Robert Owens – A Journey Through House Music, Legacy, and Authentic Creativity on The Virtual Sessions 8/12/25

In this captivating episode of The DJ Sessions – Virtual Sessions, host Darran Bruce connects with legendary vocalist, DJ, and producer Robert Owens from Berlin. Known as one of the defining voices of house music, Owens shares his remarkable path from Chicago residencies to international acclaim, offering deep insight into the culture and evolution of the global electronic music scene.

 

Owens recounts his instant leap from local gigs to touring Europe with house pioneers such as Frankie Knuckles and Marshall Jefferson, eventually making London and later Berlin his creative base. He paints a vivid picture of Berlin’s dynamic club culture, highlighting residencies at iconic venues like Sisyphos and KitKat Club, and discussing the balance between staying focused and embracing the city’s non-stop energy.

 

The conversation delves into the philosophy behind his label, Musical Directions, and its mission to unite diverse global artists while preserving artistic integrity. Owens reflects on industry challenges, emphasizing authenticity over imitation and the importance of self-belief for upcoming talent.

 

With stories from performing at Sydney Opera House to massive orchestral shows with Pete Tong, Owens stresses living fully in each moment, avoiding comparison, and continuously giving back to the community. He offers candid thoughts on success, longevity in the industry, and his personal coping methods to stay creative.

 

From lighthearted tales of shopping therapy to profound wisdom on music’s emotional power, this episode delivers an intimate and inspiring portrait of an artist whose legacy continues to shape the sound and spirit of house music worldwide.

 

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Robert Owens
Location: Virtual Studios, Seattle WA & Berlin, Germany

Overview:
Darran Bruce speaks with house music legend Robert Owens about his decades-spanning career, global performances, creative philosophy, and the evolving landscape of electronic music.

Topics Covered:

Early Career: From Chicago residencies to touring Europe with Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson, and other house pioneers.

European Transition: Relocating first to London, then Berlin, as creative hubs for growth.

Berlin Scene: Insights into residencies at Sisyphos, KitKat Club, and other iconic venues.

Musical Directions Label: Founded to connect artists worldwide while maintaining creative authenticity.

Creative Philosophy: Emphasizing originality, self-belief, and avoiding imitation.

Major Performances: Sydney Opera House shows, orchestral collaborations with Pete Tong, and festival appearances.

Community and Mentorship: Giving back to the scene through collaboration and guidance for new artists.

Industry Longevity: Balancing passion with personal care to sustain creativity.

Cultural Insights: Comparing the energy of Chicago, London, and Berlin’s nightlife.

Life Balance: The role of personal rituals and lighthearted escapes, including shopping therapy.

Travel Stories: Memorable gigs across continents, from intimate clubs to massive festival stages.

Advice for Artists: Stay authentic, avoid comparisons, and keep your focus on the music.

Call to Action:
Follow Robert Owens on Instagram @robert_owens_official and explore his music catalog on all major streaming platforms.
Discover more exclusive interviews and live performances 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 Berlin, Germany, you know, one of my favorite cities in the world, we have none other than long-time veteran in the industry and vocalist, DJ, producer, Robert Owens. Robert, how’s it going today?

Or tonight, I should say.

[Robert Owens]
Thank you for having me here. I’m grateful to be here with your family.

[Darran]
Absolutely. Super excited to be talking with you today. Definitely have an insight that a lot of, you know, a lot of the younger generation, a lot of younger artists don’t have that I’m excited to get down into today on the show with you.

But you know, I got to start out with, you’re coming in from Berlin, and I just got to say, after getting out in the world, I know we talked a little bit about this pre, I was in Berlin last year. What a beautiful city and what an awesome culture. Just from the little bit of time that I spent there, the musical, the industry culture was, I mean, it literally put an inkling in my head that I thought about moving to Berlin myself last year.

I thought about moving to Berlin myself last year.

[Robert Owens]
Well, it’s a very vibrant culture here, musically, you know. It’s a party, it appears to be every day, you know, and you have clubs like Sisyphus, where I have a residency there. I’ve been a resident at that club for maybe about nine or more years.

Sometimes they can open on a Wednesday or Thursday and close on a Tuesday or Wednesday, you know, so it’s just, it’s complete mayhem here in some places.

[Darran]
I don’t know if I need more of that in my life or less of that in my life.

[Robert Owens]
Yeah, you have to really, you know, know your tolerance and levels of, you know, you have to be really focused on, you know, get in, get out, do what you have to do, get back to your responsibilities, you know, but it’s beautiful, beautiful music culture here, not just with the clubs, with musicians as well. You know, there’s a lot of talented artists here, musicians, DJs, you know, so it’s a really vibrant culture for music lovers and creators.

[Darran]
Yeah, I definitely think what I want to plan, and I obviously got to talk with Martin Ayer about this at Riverside Studios, is to plan a trip where I can kind of like maybe- Another beautiful complex. Yeah, I love that play. I mean, I was just blown away how vast it was, and I recently connected, I have an interview with him coming up here shortly, and I’m super excited.

[Robert Owens]
Really? Okay, please say hi from me.

[Darran]
I definitely will, I definitely will.

[Robert Owens]
You know, I actually record right across the lot from there with Jamie Anderson. Nice. So I’m over there a lot, a lot throughout the week, I’m right there downstairs recording a lot, do a lot of vocal work there, and so I think I’ll pop over to Riverside.

[Darran]
I want to plan a European tour, get over there, and kind of make maybe Berlin my base so I could go out to other countries and other cities, but then come back to Berlin for the weekend, maybe when everyone’s around. But that place is just probably hustle and bustle, and just do a bunch of interviews there at the studios with everyone coming through, and then bounce around and go to like Ibiza or Paris or Greece, you know.

[Robert Owens]
Sounds like a great idea to do.

[Darran]
And I can take my show anywhere I want because we’re doing- Well, I’ve made it my base.

[Robert Owens]
I’ve made this my base, and I’m only one or two hours away from most European countries, and a lot on the weekends I fly out, and then I come back, and this is my base. It’s been my base here for maybe about 16 years now. Nice.

And before that, I was in London for maybe 27 years.

[Darran]
And you started out as a resident DJ in Chicago for local clubs. Back in the day, how was the experience of transitioning from kind of a national state-based, city-based, state-based artist to then moving and becoming an international DJ, producer, vocalist? What was that transition like?

Did it take time? Or was it like, I’m here and I want that?

[Robert Owens]
Oh, no, it was instant.

[Darran]
I’m here and I want that.

[Robert Owens]
It’s instant. You think the first early house tour with Trax Records with Larry Sherman, it was Fingers Inc., Marshall Jefferson, Kevin Irvin, who moved on to Club Nouveau, he was over here with us. There’s a few, I can’t remember everybody that was on the tour.

Frankie Knuckles I think was even on that tour. And I think it was Dave Levy that was I’m responsible for securing the dates for all of us back then. But I was on that first tour with everyone.

