Saeed Younan on the Virtual Sessions presented by The DJ Sessions 3/28/24

In this insightful Virtual Session, Darran Bruce reconnects with Washington D.C.-based DJ, producer, and label owner Saeed Younan to discuss his remarkable 20-year journey with Younan Music. Founded in 2004 during the early days of digital distribution, the label was born out of necessity when vinyl releases became unfeasible. Over two decades later, it has grown into a respected platform that champions emerging talent while maintaining an artist-first philosophy.

Saeed shares the label’s flexible, non-restrictive approach—signing individual tracks, offering fair royalty splits, and helping artists use Younan Music as a springboard to larger opportunities. With nearly 300 releases, the label has supported names like Carlo Lio, Stacy Pullen, and Wally Lopez, while continually welcoming new producers into its roster.

The conversation also explores Saeed’s creative process, from his signature percussive tech house grooves to his genre-diverse Morph album, which charted in multiple Beatport categories. He reflects on balancing artistic integrity with industry realities, resisting the temptation to follow trends, and finding inspiration in nature and outdoor adventures.

Saeed offers candid advice for aspiring DJs: focus on mixing skills, set-building, and emotional connection with the crowd before chasing social media metrics. He also recounts the recent Younan Music 20th Anniversary party at Miami Music Week—a weather-challenged event that turned into an intimate celebration with a stellar lineup.

Whether headlining festivals or playing underground clubs, Saeed’s definition of success centers on creative freedom, life balance, and fostering the next generation of talent.

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Saeed Younan
Location: Virtual Studios, Seattle WA & Washington, D.C.

Overview:
Darran Bruce speaks with Saeed Younan about two decades of Younan Music, his creative philosophy, industry changes, and the balance between artistry and personal freedom.

Topics Covered:

• Younan Music Origins: Founded in 2004, evolving from a vinyl label to a digital powerhouse
• Artist-First Model: Flexible contracts, fair splits, and fostering career growth
• Roster Highlights: Carlo Lio, Stacy Pullen, Wally Lopez, DJ Wady, and more
• Creative Style: Tribal percussive tech house with groovy basslines
• Morph Album: Showcasing versatility across five Beatport charting genres
• Production Approach: Balancing personal satisfaction with audience appeal
• Advice for New DJs: Prioritize mixing skills and set cohesion over social metrics
• Miami Music Week 20th Anniversary Party: Turning a monsoon into an intimate success
• Festival vs. Club: Contrasting crowd energy and creative freedom
• Inspiration Sources: Nature, hiking, and outdoor resets
• AI & Technology: Supporting innovation without infringing on creativity or copyrights
• Mentorship: Encouraging emerging artists to find their unique voice

Call to Action:
Follow Saeed Younan: saeedyounan.com | Instagram @saeedyounan
Discover more episodes at thedjsessions.com

[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 the East Coast Washington DC we have Saeed Younan. How you doing today Saeed?

[Saeed Younan]
I’m doing great man, how about yourself?

[Darran]
I’m good man, I know we were catching up a little bit before the show. It’s been about a year since we last talked and I know you’ve been a busy guy out there but you know I guess congratulations are in order. I have some notes saying that you just celebrated the 20th anniversary of your label, is that correct?

[Saeed Younan]
Yeah, that is correct. It’s been, we launched in 2004. Actually we launched about the same time when Beatport went live, other labels went live, so it’s like you’re probably gonna see a lot of 20th anniversaries this year.

So yeah, it’s been 20 years and never really thought it was gonna actually be this long as you know I launched the label basically because we, me and my partner had a physical label called Addictive Records and we had a lot of artists signed on that never made it to vinyl because of Napster so my thing is like man I’ve got all these great artists who have music already contracted to be released and we can’t release any more music so what am I gonna do? My last name Younan was already incorporated so I was like let me just add music to that and release music on that digitally so Younan Music, the label was never actually supposed to be a label, it was just like my corporation name and for 20 years it’s been the record label so it was wild how it all came about.

[Darran]
Well you know we’ve talked about over here at the DJ Sessions about starting our own label and you know what that’s gonna look like, what that’s gonna entail, you know who do we want to work with, do we want to keep it in-house, we want to work with outside producers and have them submit stuff to us because you know we got our new website and it’s there’s a whole back-end feature to our website it’s all set up for a label, ready to go, music store, music player, everything I just I’ve been talking about for a while but just haven’t got around to launch it because one of the things is as a label I’m sure you’ve dealt with this, I’m not sure if you just only produce your music or you work with other artists but if I were to go out and say I put five or ten thousand dollars into an artist and they blow up how do I get that money back you know unless I own everything to it but let’s say I don’t get that money back I lose money but then they become really popular they go make a bunch of money and it’s like well okay I guess you win some you lose some I don’t know how do you deal with that situation with your label?

