Is Kizomba in Trouble and Is It Losing It's Roots? - Episode #24

TAKEAWAYS

• DJ Guelas has over 30 years of experience in the music industry.

• Cultural background significantly influences musical styles and preferences.

• Kizomba has evolved through various musical influences over the decades.

• The younger generation often gravitates towards Urban Kiz and Afrobeats.

• Context plays a crucial role in music appreciation and understanding.

• There is a divide between traditional Kizomba and Urban Kiz.

• Misunderstandings about Kizomba often stem from a lack of context.

• Zouk music has a distinct sound that differs from Kizomba and Semba.

• Aspiring DJs should invest time in practicing their craft.

• DJing is about connecting with the audience and playing the right set. A DJ must know their equipment and troubleshoot issues.

• Preparation helps alleviate performance nerves.

• Understanding music energy is crucial for transitions.

• DJs are responsible for the atmosphere and energy of the event.

• Playing music is more complex than just pressing play.

• Good music transcends trends and time.

• Community support is vital for the success of festivals.

• The DJ's role is to guide the audience's emotions.

• Festival success relies on local community engagement.

• Kizomba festivals face challenges that require new strategies. Community events are vital for cultural representation.

• Sponsorship is crucial for sustaining large-scale events.

• Kizomba is not just music; it's a lifestyle and community.

• Learning from younger artists can provide fresh perspectives.

• The music scene is constantly evolving, requiring ongoing learning.

• Artists like Grace Evora and Paulo Flores are worth exploring.

• Kizomba connects people and celebrates life.

• Traveling for music exposes artists to diverse cultures.

• Social media is essential for promoting music and events.

• The joy of music is best experienced in relaxed, communal settings.

SOUND BITES

• "I started DJing when I was one."

• "Roots always find you."

• "Kizomba is for older people."

• "Context matters in music appreciation."

• "Don't focus too much on genre differences."

• "Zouk was life for me."

• "DJing opened up a world for me."

• "Invest time in practicing your craft."

• "You need to know how to troubleshoot."

• "Being prepared helps with the nerves."

• "You play with people's emotions as you DJ."

• "There's a lot of pressure on DJs."

• "You have to think about all of that."

• "There's a method, there's an art to this."

• "Good music is always going to be good music."

• "The future of Kizomba festivals is uncertain."

• "Never say never, right?"

• "It needs to make sense for us as well."

• "I feel like I missed out."

• "You always have to be in a learning mode."

• "Kizomba represents a lifestyle."

• "Africa is my DNA."

• "Kizomba means party, gathering."

TRANSCRIPT

Victor

Good afternoon friends. Welcome back to another episode of Kizomba Conversations. As always, I'm your host Victor. Today we have a special co-host. We have Adel here with me, joining me to interview and have a conversation with a super, super DJ. Now, when I say super DJ, this particular DJ has been DJing for not 10, not 20, but 30.

30 years experience in the game. This man is a beast, with lots of knowledge and let's welcome him to the Kizomba Conversations podcast. Hello, Mr. DJ Guelas. How are you doing, sir?

DJ Guelas (02:38.53)

Hello, hello, hello. Thank you. I am well. Thank you. Thank you for the introduction. You're making me sound old right now, but that's okay.

Victor (02:50.195)

I apologize, it's more about your wealth of knowledge.

DJ Guelas (02:51.916)

Glad to be here.

DJ Guelas (02:56.61)

Absolutely. Yes, I started DJing when I was one. So yeah.

Adel (03:00.641)

Ha ha ha ha.

Victor (03:01.393)

Yeah, so of course, of course, man, of course. No, seriously, listen, welcome to the podcast. We're really excited about having you here. Because like I said, you have a wealth of knowledge around Kizomba, around music in general. And I really think that people are going to really value this conversation in terms of what you bring, in terms of what Kizomba is and where it's been and where it's going. So we really thank you for that. Yeah, absolutely. So listen, let's get into it.

DJ Guelas (03:07.01)

Thank you.

DJ Guelas (03:24.514)

A pleasure to be here and thank you for inviting me.

Victor (03:29.107)

100%, 100%. So let's get straight into it, right? I wanna jump straight into the first question with you. We all start with our guests, we get to know their background. So tell us who DJ Guelas is? Tell us a little bit about you.

DJ Guelas (03:43.412)

All right, so I'm of Cape Cape Verdean descendancy. My parents are both from the Cabo Verde Islands. I just celebrated 50 years of independence a couple of days ago. So yes, yes. And I was born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal. I was there until I was 18. I moved to the States, to the US.

Victor (03:56.749)

Yes, congratulations.

DJ Guelas (04:13.602)

Right after that, I've been here for a long time now. Yeah, it's been quite a ride and quite a journey. And I still go back to Portugal and Cape Verde less often, but yeah. That's my background. And yeah, that's why we're here.

Victor (04:39.123)

So when was the last time you were in Cape Verde?

DJ Guelas (04:41.866)

I was there three years ago. Yeah, I went to see my dad. I went to surprise my dad because he was there. My dad is retired. He's in between Cape Verde and Lisbon. And it was his birthday. So I went to surprise him for his birthday. So that's the last time I was there just hanging out.

Victor (05:00.755)

Yeah, no, that's fantastic. And then you mentioned independence. So this weekend just gone, you partying, talking to your parents, everything? How did that go?

DJ Guelas (05:05.431)

Yes.

DJ Guelas (05:12.463)

I actually did, I came from Lisbon on Friday. went almost immediately to Washington DC to also partake in some celebrations for the independence. I was invited to an event with the ambassador and it was just a good time being there with fellow Cape Verdeans and celebrating and it was good to be there.

Victor (05:38.365)

See, this is what I'm talking about, right? When I say experience, an event with the ambassador, you know, just rolls off his tongue, yeah? Just these little things. You know, yeah, just all, but it's all good, man. It's all good. Okay. No, thank you for that. Thank you for that intro. That's great. All right, in terms of music then, yeah? What is the first memory you have of music really moving you? So, you know, not just hearing it.really feeling it?  What's the first memory of that?

DJ Guelas (06:11.84)

I have a very vivid memory of that actually. I was young, I was three or four maybe. And I was actually in Cape Verde in my grandmother's house. And my uncle who was visiting from the US, he was playing some music and he was actually playing Kool and the Gang. And I remember just dancing in the middle of the living room. That's a very, I think the first vivid memory that I have.

of music moving me and almost inexplicably my body just started moving. I'm not claiming that I know how to dance. However, it did move me and that's a vivid memory that I have and a very fond memory that I have of that time.

Victor (07:00.871)

Fantastic. So cool and the gang. So you just started dancing to that.

