Yousef Interview

When it comes to Underground Electronic music, Yousef is your man. He is unstoppable, reaching every part of the world with his addictive House sounds. Yousef’s record label “Circus Recordings” has had an exceptional year, releasing tracks From Sven Vath, Four Tet, Gilles Peterson, Santos & Yousef himself, as well as signing an absolute banger of a single from the exciting DJ Sneak. Yousef is on his way back to Australia to relive the love he found when he played at Stereosonic last year and to gain some more memories of what is set to be an amazing tour. Things couldn’t be going any greater for Yousef right now; BBM catches up with him and talks all things music.

Hello Yousef, this will be your first Australian tour after last year’s Stereosonic Festival. How was that experience for you? How do the Australian festivals rate against the European festivals?

Yes it was a great festival. We were the underground DJs amongst a huge array of commercial acts and at first I was unsure. I’m not into that Electro Pop/R&B/Trance Pop sound, but I was blown away when I saw the main stage in Sydney going literally bananas to it! It’s the first time I’ve actually “got” the energy of that music. It’s not to my taste but 40000 people all jumping at once to anything is hard to ignore. European festivals tend to get down to a more underground sound, they have the Pop/ Trance side of course but are more open to putting the likes of even my House/Techno sound on the main stages. Plus the age range is much broader too, from 14 – 40+ whereas in Oz, it is 18 – 28.

Your label, Circus Recordings, is going extremely strong and you’ve had some impressive artists and tracks signed to the label. What do you have planned in the coming months release wise?

Yes, I’m really trying to build the following of Circus Recordings the same way we built Circus. I’ve released music from the likes of DJ Sneak, Sven Vath, Fourtet, Doomwork, Tom Flynn and of course myself. After the album it’s an ep from Circus team member Lewis Boardman. Lewis has released on NRK and Rekids and has remixed the likes of Nina Kraviz. After that is a guy who has been coming to Circus for years- ‘David Glass’. His tunes are in the boxes of Carl Cox, Loco Dice, Luciano, Marco Carola and I. Then we have CircusX – a ten track compilation where I’ve asked the friends of Circus to make me a track to celebrate Circus reaching ten years. I have Carl Cox, Guti, Davide Squillace, Kerri Chandler, Derrick Carter, Nic Fanciulli and more have all given me singles. Ahead of all that is my new full studio artist album “a product of your environment”. It’s a 12 track musical and organic take on House and Techno. Many songs and compositions, aimed to be listened to as well as danced too. It’s getting support from Marco Carola, Loco Dice, Magda, Reboot, Carl Cox and many more

I’ve read somewhere that you’re “developing a live concept that redefines how electronic music is experienced”. Would you be able to tell us more about this? Are you in the early stages of development or is this concept ready to be rolled out in the near future?

Yes, I’ve been working on an ambisonics surround sound show but it’s still a way off due to development and research. I will get there…

Currently you are a resident for Carl Cox’s huge ‘Revolution’ parties in Ibiza. Do you stay in Ibiza for the whole of the season during this residency? How has this season compared to the other years?

Statistically, it was the most successful weekly ‘Space’ has ever had (literally) and it even topped the success of last year’s tenth anniversary year which was record breaking! It’s such a privilege to be part of the team and I relish every moment I get to play. I give it everything I have each time I play and go out of my way to my sure I rock it! Going up against CC in the other room you have to step up your game! I stay for a few days but because of a very busy schedule I commute back and forward (which is safer for my mind!).

Your Circus night in Liverpool has seen you host some of the world’s biggest acts (including a live recording for Essential Mix’s 500th episode). What would you consider the most memorable night that you’ve had at Circus? Who would you consider to be the most ‘entertaining’ DJ that you’ve ever booked?

