Hard work and good connections have propelled DJ Asif and his Fusing Naked Beats collective from university graduates to international DJ heavyweights and their sound of…well, everything with an Asian twang is about to hit the streets on the 'Digital Asia' album. When it comes to interviews with underground acts, there's only one man for the job, and that's your original Desi Gorrah so I jumped at the chance to chat to this up and coming producer/musician/DJ who will be in the scene for a while. Asif was DJ'ing at the first Shaanti night I went to, so it was only right to hook up at the same place recently!!

Richard: For everyone out there who is as yet unaware of who DJ Asif is, can you give us a quick intro?

DJ Asif: DJ Asif is a musician, producer, songwriter, guitarist, CEO of Just Play Records, and resident DJ in various countries all over the place, as well as founding member of the Fusing Naked Beats Soundsystem.

Richard: You're one of the few artists in the game with a qualification in the field, how does you're degree help you put your music together?

DJ Asif: The degree really helped me networking-wise, in meeting professionals in the industry. My lecturers were people who have managed Stevie Wonder, Madonna and that calibre of artists. The course I did was BA Commercial Music at the University of Westminster and it's the biggest music course in the UK. I did three years with that and I've also got GCSE Music, BTEC Music, I studied music at theatre, so it helped me a lot. I made me realise what I needed to do because university makes you understand that you have to help yourself in essence and it's all about networking.

Richard: As a live DJ, you've got around a little…all around Britain, there's Germany, Amsterdam, Sweden, and that's just this year…what's the maddest place you've played at? DJ Asif: The best gig I done was the Sphinx festival in Belgium was there were around 2,000 people there. Basically, I was just DJ'ing but it turned into a live gig type of thing were I was getting the crowd going and it was

DJ Asif

crazy because I had the crowd in a trance and in the palm of my hand so that was a gig to remember. Gothenburg in Sweden was also crazy, and when I DJ I like to use different types of sounds and styles - house, garage, drum and bass, break beat and a bit of hip-hop - and that's more popular in Europe, I find that ears are more open. Over here in the UK there's trends and your time comes, and you get noticed and you have to build yourself up in the UK. In Europe its amazing, I've been touring Europe throughout my career ever since I was a guitarist with Fun-Da-Mental and I realised that Europe was going crazy for this type of music and my aim was to hit Europe hard and at the same time to do some UK gigs and build my fan base over here.

Richard: Do you prefer Europe or the UK?

DJ Asif: It depends on what country and what set I get. If I've got a late set then I've got the crowd and I can go straight in without building it up, but I'd have to say I prefer Europe. I mean, Amsterdam is amazing, I'm a resident there at SutraFunk and I go out there and the people are clued in and it's something fresh for them so I get really excited out there.

Richard: How does playing internationally influence the music you play and produce?

DJ Asif: I try my own tracks out when I DJ, especially with the dance music I create and I always try to find what gets a good response and take it back to the lab to develop. I always try to challenge myself as well as the crowd and mix a lot of styles up. It's always good to try my own tracks out on the crowd in Europe and the UK and I've got my own sound so it's exciting to hit them with something new. I'm a musician as well but there are so many avenues to present your music and in the industry you have to be able to do a bit of everything. My aim is to produce, DJ and do the live thing on my guitar to rock them out.

Richard: That's a good point that you have to be versatile.

DJ Asif: Yeah, the scene is turning to that and you have to try and be different in your performances. You can keep your music fresh by producing music for different platforms, like some tracks are good for DJ'ing but if all you do is DJ then you might only get one type of sound.

DJ Asif

Richard: You said in an interview [with Rita Bhattacherjee on Desiclub.com] that the one thing you don't like about DJ'ing is getting too many bhangra requests, you've not thought of branching out because that's what the crowd wants? DJ Asif: Its kind of like being Asian and bhangra is turning into a phenomenon after being around for so long, so there is a big request for it but I try and break the

stereotype and mix Asian music in all types of styles and to present something new. I love bhangra, its got a great vibe and it hypes everyone up. Maybe I'll do some remixes and work with some bhangra and desi vocalists and do something different with a fusion mash up.

Richard: Who do you rate inside bhangra at the moment?

DJ Asif: I like bits of Rishi Rich's production and I like what Swami have done on DesiRock and there's a lot of good tunes out there, I like Panjabi MC's more remix and fusion stuff. That's what I like to do, mix it up a little to create a new style.

Richard: Tell us a little about the other members of the band…

DJ Asif: DJ Martti works with me on the production; we built the studio up in Harrow. We went to Uni together and he's another white guy into the Asian sound and he comes from a more garage base background and we like to mix Asian music with that. We have Alok who's a classically trained tabla player, there's Ms Kat, an R&B vocalist. There's Paul M who's a rapper and is also out there merchandising our stuff. We've also got Nusrat Ali who deals with the more business side of things at Just Play Records and there's a lot of people really who are just promoting, plugging and spreading the word around. It's working well because the album is coming out and the machinery is giving it a good hype and we're getting a good response. It's coming at the right time in between bhangra and the Asian underground and fusion scene.

Richard: Where did the name Fusing Naked Beats come from?

