Handshake in Space on the Virtual Session presented by The DJ Sessions 7/01/24

In this heartfelt and inspiring Virtual Session, Darran Bruce connects with Swedish DJ and producer Stefan Haling, better known as Handshake in Space, to explore his creative journey, personal resilience, and vision for the future. From discovering his artist name through the symbolism of unity in space to channeling music as a form of healing after personal loss, Stefan’s story is both moving and motivating.

 

He shares how modern production tools like Splice and global collaboration platforms have allowed him to turn musical ideas into full productions without a traditional musician’s background. Embracing joy, happiness, and fun as his musical ethos, Stefan blends tropical house influences with a focus on creating tracks that bring people together. His recent summer anthem “You’re My Cheerleader” captures this uplifting spirit, complemented by AI-generated visuals that merge art and technology on a budget.

 

The conversation spans his influences—ranging from Daft Punk to Disclosure—his experiences at iconic festivals, and the evolving intersection of DJing, production, and visual performance. Stefan also reflects on moving from anonymity to embracing his identity publicly, seeing it as the final step in a deeply personal healing process.

Whether discussing the narrowing gap between DJs and producers, the possibilities of AI, or the simple joy of testing tracks on his young granddaughter, Handshake in Space radiates a passion for music’s unifying power. His goal is clear: keep creating, collaborate more, and bring his feel-good sound to festival stages—while being the best granddad possible.

 

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Stefan Haling aka Handshake in Space
Location: Virtual Studios, Seattle WA & Barcelona, Spain (via Stockholm, Sweden)

 

Overview:
Darran Bruce welcomes Swedish DJ/producer Handshake in Space for an uplifting conversation on music as healing, global collaboration, and blending technology with creativity.

Topics Covered:

• Artist Name Origin: Unity without boundaries, inspired by a historic US–Russia space handshake.
• Healing Through Music: Turning to production after personal loss during the pandemic.
• Production Process: Using Splice, global collaborators, and idea-first creation.
• Summer Anthem: Story and tropical house vibe behind “You’re My Cheerleader.”
• AI Visuals: Crafting budget-friendly music videos using Kyber AI prompts.
• From Anonymity to Identity: Going public as the final step in recovery.
• Festival Inspiration: Impact of sets by Deadmau5, Disclosure, and Daft Punk.
• Global Collaboration: Working with artists across continents.
• Independent Path: Self-releasing and managing all aspects of his career.
• Musical Palette: From jazz to house, keeping music on 24/7.
• Future Goals: More gigs as Handshake in Space, closer collaborations, festival sets.

Call to Action:
Follow Handshake in Space: handshakeinspace.com
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 just visiting Barcelona, but comes from Stockholm, Sweden, or just right side outside of Stockholm, only 250 kilometers away.

We have Stefan Haling from Handshake in Space on the show today. Stefan, how’s it going today?

[Handshake in Space]
I’m fine. Thank you very much. How are you?

[Darran]
Awesome. I’m doing great. I’m envying that sunset.

I just witnessed pre show behind you those colors, you actually got to witness, it only happens twice a day, my favorite color in the world. And it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s almost like a twilight. It’s that section where you got the, you got the orange, then you got the blue, then the dark blue, to the purple into the black.

And it’s that right between the dark blue and the black, that purple zone right there. I love that’s my favorite color in the entire world. Hence why we the colors of our show are purple and blue.

So thank you very much for coming on the show today. You know, we’re gonna jump right in here and let our DJ sessions get to know a little bit more about Handshake in Space. You ready for that?

Yeah, yeah. Awesome. So first and foremost, where does your artist name come from?

Because I was doing some searches on Google for you, looking things up and, you know, kind of some other things came up other than, you know, Handshake in Space, the artist. So tell us a little bit about the meaning behind Handshake in Space. Where did that name come from?

[Handshake in Space]
Well, I thought about it like, like some kind of friendship without boundaries, like, we are living on this planet that we are one people, there’s like, we are borrowing it from future generation. So I thought like, well, Handshake in Space is very, very neutral, like, everybody will be friends in space, because there’s, that’s where you meet, you can’t do much. But then I also saw that Handshake in Space is another thing that’s like two astronauts that’s meeting during the Cold War between United States and Russia.

And, and when I saw the clip, it’s also very similar to the idea I was thinking about this, like, they were enemies, but up in the sky, they are friends helping each other. So that’s where it came from. Nice.

[Darran]
Now, if you could describe your music in three words, three words, what would you call it? Joy, happiness, and fun. Joy, happiness and fun.

And how long have you been how long have you been producing and then DJing for?

[Handshake in Space]
Well, I’ve been DJing for quite some while. And, but I started with music only two years ago. So I’m, I’m more like a producer.

I’m not a musician. I had a really rough time four years ago. During the pandemic, because first my dad died.

And then a which I had for so many years. So I felt like into depression, I was, I was really low for for almost two years. And then this music thing came to me.

And that was a way of me for me to cope and heal. And also with the lovely support of my family. So now, I’m back again, and I feel fine.

But it was, it was a hard time, actually.

[Darran]
And what would you consider your biggest inspiration to make music? What what what really was the driving force? You said you DJed for years.

But you know, switching into making music, what was that inspiration for? I mean, it said to help you heal to help you, you know, you know, was one of the things I think you just mentioned a few moments ago. But was there a haha moment, like you looked up the clouds, and you said, I’m going to put the tracks down and I’m going to produce and go get Ableton or Logic or whatever, Fruity Loops or whatever you use for your tools and say, I’m going to start producing the music now.

What was that inspiration or the key point of inspiration that that you had?