[Saeed Younan]
Yeah we’ve actually completely we’re more of artists friendly label so just to answer your first question no I don’t only release my own music we’ve got right now we have over 200 singles and EPs and over 45 compilations on the label so we’re gonna push about 300 releases if you put it all together we and probably just as many artists because some of the compilations will not only be bundles of music already being released but it’ll be new artists so for example let’s say we make a Miami music week compilation maybe five songs of that compilation will be a rebundle from previous releases that came out singles and couple of exclusive so we probably have just as many artists as we do releases so it’s a lot to manage and the way we approach it is and it’s written in our bio we’re like we’re the label like a lot of big startup artists come to to kind of help them open doors to bigger labels and we don’t mind you know we’re a small label ourselves so we’re here to serve the smaller cats who just want to kind of get a break be able to knock on a bigger on bigger labels door saying hey you know I was on you now music they like my stuff how about some you know something like that we don’t have no exclusivity we have no no time we don’t tie them into anything we just signed the track all we ask is the track that you sign with us does become exclusive to us because we are putting a lot of work behind it but we do a you know a proper split we still do an old-school split like 60-40 which is you know it’s it’s now the standard I believe it’s like 70-30 or something like that so we still do some of them we do 50-50 depending on how big they are so we do a standard split licensing standard everything is standard but they’re a free agent they don’t they don’t have to stay with us they don’t have to do anything with us and and we hope that they go and become a bigger artist with other labels or even come back to our label so we look at it differently we approach it like we approach it as DJs as producers ourself we don’t approach it as corporate heads or be you know big Sony or whatever like that we look at it from an artist perspective and we’re just here to serve the artists so and we get a lot of artists come back like you know we have artists on the label we’ve had Carlo Leo, Stacy Paulin, Wally Lopez, DJ Wadi a lot of these artists they actually come back and release on the label because you know we have a pretty flexible plan and we don’t we don’t tie anybody into anything all we ask is the music that we release let us control that we’ll give you a cut but we’re putting so much work behind it we should you know have a piece of that pie stay with us because you know we pretty much but you know put that track on the map for you and they’re free to license it well we license it for them but it can be on other labels but you know as far as them as an artist and they blow up and they become the next whoever they that’s great for them you know we’re happy about that.

[Darran]
Now you produce correct?

[Saeed Younan]
Yeah yeah.

[Darran]
Okay okay do you make you make music with the intention of making it a popular track where you just make music solely to satisfy yourself and the success is kind of a nice side effect?

[Saeed Younan]
Well the success is always in them in the back of your mind when you’re making a track so that’s something that’s I don’t think any artist can decline that or say no I’m not thinking about success no everybody when you’re sitting in the studio you want to see this you’re almost envisioning that track being played at a club or maybe a festival you’ve been to and knowing how the crowds gonna react or seeing how the reaction of that crowd would be but at the end of the day and I think Rick Rubin said something about this which is really dope it’s like at the end day you’re when you’re in the studio you’re making a track for yourself it’s almost like you’re writing a diary when you write a diary it’s only for you to read that diary not for anybody else to read it so you have to approach the track and I agree with him on that they have to attract approach the track the same way you’re making this track for yourself and the you know the audience hopefully will enjoy what you’re making but I never my intention is never to go in the studio and make something that another DJ is doing oh I saw like whatever’s playing oh it sounded great so I’m gonna do something similar to it I have to like it myself it might have some features of something I like but at the end of the day it’s gonna be me my signature which is the tribal per percussive tech house a lot of you know groovy bass line is what I love but I build that around something that I feel that the audience would appreciate but

[Darran]
it’s all a hundred percent me if you took a list that your productions you’ve done so far which one of those stands out the most to you and why I would

[Saeed Younan]
probably okay so I don’t know if we talked about this or not but a couple of years ago I released an album was called morph album had 11 tracks five out of the five out of the was it yeah five tracks out of the album entered in five different genres on Beatport in the 100 top 100 John which is awesome so in that album I want to show people that I’m not just a one-trick pony I don’t just say it make tech house or house so I made everything I even have a drum and bass track in there so it’s like I want to show everybody I’m a diver I’m a producer not just a guy that sits there it’s gonna make what he plays so for me I think that album is probably one of my favorite because it gets to show how diverse I am not just as a DJ but also as a producer and how I am in the studio I don’t I don’t have an engineer I don’t have a ghostwriter I don’t I do it all myself from A to Z you know sometimes even the mastering I dive into and do it myself I kind of have to with the you know running a label signing other artists but I write my entire music I do everything obviously when I do a collaboration it’s a collaboration as it’s as the name implies but when the majority of my stuff that I do by myself it’s just it’s pretty much me so bless

[Darran]
you thank you thank you so you kind of answered this question just a few moments ago but you sometimes make music completely out of your own genre that

[Saeed Younan]
never gets released yes so I I may I’ll make a lot of music that’s not that doesn’t get it was actually I was talking about this I was doing a mentorship down in Dominican Republic for students who want to become producers and I was explaining to them how I have a drive on my computer called the graveyard drive which is where I drag projects over that never gets done and I just put them there so there’s a lot of music I make that doesn’t seem see the light of day but flipside the beauty of that is when that’s when collaborations come in handy because you can take that graveyard drive that you feel uninspired and send a folder to somebody that can actually see something out of vision out of something that you’re just tired of listening to and 99% of my collaboration come out of that graveyard drive so it’s a win-win I guess awesome

[Darran]
good gotta take a quick break here to give a shout out to John Chen and Sergey Andre Kuhl for watching on Facebook thank you guys for tuning in back to the interview though is there something you would like to say to new and up-and-coming producers to watch out for when it comes to making their careers successful yeah

