably would like Austin, Texas too. That’s supposed to be a very, for the past year, for a decade, it’s been a huge booming music industry. People are like, yeah, go to Austin.

It’s a really awesome city as well for music. Do you prefer to play more bigger festivals or more intimate clubs? What would you, do you prefer?

Or do you have a choice or just like, I love both?

[Leandro Da Silva]
It’s a completely different experience. I mean, maybe I like more intimate clubs, because intimate clubs, you have, like, you feel the people, no? You understand what’s the reaction when you play music, you can see the faces, you can, even not very intimate, also clubs for 1000 people.

When you are in a big festival, you see just the mass. You don’t have the connection with anyone in this place, but you have a connection with an entity. So it’s still good, but it’s different.

And, but you don’t have the chance, let’s say, to speak with the people that are dancing in front of you. If you are in a club, you can do that.

[Darran]
I’ve been recently bringing up the topic of cell phone use in clubs and how some clubs are now doing press and saying, hey, there’s no cell phone use. Like there was one that opened up in Ibiza that said no cell phone use on the dance floor. I was in Berlin last year, walked up to the club, very friendly bouncers and everything, awesome little club.

They put stickers on the front and back of my phone. You hear acts, I’m going to be quoting this for a while, because I’ve verified it on the internet, because everything’s true on the internet, right? But, you know, lane eight says, you know, we don’t want anyone using cell phones during our shows.

So they put stickers over the phones. You know, I recently saw a video where there was a DJ DJing, and I demonstrated like this. There was a girl at the front of the DJ booth, kind of in an intimate club setting.

And she was like this texting on her phone. And there was somebody video over her shoulder and the DJ DJ went like this. I went right back to DJing, you know, and it’s kind of like, you know, that culture.

I was speaking with somebody a few weeks ago and they said, kids nowadays at 15 years old, if they start going out and nightclubbing to events, they are used to having this stuck in their hand with them, no matter where they go, what they do in social media, instant gratification, putting that all out there. And even with Apple’s new development, the new iOS software, you’re now able to record front, but also record yourself as well. So you can get your reaction shot of what’s going on at the same time.

So basically increasing more cell phone use in events and things. So people are doing stuff, you know, and people do feel that takes away from the overall aesthetic of people. Because I mean, if I’m on a dance floor, I want to dance and move.

And then I want to see the person playing. I want hands up in front of me. And I see a hands because now that raises it up a foot and a half in front of me.

I’m like, well, what am I doing? And then people are usually standing there because nobody’s going to film. But the question always comes in is who’s going to watch that?

Yeah. Are they going to go back and watch it? Probably not.

Are they going to share it? Okay. But who’s going to be at home saying, okay, I want to watch what you filmed in the club.

[Leandro Da Silva]
Yeah. Yeah. And the funniest thing is when they do live, you know, live, live streaming of a show.

And then you see zero people are watching this live stream.

[Darran]
Yeah. It’s like, it’s like, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s, yeah, it’s, you’re doing this to, to say, look at here, look at me, look at me. Instead of spending the time looking at the artist.

And that’s not the old school person. And the coming back from the dance was when we went to the clubs, the DJs were up in a booth. We didn’t really interact with the DJ.

They were not center stage at most events. Like, like it is now or has been for the last 25 years. I mean, I’m going back to the nineties, but you know, and the theatrics, you know, it’s like the saying in the States, we have the 4th of July and everyone pulls out their phone and wants to record the fireworks.

Who’s ever going to watch your fireworks show that you recorded on your phone? Probably now granted, keep it for your memory, but are you going to go back? Oh my God, let me go watch that whole 25 minute fireworks show on my phone and sit there and go 100%.

Wow. That was so awesome. And that explosion half, I remember that that was so awesome.

Even now I look at it, not to knock anything, because we started a live streaming show featuring DJs streaming live and people for years thought I was crazy going. Who’s going to want to watch a DJ live on the internet. Well, it took a little known thing called the pandemic to get people to start.