[Handshake in Space]
I’ve been listening to a lot of music like I listen to music like 24 seven. So that’s my, my strong side. And now finally, that the technique has, has come for, for people like me also to do music.

So I found this site, it’s called Splice. They have all kinds of sounds there. And I can just sit, listen to, you know, just clicking through.

And then finally, maybe I hear something. Oh, wow. That’s a really cool sound that reminds me maybe of something or maybe I think, wow, that would be cool to have some drums or electric guitar or whatever.

And, and then I do it together with other creative people. So I’m more like, I get the idea. I have a vision for the track.

But then I need help. So I take help, help with other creative people. And then we get the song together somehow.

So I’m, I won’t take credit for it, like it’s my song, because there are so many people involved in it. But I’m so, I’m so glad and happy that, that also I can make music without, you know, the music knowledge. Do you get what I mean?

[Darran]
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it’s, you know, the tools that are out there really can help. Nowadays, I remember back when I first was going to college, and I got some Roland products, I had a sequel Roland MC 505, and Roland SP 808, you could MIDI them together, one was a sequencer, one was a sampler.

And that was my first introduction. I mean, well, no, I guess it wasn’t my first introduction. So I was playing with like Fruity Loops three, back in early 2000.

I think I got that Roland gear somewhere in 2001 2002. But, you know, the ability to, you know, use a computer program to make music, it was very interesting to play with. And I come from kind of a musical family.

My brothers are musicians, and I would play with their their gear in the studio and took a couple Charlie horses for that, because I wasn’t supposed to play with the gear in the studio. But I learned how to read the manual and understood it where they didn’t read the manuals and just kind of push buttons. And I’m like, No, this is how you do it.

And I was doing that from the age of like, six years, eight years old, you know, playing in studios and stuff with gear. But, you know, seeing it move to an electronic, you know, sort of thing, you know, when I was getting my rolling gear, to get a computer to produce music, you were looking at spending like five $6,000, just to get something to run the software, or you were looking to get in some rack mounts, you know, and all that fun stuff to do what you need to do is a lot of hardware based stuff. And then as you know, it’s computer started to come into play.

You know, it made a lot easier. I remember when I was working for Apple, I fell in love with logic. You know, I mean, I became a certified trainer to train people, not how to produce music, how to use the software.

Yeah, it’s like I learned Final Cut Pro. And I was one of 300 people in the world to train, train, train people, how to train people how to use Final Cut Pro. I knew how to make movies because I was in video production and all that fun stuff.

But I was learning, teaching them how to use the software, not how to become Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, you know, but that being said, you know, it’s just really awesome that you can dive into that now and take that on. And there’s tons of resources out there. Oh, there’s classes you can take, there’s mentorship programs, there’s, you know, YouTube videos on almost everything nowadays, somebody just type in YouTube, how to grow corn, and it’s gonna pop up.

I know that has nothing to do with music. But you know, you can pretty much jump into that now. Do you feel the line between DJing and producing has gotten smaller over the years because of technology?

[Handshake in Space]
I think so. Because there are lots of DJs making their own music now. Maybe they didn’t do that before.

So I think it’s the gap has is much more narrow now. And with AR, it’s going to be even more. So I think it’s, it’s like when you for me, it’s like when you hear sometimes I can during the years over the many years I listened to music, then there’s a new track out.

And you can hear like, wow, I recognize that those three chords, so you know, but they only got inspired from a short, short bit of that older track, and then made a new track. So that’s maybe what what I’m doing, like, I found a little piece and I build something from that. But without that piece, it wouldn’t be a song.

So I think definitely the gap has is a much it’s much easier now. But still very difficult.

[Darran]
I mean, yeah, I was listening to one of my one of my favorite radio stations. I’ve been listening to for 21 years now. It’s Groove Salad by Some FM, and a song by Global Communication came on.

And I was listening to it. And I’m like, wait a second. I know this sample.

I know it. I went and looked at it, saw it was Global Communication, but then realized they were using a sample from Tangerine Dream. That was used in the soundtrack for the movie Risky Business with Tom Cruise and Rebecca de Mornay.

And I was like, wait a second. I didn’t know Global Communication sample. So I went online, looked it up.

And on Reddit, somebody said, yes, Global Communications sampled this track that they remade using the Tangerine Dream from like 1983 or so whenever that movie came out. Yeah, very early 80s movie with Tom Cruise and then made that track. And I was like, that still sounds timeless to this day.

You know, it’s just an awesome track. So it’s interesting. You know, you see that the music industry, I think I was in the store last night.

And I heard a song. Gosh, they used the sample. Mariah Carey used the sample first back in the 90s with Fantasy.

And it was a sample from an 80s song. Well, now there’s a new hip hop song that’s using that same sample. People my age might go, oh, that’s the Mariah Carey.

Well, they might say, oh, that’s the 80s version of the sample. People in the 90s, 2000s, oh, that’s the Mariah Carey sample. Now they’re thinking the new kids are like, oh my god, this is the new thing.

It’s like, I remember my dad telling me when music I was listening to rap music back in the days, he goes, they just looped the beat that James Brown made. You know, they’re using this disco beat. That wasn’t the first time you’re ever hearing this.

My dad was like, yeah, my dad’s older than I mean, he’s 8082 this year. You know, so I mean, he’s heard a lot of music. So it’s interesting how music gets kind of repurposed.

And now with, you know, obviously, like you said, AI, what’s that gonna look like moving forward? You know, it’s coming. I’m using it for my websites.

Some phenomenal stuff churn out, you know, the SEO world, I want to go down that route. They’re going bonkers. But yeah, it’s gonna be interesting.