[Saeed Younan]
let’s see I would say you know like I think we touched on this earlier it’s basically finding kind of your own path doing it your way it’s not a bad thing to admire another DJ or look up to another producer and love their style and you want to mimic it but you gotta flow your own flair into it but put your own twist to it make it your own like if you’re into a certain sound and you know there’s a DJ that you really you know inspired to be like and they have that sound do some do that sound it obviously is something you love I’m not saying that step away from it and try to be unique but give it your own twist give it your own flair and make it something different a lot of pitfalls that I see a lot of new artists come into is they focus too much on their social media on their social present on their followers on their tik-tok on their videos on their reel but they don’t hone in their production I’ll give you a perfect story I’m not gonna name any names I was following somebody on social media and man the videos they were putting out the the music the you know the visuals everything the performance is amazing and I end up well I I don’t know where I was but I I end up finding out that they were performing in this one location I’m like oh man I got to go out and check this person out I go to check them out and it was it was the most horrible experience of my life when it came to music the mixing the storytelling of the music the thing and I realized that a lot of the stuff that you’re seeing on social media is kind of smokes and mirrors you know it’s not exactly what’s happening in the venue the music isn’t gelling together I mean this this person couldn’t mix a fruit salad you know it’s just like it was that kind of bad so so I got tricked because of social media so it was like but and I think coming back to the day to the to your question I think young generation or the newcomers should really focus on their mixing skill their DJing how to build a set how to how to build emotions with the dance floor how to gravitate to people I think that’s all plays an important a prone role more than it does the social media aspect of it yeah you

[Darran]
know that’s one of the biggest things that I’ve seen and when talking with people over the years is how important social media has become and how you are engaged on your social media presence and that will lead I mean you could have a phenomenal DJ and they’re like I hate Twitter I hate Facebook I hate her meta I hate hey oh it and they’ll have a hundred followers then you got some kid over here and they got 20,000 followers they’re blowing up but they might not

[Saeed Younan]
have the talent exactly yeah I know I know I know a lot of DJs that you’re talking about who are old schoolers amazing DJs like men like you will cry just watching how they put build a set together how everything’s just glued and it’s perfectly but they’re like I don’t touch social you know it’s just like I don’t I don’t want to do it but it’s just like it sucks because we live in a time that you actually need that in order for your career not only for your career to move forward but for you to up your fees for you to able to get managers booking agents to look at you to even review what you’re doing it plays a key role but I’m I don’t think it should be your main focus but it

[Darran]
should be a focus if you could go back 25 years in music history or forward 50 years in music future which way would you go and why so like for me personally

[Saeed Younan]
to for my own you know now okay I would I would go backward because I think knowing what I know now I can use that to my advantage to probably have you know maybe even a level I would level up a little bit in where I am right now because all this technology that we’re using now like you mentioned with meta and whatnot like we didn’t know about this five not even five years ago we didn’t think that you know Instagram reels was gonna be the next big thing you know when we’re all just taking pictures now videos the hot thing nobody knew that but if I knew that 50 years ago I would be well prepared for it by

[Darran]
now and you know technology moves very fast in DJ land you have the old schoolers you know you know these cats and they’re like I’m vinyl and vinyl only and then CDJs came out and then the sync button debates and now AI is coming into place if you could think of something that’s not on the market today but in your vision would be really amazing but it comes out like this would be so awesome to have this right now and I would use it all the time when I do

[Saeed Younan]
XYZ what would that be I would say that’s a good question something that I can use now that I wouldn’t I think the way technology how fast it’s moving and what we have now like you mentioned AI it’s kind of crazy and I think using it in the right way and not you know obviously the people using AI to duplicate like certain artists voices and you know redubbing people’s voices and and there’s a lot of copyright issues and whatnot going on if my biggest thing would be dope if we can keep what we’re doing with the AI with the technology but not infringe on other people’s copyright situation so there’s there should be like a medium of where like okay we can use this tool it’s an amazing tool like AI but I don’t have to hurt another artist by using it and and just there’s a there’s a workaround where everybody’s happy and everybody can actually build something from an amazing tool like AI or even something bigger but not hurting somebody’s hard work that they put through to in order for

[Darran]
them to get to where they are yeah I mean that’s always that that’s a huge one because a lot of people ran in they don’t understand how the copyright laws work and even when it not an AI but you know back in 2020 when everyone started jumping online and they didn’t understand why they were getting flagged on their accounts for copyrights like well I bought this song I own this song it’s like no you’re listening to this song for personal use not for commercial use you know and I had a lot of talks with people about that night I’d sit there and copy paste to their blue in the face the right there from copyright law and they’d be like no I own this song it’s mine I can do with what I want and I’m like okay you go do that and watch your account get shut down I think it’s right now twitch is great for live stream and I love it we’re a featured partner with them we were one of the first featured partner DJ shows in 2018 with them but one of the things they came to me was is they put us to the front page of twitch in 2018 now there weren’t DJ shows there were DJ shows but not like the big names weren’t doing it you know maybe somebody here want you off but not like 2020 and moving forward and I had stored I think at that time I had like 300 400 videos on twitch and they were they were getting red flag but well let’s just say we’re getting red flag but we were getting dinged for it but I have about 800 900 videos on our podcast server I said to twitch I said hey can you put us back to the front page of twitch because we went live on the front page of twitch we were like top 10 feeds in the world you got video game video game video game video game DJ sessions and luckily the internet didn’t go out on us or anything but I found out later those spots go probably more now but there are 50 to 100 thousand dollars for two hours like if they’re not featuring you themselves if you want to buy a spot there and so anyways I came back and said hey I’d love to go to the front page again they go Darran here’s the problem you go to that front page again you’re putting yourself out there they’re gonna see that you have like 400 videos with us with red flags but then they’re gonna go to your website they’ll go all the way back to 2009 and get your apps so I had to go back and do a bunch of switching around remove all my past videos off of twitch you know it didn’t take too long but then figured out some stuff with our back in licensing and server all that but people don’t understand yeah copyright infringement is real and people get away with it a lot of these nightclubs out there they’re sometimes not paying their ASCAP or BMI or CSAC fees you know but I heard it’s like only 400 events in the world or something like that we’re not in the world is it the world are you in the US that actually kind of determine the payouts yeah yeah