Everyone started streaming DJ sets live. And it all of a sudden became a household thing for people to do. And I’m like, yeah, I was knocking on people’s doors for 10 years telling them this is the coolest stuff, you know?

And I always said to, have you ever listened to a radio show? You’re basically doing the same, but unless you were doing the crazy stuff, like, like your exclusive mix, you went out in a very awesome location or what circle is doing. Even boiler room had it set up, you know, there’s their, their iconic setup that they do.

But you know, DJs were experimenting and doing all these different things with the show. But does anyone sit there and watch a DJ set? Wow, for an hour, or are they putting it on and going, that’s a cool backdrop.

I’m over here. The one thing that I think is the saving grace for this is that chat room where the fans can actually interact, the DJ can interact. And you can kind of have that interaction.

You can’t get that in a nightclub. One, it’s too loud to the DJs in their element mixing and doing you can’t have a conversation with them. So you know, what are your thoughts about, you know, online DJ cell phones, and video distribution of DJ sets.

[Leandro Da Silva]
So starting for the phone, that was a lot. I totally agree. I think we lost a little bit of the experience of the club.

No, many young kids don’t have the club culture that that was so important for us. Now, in the club, watch the DJ, the mysterious of the club. It was so great that and probably this is something that has been lost with this generation.

So but in the meantime, many of these DJs that is saying no phones, no phones are famous. Because many of people feel the dam and put everything on social media. So exactly this contrast.

But yeah, but at the end of the day, I’m totally agree with this policy. And regarding the online video sessions, I think they are pretty good. I have a lot of friends that when they are at home in house, they go to YouTube, they put the DJ, and they spend the night, you know, chatting, there’s the DJ in the television, and listen to the music, watching what’s happening, you know, it’s a kind of way to do a part.

Of course, no one will watch a DJ set. I mean, I do that because I need to study, you know, I sometimes I like to study what other people or what other DJs are doing. But I mean, people that not do this job.

So people that are just fans, probably they wouldn’t they won’t watch a DJ set like a movie, but they will keep the DJ set in the background, like you can listen to the radio like, you know, I know many people that do that.

[Darran]
Absolutely. I mean, that’s what that’s what our show is, is meant to be consumed, people can watch it, they can listen to it. It’s a podcast on the back end to go back and download it, have it automatically to their computer.

We just set up syndication for our shows today to major outlets so they can pick up and use our shows in audio format. We’re syndicating with other platforms and things of that nature. So it is huge to get out there.

But I mean, sometimes I go back and watch my shows. I’m like, is that what I look like when I’m doing an interview? And I’ve let the guest talk and my own mom came in the other day.

She says, Darran, you shake your head a lot. The artist is saying the guest, you’d be saying something, Leandro. And I’m like, yeah, like, I agree with that.

She’s like, yeah, your head bounces a lot. I mean, I’ve been toying with ideas of even, you know, doing something where I’m giving you a little bit more prominent display, and I’m over in the corner. Or, you know, even when there’s an answer, I can be like, okay, Leandro’s talking, you know, but I like the side by side format, you know, and if I don’t, if I mess up and you’re talking, I don’t want to get too technical with the show.

I’d rather focus on.

[Leandro Da Silva]
This is a democratic format.

[Darran]
But I mean, is somebody going to really watch that and go, oh, it was really nice when you, when you switch the angle and it really focused on him and you were down in the corner. We didn’t see your head move as much. Then I got to click it back to like, okay, cool.

You know, just a little tips and tricks we can do out there. And, you know, but you’re right. I mean, I think the medium is there.

It’s now an acceptable form. It’s, I think it’s another tool that that’s what I sold my show on in the beginning years was, Hey, you can’t get booked in your local nightclub. Come be on this live streaming DJ show podcast, and that’s going to be online forever.

And you can share that out there to let people know what your persona is going to look like. I had a DJ actually get booked for about 12 to 15 wedding gigs, birthday parties, because he used our show as his calling card. And they said, we like your persona.