And from there, people just started asking me individually to come back over and hang out and visit. I kind of just made friends with certain people in the UK and London in particular. And then I just at one point, they just said, we’re keeping you here.

And I’m like, OK. I think around 1990 or something. And then when people found out that I was based in, I was over in London, then people in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, they just flew off with like throughout the week, I was literally flying in and out of town and just going all over the place till it was really overwhelming.

And I just stayed because it was like, God, I’d never get that amount of work in America. And just the whole shock of how people reacted to me that quickly to just go to all of those different countries. And places you read about in books or you see on movies and stuff, it’s like, wow, I’m actually here.

And I’m doing radio and I’m hanging out with designers and doing all kind of madness. So I think it just naturally happened. And then I look back and it’s what, 30 some more years and I’m still here in Europe.

[Darran]
You know, it’s amazing you mentioned it like that because I went to ADE for my first time, first time traveling abroad internationally in Mexico, Seattle, Mexico, North America. I don’t necessarily count that international travel and it wasn’t there for business, but going to ADE in 2022, 2023, Berlin, 2024, going to Puebla, Mexico for Dreamfields this year. And then looking forward to the future.

[Robert Owens]
Mexico, that’s a place I’ve never been. I would love to go to Mexico.

[Darran]
Jerry De La Villa is very connected with the Dreamfields event that was hosted in Guadalajara for the past few years. Now it’s being held in Puebla, Mexico. It’s about an hour South of Mexico City, population 5 million.

Super excited to be going down there for that, covering that concert. They have a lot of big artists.

[Robert Owens]
I hear a lot of people mention Mexico.

[Darran]
And so, but doing that tour, like we talked, I think a little bit pre-show is getting over and kind of making Berlin a base. I can see myself very easily being sucked in and saying, Darran, you live over here. Stay over here.

[Robert Owens]
You should do it. Come join us.

[Darran]
Don’t sell me on it, Robert. That’s how I ended up in Berlin last year. Literally, somebody said, come join us.

It’s cool. And I was like, I booked my ticket the next day. It was for my birthday.

My birthday is in a couple of weeks. So it was actually one year ago to the date. I was over there for a rave in Atlanta.

[Robert Owens]
Happy early birthday. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. My birthday is coming up too. My birthday is August 17th.

It’s coming up.

[Darran]
Oh, dang. So you’re Virgo, Virgo. Okay.

I get it. We’re both Virgos. I’m on the cusp.

[Robert Owens]
I’m Leo. I’m sorry, Leo.

[Darran]
What I’m saying? I’m on the cusp. I’m a Leo Virgo.

I can’t believe I got that wrong. I’m a Leo. You’re Leo.

Right on. You’re on the good side. I call it the best two sides in the universe.

[Robert Owens]
And rave the planet. Yeah. I’ll be back at rave the planet.

I was here this past year and I’m back next year with Westbound. So definitely you should come and hang out for that. That’s a must see for anyone that’s coming.

[Darran]
Anyone. I mean, I stayed at the NHOW Hotel too. That place is pretty cool.

If you know the NHOW.

[Robert Owens]
That’s a nice hotel.

[Darran]
It’s a little nice boutique hotel. Got a great room for it too.

[Robert Owens]
I live around, literally almost around the corner from there.

[Darran]
Okay, cool.

[Robert Owens]
I’m in the Kreuzberg area.

[Darran]
Oh, so you’re even close to your studio that you go do stuff with in Riverside as well.

[Robert Owens]
Yeah. So that’s why I’m right there by Riverside and everything. I can literally walk to all the clubs when they call me to come and play.

It’s like, okay, I can just walk up to a club.

[Darran]
Then you’ll know the only club that I found that was close by that I could go to that played house music was that club that’s right by the bridge. It’s not too far from NHOW. It was walking distance for me from NHOW.

[Robert Owens]
Club Divisionaire. Okay. You have the one that’s on the river, the Club Divisionaire.

I think that’s the one that’s on the river.

[Darran]
You walk downstairs and they have a barge outside.

[Robert Owens]
That’s Divisionaire. Then you have opposite it that it was a club that used to be called Chalet and they just renamed it something else. But I haven’t been to this new reopening of it.

But around the block down the street, there’s about four clubs down there or something. At least three of them or something. I made it that far from the hotel.

[Darran]
I didn’t know where I was going. I was by myself.

[Robert Owens]
Watergate used to be around the corner from where you were.

[Darran]
I think Watergate is where Martin had a residency or something of that nature. He knew some people that he had a little bit of pull, I think, there to maybe get me in the door. Not waiting a long line.

[Robert Owens]
But even on the block that you were on, if you would have kept straight up the street, it’s Renata Club is right there on the corner.

[Darran]
Oh, wow.

[Robert Owens]
And if you keep further down, it’s the About Blank Club is a little further down. And if you keep further down, Sissy Falls Club is further down. And if you come back the other way, you got Tresor.

[Darran]
Robert, all you’re doing is selling me on getting another ticket to come to Germany next year, or maybe even sooner. Maybe even sooner, come to Germany, come to Berlin and say, hey, can I flow you some dollars and tell me where the best places to go are? The thing is, I love though, is I got to hear house music in Berlin.

I know that is not a natural occurring, reoccurring theme there.

[Robert Owens]
I heard it’s a lot of techno, which I’m- I think it depends on which night that you go to and which club, because you figure somewhere like Sissy Falls, they have several different rooms. They have indoor, outdoor rooms. It’s like an amusement park in that place.

And they have the main winter garden when you enter the place and come through, and they predominantly play house music in that room. Then they have a big, large room indoors that’s mainly dedicated to heavy techno. Then they have a tunnel.

They have a beach area. Then some other areas of madness, some of these clubs. You get lost.

[Darran]
Wow. Okay. I’m definitely planning a ticket to come out there then.

[Robert Owens]
My residency at Kit Kat Club for Electric Mondays, we play across the board. We might go into funk, into house, into disco, into some techno. I try to be well-versed in everything, and it depends just on the night and where I’m playing.

But there’s several places here where you can get variety of styles.

[Darran]
After all the years of being in the industry, in the game, and doing tracks, playing shows, producing, if you had to pick one of your productions as your most favorite one, which one would it be, and is there a thought behind why it’s your most favorite or most memorable? Now, I know it’s kind of a loaded question, because people ask me all the time, what’s my favorite episode that I’ve ever done on the show? And I got 2,600 episodes behind my belt.

I’m like, every single one of them. But do you have one that stands out that maybe one that launched your career or collaboration you were looking to work on or anything that pops in your head as your most favorite one or your most memorable one? Your most favorite one or your most memorable one?

[Robert Owens]
No. I get this question, a similar type question, a lot throughout my journey, I’ve had this type question. But for me, every experience is a moment in time.