There has been so many… it really is an incredible party! Of course the 500th Essential mix was special with Richie Hawtin, Sasha, Aeroplane and Tong, bare in mind we are a 1000 capacity venue. When Luciano first played as a fairly unknown DJ about 7 years ago, his set was magical. I knew he was going to explode. Our first Laurent Garnier gig, 9 years ago, was again spellbinding, opening up all sorts of musical possibilities for us. When we lost the venue (the masque) but got the keys back for one night only and I played my heart out and the crowd were practically in tears at the end of it. We managed to get the venue back together and we are still there and it’s as rocking as ever.

So I heard rumours that you prefer to drink tea over beer when you’re DJ-ing?

Yes! Sometimes. I’m not a big drinker and if I want to get stuck in I will do it with my friends at home, not in club with people I don’t know and when I’m there to do a job. It’s cool to have a few drinks etc. but I’ve seen DJs that are totally wrecked thinking they are rocking it but they are actually being really shit, so I won’t go there.

Massive news for you this week with the release of your second artist album ‘A Product of Your Environment’ coming out on your own Circus Recordings. How long has this little beauty taken to complete?

It took me the best part of 18 months. The process of ideas, backing tracks, developing ideas, writing songs and painstakingly mixing it down. All of it takes time which in the end was welcomed as I got to choose the appropriate 12 tracks from the 30 or so I made.

There are some fine collaborations on the long player, including the classical guitar player Neil Campbell on ‘In Fear of Dusk’ which people are saying is arguably your strongest club offering yet…

It’s certainly one of the most complicated and certainly the most hard to mix down. The layers of drums, with the bass, the crazy horns and the delicate guitar by Neil was a real challenge to get it right, even now I’m not 100% happy with it. Neil it such an incredible guitar player, we did 2 more tracks that I will revisit for another project, they are album tracks rather than club stompers like “In fear of dusk”.

There is only one track not written by yourself on the album. Songwriting, not the easiest skill to master. Where do you draw your inspiration from (does the album title have any relevance?) and what song are you proudest of penning?

I’ve been writing lyrics from some years but not a great deal. They just pop in there and I flow. There was a point where I was writing a lot of songs but my mind focused elsewhere. Some of the lyrics on the album I wrote a long time ago. The track featuring Charli Taft “I see” I wrote the lyrics for in Ibiza 5 years ago and it’s the only love song I’ve ever written. I normally write about self-esteem and personal development and life moments as I did with “think twice” and “indigo child”. I never write about being in a club or similar, as with my tracks I want my lyrics to mean something, even if it’s just to me.

The album features a couple of relative unknowns, namely David Williams and Tom Crew. What can you tell us about those two?

As I temporarily came back to Liverpool to record the album I wanted to dip into its wealth of talent, the city really does have endless amazing and sadly unknown artists. I would recommend anyone recording an album to do it in Liverpool; the musicians are skilled and ambitious and open to ideas. David, I’ve known for a long time and used to be a DJ buddy of his older brother. David is a seriously skilled pianist and singer and song-writer and we have an odd but good friendship and I had to have him feature. Tom Crew was presented to me by Stefan who owned the studio I recorded in. He suggested we rehash tom’s vocal that was lying around in the studio from a session tom recorded months earlier. I loved but I needed it to be correct so we got him in to re-record the vocals. Tom is part of the Crew Brothers, a really talented duo from Liverpool, In fact his brother played trumpet on “I See”. Further to that I ended up using Mark Ronson’s starlet Candie Payne and Paul from the Zutons for vibes on “unusual” as well, who again are both based in Liverpool and are seriously talented.

What tracks have been blowing up from the album on the road test tip?

It’s always hard to judge your own music but “for the terraces”, “think twice” and “feel the same thing” have been getting amazing support from the first album sampler I’ve sent out. People such as Marco Carola, Reboot, Loco Dice, Magda, Nic Fanciulli, Robert Dietz, Jozif, Carl Cox and many more have been huge supporters. Track 9 “Beg” has now been picked up for a full single release via Defected with a killer “hot since 82” remix so I’m getting a certain degree of love from many angles which was the hope.

Thank you so much for your time Yousef!

Check out BBM’s Dance Music Podcast Featuring So Called Scumbags.