I do know a company, they don’t make the music. But they you tell it what music you want. I can say I want house music.

I want it in the style of Carl Cox. And I want a late night vibe. Yeah, it’ll go out there and curate you a playlist for Spotify and put all the songs into a playlist for you.

Okay, it won’t DJ them for you. But at least it puts you in a playlist. But as a DJ, I can go download all those tracks, and then make that my set list for a show.

Yeah, and it’s gonna be exactly what you want. So it’s not making the music, but it’s kind of grabbing the music and pulling it in for you. Which is kind of interesting.

But, you know, when will we see and I’ll kind of cut myself short and get back to talking about you. When will we see it where, you know, AI could make a what’s the term it’s called? When you when you when you set your tracks up, so you know where to do the cue points?

Is it cue points? I see I’m not a DJ I should know.

[Handshake in Space]
Yeah, no, cue points is where you set.

[Darran]
Yeah, different value maybe you want to start like, yeah, you might buy a song on Beatport and might already have automatic cue points in it. Or songs get uploaded to an AI website and you have these cue points that are already loaded in. And then you just load them in and automatically takes this song and this song goes in analyzing goes this is exactly where they should match up at and we’re gonna crossfade on that.

And it’s gonna perfectly match this song into this song and then he Jane is on autopilot at that point. You know, anyways, enough about AI, I can talk a million times about minutes about that. Is the first record you ever bought worth mentioning?

Or is it embarrassing?

[Handshake in Space]
I have to think which one was. No, I don’t think anything that you buy in music is embarrassing. I mean, at that time, when I bought it, I probably loved it.

So maybe I don’t love it anymore. But I know, I think it was I don’t know if it was a kiss album, the destroyer, or a sweet album with a ballroom blitz on it. So I don’t, I don’t remember which one I bought first.

But I think one of those were the two first records I bought.

[Darran]
That’s kiss album. I remember kiss my brothers were into hard rock as a kid growing up. I kind of went more the disco pop into hip hop, into down to trip hop in the down tempo ambient.

And that’s kind of my groove right now is down tempo. But if I got to dance, it has to be house music. I mean, I love trance.

I love house. I love everything else out there. But I’m a househead through and through.

[Handshake in Space]
I just love but this was in the beginning of the 70s. Maybe it’s Yeah, yeah, 73 74. Maybe I was six, seven years old or something.

[Darran]
Now, your latest release, I just saw this, this came out on June 19 2024. You’re my cheerleader. Yeah, tell us about your the inspiration, the meaning behind that track.

Well, you’re my cheerleader, the title, and you’re hailing this to be possibly one of the great anthems of the summer. Tell us all about that track. And what what was behind the meaning of that?

[Handshake in Space]
Yeah, I wanted to do like a track for the summer. That’s how this kind of summer vibe that with a happy feeling to it. So I thought like, like a tropical house kind of vibe thing to it.

And something that you can dance to and like you feel like Yeah, it’s it has a nice vibe.

[Darran]
Now, I saw you had kind of an animation in there. Is that a real person in the video when I was watching on YouTube? Is that a real person that you kind of AI an image to or tell us about the inspiration for that visual that you use there?

[Handshake in Space]
Yeah, I’ve been using like two visuals one for the album covers and one for the videos and that the videos I make is I use the company called Kyber, Kyber AI, that’s K-A-I-B-E-R. And that’s, you write the prompt. You know, what do you want this to be about?

And then they make it for you. But the problem with that is that you only get one chance, you know. So once it’s ready, it’s ready.

So then you have to pay all over again. So Oh, that’s also like something that you have to be better at that you have to be like, really excellent writing the prompt. You know, that’s a tricky thing, you know, to get exactly what you want.

The other one with the album covers is also I use this AI site, but I have like female superheroes on it. That’s my that what I’ve been using.

[Darran]
So yeah, so you would say is that like, so it’s kind of like an AI generator, AI video generator, you would say?

[Handshake in Space]
Yeah, yeah. But you have to like, you have to make a lot of decisions before you make the video, like, have to fix the prompt, you have to have to set settings, what kind of camera lens do you want, etc, etc. So, but it’s in the beginning, I think that will only evolve and be better and better.

So maybe you can use like your own footage and like add it to it and then make make that you combine like live and real, real photographer and, and not really like a combination of some some kind. But it’s also it’s also a budget thing for me. I mean, I don’t have a big budget to make a big music video.

[Darran]
So it’s a and you mentioned that you just started producing a couple years ago. How many tracks do you produce in say a month? And how many end up being released on average?

[Handshake in Space]
I try to release one tracking each month. That’s, that’s, that’s my goal. And I don’t know, maybe I have like three times that maybe for for every one track that I release, I had three tracks.

So it’s an ongoing process with with the music, but it’s also like, I get a lot of ideas. And then I want to do something. And that’s an amazing thing that the whole world is so much smaller now.

Like, I have people that I work with, like they are in South America, or they are in Europe, or they are in Asia, or they are in Africa, or in Sweden. So it’s amazing that the tools are there to bring people together to make music together. I mean, for me, like 20 years ago, it would have been been impossible.

Yeah, you know, you have to, if you want to make a track with someone from South America, you have to go to South America. That would be really nice, though. But I don’t think the money will be there.

So it’s, it’s amazing that and all these people that are out there, like, so they, just like me, they love music. And they’re like, when you connect together, it’s, it’s such an amazing thing that you can do it. And then you go separate parts.

And then maybe you connect together for another project. But still, you had that moment. And I think it’s, it’s amazing.

I met so many nice people during this, these two years that I’ve been producing music. And I think it’s, it’s amazing.

