Profile

My Dj background is one that spans two decades. During this time I have explored the industry extensively, covering many areas including mobile, club and radio Djing. Presently, I’m engaged in managing my own company which provides DJ & Event Services.

Back in the 80s when I started, it was a cassette scene… one really had to have a lot of skill & talent to keep it going smoothly, playing the right song at the right time, as working with cassettes were much harder. It’s been very interesting and challenging to keep at the fore front of all the changes & developments of the industry here in Sri Lanka, over a period of two decades.

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In 1990 I got my first break as a Club Dj at the Little Hut at Mount Lavinia Hotel, through the person running the show at the time, Mr. Saty Watson of Entertainment Unlimited. This break also brought me into team of EU, along with DJs Viran De Silva, Gehan Peries and Leon Collom just to name a few..

From there on I moved on to playing at many other Clubs such as the Library at Trans Asia Hotel, Chapter One at Oberoi, and Colombo 2000 as one of the resident Djs. At Colombo 2000, I had the opportunity to manage the DJ sound& lighting contract as well. As a guest DJ I played many other Clubs including the Blue Elephant, My Kind of Place and more recently, Glow and Onyx.

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Radio

It was in the early part of the 90s that Sri Lanka saw a revolution in the electronic media, with the launch of several new radio stations. I was one of the few who were lucky to ride the wave of that revolution. My radio career (as a radio personality/Dj) started in 1993 with TNL radio, which took the capital city, if not the country by storm. My stint at TNL lasted over a period of five years. It is during this time that I acquired the DJ name ‘Dr.J’.

(The ‘doctor’ part explains my technical skills in operating and servicing DJ equipment as well as well as being the one to save somebody’s life with a song!).

Anyway…

At TNL I had the privilege to be the first to host many ground breaking shows in Sri Lanka, including ‘Club 101 Hot mix’- Sri Lanka’s first non- stop dance party on radio, ‘All request lunch hour’- Sri Lanka’s first real time phone- in request show, just to name a few…

My next radio assignment was at ABC radio, where I was head of music for Sun Fm and I was subsequently tapped to put together a Dj team for the launch of Gold FM and manage its music as well, which I did for a short time.

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Mobile

From my very beginning as a DJ, I have always made myself available for mobile gigs, even when I was doing radio and club work. It seems that I have always been blessed with getting some of the best mobile gigs in Colombo. I have always enjoyed the challenge of mobile Djing. Been able to establish a niche in this area, of exclusive & vip gigs has been the key factor. Especially, in the area of economic viability (as opposed to the other options as a Dj in Sri Lanka). My collaboration with Tareeq Musafer, especially in the late 90s was fantastic. I really enjoyed working with him. He was a real inspiration to me, and we worked very well together.

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Music preference

As a Dj my personality is such that I am always evolving and maturing… I’m a spiritual person and I want my Dj sessions to reflect that in the music, mood flow and the energy that I create… and I want the place to feel the ‘love’ when I play. I like to experiment and make it interesting, specially, with the flow of the music. Currently I’m more into working with House and Disco. On the other hand, I’m also experimenting with trance & electro. I find it very exciting. I have to say I’m a fan of all music. I believe there is a time and place for all music! And I have just about played it all over the years… What I play depends on where I’m at in my journey as a Dj. I used to play a lot of R&B but lost some appeal for it as it started getting more and more commercial and run of the mill as of late…

As a matter of preference, most of my Djing is now done on vinyl and Serato DJ software, using turntables.

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Turntablism

Apart from the above, I have also ventured into turntablism. Which is an art form of it’s own using turntables as a music instrument… I pursued it long enough (for about 5 years) to master most of the skills pertaining to turntablism but decided to move on to other areas of Djing. However, I still do one on one training sessions for up and coming turntablist.

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Hosting own Events

Hosting own events is something I believe DJs must venture into from time to time. I was involved in putting together some events in the 90s… Namely, ‘Marmalade’ & ‘Adrenalin’ at Colombo 2000 and Friday Night Fever at the CH&FC. Currently I’m the process of putting together a special series of events which will be launched towards latter part of 2008.

I am happy to say that I have explored most areas of the business and have completely enjoyed the journey so far and I’m continuing to explore new ground… My motivation to be doing what I’m doing is simply the love I have for it.

As far as the industry goes, I believe it’s always good to have support for the upcoming Djs and a little bit of healthy competition. It’s good to see that the upcoming Djs are finally exploring the areas of creativity as seen in the Denon competition last year (2008) of which I was in the panel of the judges and in the Denon/YFm competition this year (2008), where I took on the roll of training a DJ… and I was very happy that my protégé, so to speak, Dj Rajeeva, a.k.a Shenon won the event. My congratulations to him!

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