DJ Asif: It started as just Fusing Naked, and it was weird because when I ended my punk era I got into electronic music I just thought it was all about 'fusing', be it beats, melodies or styles. The 'naked' comes from the raw energy and we added beats on the end because it was studio and DJ based with strong beats. I mean Fusing Naked Beats presents Digital Asia just sums up what we're about, Digital Asia is self explanatory: its an Asian sound with a digital and technological edge.

Richard: How do you think you've done with 'The Crunch EP', which is out there hyping the album? Has it got the response you wanted?

DJ Asif: It's a 5 track EP for promo, DJ's and press and I spread it around and its had a really good response. Radio 1 play listed the Digital Asia track for two months and I gave them a few more and they got played extensively too. Its just a intro for the album and it was a number of styles, there's a garage track, a two step one, one that's chill out and some breakbeat with a darker sound and we could see what styles people liked. It did really well in Europe with DJs and there are compilations out there seeking licenses to put some of the stuff on those types of albums.

Richard: My favourite track from it has to be 'Footsteps of Jahngjir', and when I saw its not on the album I was shocked!!! That track's got pressure man, why did it get left out?

DJ Asif: To tell the truth, it's a bit of a surprise, but we've only changed the title of the track its now called 'Asiatic.' It's the third track on the album and it's a club banger that gets the crowd moving.

Digital Asia

Richard: What can we expect from the album itself? What is its main influence? The Hip-hop side of things or a more electronic edge? DJ Asif: It's hard to say because there are so many styles. It starts off on quite a dark tip, it's got a trip hop feel, there are hip-hop vocals, two step, garage, house, break beat, so you can't say it's 'a garage album' or 'a hip-hop album', its just too diverse. There's also a little bit of spoken word and chatting, as well as poetry because I'm a song writer as well and you'll just be surprised because it starts off instrumental, then gets vocal and returns to instrumental. Then its crazy after some chill out and its just a journey. It's out on

the 20th of May, so everyone can make their own minds up then.

Richard: Okay then, what's your favourite style from the album?

DJ Asif: I like all of them to be honest, because the variety is good and each track has its own place and purpose to show another side to us. We're all little pieces and we come together on the album in all these styles. Some of it is down tempo and I'd have to say overall its an 'Asiatic dance album' to sum it up, which is a vague term I know but there's nothing else to cover it.

Richard: How is the distribution going to work? I think the main problem with Asian Underground acts at the moment is for the fans to get hold of the music, what steps are you taking to make sure you get heard?

DJ Asif: At the moment the best place to get it is our website. Either Ebay or Amazon and if something comes up to get it into retailers then we'll follow that. It's a process that will come in time. I'm confident that the album will get out everywhere, Japan etc, we're not huge but people know who we are so we can use that as a stepping-stone. Tracks going on compilations will also spur people to buy it as well but it's the Internet at the moment to be the best source. If you buy it from the website you also get a free six track CD too, so there's value for money involved.

Richard: You're already working on the next album, how is that different from Digital Asia?

DJ Asif: I think that's going to be a bit of a Digital Asia part two, I think its going to be a strong album and I can't really talk about it yet because its still in its foundations. It'll be different and show our production qualities getting stronger along with our ideas. Personally, I feel that because there's so much going on in Europe with the Asian scene we need to keep doing tracks and stay constant. We want to feature on as many compilations, vinyl's and Mixtapes as well as do some remixes and just have fresh material ready. That's the vibe, to keep working and stay focused.

Richard: You don't think it's too much in too short a space of time? DJ Asif: The challenge I want to achieve is to put an album out every year and like I said to be constant, to keep putting out good tracks. I can tell you we're working on new stuff already for next year's album already, but that's all in foundations and the goal at the moment is to drop Digital Asia and get success from that to move forward from. I'm launching the album in

DJ Asif

Europe, Germany 27th, 8th May Amsterdam and just present the sounds of Digital Asia

Richard: I was looking at an article on you from a German website and it said 'Nine Inch Nails' on there, without knowing the context, how can someone chose to put you and NIN in the same sentence?

DJ Asif: I'm a big fan of Nine Inch Nails; I love the Downward Spiral and Fragile albums. They've got a bit of electronica, rock and everything mixed. I saw them live once and it was amazing, they brought this huge visual screen out, and there was an ocean and all these effects, it was pretty cool. It was crazy because the screen was so big you thought you were in the ocean. There was a cage and all this stuff I'd never really seen before and it was a strong and powerful gig. I like their stuff and I'm a guitarist so I like to keep in touch with that style of music. On the next album I hope there'll be more guitars, and it'll be a bit of a different angle to 'DesiRock' after what Swami have done. It'll be more structured with the chords and there's not enough time for all the ideas I've got. I used to be well into rock music but I branched out into Asian music and different styles when I grew up a little (laughs).

Richard: Finally, have you got any final words for the thousands of Desitunes4U readers out there?

DJ Asif: Thanks for so much support and keep on supporting me at gigs and check my website out for more gigs coming up. A big thank you to all the people who have supported us from day one and keep e-mailing me to say good luck and I hope to see everyone on the road soon.

That concludes the interview and a big thank you to DJ Asif for taking the time to speak with us. Don't forget, if you think you can do interviews for Desitunes4u; contact the editor at irfan@desitunes4u.com!!