Yousef

The Circus Master prepares for his most exciting year yet.


After a seemingly relentless flow of creative activity in 2013, Yousef begins 2014 with the heavy momentum he ended last year with. Circus curator, international DJ and in-form producer – one of the world’s favourite dance music superstars continues to make a strong, well earned impression with both his Liverpool and now London Circus events. Dan Prince checks in with the main man as he reflects on his Circus empire, Ibiza, entering Pete Tong’s Hall Of Fame and first and foremost, becoming a dad…

 

Hey up Yoss welcome back to DMCWORLD. Well let’s kick off with the biggie, how is fatherhood young man?

“Hi Dan. The world now seems to make sense. Everything else in my life seems trivial (at best!), I’m loving it more than I ever imagined possible!”

So come on sunshine let’s hear it. What was the more nerve wracking? Taking to the stage in front of 50,000 people at a festival or the birth of your baby boy?

“In all honesty, neither. I was/am prepared for both. We had a fully natural home birth in the birthing pool (which was literally a hired hot tub!) and I helped with the delivery, somehow stayed calm throughout and my wife performed incredibly. The arrival of my son was beyond amazing and I strongly recommend the “one to one” midwife service which is freely available in the UK.”

Well, what a superb start to the year. Back in the world of music Circus has had a blinding few weeks. Let’s kick off with the club nights, I haven’t seen scenes outside of a club like that in years…of course I am talking about the Gorgon City night at Egg London in January, you had thousands locked out dude…

“Yes, after 18 months of chipping away at CircusLDN, we finally turned quite a sizable corner and managed to (as you say) have literally a roadblock of people trying to get in to see me and Gorgon City. We made sure every person who arrived was looked after and those with advance tickets got in easily with those that turned up on the night getting in as soon as possible. Sadly some people did get turned away for a period as we were at capacity. It was an electric night!”

The next instalment of London action sees a mouth watering double header with Larent Garnier and Steve Lawler starring on the Friday and Darius Syrossian and Noir on the Saturday. Quite a move taking over both nights at the club and something no one has done before, what’s the thinking there?

“I had already planned the ‘Circus Weekend’ way before our success in January, it wasn’t as a result of it. We have great relationships with many DJs and all the aforementioned names became available so I suggested doing a weekend of events, more techno on Friday and more house on Saturday with me playing both to reflect my genre crossing style. The response has been immense and we are set for another great weekend of Circus and Circus Recordings events.”

Loving the Circus up in Liverpool as always, Easter Sunday looks the dogs down belows with a very special back to back set with Eats Everything.  Is this your first time spinning one and one with Dan…he has had a formidable twelve months…?

“Thanks a lot. Yes, it’s funny to see how well Circus is doing, considering it’s just a hobby and I don’t see myself as booker or promoter. We just put on parties with DJs I’m into for me to play with resulting in a vibe that invites positivity and friendliness, coupled with cutting edge/serious music and fun times…the same plan that was in place when Rich and I begun 12 years ago. Dan (Eats) has been playing for me for a few years now, he is a lovely guy and I wasn’t aware he has been a bit of fan of mine for some time – he explained that to me! So I suggested a back to back next time he plays to change things up a bit, plus in the 12 years of Circus I’ve only ever played b2b with Carl Cox, so this is quite special for me too. Eats and I have never played B2B anywhere else ever, so it’s a world first I guess. I can’t wait, we are on after Joris Voorn too so he will have to bring our A game!”

One of the great things we love at Circus is your format of programming, there is always a new talent debuting on every line up, why is this so important to the club?

“Loco Dice, Jamie Jones, Guti, Luciano, Davide Squillace, Eats Everything, Tini, Seth Troxler – all totally unknown when we first booked them many, many years ago and in some cases their first UK gig. So I don’t need to explain why finding new talent is essential to any club or even business – forward only.”

Your ‘motto’ down at the club is “arrive with a smile and you’ll be greeted with one back”. We all know Liverpool has a dead friendly crowd, did London take any warming up?

“When I begun at Egg I went for a meeting with the owners and when I got there the entire staff of the club was there. I didn’t plan on giving a speech but I ended up talking to about 20+ people about how important it is to treat the people that come to the club with the upmost respect and courtesy. I explained that if you went to a shop or a restaurant and you were treated badly you would not be likely to go back, no matter how good the food was. I also explained the grumpy doorman is not a modern way to greet the people that literally pay ALL of our wages – the crowd. My enthusiasm went down well and although I’m not sure if the more friendly and welcoming approach at Egg was already coming into play, or was in play, it is now and has been on all Circus nights. I personally thank every single person I meet; the door staff, the bar staff, the DJs, the owner, the crowd and offer them all gratitude for helping create Circus. Like I’ve always said, the only VIPs in Circus are the people that have paid to get in, the crowd.”   

We cannot speak to you dude without a mentioning the whole Sneak Twitter nonsense from a while back. What are your thoughts on the whole matter now that the dust has settled?

“Exactly that Dan, nonsense – and something I have no time for. Which is why I didn’t respond to it once.”

Tell us about Laura, the voice of The Angel and the track ‘Float Away’ which Warners snapped up…and now out with new remixes. She was just a random clubber from Circus in Liverpool wasn’t she…we thought the days of producers listening to demos was long gone dude?