DJ Guelas 

Yeah, I just started moving and it's amazing how I still have that memory and it just popped up as soon as you asked that question. But it's something that every now and then I think about.

Victor (07:19.219)

Yeah, no, absolutely. No, no, no, that's great. It's great to share those memories. So you mentioned that you're from Cape Verde and obviously from Portugal as well. You live in Portugal. So how have those two cultures shaped your music and your approach to DJing?

DJ Guelas (07:38.035)

Deeply, Portugal because it formed a very distinct identity as far as growing up. Of course, at home, between my parents, I heard everything between Coladeira, Kizomba, Zouk, Marna from Cape Verde Islands as well. From my mom's side, she loved that. She introduced me to Kassav and even though the time.

I wasn't really fond of all this, here we go with this music again. But funny how later that served me very well. And for my dad, more jazz musicals from the US, my dad was very much into that. So I had those at home. As far as growing up with friends and all that,

due to the neighborhood where I lived, they listened to a lot of rock, a lot of, you know, in the eighties, soft rock, all of the ballads, all of those groups, the, you know, also funk, also R&B, I was shaped by all of those rhythms, right? Cape verde, Cape verde because of all of its music, all of its, the influences that, you know,

came to the archipelago. Cape Verde is a land of both a lot of immigrants due to the country's lack of resources had to immigrate to search for a better living. But also it was like a midpoint in the Atlantic for a long time for shipping routes that stopped to get fuel to get a lot of other things. So they had a lot of influences from both the sea men that went through the archipelago and from both the immigrants that went outside of the country and came back on vacation and brought music and brought a lot of different things. In that sense, Cape Verde was in the middle of this storm of influences from places from all over the world. So in that sense, I think that also a variety of music was instilled just because when I used to go on vacation. There was a lot of different music that was played out there.

Victor (10:14.136)

Yeah, no, that's great. And lots to pick up there. But what I want to find out from you there, actually, because, know, your musical experience is vast, right? And, you talked about Kool and the gang there and that moved you. So because we're talking about Kizomba, I just want to find out when did Kizomba move you or when did you hear Kizomba in its fullest or the first time and you thought hey, this is great.

DJ Guelas (10:45.73)

I started being more exposed as far as going to clubs with friends probably about 17, 18 years old before I moved to the States. Just going and hanging out just because at the same time I also thought that rock and all that didn't move me as much, although, you know, sympathize with it, you know, but I couldn't really identify with it.

You know, if I hear a song today by Scorpions or whatever, it still brings me back memories. But something that moved me to the core, I started feeling when I used to go out to the African clubs in Portugal with a good friend of mine when I was 17, 18. And that's when it started really kind of piquing some interest besides the music that my mom was also exposing me to. But I was 17, 18 years old when I started going out to clubs in Lisbon.

And not too long after that, I moved to the US. But I was still very much into hip hop and R &B at the time. Little did I know that Kizomba and all of those rhythms would have such an impact on me later.

Adel (11:59.474)

Did you find any kizomba in the States when you were there? How did you keep in touch with that?

DJ Guelas (12:07.052)

So I moved to the northeast of the US, Providence, Rhode Island more specifically. And that's like a hub for Cape Verdeans. A lot of Cape Verdeans do immigrate to that area, New England. And yes, there were a few Cape Verdean clubs that were very well attended at the time. Although in the beginning, I used to go every now and then. I used to go to hip hop clubs.

and all that, I was very much into that, but slowly I started migrating into the, the roots started calling me. It's funny how when you're an immigrant, your roots call you much more than you actually expect. You miss home to a certain extent and that makes you migrate to the things that you're also familiar with. So immigration did that to me as well.

Victor (13:08.179)

Yeah, your roots always, they always find you, man. They always find you. Okay, great. So I want to talk to you then about, you know, Kizomba, the culture and, you know, around the world of Kizomba. In your experience, yes. So how has the sound of Kizomba evolved since you started listening to it? So to where we are now, we're 2025. Yeah, what's been the evolution, would you say?

DJ Guelas (13:38.178)

I think that over the course of time that I've been exposed to it, I experienced probably two or three major shifts of music. In the 80s, music was still, I guess the sounds were still being experimented with. The synthesizers in the 80s started coming along. Folks like Mandolima made very good use of it and started reshaping the sound of Cape Verde music. But up until then, there's more, you know, traditional sounds like there were not electronic sounds or anything like that. And you can hear that across the board. But I think American funk disco influenced some of those artists.

In the mid 90s, I think there was another shift when artists from Holland specifically, like Nelson Freitas, Johnny Ramos, and the MoBase project started introducing R &B and hip hop into the music. In this case, Cape-Verdean music in specific, Angolan music, I think there were a few artists that were moving the music along, just exposing the music to the folks out there. However, there was a civil war going on. So I think most of the artists that were producing and releasing music, some of them were outside of Angola. So the influence of Zouk was also big at the time, 80s and 90s. 

I think that shaped Kizomba in general as it started becoming more popular in the 90s. And I think that those shifts moved the music along and helped create an identity. And then in the 90s, a lot through Zouk, late 90s through 2000s, R&B and hip hop started also becoming a part of those sounds. And I think in the mid 2000s, it started having a different identity, straying away from Zouk a little bit more. Also Zouk evolved, changing from Zouk chire to Zouk Love to then the Zouk of 2000s. Right now I don't think you can find a lot of Zouk artists that are out there producing. Zouk went down a lot, while Kizomba went in the opposite direction. Also because of the dance, think that

helped become very popular. Nowadays, the younger generation is also being influenced by Afrobeats. There's no denying that Afrobeats has had an influence throughout the world and Kizomba is no exception. So I think those two to three shifts happened, now, 90s, 2000s and now the second decade of the 2000s is becoming more apparent that Afrobeats is here to stay and is still influencing music a lot.

Victor (17:08.851)

Yeah, I mean, that's great. And thank you. I mean, it's a little bit of a history there. So that's great. you talk about the Zouks and the Kizomba and influences of people like Nelson Freitas and all that kind of stuff. So with all that in the mix, do you think Kizomba is getting lost maybe in commerciality, in commercial production? Is it still honoring its roots or is it getting a little bit lost? What do you think about that?

DJ Guelas (17:37.255)

I think there's been a split in the market. ghetto-zouk, late 90s became popular and naturally attracted the younger generations that were also the ones that also liked hip hop and R &B. They could identify with some of those sounds. Up until today, like with Afro Beats, the younger generation is gravitating more towards that. And the older generation,

It feels like they don't make music like they used to anymore. The usual comments that every generation, I think, goes through. But I think it's not necessarily lost. There's still plenty of artists out there doing music with more instrumentation, more... I hate to use the word traditional just because it has a connotation of being old. That's not necessarily the case. There's plenty of young artists out there that are doing music that is not necessarily identifiable with Afrobeats or something like that. So with that said, the popularity of music for the younger generations, obviously at an all time high.