[Saeed Younan]
yeah like I remember I try to register like when I did ultra and EDC in Vegas and stuff for so I’m with BMI and you know I try to submit my playlist and all that stuff and they’re like yeah we can’t collect from these festival and they’re huge festivals so but they wouldn’t they wouldn’t give me a reason why but there’s then there’s certain festivals which are much much smaller you know you’ll get a report said they paid they paid they paid but then you get these bigger festivals you know unable to pay or whatever I really need to look into it but I believe you’re correct there’s a handful of clubs in the US especially with ASCAP BMI that actually speak for the entire you know like how they allocate the money to everybody so it’s like those those club but yeah man and we dealt with the same thing with the record label reason why we stopped we had a promo service for a while before the pandemic that we’re sending out promos but for some reason the music that we’re promoting would end up on like zippy share and other services before the release is even out and we didn’t know who was doing and we knew who was on our on our promo pool so it wasn’t like bunch of strangers we weren’t just like you know blindly throwing out promos we knew who was on there and they’re all legit people and I know the people were sending them to they don’t have time to put it up for free because they’re like a list as we hand-picked a few guys so for that to happen I was like how the hell is our music in you know on these illegal files sure before it even makes it to be poured exclusive or tracks or so or not so we decided and it wasn’t really I didn’t see a big difference in revenue from using a promo service to the way we’re doing it now so we decided just so you know that let’s just not do once a while I’ll get on an email and I’ll send a couple of guys hey this is the new promo and I’ll do it personally just like five ten fifteen guys or girls whatever and send them the promo but that we were hurting big-time with the whole file sharing when it came to almost you know

[Darran]
speaking of promos and tracks what’s an essential track out right now that no

[Saeed Younan]
one should miss and why oh man let’s see you know I don’t get in trouble I want to pick a new artist on my label GP actually put out a really dope so I don’t know if the audience doesn’t know much about the label we’re very into stuff they’re just like heavy grooves a little bit minimal I would say minimal but it’s like percussive driving some afro is feel to it but it’s tech house but it’s more stripped down so you can use the our music it’s used a lot it’s really used well to layer things with so GP is the new artist on the label he’s a he’s Colombian he lives in New York he’s got a track called body can’t move and it’s totally a groover and I love playing it because it doesn’t do much but it just locks you in a groove and it’s an amazing EP so I can check it out was he down there in Miami with you just recently oh he was a used up north he didn’t make it down well now Miami

[Darran]
Music Week you had a label party there tell us about that how it became such a

[Saeed Younan]
success yeah so the if anybody’s listening they know Miami had a bit of a monsoon kind of a storm over the last weekend that’s why ultra have to shut down for a day and a half I believe so I launched you not music in 2004 is about the same time when beatport launched I believe track source launch yeah for sure track source launch at 2004 so a lot of labels launched their digital label in 2004 so we in 2024 we’re celebrating 20th anniversary so I figured you know why not do something big you know something grand and then have all the people who have supported the label be part of the bill on the on the on the party so we decided to throw a three-level party in Miami so it’s gonna it was gonna be a 17-hour event starting at 12 noon ending at 5 a.m. Saturday morning the first portion of the party was going to be on the rooftop pool at the palace which is on Ocean Drive then after midnight because of a noise ordinance we moved that party to the lounge and then for three hours in the lounge then we move into the next room to the main room on the lineup it was me for a Falcon Harry Romero Doc Martin ghetto blaster David Tort who was Christina crossing and I saw Eddie Lopez Bruno Bruno Puzo a bunch of other people so it’s a huge lineup so the day comes and then we hear about the crazy weather that was gonna come to Miami so we had to really think quickly of what we’re gonna do because the rooftop pool there was no cover it had no the only part that was covered is the bar area but it was a completely open open up pool area and we just like you know what screw it let’s just move the party inside to the lounge and we’ll make the most of it so we move the party inside the lounge I send out a message to all the DJs tell them what the time slot stands we’re just gonna do everything inside instead of the rooftop all the DJs showed up around afternoon is when the rain started coming man and I have actually videos of it on Instagram anybody want to see it was like it looked like in front of the club it looked like there’s a waterfall that’s how bad it is so and so we got all the DJs there everybody showed up to play we still had a badass party an amazing time we had you know every DJ made their time started which was to me was I was blown away that ubers was still pulling up with the DJs while this monsoon is hitting and they’re like run into the club like no man I wouldn’t miss this for the world I mean it meant so much to me that these amazing DJs I’ve you know not only are they my peers or people I looked up to they’re coming here to help me celebrate a label 20th anniversary and they you know went through thick and thin just to get there and the party vibe was dope there’s a lot of people who couldn’t make it to Ultra because it was shut down they end up coming to our party so we picked up that and and at the end of the day man is like what was gonna be like a complete disaster turned out to be the most beautiful thing because it was a small intimate room with some of the best DJs with an amazing fans and we all had an amazing time and it’s really what the label is all about it’s all about a family and into you know an intimacy so it felt like it was the right thing whatever happened happened in our favor either any way you look at it so I was happy about that