And it’s with whoever the person is with right now, we’re having a moment in time. We can’t compare these moments we’re having to anything else, past or present. This is now.

And my life is about now. Every musical journey, every experience creating with the individual, that was a special moment. And we all are unique in our own right.

We can’t compare ourselves to no one else. And often I tell a lot of young people, you should never fear giving yourself and being you. When you walk into a room, you should never compare yourself to no one.

And you should never fear. And this eliminates fear out of a lot of people. A lot of people are drawn into the fear factor because they compare.

They compare their self to this, or they feel like they got to be that or be this. No, you have to be you. You have to give you, you have to embrace the moments and enjoy each moment that you’re given in life.

And make it special and make it happy.

[Darran]
And make it beautiful. That’s a very great, great, awesome words of wisdom there. Because when I was growing up and I started in public access and went from public access to broadcast television, and I had no playbook on how to do this.

There was no YouTube. There was no TikTok. There was basically no internet.

I mean, there was internet, but there wasn’t video distribution via the internet. And there was no playbook. Every book you read, it was training me to basically go to LA and try to pitch my show to the studios, have the studios pick it up.

If they wanted to produce it, then they own my shit. And then I don’t own anything. And they can just replace me at a moment’s notice.

Because I was a kid, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t come from money and have lawyers or was a Nepo baby or anything like that. But I ended up producing a broadcast series three times, exactly to NBC and Fox.

And eventually getting eight separate television shows approved on 13 network stations across the West Coast as an independent studio. And there was no playbook on how to do that. I was kind of making it up as I go.

And then boom, the internet comes out in the sense of YouTube and video broadcasting. And that’s kind of where we found our niche. And I didn’t have to work and do that whole route.

I could shoot online, but so could everyone else. So everyone thought, oh, it’s easy. I got to show it.

[Robert Owens]
I’m like- But nobody could do it like you. Yeah. Do you know the grind I had to do beforehand?

Nobody could do it like you. But you get your own blueprint. Yeah, exactly.

Nobody can reduplicate your blueprint.

[Darran]
And head the way clock forward. I sometimes don’t get a chance to look back on those accomplishments. And you take a turn and go, wow, I did all that.

Because I still got all this going forward. I got to work, but I keep moving. But I love what I do.

It’s a great, it’s a fun time. I get to meet people like you. I get to travel the world sometimes and meet awesome people there.

And it’s about community and really keeping it going. But I think your words of wisdom there are true. Just be you and don’t compare yourself with what others are doing.

[Robert Owens]
Yeah.

[Darran]
Because that can be a mind killer in the game if you’re comparing. Because you never know what those other people are working with. I tell this to a lot of people.

You don’t know if a family member died and just left them a quarter million dollars and their PR company and hands back, but they may still look like they’re broke. But you don’t know what money is fueling them or what Rolodex they’re tapped into or who they know.

[Robert Owens]
So a lot of- But the key thing is that money or not, you are unique in your own right. Yeah. And nobody can do it the way you’re going to do it.

Yeah, exactly. Feel what you feel. Yeah, exactly.

So as long as you come in with that kind of energy, you’re always going to come with something unique. And when you connect with another individual, you automatically, the two of you create something unique that nobody else can create. They may try to do it exactly like you, but they’ll never do it exactly like you because they can’t feel what you feel.

And you come in with that energy and you’re going to always come out with something positive to make yourself proud. And in return, you make people around you proud. And that’s what it’s about.

All that I learned and accumulate is about giving it back to humanity. I can’t take it with me, but I can give it away. And I’m a pouring fountain.

I tell people often, I am a machine. I even did a song, I am a machine. It’s constantly pouring.

You can take a sip from this fountain, but you can’t stop it from pouring as long as I’m alive and living and giving.

[Darran]
I have a similar philosophy. I used to call it the 98th percentile. Now I call it the 97th percentile.

I’ll go into it in a second why. But I would give away 98% of the information that I knew away freely. Here, use me as a reference.

Like you said, the fountain reference was a beautiful analogy there. But in 2020, I kind of- But be cautious.

[Robert Owens]
Everybody doesn’t deserve your energy too. You have to be cautious of how you give away too.

[Darran]
That’s why I call it the 97th percentile now, because I was giving away information. When I would run collaborations, they were using my information to go do their own thing. And I’m like, I got 30 years of knowledge of doing this and you’re going out there trying to do it on your own.

I know you’re going to go through this. I know you’re going to go through this. You’re going to go through this.

And you’re going to get disenfranchised and say, oh, this sucks. This doesn’t work. I’m like, well, because you just jumpstarted with no plan and you read ABC and not knowing there’s all the way to XYZ and then infinite numbers after that.

And you went to playbook going, I can do ABC. It’s like, no, but good start. What can I do to help you out?

Or I don’t need to listen to you. I’m going to do it my own way.

[Robert Owens]
Sure. Yeah. I’ve been around.

Yeah. We’ve been around. But hey, you know, going to- You could be all that loving, but be cautious.

Yeah, definitely.

[Darran]
But going back to production, surrounding production topics, are you a hardware or software producer or both?

[Robert Owens]
Software producer or both? Oh, God. I used to have- I had a whole studio set up and the neighbors complained and complained.

I ended up giving the studio away. So I’m just in and out of the studios. Like I said, across from Riverside, I work a lot with Jamie Anderson.

And God, walking into his studio, you get all kind of units in there. You know, you just- Anybody that’s like an engineer programmer or something, you’d walk in there and be like, oh, my God. You know, it’s just so many different units there, drum machines, keyboards, everything.

You know, so we built a relationship where we’re really fast and work really sensibly and cleverly together. You know, sometimes I can go in the studio. I might have written something and had planned to, you know, sing what I wrote down.

And then he’ll put a track on it. I was like, oh, scrap that. Just give me the mic right quick.

I got a feeling. And bam, five minutes. And I just hit a whole pass of a song from top to bottom.

And then he say, OK, that’s it. And we’ll leave it. So I think it’s nice when you have a partnership when you’re working with individuals and y’all know each other.

You know, you can get things done really quickly. You know, and me knowing basic structures, again, I can only give you me. I don’t go into a studio trying to be anyone else or I don’t have to listen to a track or anything to create a track.

I could just instantly set up. You could turn on the 808, 707, 303 or whatever. I can hear the drum program instantly.

Its rhythm is in me. I can go and I don’t go into a studio to try. I do.

That’s another thing I tell people. Don’t try. Do.

Either it works or it doesn’t work. If it doesn’t work today, know when it ain’t hitting it and say, OK, let’s grab this for a moment. Let me come back and try it another day.

You know, but know thyself is another characteristic that’s important that people should really face, you know, and face the truth about things and be around people that are honest with you, you know, and accept if something is not working, you know, move on. But as far as creating music, I just got a natural energy that I can go into a studio and I know I’m going to come out with a result because it’s just in my DNA to, you know, create. And I like that, you know, that piece of any kind of hardware, software, I could use any kind of gear, you know, and it’s like I can make something work.