Kizomba is more palatable for the older generations. I think that is less popular. That doesn't mean that it is not being made. But I think that as we move further along, I think the younger generations are gonna start gravitating more into, I think that that always happens, they start gravitating more into traditional sounds if you want to say. Is Kizomba  in trouble or not? I'm not sure. I think that remains to be seen. I hope more and more artists and younger artists gravitate more towards it and invest more in it. But I think it remains to be seen. I don't know if I really answered your question or if you're satisfied with that answer, but yeah.

Vitor (20:00.435)

No, no, you did. You did. did. No, no, yeah, 100%. And I think the last part as well about what you said, you know, it kind of goes round in circles, doesn't it? These things. hopefully, well, I say hopefully, but you know, like you say, the younger people might come back to more traditional, just, just the nature of things sometimes. So, and also, you know what? People are different, aren't they? Right. So they're going to like different things and music's always evolving, isn't it? So it's just, just thinking about that.

DJ Guelas (20:22.764)

Absolutely.

Victor (20:27.749)

Okay, no, you did answer the question. You did. So we talk about all of that then. What's something about Kizomba musical culture that you think people often misunderstand? You know, we've talked a bit about Afrobeats as well, but especially outside of Africa. Is there anything that you think people misunderstand about Kizomba?

DJ Guelas (20:49.475)

I think a lot of people, and now that Kizomba is globalized, think a lot of people think that, and there's this divide now, there's the traditional Kizomba and kizz, as they call it, for, you know, urban kizz lovers and the younger generation. I think that they feel that Kizomba is for older people or for older folks that are listening to it and therefore it's not cool if you listen to a Paulo Flores or to a Grace Evora or artists of that caliber, right? I often think that some ears are not ready for that music and that's fine. And even if you don't like the music, it's fine as well. I just think it's a shame that folks sometimes don't take the time to really discover those artists. But that's the way it goes. I mean, you can't force people's taste in music or anything like that, unfortunately. That's also part of our job as DJs to expose folks to as much of this music as possible and in a way that I think that they can appreciate. So I think there's ways to do that.

Adel (22:19.651)

Is there an element of education there as well? people, like you say, it's not a matter of changing people's tastes in music, maybe it's a timing thing, but also do you think sometimes people are lacking a little bit of an understanding of where it's coming from and then that might change their perception?

DJ Guelas (22:39.413)

Absolutely. I think that a lot of times what people are missing is the context, right? A lot of people, I go to a lot of festivals, right? And people want to be where the crowd is. Sometimes you have an urban kizz room where there's a lot of people. Sometimes you have a kizomba room where there's not as many people. And they want to be where the hype is going, understandably so. However, I think that there's a lot of people that, for example, in the US, they go to a Kizomba party and they're like, it's okay. And you play the same music that is played overseas and they say it's okay. However, if they go to Lisbon or they go to Luanda or they go to Maputo and they hear the same music in context with a lot of people dancing, a lot of people gravitating towards that music, I think all of a sudden that makes all the difference for them to be like, this is not so bad after all.

So context also matters in where they are exposed to the music. I think Victor, you were just in Luanda. I think maybe you can attest to some of that.

Victor (23:50.355)

When you mention people like, know, Grace Evora and Paulo Flores, all these amazing artists, mean, once you're in that mix and you're dancing to those kinds of music, I mean, it can't help but hit you regardless of what your preference is like. Do you know what I mean? So, yeah.

DJ Guelas (24:08.779)

Right, yeah. Yeah, I've known a couple of people that, you know, they didn't make it a secret that their preference was urban kizz and not that urban kizz is a genre of music, but music that is played for urban kizz dancers, right?

And all of a sudden they either went to Portugal, they went to Luanda, which a lot of people are going to Luanda now because of many organizers that are bringing folks out there. And once they see that, they come back with a different perspective and that changes their mind. Not to say that they don't like urban kizz or music that is played for urban kizz dancers, but they appreciate Kizomba in a different manner now and they see it in a different light. And I think that makes all the difference.

So we're not saying that you shouldn't like music that's for the younger generation or anything like that. But I think that it's helpful to appreciate different kinds of music if you see it in different contexts. And then that helps you understand the music better once you are in your country of origin, that being anywhere in Europe or the US or anywhere else in the world.

Victor (25:24.667)

Yeah, no, absolutely. And it's definitely about that education. You know, I agree with that 100 % literally everything you just said there. So yeah, if you can, people go to Luanda and go somewhere to learn and listen to the music. That's what I say. That's what I say. But yeah, so Guelas yeah, look, you know, you've mentioned a number of different music Just very briefly, so I wanna get your perspective on this. So for people who may be listening to the podcast who don't know too much about Kizomba, or they might have come or heard Urban Kizz or whatever it might be, how would you, because obviously with Kizomba, we have Semba, we have Zouk as well, we're just briefly able to explain their differences at all. So maybe Kizomba, Zouk and Semba, right.

Adel (26:23.969)

Let's throw, let's throw Coladera in there as well. 

DJ Guelas (26:27.255)

There you go. Listen, that's an age old question. I think that's from the beginning of Kizomba being globalized. Up until then, we didn't have to explain to each other what it was because we just instinctively knew or sometimes thought we knew. There was a need to explain the differences once it became globalized and people didn't understand either the language or didn't understand the music in general. I think, yeah, 10 years ago, I think that was, you couldn't go to a workshop and folks, not ask that question. So what is the difference? And a lot of times my question to those people was, if you thought you were dancing kizomba, but you were actually dancing to, if you thought you were dancing kizomba to a kizomba song, and you later found out that it wasn't kizomba, it was Zouk or it was semba. My question to the person is,

Do you dance it differently now? Do you interpret the song differently as an expression of dancing? Usually the answer is no. I think music or dancers, you know, the way they interpret music or sometimes a common mistake that people make is if, of course, there are rules to a certain dance. You dance Semba, perhaps different or a couple moves different from kizomba.

Zouk the same way, although in the Palop community, you're going to dance Kizomba to Zouk. But I think that the way the music makes you move or how you interpret the music or the instruments that are in the music is going to be the same. It's not going to make a difference if you know that the song now is Semba and not Kizomba, right?