[Darran]
You know, that was one of the awesome thing. I mean, Pandy was not cool in any way, shape, form how everything went down. But you know, it definitely we were, we were more of an in person red carpet interview kind of thing.

We went to wait till people came to the States and do interviews, because people, if you tried to do a zoom four years ago, five years ago with somebody, they weren’t ready for it. If you ask somebody to do a live video mix, they didn’t have a webcam, they didn’t have a studio set up, they couldn’t, they could do an audio mix for you. But doing a live video mix, it was unheard of.

And you know, so it really changed the situation, especially from an outreach perspective for us to be able to collaborate with like you’re in Barcelona right now, we’re doing this interview. Now, I would have had to wait for you to come to the States. Or even if I did interview, it might have to be an audio interview.

It wouldn’t be a video interview. And if it was video interview, the tech or you know, people just weren’t ready for it. Now we know how to look we we shave before we get on camera, we do our hair, we wear a nice shirt, we aren’t in our pajamas.

You know, we set up a little bit of a studio or backdrop, we get better audio from our sponsors like Mackie, you know, things of that nature, you know, to really increase the overall global. And that’s why pre show is telling you, you know, we definitely launched and got instead of just being a stateside US brand, we really launched and went international with it. So because I can talk with people from all over the world now.

And it’s just amazing. And in your, you know, line of work, you know, what you’re doing is being able to collaborate with people from all over the world has been going on for a while being able to file share. But like you said, 20 years ago, that wasn’t a reality.

I mean, I, I think people still had dial up 20 years ago. I was always on the forefront of having the highest speed internet I can get in my house because I like to play video games. But you know, people were still on dial up at home 56k modems, you know, if they didn’t have cable modems, you know.

So you know, that being said, it’s kind of interesting. I’ve seen that natural progression of things happen. And those that are taking advantage of it are definitely excelling.

And then obviously explosion of social media as well as helped, you know, people to network and find like minded people as well. Now, have you ever experimented with mixing audio and video at the same time? And if not, would that be something you might want to do in the future, you’re already combining, you know, you’re making your music, you’re going out there and using the generator to generate the video behind that.

But have you ever thought of like, combining the two and having like a live audio visual performance or DJing to not not like with a VJ who can make visuals during a show, but you’re the actual one mixing audio and video at the same time. Have you ever thought about doing something like that?

[Handshake in Space]
I, if I understand you, right, like, when I do like my live DJ set that I will combine that with with some visuals or like I do it by myself.

[Darran]
Yeah, you would control the visuals yourself and real time manipulate it. But you’re doing it on your own. You don’t have like a third, like, like I would be over there as the video guy going.

[Handshake in Space]
Yeah, yeah, I think it’s coming. I don’t know if it’s here yet. But I’ve been I do go to a lot of concerts because I love live music.

So but both like electronic but also like just a couple of days, Bruce Springsteen was here. And he’s well, it’s the one artist that I grew up with. And I really loved during that time in my early teenagers, it was here.

So, but I went to concert came up as a Facebook memory today, like, I think it was like, maybe 12 years ago, they had a festival in Sweden was called peace and love. And they had deadmau5 there. And I’ve seen DJs before perform, but that was for me like, wow, can you do that as a DJ, like, get the connection with the people in the crowd as a DJ with the all the stuff that he had around him with the visuals and the and the music.

It was for me it was like mind blowing when when I saw that. So, yes, I think I would like to do more visuals. But I like the both.

I mean, that I love. But I also love we went to here in Barcelona to have like called brunch in the park that and I went to see Fatboy Slim. And then it’s like no visuals, you know, it’s just a nice party.

You know, people dancing, being happy and replace the music. So I like both. So and then we had the big sonar festival in Barcelona also.

So and I’ve seen some shot that Eric Pritz and his visuals is like, wow. It’s like now they’re like 3D like they reach out to the audience.

[Darran]
It’s I still got to make it out to sonar. I’ve been to ADE the last two years and that really changed my perspective of the music industry as a whole. I didn’t make it to any of the big shows, but just being there and the networking possibilities of meeting people finally in person that I normally only talk to online or via email.

Just that alone was was worth the experience. But I definitely want to make the IMS and and and sonar. Yeah, you know, I think is IMS also in Barcelona or is that sonar in Barcelona, I think, right?

[Handshake in Space]
Well, sonar is in Barcelona, but it’s also in other cities, but the main base is Barcelona.

[Darran]
Yeah. And then IMS, is that the internet? Where’s IMS?

I think it’s how that’s in Barcelona, too. Yeah, maybe all these festivals and meeting events, but it’s awesome stuff. But yeah, I definitely want to make up the sonar one of these times in Barcelona.

Now, do you come from a musical family or what got you started in all this? I mean, it sounds like you kind of were a rock person and now you’re into electronic music. When did that shift happen?

Or were you influenced at a year early age just by your own discovery? Or was there a family influence there? And did you come from a musical family?

[Handshake in Space]
You know, my family has no musical hearing at all. And for me, too. But it’s like, I like all kinds of music.

So I like from hard rock to jazz. And I go to everything. I mean, I go to both.

But then I also like dance music. So also the electronic, but also now with the disco period, with Bee Gees and growing up with ABBA and with Chick and all those bands in the 70s, then moving on to Diana Ross and Gloria Gaynor and everything. And then I discovered Daft Punk.

[Darran]
Yeah. What do you think about them breaking up and now they’re kind of getting back together?

[Handshake in Space]
I kind of hate it. But I also understand it. I mean, they’ve been doing it for so much long.

And with that last album, Random Accessories. Random Access Memories. Memories.