[Darran]
You know, that piece of advice is when you have something and maybe taking a step back and walk it away from it is a philosophy I use a lot when I’m working on a lot of stuff, because people think I’m just the guy who turns on a camera and does an interview with somebody. They don’t see all the social media, marketing, PR, networking, emails, back and forth, arranging, all the stuff that goes on in the back end to put this show on. And, you know, just the other day I hit a frustration point with something I was working on the launch for the website and I just stopped and I just got up, walked away, came back.

This happens more often than not. I sat down for 30 seconds and go, oh, now it’s work. Oh, what was my mental block?

What was happening right there? When my cat jumps up on the board, you know, it says, hey, play with me.

[Robert Owens]
I think that is a sign.

[Darran]
It’s a break from things for a minute, you know? And they’re like, okay, I’ll play. Okay, something’s going on.

Maybe he can sense that I’m maybe getting just some aura, tension, energy around. And he’s like, nope, time to take a break, Darran. And the other day he came up, you mentioned you were posting pictures about cats.

He came up and literally I had my hand on my mouse. He came up and just went plop, came up and just went on top of my hand. And I’m like, what are you doing, dude?

And he just lays right on top of my arm, my hand, like play with me or look at me. You know, he’s a year old. His name is Doja the cat.

He’s a boy. I know.

[Robert Owens]
Yeah. I love cats.

[Darran]
Yeah. You mentioned recently. Yeah.

[Robert Owens]
Yeah. If you go on the Instagram page, you’ll see some of the posts about cats. Usually people like really, I try to post little things to lift people’s day, you know, like they might just pass and say, okay, I wasn’t expecting that you lifted my day.

You know, I think it’s important to think about people, you know, in general, you know, me being involved in the music industry, you know, I always tell people they’re my lifeline, your extension of me, you know, me bringing some happiness to you radiates happiness back to me, you know, so that’s why I post, you know, different things. And, you know, at one point I was just posting a few things and people would come back to me and say, oh, you know, you really made my day. You posted this and that.

And so it’s been something that I continually do because people inspired me to keep doing that in post little things, you know, no matter what I’m going through, I could be having a rough day, but I still would put something there to try to lift someone else up. Because in return, me seeing their response vibrates back to me. And I’ve, I’ve been lifted up seeing that they were lifted up, you know, so I came out of my mood just saying that, oh, somebody smiled about that.

Absolutely.

[Darran]
I think that’s, you know, that, that, that reciprocal fan base coming back one message, one little thing could just make your day. Like, oh, wow. Or somebody coming back on, you know, I really loved your interview with Robert and I love what Robert had to say.

Wow. I’ve heard him for years, you know, like that, you know, you know, somebody jumping in a chat room and saying something that it’s all helps, you know, it’s, it’s awesome because I found even like with another one of my companies, I found that when you’re doing good and you’re posting out there and saying, everything’s great, everything’s great, everything’s great. People sometimes don’t come and say, congratulations, you’re doing great.

Cause they already know you’re saying that you’re doing great. They don’t have to, but the second somebody wants to be negative on you, they’ll come and say something to try to bring your day down or if they don’t like what you’re doing, that’s when you hear a lot of that.

[Robert Owens]
Your own cheerleader and cheer for yourself. You gotta lift yourself up and know that somebody else is going through something, you know, out there just like you, even if you’re going through something negative.

[Darran]
And you don’t know who’s watching you nowadays. You don’t know who’s watching you nowadays too. If you could give one production tip or insight to new and up and coming producers out there, what would that be?

[Robert Owens]
To be their self and to give their unique self to their projects, you know, always, you know, and rely on your natural instinct to interject something into your production that relates to you and your character.

[Darran]
I hear a lot of, of DJs.

[Robert Owens]
For me, like I don’t, I don’t have to listen to like a lot of people need to be inspired by something else that someone has done or created, you know, to kickstart their production on a track or something. I don’t have to do that. I just instinctively can go into the studio and think of a thought and then just, you know, react to that thought and just start laying down some drums or whatever.

And that’ll kick me into a base. I could just naturally go into and trigger off. I’ve worked, I’ve had 11 piece band before I’ve worked with 50 piece orchestras, all kinds of stuff, you know, so I’ve seen music from all kinds of angles.

So the rhythm is just naturally in me, you know, so I’d say, you know, yeah, just naturally go in there and start off any production with your natural emotion and feeling, you know, just coming naturally from you. And then, you know, if you feel like, okay, I want to get a loop from something else, a loop from that, you add that, layer it in there too, on top of that, which is also fine. But I’d say would, for me personally, the greatest things come when you reach inside yourself and find some emotion that triggers you to create something that’s naturally coming from you first.

[Darran]
And, you know, a lot of producers, you know, they, I don’t want to say make the mistake, but you hear a lot of young producers starting out wanting to make sounds that sound like somebody else. And that might be the hottest sound or the newest thing, or somebody says, oh, that’s really awesome.

[Robert Owens]
You know, record labels push you to do that too. That was a big problem when I did work with major labels, you know, it was like, oh, I want you to do this line like Whitney Houston or Bobby Brown or this artist. I’ve even been in sessions where they actually were on YouTube or something, and they picked whatever was in the top 10.

And it was like, sing this line like him, sing this line like her. And then at the end of the session, they’re like, yeah, man, we got it. It’s a hit.

And I’m like, really? They go back to the record label and the record label say, but it don’t sound like him. And they like, it’s like, yeah, because I got a natural style and character that I’ve created over years.

And anybody that knows me and follows me, they know if something is just pieced together and if it’s me or not. So it’s never worked with somebody trying to make me sound like some, make me duplicate other people. I just don’t think like I could do it.

But it doesn’t sound realistic because I think I got a natural emotion to it, a way of conveying a thought, the way I convey a vocal across on a song. I think it’s a natural way that I do that, that a lot of people recognize now. So this is the other reason why it’s hard for you to try to throw me into some kind of commercial vein of doing each line like somebody.

And it’s like, wait, what? Because they do that with a lot of the commercial artists. I’ve been in sessions where I’ve seen the producers putting together a song for a commercial artist.

And what they do, they have those artists just sing the song maybe 50, 60 times. And then they cut out pieces of each take to make a composite vocal. Then they give it back to the artist for them to learn the song.

After they did all of this, I was like, I couldn’t work like that. Yeah. You have me chopping up all of these different pieces.

Now I got to be natural. I come from a church background. Church people be singing for freedom.

You know, they ain’t sitting there chopping up no pieces. They like, God have mercy, help you, Lord. You ain’t got no time to be piecing that together.

They singing that from their soul. They ain’t even show, but they like, there’s so many up there. Come on down.

I hear you on that.

