Bio's / Profiles

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DJ Swami

DJ Swami's musical education was built on the Indian, West Indian, Irish and English multicultural mix of 1980s Birmingham, England. As a guitar player from an early age, he took up DJing as an instantaneous way of expressing new musical hybrids from the varied cultural identities that surrounded him. "Why separate our music, when it can bring us closer together?", he says.
As a founder member of the studio project 'Swami' alongside Simon Duggal, Taz Singh  and Kam Bura, it was their debut album 'Desi Nu Skool Beatz' (1999) that brought about a turning point of new musical hybrids by fusing traditional bhangra with the emerging British-Asian underground club scene. With the simultaneous limited edition release of  'Sub Culture' (1999) including the DJ Swami anthemic hiphop-bhangra mix of the classic 'Kurthi Mal Mal Di' , this permanently put the Swami name on the map, even with the die-hard bhangra fans….
A number of international DJ gigs followed, including the Desipalooza 1999 tour of the USA with Stereo Nation and B21. A stream of bhangra fused club influenced mixes followed as well as the first totally solo DJ Swami albums 'Turntablism' in late 1999 and 'Pure Garage 2' in early 2000.
 However, the live DJing was not just contained to South Asian audiences. The international interest in Bhangra fused with western beats took the DJ Swami sound to an even wider audience performing alongside Daft Punk and The Gorillaz at Fabric in London (2001) and a number of  festivals in France, Holland and Belgium.
Further DJ Swami albums followed, including  the follow up 'Sub Culture 2' (2001) and 'Pure Garage 4' (2002) as well as collaborations with Pras Michel (Fugees) and Apache Indian culminating in a live performance at the British Asian Music Awards (BrAMA's) in 2003. DJing at Glastonbury festival in 2003 and 2004 to over 30,000 people has started to become a regular ritual…
In early 2005, DJ Swami was awarded 'Best Producer Award' at the UK Asian Music Awards for his production skills on 'DesiRock' and continues to shift the boundaries of progressive British-Asian music…