Yeah. What can they do to top that? I mean, they finished at the top.

And then he wanted, I mean, obviously one and a half. I think his name is Sebastian, I think. I think he wanted to do other things.

And I can understand that. But I discovered Daft Punk and a little bit later, I discovered Deadmau5. And then all this scene in Sweden came, you know, with Avicii, Swedish House, Mafia, Robin, Tuvelu.

And I enjoy a good party. Awesome. That’s the fun thing of being a DJ.

I can do the thing that I love, but I can also make people happy. So it’s a two thing there.

[Darran]
Now, you mentioned you’re in Barcelona, and you’re there because you’re visiting your son who just, you have a grandchild. You have a grandchild now, correct? Yeah, I have a little girl.

She’s one and a half years old. Nice. Does your family enjoy listening to the music that you make?

Or do they go to the shows when you go out and play at the events and enjoy partaking in that?

[Handshake in Space]
Well, my number one fan is the little one. She’s only one and a half years old, but I test new songs on her, and then I can see, is she dancing to it? Yes, she does.

And then I’m guessing it must be good. Or otherwise, I think, if it’s not good for other people, maybe I have my audience there, like two year toddlers. And there are plenty of them, and they’re growing up.

No, my family usually come. My wife is very supportive, like helping me, like shooting and filming and doing stuff like that. Now, with my son, they can’t come.

They have the little one, so they can come if I have a daytime thing, but not a nighttime thing.

[Darran]
And do you have your own label, or are you working with a label right now to get your tracks out there?

[Handshake in Space]
No, I’m this typical do it your own artist. It’s a lot of fun, but not always. There’s so many things that you…

I want to make music. I want to play music. But then I have to do all the other stuff as well, because I don’t have a label.

I don’t know if I want to be in the label, but I would like to be… climb a little bit higher.

[Darran]
And people don’t know what… People do not know what goes on behind the scenes, but people like you and I do to make things happen and what we do. So congrats to you for going at that independent route.

I know there’s… Like I said, there’s tons of videos online, tons of things you can do nowadays that you can learn how to do all this on your own. You can pick up a book and say how to start your own label, and then go through the steps and have people help you out online, even for free.

So that’s awesome you’re doing it on your own. What are the current top five labels that you go to when you’re picking out track selections that are constantly putting out quality releases? Like you said, I have my top five that I go to, and I know they’re going to produce the heat.

They’re going to bring my style that I love to play at my shows. What are five record labels that you go to for that?

[Handshake in Space]
I’m more like… I hear a track. I’m not so keen on two labels, like everything that the label put out.

It’s more like I hear a track, and then as soon as I listen to it, I hear it. Well, you can just sound it when you’re out somewhere, or you hear it on the streaming platforms. And then I have my favorite.

I mean, now like Jamie XX and Robin has a new track out that I think it’s really… it’s so great. So I don’t have the favorite labels that I look into.

That’s where I’m going to find new music.

[Darran]
Yeah, I mean, people have their go-tos. I mean, a lot of people go to Beatport. It’s just interesting how when you talk with people, they do their track selection.

[Handshake in Space]
I have those. I mean, Beatport, of course, I have. Then you can go to different genres and see what you like.

But then I don’t remember which… oh, they’re on that label. If they’re on Spinning Records or they’re on some other…

I just… well, I like that track. And then I put it in my collection.

[Darran]
Yeah. It’s kind of like, you go back to the days of the record stores. I think I was just talking with somebody the other day.

They’re from Belgium. And they’re like, you go to the record store, and there’ll be five copies of that on vinyl. And if you picked up those five copies, nobody else had that.

And there was no file transferring. There was no file sharing. As opposed to today, I upload a file to, say, Beatport, and I could have 100,000 people.

I could have 100,000 listens. People are checking it out. I could have 50,000 downloads of it.

And that track is now in their repertoire of 50 to 100,000 songs that they can choose and pick up and do that. So that’s kind of really interesting on how technology has changed the platform and making it more music available to the masses, in a sense, as opposed to back in the day. You might get a white label.

You don’t know who produced it. Do they even do white label tracks anymore as a digital download and say, you don’t know who this is? And then somebody comes out and says, oh, that’s me.

It was from Deadmau5. Do they do those anymore? I don’t know if people use the term white label anymore.

So that’s kind of an old school term. But the go-to spots to find and curate music is a lot easier. Like I was explaining earlier in the show, you now have AI that can curate you a playlist if you want to play it in the style of a certain artist.

Do you remember the first rave or festival you ever attended? And what impression did that leave on you as an artist? Were you DJing before you got into your first festival or rave?

Or was it maybe you got to your first festival or rave and said, I want to be the person on stage doing that?

[Handshake in Space]
I kind of started DJing quite late. I was always interested in it. I remember when I was, I must have been around 15 maybe.

And I had a friend, he bought like two Technos vinyl record players and a mixer table. And he started DJing. I really loved what he was doing, but I also said, oh, it’s too difficult for me.

So I thought the step for me to get in was too high. And it also was like a money kind of thing. I didn’t have that kind of money to invest in a gear.

So I started really late, maybe it was before I moved to Rettvik. So maybe 30 years ago, maybe. So I’m 57 now.

So it was like around maybe when I was around 30. And that’s quite late. But then I always attended like a lot of music festivals, but mainly in Sweden.

And then there were like a combination of live band and DJs. So we had this peace and love in a town near us. It was one of the biggest festivals that we had in Popaganda in Stockholm.

And then we had way out west in Gothenburg. And so that’s where I’m at. I didn’t do much of raving like in the woods.