[Darran]
I’m the reason why I’m looking away at my second screen I’m trying to go to your Instagram and find that right now so I could check it out yeah it’s a there’s

[Saeed Younan]
a real I think it starts with the rain one of the reels real okay that’s why that’s why there you go reels yeah I’ll be the second real is it start with red

[Darran]
inside for Doc Martin having shakers in his hand do you see that it’s all dark

[Saeed Younan]
and blue it looks awesome though yeah yeah yeah the rain was crazy but I mean

[Darran]
it all showed up everybody played and that was crazy it was like that non-stop like right here I’m gonna screen share hang on this let’s see if I can do this okay we got it in here we’re gonna screen share boom you know it’s Miami you know you’re gonna get that tropical kind of weather down there stuff I was down there in 2009 was like the first event I’d ever traveled to to go there and that’s when the conference and ultra at the same time right it’s still called WMC back then yeah WMC Winter Music Conference and yeah that was a very interesting time to be introduced to some of the nightclubs down there lifestyle and everything but uh you know if you could host an event of your own without any limitations name five things you would have at that event five things

[Saeed Younan]
and they’ve been with no limitation I will have the best sound system obviously and I would have I mean if the space is already named for like I have the venue I have the space yes I’ll be the sound system I have my favorite DJs playing not only people who I my peer but people who I look up to like for me like godfathers you know type of DJs and I would probably have obviously the lighting lighting best visuals on lighting and probably throwing some like I don’t know carnival stuff you know fun rides you know having some fun and I was some good food so that that’s that for me would be the ultimate party what is

[Darran]
your take on silent disco have you done one before I have not I’ve I have yet to

[Saeed Younan]
do one or be a part of one but I’m very very interested to see how that is I’ve seen videos I’ve seen videos on Instagram I just I want to know what it would feel like to be in that environment with the head the headphones and listening I mean you can watch from afar and it’s completely quiet you see everybody kind of jamming but I want to know how it is actually having the music that everybody’s listening to it looks really dope yeah we do silent

[Darran]
disco events out here and I just think I was showing you something we’re gonna be a part of here called rave pickle coming up which is gonna be awesome check it out online folks rave pickle but one of the cool things we did on our rooftop sessions and this is what I love is I would go in we’re a live streaming DJ show and I could get four hours of content like I said that’s about as long as I can take the music for after that I’m like I’ve already been here for two hours set up the show I’m now here for four hours I got an hour and a half to clean up the show so it’s a seven to eight hour day for me like a normal work day but one of the things I loved is with silent disco technology I haven’t seen anyone do this yet but we had three DJ booths streaming live from our rooftop for four at well three three about three hours each we shut down after about three hours but yeah stage one stage two stage three and I’ve never seen anyone combine the technology like that like combined because if you had if you had a rooftop party you’d have to have separate rooms for the music not to cross over everyone when you got silent disco you know you obviously just change the channel and one of the things I love about it is I could be at the event on the red channel I say hey everyone check it out I’m on social media and go check out the red channel right now with my buddy playing on the DJ the person of their friend could be at home or wherever that in the world and they go well wait a second that red channels dope but what’s going on in the green channel and they come back on the green channel they say man the green channels pumping and then they tell their friend at the event hey the green channels pumping switch over there then the friend at the events which is over to the green channel so you have this interactive experience but people online you know could be in the chat room or chatting with themselves and their friends you know telling about what they’re doing right now and how awesome it is that’s

[Saeed Younan]
cool man I yeah I’ve been I haven’t even that’s like a whole nother what you just said is like a whole nother concept I didn’t even think about yet I’m still wrapping my head around the silent disco thing that’s pretty dope though well you

[Darran]
know have you heard of what’s called a sub pack oh yeah the one that you feel

[Saeed Younan]
the subwoofer against your back right is it basically it’s a haptic speaker

[Darran]
when your Xbox controllers your PlayStation controllers those are haptic that’s haptic technology it’s a like a magnet that vibrates basically we figured out a way so you don’t have to put on this big vest there’s a company called woojer and they make a little device it’s about gay big maybe about maybe just a little bit bigger than this hockey puck right around the size of

[Saeed Younan]
this hockey what was that I know you did a heart and then what that was crazy

