DJ Hamza, who has travelled and lived in three different continents shares his experience in the form an his first full length album Gitano
If you had to sum up over three decades of your life, more than half of which you spent travelling and residing in foreign countries, how would you? Some would probably write a novel, some short stories of selected experiences from here and there and for others a photo book would seem apt. But, 32-year-old DJ Hamza who grew up in Delhi (though his family is from Hyderabad and Mumbai) has travelled and lived around in South Asia, Europe and North America, summed up his story in a ten-song album called Gitano. Gitano means Gypsy in Spanish, which is what Hamza considers himself, having lived in Paris, Boston, New York among many other places.
The ten track album is more than just progressions, scratches and mixes unlike other DJ’s albums. Gitano in all true sense is an offering of new sounds and fabulous fusion. For a DJ to be incorporating elements from Latin, Celtic, Flamenco with house music as a base is something new. For him, electronic sounds are just one aspect of dance music. “Organic sounds are in fact as important as they bring out the primal instinct in us that makes us connect with our core,” he reckons. “The two always have to be in balance in order to reach out to all our sensory points in our bodies. You can always have a completely synthetic sounding track but then there is no soul in it and something having a completely organic track does not give you that punch and thump to drive you to dance.”
It took eight months for Hamza to work on the album. A challenge for sure, he first got the ten ideas in place, then started building on them, later finishing them before finally mixing and mastering the tracks. Gitano is more than just an amalgamation of sounds. In it’s own way, it also describes each place that Hamza has been to. “The title track Gitano has flamenco influences with an underlying African melody as well, which I came across in Barcelona. I have been to Senegal and Mauritania and fell in love with the local music there. It was also interesting to see that the poorest continent in the world had the happiest music, which is something to think about,” says the DJ. From guitars sounds that represent New Orleans to Latin influenced New York house sounds the album has it all.
Hamza goes to the local place in any country where traditional music thrives and he looks at it from two angles — it has to be an essential part of the history of that particular place or it must be so advanced that it automatically fits into the future. Interestingly Hamza was studying to be an investment banker but came out as a music producer. He credits three people who taught him to work at the studio, on stage and as an artist — Danish pianist Niels lan Doky, Jasbir Jassi and Taz from Stereo Nation. His experience of working with many folk helped him.
He and Jassi shared their studio with a gangster rapper back in New York, who had been shot nine times (reminds us of 50 cent) and who even stole their TV. “We then sent one of our friends from the Gurudwara who had a long white beard to get the TV back from him and he had never seen a Sikh person before so he called the police thinking our friend was a Pakistani Ninja,” he says. Hamza plans on taking his music pan India, along with collaborating with local artistes thereby sparking off a new Indian house music scene in the already existing musical revolution.
Catch DJ Hamza live on March 29 at Loft 38
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Entertainment> Lounge / by Prashanth Vidyasagar, Bangalore Mirror Bureau / March 23rd, 2014 (print mar 24th, 2014)