“Yes! She has been coming to the Circus events for years (I later found out) and she sent some demos on my Facebook (yousefcircus and circusrecordings) and I heard something in some of them. I asked her to send me the raw vocal of ‘Float Away’ which at the time was under another name. I tweaked the vocal she sent (which had been recorded on an iPhone) and built the track into ‘Float Away’ as a colab which eventually got signed to Warner Brothers – which is quite crazy considering how it came about and the vocal was never re-recorded. It’s being re-released soon with new remixes too. I listen to every demo I am sent. In fact I encourage it. I ask people to send STREAMABLE links of about 2-3 tracks to the Circus Recordings Facebook fan page message box. I personally respond to every single demo with a polite critique and I’ve actually signed some artists from there. The quality of the demos is pretty good too.”  

Ibiza season is fast approaching, last year you took Circus to Bomba/Booom in what was a difficult season for the island’s newest club. What are the plans for 2014, you back to your spiritual home at Space?

“Yes, it was pretty difficult for Booom sadly which made things very hard for Circus. And yes, I’m back to Space this year and won’t be taking Circus to Ibiza this summer. With the new baby I don’t have the time it takes to make a night work in Ibiza!  Can’t wait to be back playing for Coxy!”

What are the big plans for Miami WMC, us Brits favourite escape from the weather for a week?!?

“I’m not going Dan! Now I’m a father I opted to give it a miss this year.”

Favourite fucked up in Miami story from years gone by…?

“Mate…so many stupid times, ridiculous times, the best times. I could write an entire article on just one of the stories…”

A great quote from you…”I don’t want to be the biggest DJ in the world or best producer. Any accolades that happen along the way are welcomed but my main intention is tell my story and tell it in the best possible way I can…”. It must have been nice though to get inducted recently into Pete Tong’s Hall Of Fame?

“Yes. The deeper into my life with electronic music and the older I get the more I am content with the fact that even if my life changed tomorrow and I got a job in the local supermarket, I would be happy knowing that I’ve lived my dream…and beyond my expectations too. That said, I work incredibly hard at preserving and developing my dream job and do strive for it to continue and progress for a long time to come. However it must be on my terms and with honesty to myself, for the right reasons and with respect for the people that contribute to my goals – like my wife, my management, agent and the team at Circus (Rich, Sean, Lewis, Jay and Jon Waller). It was pretty special for me being recognised for my contributions to electronic music from Pete/Radio One and to be inducted into his Hall of Fame, particularly considering the talent in the other 37 inductees. When I laid out all the things I’ve done, especially in recent years, I hadn’t really noticed the accumulation of its parts. Either way, each day when I wake I work hard on all sorts of creative ideas, production, remixes, the Circus Recordings label, the events…but my first creative love will always be my DJing, that’s what I do best.”

Looking back at your time on Radio 1 must seem very surreal? A young whippersnapper thrust onto national live radio with little or no experience. Do you look back at that time wishing that whole experience had happened a few years later in life?

“Yes, and no too. It was ridiculous that the BBC put me in the hot seat with no experience. In fact, how could they do that to their listeners!? But it was really funny for me and I never really acknowledged the gravity of what I was doing at the time, I just thought it was a laugh…which it was, it was great fun! If I did it again now I would be a much better broadcaster, much more in control and I would of preferred to of been able to better connect with the literally millions of listeners – rather than stumbling through a show through lack of training and experience. I do think it’s better for people to play my music rather than me playing theirs though. That said, I do a weekly radio show now, I’m on show 93 this week and it goes out to 20 stations globally, but oddly not in the UK…”

Your beloved Circus Recordings has kicked off the year well with your very own 3 track EP feat. Roy Davis Jr and also the Ramiro Lopez & Miguel Lobo – ‘Be High’ EP. WHat is coming out next from your imprint…?

“Yes, I release a new EP on Circus Recordings each month giving myself 4 weeks either side of release to nurture the release’s and artists. Next up I’ve signed Reboot to Circus Recordings, such a strong, meticulous EP. Then a 4 track various artists EP with Italoboyz, Tom Flynn, Onno and Paul C & Paulo Martini delivering a killer club cut each. Then I have a full release from Carl Cox (his first non own label release in many years) which comes with Davide Squillace and Technasia remixes. I’m pretty locked till the end of the summer now and I still have to fit in a new EP from me!”

It was a couple of years that you thought sod it, “I want to get more involved with the label” and help develop Circus as a rival to the likes of Cocoon, Intec, Cécille and Saved where you were also releasing tunes. Are you happy with the way things are going, is it still a big learning curve for you?

“Yes, I’ve learned a lot but I have the capable hands of Jon Waller helping me with the label, we are a team and we have a plan and it’s happening. We are not in a rush and I’m aware enough with myself and my professional life to know that the ride is the most important part, the goal or destination does not even exist. I’m lucky enough to have support from major artists and that coupled with my own music and offering completely unknown new artists the chance to release alongside the likes of Green Velvet, Davide Squillace, Laurent Garnier, Carl Cox and Guti seems to be working. We always release music we love, and that will always ring true.” 

What can you tell us about the rumours concerning your own releases on Objektivity and Loco Dice’s famed Desolat label?

“Yes, my next release will be on Desolat called ‘Analogue Times’. A freaky house and techno hybrid I made in LA with my good friend, the legendary Blakkat.

Listen here:  {http://soundcloud.com/yousef/yousef-blakkat-analogue-times}  

It’s out soon. Then at some point soon my vocal track, ‘Had No Sleep’ will come on Objektivity with a Dennis Ferrer Remix. I love both tracks but they couldn’t be more different, other than they have a funk under current throughout both.”

And finally, gotta ask, have you been playing Theo any of your music do get him off to sleep, do your tunes make him sleepy?!?!

“Hahahaha! Yes I made a new track with him sitting on my lap last week – I had my headphones on though. We listen to a lot of 80s music at home so he is becoming accustomed to all the greats at a VERY early age!

GREAT questions Dan.”

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