[Darran]
I want to give a shout out right now to a couple people watching the show. Some guys from the neighborhood of yours from Germany out there, Sirius and Smokey. What’s up, Sirius and Smokey?

If you’re still watching on IG, I see you popping up. Shout out, family. Yeah.

So we’re going to move a little bit off of production and talk about more performance-based stuff. And another kind of big question here, probably been asked this before, but what’s been the best or memorable experience you’ve ever had behind the DJ booth? Is there one or moments like, I was striving for this.

I know there’s been hundreds if not thousands, but I was on the phone with Ria Metta the other day and she goes, one of the biggest things I’d love to do is play Tomorrowland. That would be like the bucket list.

[Robert Owens]
I’d like to play Tomorrowland too. Tomorrowland, can you hear us? We want to play there.

You know, shout out to you all there. Was there anything in your- Shout out to Tomorrowland. We’ve been waiting.

[Darran]
Anything in your career you can remember that was like another defining moment or saying, I made it to this pinnacle point and it’s going to accelerate me further, or something that was the best experience you ever had behind a DJ booth?

[Robert Owens]
I would, I’d say it’s similar to earlier you asked me about a question and I said, you can’t compare one moment to the next, but like I’ve had some really beautiful experiences. I played Sydney Opera House twice, indoor and outdoor. And it’s like just looking across the harbor and did like people just seeing the expressions on people’s faces while I was singing and DJing and singing there, you know, it’s like beautiful.

And God, I did the Exit Festival in Yugoslavia, just a sea of people. And, you know, at one point it started raining and people started dancing harder. And then it started drying off and the sun started coming out and people were just swaying into the music.

You know, that was a beautiful experience. I did a tour with an orchestra with P-Tong and stadiums all across England and Scotland. We ended up back at the O2 Arena, I think 36,000 or more people inside that.

It was filled and like I was a nervous wreck, but just the experience of seeing that sea of people and, you know, performing like I could go on and on about shows like that orchestra with Dave Beard, Back to Basics, you know, the city sponsored and just to see the love for him and, you know, that community and knowing that I grew with them, you know, from back in the early late 80s and 90s into the 90s or something when I came over to England.

I did loads of places all throughout England, you know, and so it’s like I could look from country to country going back to Paris, Bandush, Le Palace, Radio Nova, David Guetta. I did one of his first tracks on a major label and, you know, so it’s like it’s from city to city. It’s been so many amazing experiences.

I could go on and on. Even places where I met people, I did shows with Lolita Holloway, meeting Miles Davis, sitting down and talking to him. I could take you a journey of different experiences of artists.

I’ve been around Sylvester and different things. Walking into Tina Turner, face to face with her, encounter with David Bowie, Prince. I could go on and on with all kind of things.

I just look down my journey and say, God, thank you or whoever’s up there, thank you. I’ve had some really blessed, blessed moments. They’re a part of me and I try to translate and pass that on through my performances to date.

The next performance, again, this moment right now, this is a blessed, beautiful moment. It’s like you count your blessings and to be grateful for right now, today, that I’m here and still existing and able to just conversate with you all and talk. Yeah.

[Darran]
If you could host an event without any limitations, what five things would you have at that event? What five things would you have at that event?

[Robert Owens]
Well, what would I have at that event? Me, myself and I, a room filled with people that are family and plenty of water because we’re going to get dehydrated.

[Darran]
So you, yourself and I, family and water. Any special location that captures your heart or your soul, your mind when it comes to putting on for atmosphere or anything that you’ve been to around the world?

[Robert Owens]
Oh, I’m ready to do the first party on the moon. Okay. Then we go ahead to after party on Mars.

[Darran]
There we go. There we go. My contracts have included in the past, people didn’t understand.

I mean, you understand this when you’re in the business, but people don’t understand when I said the entire universe for the rights to my programming and stuff. I have the rights because I plan to have my show on Mars one day and I got to have the distribution rights for the Mars or if I sell the shows.

[Robert Owens]
Andromeda.

[Darran]
Yeah. Andromeda to the universe.

[Robert Owens]
K-Park 2T9. There’s some planets out there that’s got the same atmosphere as Earth.

[Darran]
Exactly.

[Robert Owens]
I’m ready to go there and then set it up and set up that DJ system.

[Darran]
And moving things towards the business side of things in the electronic music industry, you have your label, Musical Directions. Tell us all about that. The direction you’re looking to take by launching your label or getting that started.

[Robert Owens]
What Musical Directions started in London, actually, when I had a manager at that time, Jackie Nottingham, we started it there in London. And then it kind of went quiet for a minute. Junior was the boys’ own, did a few tracks on there and a few other artists I had on the label.

I even did something with Farley Jackmaster, Funk Chippy and Adonis. They did something on there. And then I moved over here, what, maybe 2015 and I reactivated the label and I just went around town and I started looking for all different artists from, you know, different backgrounds.

Moog Conspiracy, Jerome Sidram. Who else? Bernard Batty from America.

Got Eric DeClark is on there. But if you go and look up the first album, it’s a series, it’s a four part series. And we’re up to part two in a couple of remix package.

And the album is called Naked and it’s naked in the vulnerable sense. I expose my feelings and emotions or whatever to you. And so that’s up on Beatport, Tracksource and a bunch of digital outlets.

But this whole series is about just connecting different artists from different genres all together. And they’re doing the production and I’m doing the lyrical content for this four part album series. And then after that, I want to just take individual artists and start showcasing them on the label and doing, you know, individual projects with different artists.

So I’m grateful that I’ve reactivated the label. It’s been a little slow, you know, and getting production out because it’s been mainly me dealing with everything. But slowly I’m building a team and so things should start picking up and coming out faster with projects and everything.

But if you get a chance, go and check what we’ve done so far and check out the roster of different artists that are there so far. You know, it’s a beautiful collection of a lot of different artists. They’re on a roster that I’ve worked with, you know, and again, from different backgrounds, you know, from house to techno and, you know, so I wanted to be real diverse and, you know, give you a global feel of what’s happening with people, you know.

[Darran]
Yeah. You know, we toured with the idea a few years back. It was always like an add-on, something or additional we were going to do with the DJ Sessions is create the DJ Sessions label.

And I looked at that and I’m like, oh, that’s just like an old company in itself, almost, you know, of doing production and artists, lots of work out there. And so, you know, I kind of, it’s not saying that it isn’t still on the plate or in the idea cloud over here that we want to do something like that. But what I did to kind of appease that on our end is we started our new music section on our site where we want to highlight tracks and albums that the guests that come on our show, we invite them to be on that, you know, and it’s obviously, you know, we do it free of charge.

We’re not charging. We’re not looking for affiliate links or anything like that. We talked a little bit about this pre-show, but, you know, just because we want to help showcase and put more information out there for our, not only the people that are coming on the show and taking their time to let us interview them like yourself, but also making, they make exclusive mixes.