[Darran]
oh I’ve never seen that before I can’t do it no because I’m the producer I can I’ve never seen that before so basically we take our headsets and you plug them into this woojer and it’s a strap you can wear it around your chest your side your back very easy to put on and our headsets feed into that and as you change the channel the woojer change with you so you can get that bass feeling we find a lot of people getting the puppy dog effect where they’re like take this off and like oh no I can’t feel the music and that’s where it’s funny a lot of the bass head you know when I not necessarily bass head but people that old school I gotta feel the bass I gotta feel the music it’s kind of like this is actually really kind of cool hell yeah I can I can imagine like

[Saeed Younan]
feeling it while you have the headset on I mean it’s that’s like the complete feeling because you really when you have your headset on and you feel you hear the bass you feel a little bit into your ear vibrating it’s not the same as feeling it as you would in a dance floor which is right right in here so I can I can imagine how badass I would feel you know yeah they’re pretty cool as a matter

[Darran]
of fact I misplaced my woojer I don’t remember the damn things that I lost in the move because it’s like 300 bucks yeah it’s not cheap but anyways do you prefer DJ in a large-scale festivals or would you rather DJ at more intimate

[Saeed Younan]
club settings I like I like both depending on the the situation like I’ve always enjoyed playing big festivals festivals that draw a large crowd like you know I was mentioned EDC and ultra earlier the biggest crowd I ever played for was in the Olympic Stadium in Montreal for I think was like 26 27 thousand people yeah it sounds dope but in in in the real fact it just all you see is just heads for days and you can’t see a lot of bodies moving because everybody’s kind of scrunched up together so putting putting that in perspective my real intimacy and where I came from is is a small dingy underground dark club with just maybe a strobe light and a fog machine you know that’s always been my love and I think that’s why I get the most satisfaction when I play stuff I want to play so I remember like that compilations back in day called back to mine you know they used to make which is like you we want to DJ invites people back to their house for half hours what they would play for them so for smaller venues are like that it’s it’s more like a back-to-mind type of thing so let me take you on my personal journey because you’re a small group and let’s go on a ride together for a festival we do that for a festival for several reason a festival you’re only gonna get probably if you’re lucky 90 minutes to play because there’s obviously other people playing it’s such a big room you want to please everybody and you want to keep everybody together you don’t want you don’t want to last thing you want to do in a festival is see the floor kind of empties out that is like that’s like any DJs any festival DJs nightmare because there’s so many people there and if you start seeing the floor spread and you see like two three four feet between each shoulder then you know you’re something’s not going right and it doesn’t look good on you doesn’t look the promoter obviously it’s gonna notice that so you want to keep it keep everybody happy in order way to do that is you got to please everybody so you can’t really take them on a journey it’s 90 minutes it’s it’s almost you got to come in you know wham bam thank you man type of thing do your thing and head out that’s the one thing I don’t like about festivals but when you get that crowd war if you’ve probably been to a soccer game or a football game the dopest thing in a festival I ever felt is when that crowd roars when you like either bring in the kick or bring in the low end or whatever you just like it’s the most amazing feeling I’ve ever felt so that I love the smaller venue I love because of the intimacy and everybody’s there is on the same wavelength is on the same ride is on the same journey and they’re basically just like take us for the ride and we’ll go whatever you’re taking us type of deal and I love that

[Darran]
kind of vibe what do you consider to be your biggest break that launched your DJ

[Saeed Younan]
career for the DJ career would be so I I was in a partnership back in 1998 we used to be called Saeed and Palash we were never actually meant to be a duo but we started releasing music under that name but people automatically assume that we’re we’re part you know DJ duo DJ partner so we went with it because we were getting gigged in Estonia and Istanbul this is in 1998 when things were just like beginning I still had a full-time job working at America online he was a finance guy so we’re like you know night camping as DJs and on the weekend but that that like 1998 when I started putting out a little bit of music on our own label and I think is when kind of launched my DJ career but it’s on a solo on a solo tip my career took off is right after we released a track by Salida called the underground and I have a story about this also online how we kind of got screwed by the record label which I’m not gonna go into now but we released the track which they released as a remix it was actually an original which I did in the studio it became number one on billboard dance which is the only billboard dancing number one on billboard I ever had and that kind of people knew it was called the addictive trip mix and back then people knew addictive was the label that I owned which was addictive record so they put the two and two together and DJ career really launched

[Darran]
off after that for me how would you define success as a DJ slash producers is it a beat more top 10 hit sold out tour what are your thoughts on this for

[Saeed Younan]
me it’s every person has their own view of success for me success is probably different than most DJs for me success is being able to do what I love and do things that aren’t necessarily music that I still love and still have the flexibility and have the freedom to do what I want for I’ll give you an example next weekend I’m going to Vegas to play at the marquee in Las Vegas after a marquee I’m renting a car and I’m driving out west to go do some hiking in Death Valley for a week to have to have for me that’s that’s success I have that flexibility I have that you know I can I don’t have to I’m not a I’m not a rat on a rat wheel trying to chase one gig after another and I’m happy to say like I’m in a point of my career it’s where I can get because I want to not because I have to so it’s like it’s it’s a nice place to be when you can say no to certain gigs and say yes to other gigs not just because of financial situation or or I need to be on this you know headlining this event or whatever if it comes it comes if it doesn’t it doesn’t but I also have my freedom and for me having that freedom is success for me so I see it you know it’s always interesting I