Going back to your question and the differences between those. Of course, Zouk is gonna be different because of the language, although folks that are not familiar with Portuguese or French Creole or Creole from Cape Verde Islands are not gonna know, right? So they're not gonna be able to identify that difference like that. But there's also different types of Zouk. There's Zouk chire here, there's Zouk Love. Throughout time, there's been a great difference. I think that's it. In melodic terms, the riffs of the melodies of Zouk are very distinguishable from, for example, Cape Verdean. There's a few more solos and keyboards, instrumentation use. A lot of the horn sections in Zouk, especially older Zouk, Zouk chire, had horn sections. I was just at a Kassav concert a couple of weeks ago without Dear Jacob.

Rest in Peace sounds a little bit different, but you can see that the horn section is still there. Everything is still there. So there's a distinguishable side to that. I think that's Kizomba. Lately, you can find some music that adds some horns like saxophone, trumpets or whatever. But this older Zouk is very, Zouk Chiré especially, the Zouk that Cassav, that generation.

you could always tell because they had the horn section. The melodies were also a little bit different from the Cape Verdean music. Although Kizomba and the earlier stages, a lot of folks were trying to emulate Zouk. So the pattern or the beats follow the same pattern. Now with software that exists in a lot of DJs, that have access to it, can, for example, isolate sounds. You can isolate the drums, you can isolate the melody and all that, and you can remove it. So, I've done this exercise in a couple of private sessions that I had, or a couple of workshops as well, and I isolate the drum pattern and ask them to tell me if that's kizomba, Zouk, or semba. And most of the time you can't tell.

Most of the time you can't tell, you just have the drum pattern, you won't be able to really identify readily, right? So the melody part is very important, what instruments are used, all this besides the language. Semba also has the percussion part of Semba with the congas and all that is very distinguishable with the Reco Reco. It's also very distinguishable from Semba. You don't hear that a lot in Kizomba nor Zouk.

So those are also instruments that can be used to sometimes distinguish. Although not everything is black and white, there's the new genre now, kizomba, that folks are mixing both elements of kizomba and semba. So it's a little bit confusing, especially for people that are just starting. And I empathize with the difficulty that there is to sometimes identify all of those genres. But most of the time I tell people that are dancers and they have that question, I tell them, don't focus so much on those differences. I understand that you want to identify, you want to know how to tell, but the more music you listen to, the more you're able to identify certain nuances, right? But I think that at the end of the day, how you're going to interpret the music and the instruments that are being played so you can dance to them is always going to be the same.

Victor (32:26.257)

Okay. Great. No, great. And, you know, again, for those new people listening, you've just had a great education there in terms of the different musical styles and what to look out for. But yeah, no, that's, that's fantastic. So just want to say, actually myself and Adel, we had a workshop some time ago and we did a little exercise and we did just this thing where we got people, we had different stations and  Adel does DJing as well. So he played some music.

And the exercise was to go to the, well, had, what was it? Basically, Kizomba and Semba, and basically go to the station where you think this song is playing. It was hard for some people, know? It was very blurred sometimes. It wasn't that easy.

DJ Guelas (33:05.188)

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Listen, even among Palops, we're not always agreeing on what genre of music. Sometimes we have that, like I often have this conversation with Eddy sometimes or with other folks and like, what genre do you think this is? And we don't always agree. It's not always black and white. So, and if you ask the artists, for example, that question was asked of Grace Evora and Grace is like, we just making music, man. It's like, we're not too focused on what we make and what kind of music specifically we're making. So if it sounds good, then great.

Victor (33:32.872)

Yeah.

DJ Guelas (33:39.534)

but they're not caught up in sometimes labeling the music that they're making.

Victor (33:45.863)

Well you just heard it here, Grace doesn't care what you're dancing to. If you're singing, just move. That's basically what it is. No, that's great, man. So what genre is your personal favorite?

DJ Guelas (33:53.848)

Yeah.

DJ Guelas (34:09.812)

I was just having this conversation this weekend with Eddy because we were also together at another event. 

Victor (34:15.517)

So when you say Eddy, you mean Eddy Vents, right? Just for people who don't know. So Eddy Vents, who's a Kizumba teacher. Yeah, big up, Eddy.

DJ Guelas (34:21.444)

It's definitely my favorite. Zouk. I can remember being in my house in the kitchen doing homework and my mom listening to Kassav. Tape going back to back to back and although I thought it was annoying at the time, it was very ingrained in me.

Kizman (34:47.731)

Yeah.

DJ Guelas (34:48.388)

Kassava is still my favorite all-time band. Zouk for me was life and it's what really also brought me to Kizomba. Zouk was the anchor that brought me back, basically. And then to this day, retro Zouk from the 80s and 90s, I hear it and forget it. I just go nuts.

Kizman (35:20.147)

Okay, okay, that's cool.

Adel (35:22.055)

Touches deep,

DJ Guelas (35:23.402)

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Victor (35:27.101)

So you must have a very big Zouk collection of music.

DJ Guelas (35:30.368)

I try to collect as much as I can. I still have mini-disks and I don't know if you remember mini-disks. Those were popular in the 90s. I still have a lot of music in those mini-disks that I have to. I was looking the other day on Amazon to see if I can find a mini-disc player so I can actually retrieve those songs and all that. For the longest time I used to go to all the DJ's houses and they had records and just transferred the music from those records to at the time CD and I've had those CDs transferred to digital files and up until this day when I play those songs you hear it's still the needle going over the record and that's what brings back great memories.

Victor (36:26.449)

Yeah, beautiful, man. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. So, Zouk, I believe that Eddy Vents, that's his favorite genre as well, if I'm not mistaken, that he told me the same thing. So, it definitely hits you in the heart.

DJ Guelas (36:29.134)

Yeah.

DJ Guelas (36:37.378)

Yep. Yeah. I think that generation, if you ask anybody or if you ask most people, I think that the answer is going to be Zouk just because it marked such a period because either, you know, it was hard to get to studios at the time, expensive, and Zouk artists had access to that. had an industry that was established that allowed them to have access to studios and also producers that basically had a monopoly who had access to great studios in Paris and in the Caribbean as well. That's allowed them to have great recordings and great access to or access to great equipment.

And the cape Verdean in the Palop side,  it's more informal even to this day in terms of sales of music. And so a lot of them are not registered with the SACEM, which is the organization in France that does most of Europe, I think. And the States is ASCAP, but a lot of them, the younger artists, yeah, like Georgie Nelson, they all, you know,registered the music but older older generation is not something that they often did and if somebody did it would it would be the the record labels but then that leaves the artist with no access to musical rights. So that's a loss of income right there.

Victor (38:23.931)

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, no, great. and again, great, great information. So I think that I just said Eddy Vents, but also the Riquita Alta. I believe her favorite is Zouk as well. Episode two people anyway. So Riquita Alta, her. Yeah, she loves Zouk, Eddy and yourself. So it's a thing, man. It's a real thing. It's a real thing.