Sometimes they can put their music up. We have a site wide player. You know, I have so much going on here that I want somebody to be able to come in, in the morning when they wake up and come in the afternoon for lunch and come back at dinnertime and there’s something new in the DJ sessions.

You know, whether it’s an interview, an exclusive mix, a new track, a new news story. I’ll go over all that when we do our close-up, when I do my outro. But my point being is, is making it a hub where it’s really generating content because, you know, a lot of people start up with ideas and they’ll get seven tenths of awesomeness going on over here.

And then one 10th of it is like, what’s going on over here? It’s like, you know, we’re repositioning on our site and what I built it for was to include that music side of things in addition to everything that we do and slowly working it because we want to be recognized as more of an international brand, you know, not brand. It isn’t just the live streaming show that is based out of Seattle anymore.

You know, I live in Seattle, which you visited recently and thank you for coming out.

[Robert Owens]
Yes, it’s a beautiful place. I loved it there. I thought about it.

I was like, oh, I could live here.

[Darran]
Yeah.

[Robert Owens]
You come back out here again, we’ll have to get you on our mobile studio and have you tour around the city on that. I was there with a collective called the club called Rhonda. Some of your listeners might know them, but they’re a beautiful collective.

You know, over the years, I’ve done a lot of dates with them, but they did a beautiful party there. I can’t remember the name of the venue, but it was two different levels, but really beautiful party and it packed in there, you know, but the energy from the people, it was just instant. And it was like, again, I felt like I was amongst family and that’s what it’s about, you know, with this whole music thing for me, you know, and that’s going back to the Studio 54, Paradise Garage, Warehouse, all of that stuff back in the day, you know, those people, you came in those parties and you felt like you were amongst family, you know.

Absolutely. You know, I try to keep that same energy alive and I felt like I felt that way when I was there in Seattle, you know.

[Darran]
Yeah, we got a community here. We got a community going on here. Going back to the label discussion though, you know, what do you think is the most important thing that labels should be doing for their artists?

And on the whole, are they doing a good job of that? Doing a good job of that?

[Robert Owens]
Well, you know, I haven’t been affiliated with any of the majors or even too many of the majors. Independence as an artist per se, I’ve done like featured artist work lately with a lot of projects, you know, a lot of people hire me to be just a featured artist on their album, you know, so once I actually do my production and vocal composite, I send that on to the producer and label and, you know, then it’s out of my hands what they’re doing. So, I’m not really interactive with a lot of labels to understand where they’re at as far as, you know, the creative process and, you know, how they’re really taking care of the artists.

In the past, it just didn’t work for me. It didn’t go as well as planned, but, you know, with my label, I think I’m doing a good job of making sure that the artist’s publishing and stuff is protected and secured and doing fair, even 50-50 deals with artists, you know. I don’t try to take advantage of anyone and, you know, you can come to me and talk to me about things that you don’t understand even within the legal processing of things, you know.

I’m very open about that and that’s something that never happened with me in the past with, you know, dealing with labels and different people. You know, I felt it was too much greed and, you know, people, too, this controlling thing. You should want people to understand the business side of things and, you know, just for their future, for their own sanity and security, you know.

So, I think the difference, if it’s any difference from my angle, it’s definitely that difference where, you know, people can just instantly talk to me and I openly give you information. I don’t want nothing from that, but to see you succeed.

[Darran]
Yeah, it’s definitely the mantra we have here at the DJ sessions when I bring on resident DJs and it’s like, I used to charge DJs back in the day to be a resident on the show, 50 bucks a week, but they were coming into my studio. I was setting up the multi-cams, you know, basically, if you were renting studio time from somebody, but I was providing them a service that they didn’t have to invest in all that.

[Robert Owens]
You have to pay for things, you know. Rent is not free, so you got to pay for it. You got to balance things out.

So, it depends on the situation, you know, and, you know, people should be understanding to that, you know, didn’t nobody give you to put a roof over your head for free. So, you got to, you know, balance out things, you know. So, it depends on the situation.

[Darran]
Yeah. So, I mean, it worked and I still maintain that 98%, which is now 97%, give the information away for free, help support, help grow, help make things bigger. I think that’s kept my mantra and my sanity in a nice good place too.

Never having to worry about somebody coming back.

[Robert Owens]
It’s just all depends on the situation.

[Darran]
Yeah. So, you know, never having to worry. I never have to watch my back because I’ve never stolen or manipulated or misrepresented a contract.

Everything I do, I put in writing as well to make sure everyone knows exactly what’s going on, what the expectations are. I mean, we all love our own interpretations, but in the industry, people can get starstruck. People can get, you know, the rose colored glasses on and not see the reality of the situation.

Well, you promised me this and you promised me that. I said, I want to be there. I want to get there.

I didn’t say I had that right now. We got to work for that stuff. It doesn’t, doesn’t come overnight.

Somebody once told me once I was in an interview with him and I said, did this just blow up for you overnight or did this happen? How did this happen? He goes, no, there are no Cinderella stories in this business.

You know, somebody has been working behind the scenes. I just went and saw Lady Gaga a few days ago. I was talking to my friend who’s a huge fan of hers.

And he says, she started out singing in parking lots and then doing this for her first shows. I go, yeah, but did you see what she was doing before she did those parking lots? Before she played those early on shows, she probably was already a vocalist.

She probably was doing something from an early age. She was just out of the parking lot. I went, fuck you all of them.

And somebody goes, sign her. She’s a big star. Even MC Hammer, you know, his story that he told that he was a ball boy for the Oakland A’s and somebody saw him in the parking lot rapping.

And they said, hey, come over here. And then, you know, MC Hammer was made. I don’t know why.

It’s crossed my head because it’s relative, but I mean, none of this stuff happens overnight for people. You know, it’s a lot. You have to put in the work.

[Robert Owens]
And if you’re renting out a space, you have to, like you said, you have to weigh all of that out. So it just depends on the situation.

[Darran]
All of that kind of leads me right into my next question is, how do you define success as a producer, vocalist, DJ? Is it a Beatport top 10 hit, sold out tour? What are your thoughts on this?

What are your thoughts?

[Robert Owens]
Oh God, success. I haven’t defined success because I continue to keep going. You know, success is the ability and strength and will and determination that want to keep going.

You know, if you feel like you’ve made it, you’re done. You got to keep pushing. You got to keep pushing.

You know, it’s no time to stop and say, oh, I’ve made it. You know, if you filthy rich and you can’t, you don’t have to pay no bills or nothing else, maybe that’s some sense of success. But if you still got to pay some kind of bill, okay, in short, if you got to pay any kind of bill, you ain’t at no level of success.

When you’re free from bills and you ain’t got to do nothing but sit there and read books all day, maybe that’s success. Somebody once asked me. But as long as the bill collector’s at your door, you ain’t at no level of success.