We like your energy. We like how you’re bringing it. And we want that at our wedding.

You can’t do that with a sound cloud account. You can’t do that with an audio podcast, you know, in pictures you can always, I look, but you know, if you can get that flavor, people like, I want to book that person because they look like they’re fun, you know? And, and, you know, but it is something you got to upkeep.

You got to keep it going. I mean, having an episode, I recently ran into the issue of, I took an eight and a half month hiatus, and I was putting invites out there to people. And they’re kind of like, you haven’t had an episode for eight and a half months.

And I’m like, yeah, I took a hiatus. I can do that. I’m the executive producer of the show.

I can rebrand, I can reformulate, you know, but I had to get the machine back up and running again. So that’s the thing, if you’re going to get into this constantly post, as you know, as a label owner, you know, you have to constantly be putting something out there to stay in people’s attention or top of mind. And I say that to podcasters all the time, create a schedule, know your topic, create a schedule, stick to that schedule and be consistent, you know, and that’s what’s going to build your following.

We’re getting a little short on time here. I do want to talk to you about some of the ADE parties. You have a coming up a few more questions left here.

So what do you got going on for ADE this year? What’s planned for that? You mentioned that David, is it David?

Nicky Romero. No, Nicky Romero. I don’t know why David Morales, but go ahead.

Nicky Romero.

[Leandro Da Silva]
They just did a collaboration with David Guetta.

[Darran]
Oh, okay. Okay.

[Leandro Da Silva]
Yeah, okay. Yeah, I’m gonna play at the Protocol Records party with Nicky Romero. And then we are organizing our own Black Lizard party.

And it’s going to be something different because in the past years, we did, of course, normal party in a club. And this time we partnered with a local brand of vintage clothes. So we’re going to do our label party inside the vintage clothes shop.

So it’s going to be a kind of showroom party, something strange.

[Darran]
I know this has probably been happening for years, but just recently, understand the idea of doing these kind of eclectic pop-ups at these events in different spots. Come on by, check out. This is what we’re doing.

It’s awesome for co-branding. It gives you a location. You’re not trying to fight for the nightclub from your spots like Nelkwig or other spots like that.

[Leandro Da Silva]
And it’s nice because we’re going to do a demo listening. So we’re going to have our ANRs there. So people can come to listen to the music, to enjoy the party.

And maybe they have our music on the USB and show the ANRs. So it’s going to be something cool.

[Darran]
After all this prep and music, touring, and then going to the convention events, what do you like to do when you’re at home to relax?

[Leandro Da Silva]
I like to play guitar. I like to watch movies, as I told you before. I like to stay with my family, with my dog.

I’m a pretty normal person. I like to watch football, play tennis. This is what I do when I have free time.

[Darran]
Nice. You always got to find that balance of work-life balance. I try to keep my clock at five o’clock.

I’m off the clock. And are you able to do that? I am able to do that.

I mean, granted, I’m working with people like yourself around the world, 24-7. I can only talk with MN2S on London time, and they’re eight hours ahead of me. So I have to wake up at six or seven in the morning if I want to get any communication going back and forth with them.

But I love that. That’s exciting to me that I’m talking with people just like yourself from halfway around the world. And technology allows us to do this.

It definitely has expanded our brand and our audience and gearing up to reach more people. We used to do everything on site. So unless you were coming to the United States and coming to Seattle specifically, we wouldn’t be having this interview right now.

And even if you did, I would only get maybe, like I mentioned pre-show, seven, 10 minutes behind stage. To get an hour with you, I really thank you for being here on the series today. We get to get more in-depth with our guests and really stick with our mission statement of talking with not just artists that are established.

We’re not all just about the big names. The DJ Sessions was founded in working with artists that are just starting out, just making a name for themselves. Excuse me.

I don’t know where that came from. But I remember when I had Sander Van Dorn on my couch back when I was producing broadcast television shows. He came by my studio in 2009 when we were just starting the show.