DJ Guelas (38:44.068)

Ha ha.

DJ Guelas (38:53.124)

Yeah, for sure.

Victor (38:53.555)

So, okay, yeah, so we're gonna move on to your experience then as a DJ, your craft. Yeah, Adel, talk to us about that.

Adel (39:06.808)

Alright, appreciate that. Okay, so let's get straight into that section then. Thinking back to when you got into DJing specifically, can you give us some insights into how it happened and also why it

DJ Guelas (39:20.74)

Oh, absolutely. When I moved to the States, I already was going to, like I mentioned before, to clubs in Portugal, African clubs that played a little bit of everything. When I got to the States, when I went to Cape Verdean clubs, that wasn't necessarily the case. I thought they were somewhat limited in terms of the music they were listening to. So I was, for example, hearing Kuduro, which was still in its infancy at the time. Brazilian music, which is also a big part of any African club that you went to in other parts, in other countries like Portugal, like in Cape Verde, like in Angola, Mozambique. Brazilian music was always a big part of either the prior to the party, everybody's getting there, they live listening to some soft Brazilian music and all that.

And I wasn't hearing that besides Angola music and all that. So Cape Verdean music was being played. But I think there was not a lot of variety. And once I started going more into Cape Verdean clubs that started, I guess, annoying me a bit more. And I decided to, I had a couple of friends that were DJs. So I started tagging along with them, learning the craft, helping you know, setting up the sound and all that until one day a good friend of mine asked me, hey, do you want to DJ a set or whatever? It wasn't even Kizomba that I was going to play. I was going to play hip hop. And I'm like, okay, I'll do that. And that's how it started. From then on, I started having a little bit more space into the night in terms of playing a longer set at the time. American music or hip hop was three, four, five songs max.

But then I started gradually having a little bit more time. At the time I still didn't even mix, but I later learned that by accident I was invited to go play at a wedding between a Cape Verdean person and somebody of Latin origin. I don't know if it was Colombia or something like that. At the time I didn't want to do it. I wanted to go to some other club or whatever. I have to go do this. So I went, but lo and behold, I was paying attention to what the DJ was doing and how he was using the cue and the play at the time with the Denon CD controllers. And I started paying attention. I'm like, so that's how they mix and they mark the song or whatever and things. So I went home, I borrowed the equipment from a friend of mine and I started practicing and I got it and it opened up just like this world of like, my God, so that's how they do it. So from then it was addicting. I was like, and practicing, recording, asking my sister-in-law, see if she liked it or whatever. What do you think about this transition or whatever? It was interesting times and very fond memories that I have of that time.

Adel (42:29.016)

You

DJ Guelas (42:46.309)

Nowadays I don't have as much time to practice, but especially in the beginning, it's fundamental and it's crucial that you invest that time and that you do all that. So basically those are the reasons why I started DJing and how I started DJing.

Adel (43:02.168)

Wow, very insightful there.

DJ Guelas (43:06.255)

Yeah.

Adel (44:04.6)

What guidance could you give to, not just DJs, myself included, is to, what to really focus on, how to get over the nerves, for example, in performing, how to really emphasize that it's about playing the set.

DJ Guelas (44:24.869)

Okay, let's go by parts. I think it's very, and thankfully, it's very easy to have access to equipment now to start DJing.

But I think that's, I'm not saying that novice or DJs in the current generation need to go over the same hurdles that we did. That's not necessarily the case, but I think they need to put in as much work as we did if they want to reach a certain level, right? I think there's less of demand and part of promoters and audience like sometimes.

In terms of the level that the DJ has or doesn't have for that matter. I think a lot of time has to be put into knowing music, searching for music, and also in technical terms, in knowing your equipment. Also, I think that's important to know how to set up DJ equipment because those challenges are going to be arising at any point. And you need to know, especially if you're by yourself or even if you're not by yourself, you need to know how to troubleshoot. You know, if the music stops or the speaker on the right side is not working correctly, you need to be able to identify those and quickly react in order for the party to continue. I think that a lot of times

a lot of DJs that have some name, sometimes they're not familiar with the equipment and they're not familiar with how to really address any issues that come along and they have to call somebody else in order to troubleshoot whatever they're going through. So put in a lot of hours. think that if you put in the practice, I think the nerves are always gonna be there, but if you practice enough,

DJ Guelas (46:34.149)

Or if you prepare yourself not and when I say prepare yourself, I'm not saying for you to have a set ready I think a lot of times in my view DJs can make that mistake have a set ready like they know exactly what music they're gonna play for an hour or two hours or whatever and I usually don't recommend that because What if the people are not reacting to the music that you're playing? What do you do then? Right? so

I think that you need to be prepared. You need to know your library in order to be like, okay, if they're not reacting to this, I can switch to this genre of music and don't, you can have playlists and you can have music that you saved in different crates and all that. What I'm saying is refrain from having all the music that you're going to play in order or whatever. Or if you're going to play at a

festival and the DJ before you plays five songs that you already were going to play, you need to switch it up. You need to, you need to see what people are reacting to. So if you know your library, then you don't have as many issues. What am I going to do now? Cause you've already played the songs that I was going to play. So being prepared helps with the nerves. I think they're always going to be there. But being prepared and practicing will also help you in any situation that may arise or any challenges that may arise. I still get nervous if I go play at a bigger festival or if I play at a location that I've never played before, but that usually quickly dissipates because the music starts going, it just flows. Yeah.

Adel (48:22.581)

Well, speaking of that, in today's day and age, when you're gonna DJ, in the first five minutes, what's running through your mind?

DJ Guelas (48:38.213)

Make sure the transitions are on point. Make sure that nothing is going wrong or whatever after the first couple of songs go through. Okay, I like, then you relax a little bit or whatever. Are they reacting?  Are there people sitting down? Why are they not dancing? Whatever. So it's a lot of things that go through your mind every, every 30, 45 seconds you think about the next song that needs to go up. And you also at the same time need to think of what direction you want to take the night into.

Adel (48:40.501)

Fair enough.

DJ Guelas (49:07.907)

And that could be a lot of different ways, if you're playing at a festival, if you're playing an opening set, if you're playing a closing set, if you're playing a mid set, they're all has its different, I don't want to say rules, but there's different ways to play depending on where you're playing, what position you're playing if you're playing at festival.

Adel (49:33.321)

What's the longest set that you remember ever having to play?

