Interview

ARTIST OF THE WEEK: Justbrad

today19/07/2024

Background
JustBrad spoke with Clint Maximus about what he’s currently working on, his future plans, and how he made a DJ set in a hot air balloon happen. Catch his full Artist of the Week interview and guest mix July 19th at 4:30pm GST on Sunset Sessions with Clint Maximus on Pure 94.7

Let’s talk about how it started for you. What got you into the whole world of DJing and becoming an artist?

It all started from my childhood, I was always interested in music and my parents, especially my dad, was pushing me into art, so I decided to start to play with the guitar, then I moved to piano, and then I started to play with the sax as well. It all was like more of a hobby, I was performing in the school concerts. Then when I turned 14, it was my sister’s birthday we were having a house party. My dad invited one of the best DJs in our country at that time to perform, and that my introduction to electronic music. From the moment when I saw him performing and the vibe and the feelings that he was sharing with the audience and the crowd, I knew that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to put down guitar and piano to focus on electronic music, and that’s how it all started.
In the beginning I introduced myself to the world of production and then slowly when I turned 16, I had my first gig in Ashgabat at one of the biggest clubs. At 16, I was allowed to, because the rules were a bit different at that time, you could enter the club from the age of 18, but if you had a good connection at the club, you could perform also at the age of 16.I was pretty nervous at that time, but I found power within myself and with the support of the teachers, parents and friends of mine I made it happen. It was a quite successful gig for the 16 years old guy to perform at, for the audience of about 600 people. From there my love started to grow more and more, day by day, track by track.

Let’s talk about some of your gigs, I really want to talk about Salvaje and your role there.

Right now, my current position at Salvaje worldwide is Music Director, so I’m in charge of lineups, direction of the music, everything that’s related to the music basically at the Salvaje, and internal music marketing as well. We have a lot of venues, we have Salvaje in Miami, we have Salvaje in Bogota now, soon we’ll have Salvaje coming out in Bali as well. I’m in charge of the all music direction in all the countries and the cities in the world.

I am keeping the rotation of the best DJs in the UAE. We have a specific night with Pure 94.7 radio on Fridays, which we live stream, and on Saturdays we have Techno & Chill parties.

The main genre right now is Afro-Latin house at the restaurant upstairs, and downstairs we have a club called Amor by Salvaje. In there we keep the genre of the music a bit of the groovy tech, depending on the day of the week. On Fridays, we just adjust it to the crowd of the groovy tech house lovers. Saturdays it goes more into the 80s and 90s remixes.

What do you think makes a good DJ, what do you think makes a DJ stand out, especially now that you have so many DJs in the scene, right, so what makes you pick a good act?

Look, now the industry has completely changed for the past couple of years. House music has never been so popular around the world, if you take into account the festivals, clubs, streams, the industry and all of that, so its difficult for any DJ to stand out. But I think the main thing is that you should not copy anyone, you should have your own outstanding trick, you should never be monotone, it’s all about your style, it’s all about how you can feel the crowd, how you can share with the crowd, be unique. Each of your sets has to be unique, it shouldn’t be ever monotone… I’ve seen a lot of DJs around the world who are just keeping it monotone at some level where the crowd gets bored, they just keep the same keys and notes. In my own opinion, the DJ has to always pay attention to everything, the venue, the crowd, the age of the people, the timing, whether it’s sunset or it’s, you know, evening time, morning time, has to always adjust to the crowd, but at the same time, the DJ to stand out and has to be themself. Your own style mixed with something which makes you stand out… acapellas, tricks, loops, some external devices. You can use some drums, change your outfit, come always fresh, communicate with the crowd, eye contact, this all little details are very important in the scene right now, because if you don’t follow that, you’ll be just like everybody else.

As a DJ, what do you think have been some of your biggest challenges?

There was a lot actually, first of all that in Dubai, there are more than 3500 DJs right now in the UAE in general, so many DJs means the  competition is so huge. For me the biggest challenge was to get into the best places in UAE to play at the best venues. There was time when I could only dream to stand at the stages like Soho Garden or Surf Club, but right now I’m easily accessing and communicating with the music directors there and performing at those venues as well.

Also consistently performing on an international level. Right now I’m a resident at one of the biggest clubs in Goa, as well Qatar and Bahrain. I’m just having a tour Middle East tour right now, but I’m working on a visa for Ibiza and Mykonos by the end of the season. A Visa is the main challenge for me right now.

Let’s talk about music production, anything you’re working on or releasing in the coming months?

Yes, I have a huge surprise for my audience and the people who have been supporting me. I have an album coming out in October, which will be oriental Afro house, inspired by the history of Turkmenistan, with the vocals and the retro ethnic touches in it, combined with the oriental touch as well, with Afro house. It will be my first released album, I’m not going to announce the label yet.

Any other tours or gigs that you’ve got coming up, something happening towards the end of the year, what’s going on?

Just right now, I have, I have a flight on Saturday, I’m going to perform in Goa, at one of the biggest stages called Salud.  Then the next week, I’ve got Bahrain, and after that, I’ve got Qatar. On a weekly basis, I have international gigs worldwide, in Moscow, at Flava Club, and here in Dubai, every week, something new.

Can you tell us about the hot air balloon DJ set you did?

I recently launched a very unique set, on a hot air balloon flight, which was very difficult to arrange, but I made it happen. The feelings and the emotions I got during the set itself was indescribable. It was one of the best moments in my life, and with my closest people.

It was the very hard to arrange it in terms of the technical things, like connecting the power and electricity, and because it’s got fire. We had to get a generator, which was quite heavy so we had to account for weight. All of those technical details were hard to arrange, but at the end of the day, it was worth it. I’ve done something unique, which not a lot of people have done, and I have a lot more ideas to do crazy content in the craziest places. I have no barriers in front of me. For me, even if I have to go to the sky or to the moon, I’m ready to do that.

Written by: Nicole Little

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