[Darran]
love it when a guest almost knows like they don’t know what when they’re talking they’re explaining something that they’re almost leading into the next question I’m gonna ask it’s just really awesome because you just mentioned that you’re gonna be after playing Vegas you’re gonna be one of the Death Valley and doing some hiking and that’s one of my next questions was gonna be what do you prefer doing when you’re taking a break from music not just

[Saeed Younan]
high but like I honestly the some of the most amazing the most beautiful ideas I ever have on music is when I’m out either hiking in nature biking anything outdoor I’m a really like outdoors you kind of guy and most of my deep thoughts of where I want to do musically comes when I’m out with nature and connecting and after my music week I told you I did a 17-hour party it’s the best way to decompress man going out that Valley just hiking it’s gonna be nice and warm you know I’m bringing my tent I’m sleeping under the stars for like two nights just me by myself and it’s the best way to just kind of clear your head reset reboot and come back and do it proper I was gonna say that’s they say

[Darran]
that going camping and not having any electronic devices around you is the best way to reset your clock reset your certain clock because if you get up at dawn you go to bed now you know you’re just you’re in that kind of pattern you know so exactly I need to do a reset here soon and you’re right about the

[Saeed Younan]
circadian rhythm because without without lifestyle is well up on the weekends and you got to come back on Monday to reset that circadian rhythm to do your regular you know waking up I don’t know what time you wake up I normally try to wake up at 7 a.m. do a little meditation have a cup of coffee I jump in the studio five hours in the studio then the next half of the day will be running the record label then I’m done and that becomes my rhythm but on the weekend it throws all that off because you know I’m in Vegas I’m playing at 2 a.m. maybe done by 5 a.m. which is two hours from I probably woke up two days ago so it throws that off but going out yet and that value there’s no Wi-Fi there’s no signal so yeah you won’t have your phone whatever you have with you it better be like you know some survival stuff in case you need it but that’s it but it’s good for you and you should definitely yeah I mean you’re out West man you guys have some beautiful hiking stuff up north you know so

[Darran]
definitely beautiful places yeah it’s it’s it’s difficult when you run two companies I mean I do that I run two companies I don’t advertising company as well and you know I have to sleep my phone in my office I do not sleep with my phone next to me yeah if I do that I got people from all over the world hit me up because we contact people from all over the world to be on the show so I got emails coming I have to turn my phone it goes on do not disturb from 11 o’clock at 9 a.m. I am if I’m not up and out of bed grabbing the phone at 738 and start making my to-do list for the day or just checking that there’s any really important emails that I know okay I got to get over there and flag that you know I’m out nine o’clock and I stop at five o’clock six o’clock good for you yeah

[Saeed Younan]
you have to you have to build a system because number one health I don’t care how good you are in music how much money you make and stuff like that if the vessel goes down you’re down you know so yeah yeah you have to care of the

[Darran]
vessel absolutely who has been the most inspiring person you’ve ever met backstage and tell us why this person has inspired you well not only did I meet

[Saeed Younan]
them backstage I had the opportunity to tour with them and play with them and to me he’s the probably the most positive DJ producer more more of a DJ than anybody in the music business that I know this would be the call Cox obviously I mean the man I’ve never met a person who who can see something that’s probably not good or something not good I mean he kind of twisted and sees the good out of it like it’s always been a positive person and I don’t call for a long time you know I stayed with his villa in Ibiza with me John Digweed and a couple other guys this when we did the closing at space so he invited us to stay I played you know ultra several times on stage with him but he is a guy that his positive positivity when it comes to music and dance music is unmatched I mean you can go back and read all his interviews watch all his interview the man has nothing when he says on camera it’s exact how he is backstage it’s not it’s not a show it’s not BS it’s not like oh that’s why I gotta say but that’s exactly who he is backstage or at a dinner table or whatever it’s what you see is what you get and I really I actually take a lot from that because I tend to if something doesn’t go my way I tend to be very negative about it I always remember stuff that would call would say and how he makes a joke about things and I kind of try to switch my switch on that one

[Darran]
I had the opportunity it was not last year’s ADE but the year before the only event that I went to and I don’t know how we got into this event but I mean we have media badges of course but we were waiting we were waiting probably I’d say there were probably 200 250 people in the room and we got like the last three seat like last two seats it was me and the garage with and we got two seats but there were like two or three other people who got two or three other seats and Carl was giving a they were doing a Q&A with him on the couch then he got up and he was talking about kind of joking around joking at himself but he’s like yeah I’m kind of reinventing myself again let me show you what I’m working on and he had one CDJ and he had his laptop and he goes this is what I’m into now is making music on the fly that nobody’s ever heard and it will never be the same thing every show I can change it up and do something different and but he was making his own music on the fly you know plus he had a CDJ could play other tracks you know but that being said it was like really awesome just to just to

[Saeed Younan]
see uh you’re right he is one positive he’s a jolly good fellow and I got yeah

[Darran]
and it’s when he’s doing his hybrid live was he getting into his hybrid live shows yeah that was it yeah that was it and that was just kind of awesome to see to do that you know he was born what 62 so he just turns he just turned 40 60

[Saeed Younan]
62 I think I know yeah he’s he’s got to be pushing he’s around same age as day I think Danny’s a year or two younger then just I don’t know how long but yeah he’s around 62 I believe I can’t right yeah Danny Tineglia yeah he’s always saying