DJ Guelas (49:39.29)

at a festival, it had to be like three and a half hours or so. I think the DJ. After the cup, two DJs that were supposed to come after me didn't show up. And I was playing the day social in Luxembourg. Lots of people would have, I was tired, but ended up being one of the best experiences and lots of people coming to me and congratulating me because. Like I said, once you get going on a rhythm and people are going along, then that opens up your library and you can go pretty much anywhere you want. And as a DJ, there's nothing more rewarding than that. It's just like they're reacting, they're going, everybody's on the dance floor. So I can experiment and go in different ways.

Adel (50:29.119)

Well, on that note, that's actually raising a good point, which is...

What sort of tricks would you say you have and would you share as well to make sure that those transitions, especially if you're five, 10, 20 songs in, those transitions in the music you're choosing maintains the energy for the crowd.

DJ Guelas (50:50.935)

Again, it’s knowing the music, right? Sometimes, a lot of times, while I'm playing music that's high energy, it doesn't mean that it's high BPM. Low BPM music can still have high energy, right? And I load the music into the deck to see if I'm playing, and I'm listening to music like this, it doesn't match, like the energy is not there, because you're here, and if you transition to a song that may be the same BPM, everything can line up.

But the energy is not the same. There's going to be a drop in energy when people are dancing. So you always have to have that in mind. I'm like, quickly get rid of that, bring something along. Doesn't mean that you always get it right. But with experience, normally is going to go through a progression of, now, I usually like to have peaks and valleys. I like to go up in energy, drop, go up and go up in that journey again. I think that if you're always up here in energy, that also can be tiring and can make the party weird in a way. I think there's this analogy, just like a heartbeat.

There's the peaks and valleys in if you're looking at the graph of the heartbeat. That means you're alive, right? It goes up and down. If you go flat and you stay up in the energy, that means you're dead. Not to say, not to be morbid in this case, but whatever. But I think that there's a lot of ups and downs. I think oftentimes I relate to that. You play with people's emotions as you DJ.

You take him on a journey, like I'm gonna make him feel a certain way and now I'm gonna make him feel a certain way. So you're dictating those emotions throughout the night.

Adel (52:46.269)

you balance that with what the organizers have asked you to play if and when they do ask you to play?

DJ Guelas (52:55.649)

Most of the time they don't. Most of the time if somebody hires me, they usually know what to expect unless they want a specific thing or like, you know, play some Afro because there's been no animation yet or whatever. In specific cases like that, they may say something. I usually don't wanna say annoyed, but annoyed when certain...

DJ Guelas (53:24.507)

Promoters try to dictate and tell you how to do it and where to go in terms of music because they feel they know their crowd and what they I mean I understand if a promoters they're like listen there's a lot of Haitians over here play some Konpa or whatever I understand that but not when folks demand of you like you need to play this you need to play this you need to play this now at this time usually I think then I'm thinking why did you hire me?

DJ Guelas (53:52.47)

If I'm not making those decisions based on what I see, and I'm not saying that I'm always gonna get it right and that whatever decisions I make are gonna make the crowd dance. However, if you hired me, it's because you feel that I bring something different or I bring something that the crowd may wanna hear. So at least allow me to make those decisions of where to go, how to do it, when to do

Adel (54:16.371)

A slightly related one as well, which just popped into mind having spoken to different DJs is requests from the audience. What are your thoughts on that?

DJ Guelas (54:25.946)

Ha ha.

I need to get a t-shirt that says no requests allowed. No, listen, I usually listen to what the crowd has to say. If somebody has a request, if it fits whatever I'm playing at the time, then I may try to work that in. If not, like, listen, like I'll play that later or something like that, not right now. Or if I feel that it's not adequate to the parties that I'm playing, then like,

Adel (54:30.717)

Yeah

That's clear.

DJ Guelas (54:58.832)

I'm sorry, I don't have the song. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Adel (55:03.122)

That's fair enough. That's fair. Trying to find a way out, let's say, No, that's fair. That's fair. That's fair. No, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Jumping back to one thing you mentioned before about the importance of a DJ knowing his or her music, knowing his or her setup, what do they have, how do things work?

Between the controller, as it's called nowadays, so the deck, whatever deck that people are using, whether it's clubbed, whether it's owned, and nowadays the software that people will use, things like Rekordbox and among others, for aspiring DJs, what would you say is more important to focus on in those early days, in quotes, where they're still finding their feet?

DJ Guelas (55:46.854)

terms of what controller to use or what software to use or anything?

I often say, know, equipment doesn't make the DJ. It's part of everything. It's a component. It's good to have equipment that is going to sound right, that has a good sound card, that is not going to sound crappy. But the equipment is not going to make the DJ. DJ is going to be creative in a way. He can play anything and make a crowd rock, right? Software is just a place where you organize your music. It may have effects here and there or whatever, but I think oftentimes folks get caught up in like, my control is better because it does this or my software is better because I can sort the music in this way or search the music in this way or whatever. I think as long as your music is organized in the way that you can find it or

being able to use it optimally, that's all the external factors are. Like you as a DJ, you're gonna bring, you in your mind, you have a trip where you wanna take these people on, like a voyage, like a musical journey. And it's not gonna be the equipment that's gonna help you make that necessarily.

Adel (57:14.223)

journey.

DJ Guelas (57:22.02)

better may help in terms of sound and all that but I think for the most part you have equipment that plays through now let me let me rewind a little bit on that, right? I think that if you have a controller and equipment, that's fine. But however, if you have a location at a club, festival, space, venue, that does not have optimal speakers where the sound is coming out right, then that makes a difference. Then in that case, like, you know, I hate to be in a place where, you know, the sound is not good or whatever. That's always gonna translate into the DJ not doing his job. Something is going on. You're not.

I didn't like the night for whatever, because of the sound. That is something that I go to a place and people already know me. If the sound is not right, I tried, even if I'm not working at the event, I'll go, I'll try to tweak the sound too, for the sound to be as optimal as it can be. However, there's situations where the sound is really not adequate and that's very unfortunate for both the crowd and the DJ as well. Most of the times the DJ

is not going to have control over that because if they come into a situation the sound is already set up either being a club or being a festival that is renting the sound to be there then at least the sound needs to be on point for people to listen in an optimal way. So that in that sense makes a difference as far as the controller or the software that you use that's just minimal. It's sort of important but it's not going to limit what you need to do.

Adel (59:02.756)

I appreciate that. It's the talent. It's basically the person that's standing in front of the deck and between the deck and the crowd, let's say.

DJ Guelas (59:08.27)

Right, right. Because the equipment is not going to mix for you. Although there's all these kinds of now with sync, synchronizing, and all that. Those are tools to help you be more efficient, I guess, faster. But I think that the song selection, what journey you take people on, is still up to you.

