We met with Behrouz and his lovely fiancée Megan a few days before his Renaissance compilation release party to chat about his mix but as it turned out, we talked about a lot more. Actually, he’s such a great guy, we just couldn’t stop talking!

Sound Revolt: You have been DJing for over 20 years and I think it was sort of ironic that it was only in 2004 that you got nominations for the “Best Breakhrough DJ” at the DanceStar USA and the “Best Newcomer” at the Ibiza DJ awards. Having been around for so long you must have seen everything and been everywhere. Do you ever get bored?
Behrouz: Bored? Never! It’s so challenging to keep up with what’s going on. I keep learning more and more about music and I keep discovering new, exciting sounds. I’ve always enjoyed that. That and the fact that you have to consider how people will perceive your music and try to anticipate their reaction. It’s so demanding!
I agree it was sort of ironic to get noticed after so many years but I don’t really care about all those awards. I know myself and I’ve always known what I represent. So the awards are there but they don’t change anything about me.

Sound Revolt: How old are you?
Behrouz: I’m over 35.

Sound Revolt: Are you older than Sasha?
Behrouz: No… (laughs).

Sound Revolt: Over the years you have witnessed the evolution of dance music and its sound. When did you start playing and what did you play back then?
Behrouz: I started playing in the beginning of the eighties. I lived in Santa Cruz and sometimes I played music I liked in record shops and one day a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to play at a fashion show. It went so well I made a tape with the music that I played there and that tape turned out to be very popular! The owner of DV8 in San Francisco heard it and asked me if I wanted to play in his club and that’s how it started.
I played very diverse music back then, from disco and Boney M. through pop to rock, industrial and early house. It wasn’t like it is today. There were no record shops for DJs; big labels would only sometimes release a dance remix of their songs, so you just had to know where to get your records. Sometimes record shop owners when they heard music you played in a club would approach you and offer some records which you could then buy from them.
Then there came house music and technology progressed. In the beginning there weren’t many clubs which had CD players, but I played CDs almost from the very beginning.
I used to play very long sets in DV8, sets which lasted for ten or more hours. Sometimes Sasha & Digweed would visit and play in the basement room for maybe two hundred people. I still love and play long sets. I start slowly, pick up the tempo, tease the crowd into thinking what I will play next, give them a flavor of what I like, turn it up a little and then more and more ‘til the first peak comes. Then I can drop in a record that’s completely different, something they don’t expect, like a minimal tech tune in the middle of a melodic, deep set, to surprise them, to keep them interested. I’m a DJ so I’m there for the people and need to give them something they will enjoy.

Sound Revolt: I know you wouldn’t like to be pigeonholed to any specific genre of electronic music. Actually, none of the DJs we ever talked to, wants to be. On the other hand, when DJs describe their sound as “eclectic”, as a lot of them do right now, you may suspect that either they don’t really know what sound they like or don’t want to tell. So, without trying to classify yours, what kind of sound would you say you like?
Behrouz: That’s right, I don’t want to be pigeonholed. As far as sounds are concerned I look for and play sexy, soulful tunes but also melodies, tribal and tech. I look for great production, fat bass lines and vocals which may not be cheesy.
I always visit record stores in all cities I play in, to look for new sounds. There can be labels which issue no more than one or two hundred copies of their records, so the only way to find them is to physically go through records in record stores. I still spend from thirty to forty hours per week looking for new tunes and I have nearly 20,000 records in my collection. When my fiancée moved in, she was surprised when she found records everywhere, including my bathroom and kitchen (laughs).
Today you can make music even on your laptop, it’s very easy, so there’s more music, more tracks for you to choose out from. But there’s more crappy stuff as well and it takes time to find tunes you really like.

Sound Revolt: Would you agree that it’s been your taste in so diverse genres of music that has in fact helped you to enjoy DJing for so long?
Behrouz: Definitely. I think that if I’d played only progressive or only tech I’d have got so bored, I’d have stopped DJing long ago.

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