[Darran]
Yeah, I started out, I was 18 years old. And I remember the first real underground nightclub I went to was called the Underground. And I saw Donald Glodd, I always talk about this story, because I was going to top 40 nightclubs at 15, 16, 17, the underage clubs.

But this club was 18 and over to get into. And then this event space opened up, you know, called NAF Studios. And I went to my first, no, my first rave actually was a rave called Green X and Ham.

It was a Dr. Seuss themed rave. Really awesome. And that just really blew my mind.

Because at that time, you had every kind of genre of people there. There was no internet, there was no cell phones. But you had, you know, if you call it you had you had ravers, you had people in costumes and SNL, you know, goth costumes, you had jocks like football team, you know, the sports people, you had all this mix of all these different type of people coming together.

And we’re all there for the fun. It was all there for you know, music was driving us. And, you know, just remember, that was a huge inspiration to get me into bigger events, bigger parties and being that person and then later on saying, why isn’t anyone bringing a video camera here and capturing all this and, and documenting this, you know, somebody’s gonna want to, somebody’s gonna want this footage later in life, you know, which kind of led down the path later on to now we’ve evolved into the DJ sessions. You know, it’s just a really, really awesome thing to see the progression that happened over the last, you know, gosh, 32 years, or even, you know, a little bit before that 35 years if you go back in history, to see how that whole progression has happened. And, you know, the differences between the European nightlife festival scene, as opposed to the rise of the US festivals, you know, and the nightlife scene here, you know, it’s very interesting.

The two different takes on that’s happened. You know, who who’s been your biggest influence when it comes to your career as an artist? And why?

[Handshake in Space]
Well, I’m a Dof punk. I’m trying like, like, when I have a finished track, I release it. Because that’s the best track I can do at the moment.

So but then when I look back, I can see I can feel like, well, it’s not a great track. It’s not a bad track, but it’s okay track. So I’m hoping to get there someday that I want I want to finish with a track that I can say, wow, that was the track that I was like, super happy with.

But it’s so many more, there are so many things that has to combine the music, the singer, and then the mixing part. From the start, the track sounds like, like this. And in the end, it sounds like completely different.

But my main inspiration is, well, it’s Dof punk, and it’s always going to be Dof punk. But then I like a lot of other electronic musics, as well. But I think they have, they have a sound that really gets to me, like, it’s, it’s really moving.

And I like the way they they make this electronic, but also sometimes kind of funky stuff. So Dof punk.

[Darran]
Yeah, I’d have to say that definitely Riggs is one of my top, top 10 of all time. I mean, you’ve mentioned a number of names, Deadmau5, and Daft Punk, and Eric Pride’s, you know, definitely take the cake for me. I love, I definitely love listening to a lot of stuff they produce, you know.

You know, I think it would be hard for me to really ground and say who my biggest influence is musically. You know, but because it really goes with anyone I’ve ever had on this series, you know, has always been an inspiration to hear their stories where they’re, you know, they’re just starting out, or if they’re a 30 year veteran in the game, and being able to talk to them, it really motivates me to want to share or get their knowledge shared with our DJ Sessions fans that maybe something they see on the show here could inspire them.

And again, now with technology being the way it is, somebody can see the show and then reach out to you via your website or your social media. And maybe it turns into a collaboration or mentorship or just even a piece of nice advice, you know, or maybe a listen, or something, you know, like, oh, I listen to your track. Yeah, why don’t you master it or turn up the baseline a little bit or put some more, you know, this and just a little tip that could help somebody along to help the community grow.

I think that’s a really, the biggest influence you can do is really just help those out. And so it’s a huge mission statement of mine to help those out that don’t know. When Pandy hit, you know, my phone was ringing off the hook because I was the live streaming guy that had been doing a DJ show for 10 years.

And I’m getting calls about copyright, I’m getting calls about which cameras to use, what software to use, how do I set this up? How do I get through copyright violations? I’m like, no, you know, so that was kind of, that was fun for the first half of 2022.

But, you know, all in all, it’d be very hard for me to pick a decent influencer of somebody that I would pick as my number one. Let’s go with this though. Speaking of number ones, who is your favorite DJ?

And can you tell us why they’re your favorite DJ?

[Handshake in Space]
It’s a tricky question.

[Darran]
I don’t want to get you in trouble.

[Handshake in Space]
No, no. As I said, I was really impressed with, with that mouse and the set that he did. But I also said a set with Richard Horton.

I think it’s, and that was also, and then I saw a set with Disclosure that also was really made an impact on me. So I would say now maybe Disclosure, because I think they got some really good tracks and I was, when they’re DJing, I like the vibe that they have. It seems like they have, for me, it’s important that you have fun.

I mean, it shows when you’re DJing, if you love what you’re doing, like, do you really want to DJ? Like, do you love DJing? And that’s the guys in Disclosure.

I think you can see that they love it. So well, Disclosure done.

[Darran]
Yeah. You know, that’s also another tough one for me to choose who would be my favorite DJ. I always, like I said, go back and just remember that first experience that I saw of an underground, of an electronic music DJ.

Now, I would say it was my first DJ I ever saw, electronic music DJ that I saw up on the DJ booth, you know, was very, very awesome and very, you know, kind of blew my mind that, you know, the crowd, the way they were moving, what they were doing was so different than the teenage, underage clubs that I was going to. I was like, where am I at? And I just kind of eventually immersed myself into that and just never looked back.

So, you know, that was just really awesome. You know, when you get on stage, do you become a different person? Like a different persona?

Or are you a different person off stage? Is it, you know, I’m Stefan outside and family life, but when I get on stage, I’m handshaking space. Is there a personality shift that happens there?