And he was not that big at that time. Watching those artists and their careers go up and they’re like, I had them here first. This was awesome.

But now being able to collaborate with people from all over the world, it’s amazing as well. How long have you been in the music industry before? You mentioned the label was started 10 years ago.

You started about 10 years ago yourself?

[Leandro Da Silva]
12 years ago.

[Darran]
I’ll ask this question for you. Sometimes I say this for the more seasoned veterans, like the guys that have been in the game for like 30 years. If somebody wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?

[Leandro Da Silva]
Oh, that’s a very tough question, especially to answer like that. I don’t know because it comes just very obvious things in my mind now. But I will say something.

I was really passionate with everything I do and consistent in the good and the bad moments because this job is not only about good moments. You need to stay consistent also when everything gets bad. And this is like a roller coaster because sometimes you can feel, oh, I’m the king of the world because everyone wants you.

Every club wants you to play. The labels accept your music. And maybe six months later, you are not hype anymore and no one accepts your music.

It’s very hard to find a show. And you know, many, many people can be a very difficult moment for an artist. So I think, yeah, I think I’m very good in that.

I’m very good to balance my feelings, to stay connected when it’s a good moment, to not feel like I’m so good and to not say, oh, I don’t want to do this job anymore when it’s everything bad.

[Darran]
You know, I was just talking with the Juma Sound System yesterday about the dopamine effect that one can get and the up and the down. One minute you’re at the DJ booth and you’re in front of thousands of people or hundreds of people and yeah, the party’s going. And the next moment, a couple hours later, you’re at the airport by yourself sitting there on a phone waiting for your next flight.

And just that rise and fall of dopamine up and down and up and down can be hard because it can be almost like an addiction. And you’re right when you’re doing something that’s so big. And then a lot of influencers have experienced this online.

They got everyone talking about them and their influence and their chats are going up in views and then they step away from the internet and they go into a full state of depression or like nobody’s and they’re not hot anymore. They can’t get the likes. They can’t get the trends.

They can’t get back in there like they used to be or something happens and they have to take a break for health reasons or job, career, whatever it is. And they just aren’t getting that attention anymore. That can be a very hard cycle to understand and cope with.

[Leandro Da Silva]
The industry can be very mean because when everything is going good, you feel like everything wants to be your friend and you think people are actually your friends. No, I’m not saying everyone is like that. I have very good friends in the industry, but most of people act like that.

But then when you are not in the top of the mountains anymore, you discover they are not friends. They just wanted to, I won’t say use you because they use you. You use them at the same time because it’s always a mutual convenience.

But yeah, maybe you discover they are not real friends. They just wanted to take your moment also for them.

[Darran]
Yeah, been through a few of those and I know how it goes. That’s kind of the business though. You had something I was doing a show a few weeks ago, very big world-renowned artist duo, and somebody was in the chat room and I’m watching the chat room as I’m doing the show.

And they noticed that I kept looking over and looking over and they’re like, why do you keep looking over? I’m like, because I’m watching the viewers in the chat show and what they’re saying. And one of them had jumped in there and was like, this guy doesn’t know these artists that well.

And one of their other fans jumped in and said, well, not everyone’s a super fan like you are and knows everything about them. And I jumped in and said, yeah, this is my first time interviewing them. And we do our interviews from the way that I interview them, that I don’t know who they are.

I don’t interview them as a super fan that knows every single track that they’ve ever produced over the last 10 years and know the bits and bits and bits and all this. I interviewed them as that our DJ sessions fans audience has never met them before. And that’s how we approach it.

Maybe the second time they come on, I’ll know a little bit more about, you know, but they were cutting me up in the chat and it threw my concentration off because I didn’t know what was going to start happening in that chat room. If I was going to start getting flamed, if it was going to start having, you know, having to bounce people out of it, but they could tell my concentration was off because I was monitoring the chat room at the same time, which we took number 11 in the world on Twitch music when we did it, you know, so maybe that was the attention that we’re getting that. Yay.