Somebody once asked me a long time ago. You ain’t got nothing to do but sit there on your island and all of the food and everything free. Maybe that’s some kind of success.

But no, I’m still, I’m working every day and night. I’m chilling and thinking on how I can make a next move. So it ain’t no time to stop and talk about no success.

[Darran]
Yeah. A long time friend of mine who I started in this industry with, he asked me, he says, how do you define success, Darran? I’m like, well, I define success when I have my Learjet, when I have my Black American Express card, when I have my studio offices around the world, and I have employees, and I have a management team, and I have an advertising budget that is a third of whatever I’m taking in every year, which would be millions of dollars.

Why is money so important? Why did you make money as a gauge of success? I said, ah, money’s not a gauge of success.

Running a successful business is a sign of success. And in order to run a successful business, you have to have money to do that. I have to be able to pay people what they’re worth.

I’m not trying to do this all for free. I know somebody that’s really good at their job, and they can be poached by somebody for 75,000 or 100,000 a year, and I can only offer them 50. I better figure out a way to start making that money so I can hire that kind of talent to come work for me.

And it’s not about the money. It’s about money. I got to pay accountants.

I got to pay lawyers. I got to pay licensing. I got to pay this and all this fun stuff, distribution.

So it wasn’t about the money that was success to me. Making money, that was not my success line. It was having my business be out of the red.

And if I make one penny every year or in degrees, I am successful as a business. A lot of people like to fluff and dander, pontificate in this industry, make themselves bigger than what they are. And it’s like, I’ve done everything I got.

I’ve had people accuse me of making 250 to $500,000 a year and not paying anyone while I’ve been on food stamps, disability, going to food banks, and never letting anyone know about it. And they’re getting accused that I’m not paying anyone and not knowing how I’m paying rent the next month. And I’m like, well, I must be doing something right entertainment-wise.

You all believe that? Okay, cool. And all they have to do is ask me.

All they have to do is, I’m not hiding anything from anyone. Like, Darran, how are you making it? I go, you mean, how am I making it while I’m flat broke on my ass and can’t work because I’m disabled?

I don’t know. I’m just making it happen. Maybe I have some magic.

I don’t know. But yeah, I mean, you just got to push through and make that success. I would love to be on a beach with no bills I have to pay for and food everywhere.

[Robert Owens]
I wouldn’t quit doing this though.

[Darran]
I would not stop doing this. I love this too much. Because it leads me into my next question is, you know him, I know him, the world knows him.

Carl Cox recently just turned 65 in July. He’s still rocking the major festivals. I mean, you look like a young guy.

I know you’ve been around for a while, but you got your youth. I got my youth. You see yourself still doing this for 10, 15, 20 more years?

[Robert Owens]
Yes. I said, I told somebody, I said, I want to go out with a mic in my hand. Like as long as mortals, whoever up there willing, as long as they allow me to do it, I’m going to keep doing it.

I don’t look at no stopping point. I want to give as long as I can give.

[Darran]
You said something there, mortal life, and I’ve heard this saying a lot when people are making productions, making tracks, the term it gets synonymous with making a baby or making a child and you’re sending that child out into the world to see what’s going to happen with that child. Do you feel that you have some sense of immortality because you have so much mortality that you put out there that your legacy will live on based on that? You’ve made your testimony and walk in the place of time.

[Robert Owens]
I’ve never thought about it like that or nothing. I’ve just been grateful that I continue to have the desire to create. On the back end of that, it’s always been a thought that I think I might have mentioned this early.

I’ve said to people often, all that you learn and accumulate, you should want to give it back to humanity. No matter how well we live our lives, one day we’re going to leave this earth. No matter how much money I can accumulate or save or whatever, somebody else is going to be fighting over that money when I leave this earth.

Nothing really belongs to me. I’m just enjoying what’s given to me while I’m here. As much as I can pass on, I want to pass on while I’m here.

Again, somebody else will be fighting over it and giving it away to others. At least I’m giving it away to people that I think deserve it while I’m here is the other end of that. This is the angle of where I’m saying when people want to ask me anything about the music industry that I can share information about, I openly give it for free because I lose nothing from that.

I’ve lived, I’ve learned, I’ve enjoyed. Like I told you early experiences, I could sit all day and tell you about experiences. I’ve lived.

The most beautiful thing that I can do is give back now. That takes nothing away from me. We all struggle.

I struggle. I’m very sympathetic towards people struggling and stuff. That’s the other angle of me openly wanting to give because a lot of this industry, people are selfish and self-centered.

Somebody else has to change the narrative there. Hopefully, I’m one of those individuals that’s looking at it from an alternative viewpoint.

[Darran]
After all that, your experience of cultivating and advice giving and pushing yourself and keeping going, do you ever get sometimes fed up with making and playing music and the industry as a whole? What do you do to cope with that? What’s your go-to take, break, mantra, reset, best piece of advice you can give out there or what do you do?

[Robert Owens]
I love shopping. I love going in stores, sometimes just going in trying on racks of clothes even if I ain’t going to buy them. It’s therapeutic to me to just shop.

It’s one of my curses too because God, I feel like I’m just living amongst clothing and jewelry and stuff. That’s a beautiful thing to me to just go and look at things and see nice, beautiful things. I like going out to nice dinners.

I have friends that invite me out to dinners and stuff. I go to the gym often. I’m a member of Club Soho House.

Even different Soho houses around the world, I go in and go to the gym and go up to the restaurants. Often, you run into friends or industry people a lot in that social club environment. I have a few different outlets besides the music, the go-tos to just break away from it.

I enjoy music. God, I’m in flight in different music formats. I’m getting bombarded with music.

Sometimes, my inbox has over 2,000 or 3,000 tracks in there. Sometimes, I just have to erase the inbox to get it down. Per week, I’m going through hundreds of tracks.

A lot of people don’t realize that serious DJs, they’re not just up there spinning records. They spend hours, five and six hours, going through tracks and tracks, trying to narrow down to tracks that will work with their feelings and emotions for their next sets that’s coming up. It’s not just serious persons that’s been in this business for a long time.

They’re thorough about what they’re playing and what they’re giving back. For me, it’s taking people on a musical journey, trying to tell you a story. I’m not just standing there playing records.

I’m seriously looking at your emotions and feelings. I’m looking at the crowd, and I’m trying to tap into your emotion and thoughts. It’s a lot of things entailed with the emphasis of the word entertainer.

I’m there to entertain you. I studied for this performance of entertaining you for this event. I thought about what you might be like.

I never planned a set. I reacted to who I seen and what I felt at that present moment in time.

[Darran]
Yeah. It’s very interesting in how one interprets and takes the time off to deal with everything that’s going on. That’s one of the reasons you mentioned there, going through and looking on all those tracks.

If I open up a label, now I got to do my own A&R. Who am I to decide what is good and what is bad? What needs to be released and what isn’t?