Or is it I’m Stefan and I’m still handshaking space, same person?

[Handshake in Space]
I think I’m very much the same, but I think I make bigger gestures when I’m DJing. I can see, when I look at clips, when I’m DJing, I can see that I don’t, I wouldn’t say why I’m doing that, but it’s like, wow, am I doing that? And, you know, yeah, it’s a little bit of change.

It doesn’t go like totally bananas and wild and crazy when I’m DJing, but there is a more lively version when I’m DJing. I’m also trying to take time to communicate with the people. And also if people came up to the DJ booth, I always take time to listen to them.

And sometimes it’s very interesting. And sometimes it’s not so interesting, but you take your time anyway. And I do.

I do.

[Darran]
You know, I mean, there’s the debate. I mean, this is, you mentioned a couple of people that we’ve talked about in Daft Punk and Deadmau5, you know, the masked DJ, you know, and, you know, is that, was that a shtick? Are people still doing that?

Are they coming out and, you know, trying to have that alternate persona when they come on stage? You know, I know your bio, you know, kind of says you’re an anonymous Swedish EDM artist, you know, and how is that, how, now that you’re getting kind of out there, how are you able to still maintain that anonymity of being kind of, you know, anonymous? Like, how is that, how do you, how do you protect that?

Or how do you do that?

[Handshake in Space]
Well, I have to update my website. I can hear that because I was anonymous until maybe a month ago. And then I opened up and I am handshaking space.

But it was also like I mentioned that I was feeling really, I had really a depression for, so I think that step was the final step for me to, for this healing progress. My daughter posted a video on TikTok. And when I saw it, I like, I don’t want to start crying, but I usually do when I think about it.

But it was such an amazing thing that she did because she’s, I want to be the best dad, I want to be the best husband, I want to be the best friends. But during a period of time, I wasn’t, I wasn’t there like the dad I want to be. And she explained it so well in that video, like my whole journey from going from down up to normal again.

So I think when she posted that, I thought, well, okay, I’m here now, I’m well, I can front it, I can be handshaking space. This is me, Stefan, I do this. So it was a part of the process, I think.

And now, well, I definitely have to update my website because I’m not anonymous anymore.

[Darran]
Yeah, bios are always changing. And if you want to get a new bio, and just shoot that over to me when you get it, we’ll definitely make sure we get the right information. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, you know, I’ve worked with artists in the past too, that, you know, they’ve kind of, that is their thing. They don’t want they don’t want to be known. We used to have a DJ on the show.

I think it was a true DJ. It was goes by the name of Angry Muffin. Yeah.

Angry Muffin was the producer, but you would only see a picture of a muffin. But Angry Muffin was the producer. And it was kind of funny, you know, that kind of thing.

But, you know, people are gonna eventually have to come out and that’s who they are. They’re gonna have to play shows and people are like, Who is that? You know, and then, you know, they get out there.

So, you know, so I can totally understand that the anonymity part of what you want to do there. What is your ultimate goal as a DJ and then slash producer? Is there a goal behind all this?

Are you trying to strive? Is it making number one Beatport tracks? Or is it a sold out festival or tour?

What’s your goals here?

[Handshake in Space]
My goals as a DJ is that I would like to have more, more gigs as Handshake in Space. That would be really nice like to play my music together and mixed in with some other music that you do in a set. That would be an amazing thing for me to do.

I’m not striving for like fame or fortune. I love making music. That’s what I want to keep doing.

I want to do more music and put it out there. So that’s what I want to do.

[Darran]
You know, and you know, if that’s, you know, that’s, that’s an admirable goal because you know, you want to stay focused on some people see the shiny object and the ball keeps moving here and here and here and here and all over the place. But you know, staying focused and making that happen and definitely helps accelerate. You get to your goals faster.

You know, people can sometimes look at me and think I bounce around and do all these different things. And really, in my mind, they’re all connected together, you know, and and so, you know, somebody says, what’s your ultimate goal as a producer? You know, I kind of have those clear defined goals and the benchmarks that I want to hit to know that I’m moving up a rung in the ladder or moving and progressing forward, you know, and there’s always some awesome stuff to awesome trials and tribulations and steps that sometimes you climb those three rungs and then you get set by bring five runs back, you know, or take two steps forward and take four steps back and you’re like, I’m back here again, you know, but you know, it’s just, it’s entertainment. That’s how things happen.

That’s how things go. When you don’t listen to dance music, what do you listen to? Because again, it sounds like you have a very big palette of music that you choose to listen to.

What if it’s dance music is off the shelf for today? Yeah. All right.

What?

[Handshake in Space]
I listen to quite some jazz because one of my actually my best friend, he’s a jazz musician. So he has taught me how to appreciate jazz before. For me, it was just a lot of sound that’s coming from everywhere and I couldn’t understand it.

It’s like, let’s turn it off. I don’t want to listen to it. So I mix that like I can have a period of jazz, but then I can have a period of, of, of, of pop or rock or hip hop or whatever.

Usually it’s like there is some one coming, you know, and I’m going to that show. Then you start listening more to that who is coming. But then I, I play a lot of music with my grandchild because, and now it has become a lot of hand checking space music for her, but also some jazz, which she, she loves.

[Darran]
Nice.

[Handshake in Space]
I’ve been listening to Kamasi Washington a lot lately. Who is that? Kamasi Washington.

I think he’s maybe from LA. I don’t know. He’s a big jazz musician, but he also works with a lot of hip hop artists like Kendrick Lamar and he plays the saxophone.

[Darran]
Okay. Okay. Okay.

Awesome. I love a sax. I love a good sax.