Adel (59:31.728)

Out of curiosity, what do you use nowadays?

DJ Guelas (59:37.318)

I have been using the Serato DJ I've been using for years. Even since Life Scratch or whatever I've been using since 2007, I've been consistent with that. As far as equipment now I have Pioneer DJM S9 and I have a CDJ-1000. I have one because I travel a lot and I used to bring my equipment a lot more often than I do now.

Adel (59:57.231)

Nice.

DJ Guelas (01:00:07.086)

But for travel purposes, it's easier to bring that. And I have one backpack and one CDJ case. And if I have two, then I have to check something in. I won't check in the equipment because it's not going to come back in the same condition, for sure. Yeah. Yes, exactly. So yeah.

Adel (01:00:23.855)

Exactly. If it comes back at all. Yeah, yeah. No, I hear you. hear you. hear you. On a different note.

Victor (01:00:35.485)

Just a quick question. So obviously the equipment that you're talking about and obviously people listening in who might be wanting to explore DJing or that kind of stuff. So the equipment that you've just mentioned is that quiet high-end equipment for maybe new DJs?

DJ Guelas (01:00:54.414)

It stores the higher ends. It stores the higher end of things that are, and right now you can get controllers that are this big, they have sound cards that the sound is also limited. But there are various, there's a lot of different options for DJs that are starting right now that don't want to spend as much money, you know.

because it's a hobby, because they don't get paid to do this. And then there's higher end equipment. The higher end equipment for you to get a set, could be upwards of $6,000 for you to get a professional equipment for you to, and this is without speakers or anything like that. This is just for you to play, control your music. Then if you add speakers and all that, then of course that brings that to a different amount. But it's towards the higher ends. Then again, I've gone through a lot of different equipment. I still have a controller that I played with before, but with that equipment, it can range from mid to more professional to higher ends. can range from controllers $1500 to $2500 to $6,000 again.

So the equipment that I have right now is at that midpoint.

Victor (01:02:24.017)

Yeah, just want to know, because some people might be looking at that, like OK, let me go and get that or look at that and they'll be like, hold on, hold on a minute. Yeah, we give them a range.

DJ Guelas (01:02:29.574)

I mean, if they have the money, the disposable income to be able to invest in that, better for them because obviously it's great equipment. But if they don't and they feel that money is a concern, they still want to invest in something to play, there's plenty of controllers out there that are more affordable on the more affordable spectrum.

Adel (01:02:57.199)

Speaking of that, and speaking of aspiring DJs and young DJs, what do you see said DJs doing nowadays that you actually admire, especially with all the experience and the history that you have in the scene?

DJ Guelas (01:03:13.062)

Listen, some of them can be various things. Some of them have the courage to get out there and play in front of people. It's not easy, especially when you were never exposed to that, if you've never been exposed to that. Even more if people play Kizomba and they're not palop. And palop meaning the countries that are of African descent that speak Portuguese as an official language. Folks that are American or Portuguese, French, whatever, that don't necessarily know the language out there playing the music because they invest that much time because they go out that much. In order to be exposed to music, order for them to then load the music, know what to play, when to play it. So I admire that, that folks are investing in the culture and the genre of music that they don't, in a language they don't necessarily know and be able to sustain a night and play out there. I think that, and a lot of creativity as well. A lot of these young DJs that are coming now that have a lot of creativity and dabble along and move that DJ culture in that particular genre of music along. So I think that's admirable.

Adel (01:04:32.32)

flip side, where do you see that maybe they're going wrong or they're deviating slightly, that they could benefit from an adjustment in course, for example.

DJ Guelas (01:04:43.812)

Yeah, I think that's going to be usually lack of commitment, lack of investments in what they are doing, lack of preparation.

Those are gonna be the situations that usually disappoint me. If you ask me, a lot of people sometimes come and ask, " what do you think of such DJs or whatever. Not that I need to have an opinion of whatever, I can usually tell, I can usually, if I walk into a place and the DJ ear is not gonna ever be turned off. That's something if you start DJing, and wherever you go, you're always gonna be usually paying attention to what the DJ is doing. The transitions are right. And unfortunately, I have very expressive eyes. They usually tell me. And I've been in situations where I was at a certain location and I've received a text saying, fix your face. Because my face is just good. Translate everything that was going on. But yeah, I usually turn and I usually...

I don't necessarily know if I walk into a venue, I may not know immediately where the DJ is, but if something goes wrong, I immediately turn to see where the DJ is to see what happened. Because a lot of things can happen. Somebody can bump into the DJ, the DJ is distracted, whatever it may be. But a lot of times it's mistakes. And everybody makes mistakes, don't get me wrong. I make mistakes. But when it's consistent mistakes going throughout your set, then that becomes a trend that determines that's, can identify that as lack of preparation or lack of ability to play. And I think that you don't have to be super hard on yourself and you have to start somewhere, but you need to be minimally prepared to play in front of people. So usually. That's the minimum that one should ask of a DJ.

Adel (01:06:59.884)

Having been in similar, tricky situations, I get it. I understand. understand. understand.

DJ Guelas (01:07:05.295)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But then again, also it could be sometimes it's not the DJ's fault, it's the promoter's fault or something like that. I always believe that the promoter, whoever is hiring that DJ, should put that DJ in the best position possible to be successful. So if you have a DJ that you know is not as experienced, but you give them a slot that most a lot of people are dead, a slot that you know, prime time of the night and they're not doing that great, then the promoter, think, or the head DJ should also be, take some responsibility on that. Not to say that, you know, novice DJs can't take prime time slots. However, if they're not prepared, then who's gonna suffer is the crowd that's attending the party.

Adel (01:07:59.596)

Would you say that the number one thing that you'd wish promoters would do more often is to be mindful of providing the best environment for DJs?

DJ Guelas (01:08:09.991)

Yes, I think definitely that should be something that promoters pay attention to. A lot of festivals do hire a head DJ to handle all of that. So the promoter, of course, also has a lot of different things that they have to be concerned about and not necessarily have to pay attention to.

DJ Guelas (01:08:34.255)

What's going on in the DJs, because usually when you hire DJs, you expect them to be professional, to act as such. Not always the case, but that's why I usually sometimes the head DJ is also helpful.

Adel (01:08:47.723)

get it. I get it. I understand. I understand.

When you're not DJing, we've been talking about when you're DJing, the experience of DJing, what device you have. When you're not DJing, what do you enjoy listening to in your personal life when you're just chilling, relaxing? What do you like to listen to?