Thank you for being there, but I had some people stick up for me and I recuperated from the interview, but it can kind of take you back a little bit, you know, even though momentum, as you were mentioning before, I had a big deal that I’m working on and I was really excited as part of this huge announcement I’m getting to make, and it kind of got put into a holding pattern. And, you know, I look at it as like football or football in the States, but soccer, football, because you have that momentum as a team going and all of a sudden something happens and it’s like, ah, and you got to get yourself back up in the momentum and not let it discourage you. So again, mental health is huge in the industry.

You know, I’ve, I’ve taken up some going over just a little bit today on your time. I really appreciate you letting me do that and talking about everything. You know, biggest thing is, is there anything else you would like to let our DJ sessions fans know about before I let you go?

[Leandro Da Silva]
No, I’m okay. I think we, we touched a lot of topics. So thank you very much for giving me this opportunity.

I really appreciate to be here with you. And I think your show is great.

[Darran]
Thank you.

[Leandro Da Silva]
Because, uh, it’s one of the, uh, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a safe place, a safe place to chat, to, you know, like, uh, uh, like a friend.

[Darran]
I appreciate that. And we try to keep it friendly and fun over here and keep the politics and the drama out of it. Uh, you know, I always tell people pre-show I’m not Barbara Walters or Oprah Winfrey.

I’m not trying to make you cry. We just want to know more about the artists and the fun stuff that’s out there in the industry. And, and you definitely have a lot of fun stuff going on.

Speaking of that, where’s the best place people can go to find out more information about what you do?

[Leandro Da Silva]
So of course, I’m very active on social media. So Instagram, Leandro Da Silva, TikTok, Leandro Da Silva DJ. Uh, and I have my website that is leandrodasilva.com.io. And then here you can find all the update gigs, uh, releases, music, uh, and then on SoundCloud that you can find my radio show every week. Uh, so I have also distributed the, it’s on, on the United States. So, cause I, I, I collaborate with the radio station in the United States. So you can find everything.

[Darran]
What, uh, um, what station, what, how do you distribute in the States?

[Leandro Da Silva]
Insomniac radio.

[Darran]
Insomniac radio. Okay. There you go.

Awesome. That couldn’t, couldn’t be with one of the better ones, bigger ones there. Awesome.

[Leandro Da Silva]
Every, um, Wednesday at, uh, three o’clock in the morning. Awesome.

[Darran]
World time doesn’t matter. Oh no, no, no.

[Leandro Da Silva]
It’s not three o’clock. It’s 11 o’clock.

[Darran]
11 o’clock. 11 o’clock in the morning.

[Leandro Da Silva]
I think, you know, with my jet lag, it’s 11, 11, uh, 11 PM.

[Darran]
11 PM. Awesome. Good time slot on that for the States.

So cool. Well, Leandro, we’re going to definitely be following up with you in the future, staying in touch with you and everything you got going on. Thank you again for coming on the DJ sessions today.

It was a pleasure having you.

[Leandro Da Silva]
It was a pleasure for me. Thank you very much. And, uh, thank you to all the DJ sessions.

[Darran]
Thank you. You’re welcome. On that note, don’t forget to go to our website, the DJ sessions.com find us there. And on all our socials, they’re all there on the site, over 700 news stories a month get published. There’s interviews like this one, live interviews, exclusive mixes, look for our new music section coming soon. And we have a VR nightclub.

A lot of people don’t know that we have a nightclub and VR chats and go in there and watch our shows and a mobile app. That’s going to be updated here soon. But all of that, and more is at the DJ sessions.com.

Go on, buy some gear, help support us at the DJ sessions.com. I’m your host, Darran. That’s Leandro.

You know, I appreciate that because sometimes your names are hard to pronounce sometimes, we’re coming in for the DJ sessions and remember on the DJ sessions, the music never stops.