Do you listen to podcasts or live streams or radio shows? And if so, what are the top three shows you would recommend that our DJ sessions fans go out there and listen to whether it’s for inspiration to chill out, to dance to, or just, you know, overall get, get information. Do you have, do you listen to podcasts and live streams or radio shows?

And if so, what three are the top ones that you do listen to or recommend?

[Handshake in Space]
I’m afraid to say this, but I don’t listen to podcasts. I have so, I don’t know. I don’t know what it is with it.

I have, I have to have a picture with it, you know, just listen or like, if you listen to audio book, like I’ve tried so many times that, but I, you know, I lose focus because my mind is so occupied with so many things at the same time. So it just wanders away and then you lose track and then you have to rewind and listen again. And so I don’t think that’s, I listen to a lot of radio though, but I don’t do much YouTube either.

I’m, I’m kind of strange in that way, I guess, but I, but I listen to a lot of music. I have music on like 24 seven, all kinds of different music. I’m still loves a good album.

I love the concept of a good album. So, so I’m afraid I’m not your guide to get recommendations. This one is great.

Thank you. That I would highly recommend because I’ve been watching it and I’m enjoying it. Thank you.

Thank you.

[Darran]
Sorry, I’m no good there. That’s all good. You know, and like I was telling you a little bit before in the pre-show is that, you know, we’re ramping back up where we plan to have, you know, at least 32 interviews a month, Monday through Thursday, exclusive guest mixes.

There’s the news story section on our website. You can always go and find something. We have our events and we’ll start streaming live, our rooftop sessions, our mobile sessions, our silent disco sessions and other things as they come up.

We’re working with some other event promoters in the area here to do some really awesome stuff. So thank you very much for, for, for, for suggesting our show is one of the top shows to watch, you know, wrapping this up and you know, how do you envision your life 10 years from now with all of this going on, you have, you know, DJing, you’re getting into producing, where do you see yourself in 10 years from now? What would, like, where would Handshake in Space, where would you want to be and say, I want to be doing this and this is where I’m at 10 years from now.

[Handshake in Space]
My primary goal right now is I wanted to be the best granddad that’s ever walked the planet. That’s my main focus now. That’s the little one.

But for music wise, I would love to, to have played some, not, not as like a, but like an opener, maybe like at a festival or something as a DJ, as a DJ, that would be really, really fun. Or music wise, I’m, I’m, I’m hoping that I’m still doing it. And that I’m still like, for every track I is like, wow, this was better than the last track.

And I’m also hoping to, to get more collabs, because now I do much of the stuff I do by myself. So maybe I work together with someone, but I want to also maybe work a little bit closer that maybe you can meet, you know, that we talk on the screen now. It’s great.

But if I were in that room, there would be another chemistry to everything, I guess. And I think also that with music, like if you are in the same room together, that’s when something maybe extra magic can happen. So I’m, I’m hoping to, to get there, to have done some of that stuff also with other people.

That’s, so, but priority number one is to be the granddad I want to be. Awesome.

[Darran]
Thank you. And congratulations, man. I know they’re here.

She’s 11 years old. I’m not 11. I’m sorry, a year and a half.

I don’t know how I got 11.

[Handshake in Space]
I meant to say a year and then one and got one of the 10 years time she will be 11.

[Darran]
Yeah, I guess. Thank you for the save there, Stefan. Thank you.

Thank you. You know, you know, is there anything else you’d like to let our D well, you have an exclusive mix, you’re going to be giving us first and foremost, you have an exclusive mix you’re gonna be sending our way. Super excited to get that actually already have it saved.

We’ll get that up and running in our show here. So thank you again for that. Is there anything else you want to let our DJ sessions fans know about before we let you go?

[Handshake in Space]
Good question. I just want to say like, be kind and take care of each other. There is so much shit going on all over the world.

And like, and like the children, they have done nothing wrong, whatever they are, they just happen to be born in the wrong place. So donate whatever you can to help children in need, whatever they are. So that’s, that’s it.

I don’t don’t think that nothing. I’m Stefan. I’m from Sweden.

Stockholm. I’m 57 years old. I love making music.

You should try it. It’s never too late. Where’s the best people place people can go to to find out more information about you?

Well, it’s my website, which has to be updated. And handshake in space.com. But I’m also on one of the usual social media stuff like Facebook, and they are going to point somewhere.

That’s it. That’s a long finger. But I like I try to do my best on like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

So you will find me there also. But all links on the website.

[Darran]
Awesome. Well, Stefan, thank you very much for coming on the DJ sessions. It was a pleasure.

And as always, we’ll definitely be following up with you here in the future because we like to bring our guests back on the show because they always have to do in some new stuff, new projects, new songs, new tracks, new events, tours, all that and more. You’re going to go find that information one more time at handshake in space.com to follow him on socials, his YouTubes, check out his videos, latest tracks, that latest track. You know, you’re my cheerleader just came out in July or June 19 2024.

Check that out. I was listening to it before the show. It’s pretty damn good.

[Handshake in Space]
All right.

[Darran]
You’re very welcome. This is Darran. And that’s Stefan Holling from handshake in space.

He’s coming in from Barcelona. I’m coming in from the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington, for the DJ sessions presents the virtual sessions. Don’t forget to go to our website, the DJ sessions.com you can follow us on meta x, Instagram, tick tock every social media out there, sign up, subscribe to our shows and iTunes and have them automatically downloaded. If you miss them live online. We have over 600 news stories published to our site, exclusive mixes exclusive interviews just like this one right here and more at the DJ sessions.com and again, you know it’s Darran and that’s Stefan for the DJ sessions and remember on the DJ sessions. The music never stops.