words irma widjojo

Aqua Spirit’s resident, DJ Raz, has a vision: to bring Bollywood into the foreground of Hong Kong club scene. He hopes that his weekly Bollywood nights and recent regular performance with a local violinist will make this dream a reality.

I actually started DJ-ing at age 16. I started to play at private functions, birthdays, anniversaries and things like that. Basically I struggled to get my name in the DJ communities, so people knew who I was. There were not many Indian DJs back then, so I was pretty lucky because I didn’t have much competition. My name spread around quickly in the market and that’s how I got the recognition in the Indian community, and hence I started playing overseas.

Since I love house, I’m inspired by DJ Tiesto, DJ Paul Van Dyke and many more. Now house music has expanded so much, there are so many sub-genres. There’s deep house, funky house and soulful house. I try to keep it soulful, deep and aqua on Wednesdays for our Aqua Soul night, which is a collaboration between Hubert, the violinist, and myself. I think those genres fit the venue better than the other house genres they have right now. I’m not only listening to these DJs and getting inspiration from them, I’m also producing remixes as well.

Not all my mixes have Bollywood music in them, but I mostly remix the Bollywood soundtracks. I pick a song and somehow try to change its melody and try to enhance it to make it better – basically, give my beat to it and uplift it a bit. That’s how I remix and produce the music for Bollywood nights.

I don’t think being known as a Bollywood DJ limits me because I’m trying to capture the minds of non-Indians as well, since Bollywood is now getting a global recognition. Now, more people know about Bollywood music and people are actually using the Bollywood beats in parties, and that’s why the demand for a Bollywood DJ is up. Maybe they might not understand the music, but they surely enjoy it. It’s very catchy and people who are open-minded and don’t mind listening to different types of music would probably enjoy Bollywood music. So I don’t think I’m limiting myself by calling myself a Bollywood DJ.

On Wednesday’s Aqua Soul nights, I focus on house music. I try to start the night with a little bit of soulful house and then Hubert, the violinist, will join me from 10:30pm and jam with me for the night. We start soulful for an hour and we go into deep house. It’s a good experience because it actually enhances the music and we are actually going to get more acoustic artists, like a saxophonist and percussionist, to come in and play Wednesdays with me.

I’ve always had the idea of mixing the two, but it took us a long time to find a good acoustic artist. When Hubert came along, it worked out and he’s been here for two months now. We try to attract more people through this concept and see how far it goes. Violin is very romantic and it kicks in with my music, it enhances the music, especially when he’s doing a big piece. He walks around the lounge area and people are wondering what he’s doing and they want to try it out as well. So it really attracts customers. Wednesday night is just going to get bigger and better.

I’ve never got to play in India. I think India already has its share of Indian DJs. I would say it’s pointless for me to play in India until I reach a mark where I could stand a chance with other Indian DJs. There are a lot of great Indian DJs in India and that’s why we invite them to Hong Kong. So I would need to take myself to that level first in order for me to play in a big club there.

If I weren’t a DJ, I would probably be running my own trading business. A lot of my friends in the community are actually praising me because I am the only one who tried to do something different. So I guess it was a good step that I did something different, rather than becoming just a normal trading businessman like any other Indian man.

Bollywood Night is every Thursday at 10:30pm-2am. Aqua Soul is every Wednesday from 10:30pm-1am.
Aqua Spirit, 30 Floor, One Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong Tel: 3427 2288