It’s subjective up to me. I guess I could put it to a voting system within my internal team, but now I have to have an internal A&R team and people that know something about music and what’s good to release. I could just get inundated with stuff like that.

2022, we re-rammed up, and I did an experiment where our invites increased by 800%. Where I was doing 40 emails a week asking people to come on the show, we stepped it up to 300 emails a week to see what would happen. Well, something happened.

We did that in April. In the month of May, I had 50 some odd interviews scheduled. That was only a three-day schedule a week.

We have four weeks, do the math. Then same thing happened in June. I had 47 interviews.

July, 43 interviews. It was just packed to the rim. I wasn’t even eating lunch.

I wasn’t getting much sleep because I had to edit all these and put them up and online and promote. Came back and finally got a schedule.

[Robert Owens]
But beautiful to be popular, isn’t it?

[Darran]
It is. It is. We’re ramping back up, and now I got a system in place now to keep my sanity and not burn out and get fed up with it.

Oh my God, I got to do this again. You got to keep that positive mental influence or PMI is what I like to call it. 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 direct friends, who would that be and why?

Who would that be and why?

[Robert Owens]
If I could take a non-popular, non-family member and put them in the spotlight, who would it be? God, that’s a good… Okay, you can come up with some interesting questions.

God, who would I go to? Maybe one of the individuals along the block down here in these shops. When I go outside, if I go to the corner, every shop from the bakery to the clothing store to the next store, I end up just waving, hey, how you doing?

Everybody knows me all up and down the block in the shop. I could go into any one of these shops and just say, okay, come, you first and you second, shop to shop down the block. I can just go right to the corner store and grab the owner at the teal or whoever’s at the teal.

I know most people just work in the teal.

[Darran]
Sounds like a podcast show.

[Robert Owens]
Sounds like a podcast show. So like you said, you could go through 40 or 50 different things. I could just walk up the block and get to the next three blocks and I know probably about 10 people in every store, a shop going all the way up.

So I could randomly pick any of them and say, okay, you fall into this category of not the family member, not a DJ or something, but somebody that sees me all the time and we always click and link. Let’s see what you do in this circumstance.

[Darran]
Nice. If somebody were to write a biography about you, what do you think the title should be? What do you think the title should be?

[Robert Owens]
He lived, he loved.

[Darran]
He lived, he loved. Robert Owens. He lived, he loved.

He lived, he loved. That’s a nice one. That was quick.

You got something in the works that we don’t know about? Something in the works that we don’t know about?

[Robert Owens]
No. I feel like I’m guided by higher forces. I just react to natural reaction.

I said, this is something like I mentioned to you earlier about in the studio. I don’t try. I just do.

I just instinctively can go in and I react to my first thought. Even in the creative process of when I’m doing projects for other artists, they’ll send me an instrumental and I go in and I just instantly lay down my first thought. I always have it in my back of my head.

Maybe they won’t like that thought. So I have a plan B, but usually nine times out of 10, they’ve went for my first A thought. I think I stick to that process of thinking.

So that’s where my reactions are just natural. I can just naturally blop. Either it works or it don’t work.

But I don’t worry. I think a lot of it is too, because I don’t worry. And I’m not afraid of failure.

If something fails, if I fall, I’ll get back up and try it again. So I think I’m very much that kind of individual. And I’m also kind of a Robin Hood character.

I think I’ve always been the leftover. I wasn’t the first one that they picked and all of that. But I was always ready and planning something extra because they didn’t pick me first.

So I’m going to show them, I’m going to add something extra.

[Darran]
Robert, we’re going to wrap things up here. It’s been a great time talking with you. Definitely going to follow up with you in the future.

Is there anything else you want to let our DJ Sessions fans know before we let you go?

[Robert Owens]
Not really, but to say thank you so much, family. And it’s been a pleasure being here with all of you and wishing all of you a beautiful future and a beautiful evening, morning, wherever you’re at, whatever you’re doing. May you feel love and may you look forward to giving love.

[Darran]
There you go. Awesome. Where’s the best place people can find out more information about you and what you’ve got going on?

[Robert Owens]
On the Instagram page. I try to post a lot of there, like upcoming dates. This is Robert Owens on the Instagram.

A lot of people can find out different things. You can see even clips of performances and different places I’ve just been, or up and coming events that are about to happen. I place a lot of things there.

And there’s also a musical directions page on Instagram. You can go to that page too and check out some of the artists and up and coming artists and things that are about to happen there. Then I have some other things in the pipeline that I won’t say, but when it’s happening, that’s the first place that you can find out about things.

But I’m there on TikTok, threads, Facebook, and all different formats as well.

[Darran]
Nice. But this underscore is underscore Robert underscore Owens at Instagram. Best place to go.

Instagram, best place to go.

[Robert Owens]
Yes, please. Thank you. Awesome.

[Darran]
Robert, thank you so much for coming on the DJ session today. Like I said, we’re going to follow up with you, keep in touch with you. I’m probably going to be seeing you in Germany, in Berlin next year, maybe this year.

Yes, you got to come hang out. Let me talk with Martin first and let me arrange some stuff and we’ll get to do some stuff over the studios you work with as well. Do a little studio tour.

I’d love to check out some of those nightclubs and I definitely like to shop myself. So you got to take me to some of the best shopping places.

[Robert Owens]
You don’t get tired from coming around with me. I can take you all over the city.

[Darran]
I’ll travel light.

[Robert Owens]
Okay. We can spend like three and four hours shopping now.

[Darran]
There we go. There we go.

[Robert Owens]
Don’t put me to the test on shopping.

[Darran]
I’m an avid shopper. I have extra food. I think clothing is my next.

And then interior design is my next. And like, all right, cool. I can jive with that.

I don’t get bored. I don’t get bored looking through racks. I’m a hunter.

I find the good stuff too. On good price, I can find good prices for it too.

[Robert Owens]
I know where to get some bargains and all of that.

[Darran]
There we go. Awesome.

[Robert Owens]
Up the bottom.

[Darran]
All right, Robert, thank you again for coming on the show. We’ll be talking with you here soon in the future. I’m sure of it.

[Robert Owens]
Okay. Thank you as well.

[Darran]
You’re welcome. On that note, don’t forget to go to our website, thedjsessions.com. Find us on all the socials out there.

You can go to our website, click on the buttons at the top. We’ve got a mobile app. We even got a virtual reality nightclub in VR chat, but we got our music section that’s just being released.

They’re going to have some new stuff in there. We have over 700 news stories a month, 2,600 past episodes, exclusive mixes, and more at thedjsessions.com. Just use your mobile device.

Click on that QR code right there. Or just go into the website or look us up on Google. We’re all over the place, thedjsessions.com.

I’m your host, Darran, and that’s Robert Owens coming in from Berlin, and I’m coming in from the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington for The DJ Sessions. And remember, on The DJ Sessions, the music never stops.