[Darran]
that I’ve been saying that wrong for 20 some odd years I don’t know why I get

[Saeed Younan]
it wrong all the time last name and you got my last name right but yeah Danny Tineglia is I think a year or two younger so I don’t know what your car was born okay he was born in 1962 mm-hmm oh so then he 962 cuz I was born in 72 50 he’s he’s I’m 52 so he’s gotta be 62 cuz I’m 10 years younger than him

[Darran]
okay okay yeah so he’s yeah I would love to get Danny and Carl on the show sometime it’s been kind of a lifelong dream of mine to get them on and if you could take one non-famous person and put them in the spotlight who means a lot to you other than your direct family or friends who would that be and

[Saeed Younan]
why so there’s a lot of amazing artists we have on the label who deserve the spotlight that a lot of people have or a lot of people that have but they’re not as appreciated I mean there’s so many artists we signed that I know they have so much great potential and there’s only so much we can do because they come to us almost asking to do you know I wish I had more like if I can clone myself like I would love to create a PR a publishing branch off of the label just because I want to give these artists more than just releasing their music I want to give them a little push some a marketing department whatever because they really do deserve a little bit of a push and they don’t know how to do it themselves they don’t know how to reach out so we do what we can but there’s so many artists on the label man I don’t know who to name just one because they’re just so many amazing cats on our label that I would love to see them shine and I know they will shine their time is coming to see yeah I don’t know I mean I’m John there’s a lot of guys there’s a lot of guys and girls that are on the label that I really think they deserve a really break the way and if I had the power I would I would definitely give them that extra boost to to take them to that level but yeah it’s mainly the the younger cats who are really putting in the work putting in the time to produce some

[Darran]
amazing music well you know we’re always looking for people to interview on the show if you want to send them our way and get some PR with them with us over here we’d be more than happy to email your whole team and go this guy wants

[Saeed Younan]
you I would love that you know that means a lot to me Dan thank you so much

[Darran]
one last question here if Hollywood made a movie about your life who would you

[Saeed Younan]
pick as the main actor who would be me I don’t know I would say I mean my life has been weird you know I grew up in Iraq I was uh I was at 10 years old I was already training to be in a war to fight against in a war in Iraq and we we fled the country in the mid 80s so my life is pretty crazy when I was young and then coming here not knowing any English was thrown into school with no friends being picked on so I don’t know who played I mean who would play a good role like this as far as look goes my wife tells me like when I was younger she thought and I guess from high school pictures that I look like Tom Cruise or Ben Stiller or the younger versions of them but I don’t know if they would actually be able to play me but maybe I would go with them but yeah I you know that’s probably it’ll be a cool story I’ve been asked actually asked by a couple of people we’re doing a DC a documentary on DC clubbing and there’s one series that’s gonna be about just me and the DC clone but somebody was like I should kind of write a book or something about how we escaped the war and coming here and becoming who I am which I think would be cool to do so yeah and I

[Darran]
asked you this last time we interviewed I’ll go this way if you would have had a

[Saeed Younan]
biography written about you what would you want the title to be I would say he I don’t know from a war-ridden war war-ridden country to fun stage fun stage festival out of fun stage DJ spotlight DJ something like that so saying from how we came from a war to being in front of a stage on a different you know from yin and yang I guess is there anything else you want to let our

[Darran]
DJ sessions fans know about before we let you get going just yes stay

[Saeed Younan]
connected I’m on Instagram on Facebook on Twitter follow me and and there’ll be a lot more music also follow the label follow the kids that we have on the label which is you not music it’s all over social please follow them on Spotify like their music we release a track at least once a month or an EP once a month and it’s always you know a new up-and-coming artist that I feel is near and dear to my heart that I think they can do something well for the dance music industry and they can actually they will provide some assurance that the music is going to be carried forward and in the good hands of the younger generation so give them a thumbs up when you can awesome and best place to

[Darran]
go to get all those links would that be this website right here yes that’s

[Saeed Younan]
Saeedunan.com this will be all my personal stuff but it’ll also link you

[Darran]
to the label stuff as well awesome and we’ll be getting an exclusive mix here from you in the near future correct that is correct sir always love it when we get those exclusive mixes well say thank you again for coming on the show is a pleasure talking with you again we’ll follow up with you here in the near future one of the things we try to do is stay in touch with everyone every six months get them back in the show find out what they’re doing please send any artists that you know our way we’d be more than happy to schedule them and get them on the show and it was an honor again having you on thank you so much

[Saeed Younan]
for coming on thank you Dan I appreciate it thank you so much for looking out after our artists I’ll be more than happy and any way other way I can help as

[Darran]
well I’m always here to help my friend absolutely thank you okay thanks bye on that note don’t forget to go to our website the DJ sessions calm where you can find over 600 news stories exclusive mixes interviews just like this live interviews just like this and more at the DJ sessions calm all of our social links are there Instagram meta tick-tock Amazon iTunes subscribe to the show click the links at the DJ sessions calm I’m your host Aaron coming from the virtual studios in Seattle Washington and that’s a you you non coming in from DC for the DJ sessions presents the virtual sessions and remember on the DJ sessions the music never stops