DJ Guelas (01:09:08.079)

A lot of different types of things. If you go through my phone, it's from all my music. A lot of the music that's on my phone is what I play in my car. Sometimes I have some kizomba and some my Zouk, but it's going to be deep house, some Afro house, jazz. So music to just relax and get away from, because I'm so much into when I'm playing to the music.

And that often happens when I'm playing festivals back to back. I need to get a break so I can listen to something else. And so also I, if I play often like that, then I feel that I'm playing the same music and I need to decompress in order to get back and with a different feel from what I'm doing.

Adel (01:09:53.706)

Yeah, I understand. get you. Getting a bit of a change in scenery in an auditive sense.

DJ Guelas (01:09:58.617)

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. I also like to listen to a lot of music from back in the day, old school R &B, sometimes rock. Whatever I'm feeling that day, I wake up with a song in my head and that determines the rest of the day.

Adel (01:10:18.068)

Yeah

Yeah, I'm laughing because I get it. happens a lot. this song, I haven't heard it in several weeks. Yeah, but it's just in my head.

DJ Guelas (01:10:23.718)

Yeah.

Adel (01:10:33.194)

Let's transition here to discuss a little bit about festivals and also legacy. Legacy that you're looking to leave here. And this is where I'll jump across and hand over to Victor. So to guide us through that.

Victor (01:10:51.091)

Yeah, sure. Sure. But just before we do DJ Guelas, I want to ask you a quick question. So we had a guest on our podcast DJ for Fofucho and DJ Kindoki, two DJs from the UK, both from Angola. And I asked them the question, you know, what's what's important about DJing? You know, and one of the answers was the fact that, you know, they said that DJing is no joke. They take it really, really seriously, okay? It's not a joke thing, now, when they're preparing for music, you know, way ahead of the event, it's not a joke. So what I wanna find out from you is when I asked them the question, what's one important thing that you want people to realize about a DJ's work, a DJ's life? That was the answer they gave. So.

What would be your answer to that question? What do you think, what do you want people to understand? Maybe one thing you really want people to understand about the work that you do, you know? Yeah, that's the question really.

DJ Guelas (01:11:56.455)

I want people to understand that playing music is not just pressing the play button that comes up a lot. You just play but you just play the music in your day. You don't do much. You don't have that much responsibility, but I'm not paraphrasing over here, but that comes up a lot. People usually tend to minimize the importance of the DJ. And what they don't realize is it's a lot of pressure. No matter what set you have, no matter what time you play, no matter how many people you're playing for. You never know who's listening, first of all.

But most of the time you play and like I said earlier, every 15 to 20, 30 seconds you think of what song to play next. What can I play next that people are going to continue dancing? Your goal is to have as many people on the dance floor as possible for as long as possible, right? So if there's nobody dancing, that's your responsibility. You're the one playing music.

And this case is that sometimes you play music that usually people dance to and people are not dancing for whatever reason. Sometimes the lights are too bright and people are kind of conscious to go to the middle of the dance floor, open up or whatever. Sometimes it's too dark or whatever. So there could be a lot of different reasons. Sometimes the music that you're playing is not...

Kizman (01:13:14.899)

That's real pressure, isn't it?

DJ Guelas (01:13:41.0)

It's not pleasing that particular crowd that you're playing for. But all of that, whatever happens in the party, is gonna be the responsibility of the DJ. If a party's reputation, a festival's reputation is gonna be depending on the DJs that are there as well, especially of course the parties. So you have to think about all of that. In the meantime while you're doing that, there's people coming to you asking you, where's the bar? Can I put my jacket over here?

Hey, do you know what the promoter is? And you at the same time are thinking about what music to play, what song to play because there's still people out there dancing. And sometimes you have under a minute before the song that's playing is going to be over and you have to play the next song in a way that people are going to continue dancing, not a break. So you can then play the next song. You have to mix it in. At what point do you mix this in? Is there a part for me to mix this in? So there's a lot of different things and a lot of times people don't realize but at the end of the DJ set if you play two, three hours or whatever especially the longer sets you're mentally exhausted because you're thinking about all of this constantly and all whatever. Sometimes it's more mentally draining, sometimes it's not and I'm not sitting here saying that it's this horrible job. If you love doing it, that's what you do. It is what it is. but sometimes people's indifference about DJs and they just play music. And a lot of times my answer to them is like, okay, let's do this. You have music on your laptop, bring your laptop, you have 500 people in this party, play music for two hours for these 500 people to keep dancing. Are you gonna be able to do that? You may be able to play one, two songs, but after that one, two songs, like what am I gonna play?

What do I want these people to feel? And sometimes you, and inexperienced folks can go over there and play, if it's a kizomba party, kizomba, let's say, I don't know, 95 BPM, they jump to Semba and they come back to think people are not gonna dance like that. They're just gonna sit down like what is going on over here? There's a method, there's an art to this.

DJ Guelas (01:16:08.773)

in terms of bringing these people on the journey in a way that's almost seamless when you bring them on this journey. So I think that that's something that I would love for most peop to understand. So DJ's job is, we may love it, it may seem like it's fun, it may seem for an outsider or may seem like it's easy, but it's definitely not.

Kizman (01:16:37.415)

Wow, yeah. And thank you. Thank you for sharing that. It's an eye-opener. And it's important for people to hear as well. That's why I asked the question. And you said something as well that hit me really. You said that it's the DJ's responsibility, so the festival, so DJ responsibility for the festival, right? So you're right, because people will remember the nights, they'll remember the DJs, they'll remember the music. So I don't think people will kind of realize that. When you said that, it's kind of like, okay, yeah, that's pressure. That's a lot of pressure. Do you know what I mean?

DJ Guelas (01:17:09.509)

Right, yeah.

Adel (01:17:12.967)

Speaking... Speaking of which...

What makes a song DJ worthy for you?

DJ Guelas (01:17:27.284)

let me, let me see how to, let me see how to answer that question. It's sometimes DJ or a lot of times, most times people or DJs will also play a song that they don't necessarily like. Also, you can't, you can't be a DJ that plays music for yourself. You also need to understand this, this marketability to certain songs that people, a lot of people, it's popular for whatever reason. People like that song. You may not like the song, but listen.

Adel (01:17:29.863)

Especially given the pressure.

DJ Guelas (01:17:57.095)

The song is hot, people are dancing to it, then you're gonna play because you wanna have people dancing to it, it's your job, right? I think most of the time, DJs are gonna play something that they like. I think that's it. 

DJ Guelas (01:18:17.105)

So before DJs really made songs. There wasn't social media, there were DJs in radios that picked certain songs that were put out there. Then if you play it long enough or if you play in a way that people are going to understand and like, then they made those songs. That's why the importance of, even bigger the importance of DJs back in the day.

Nowadays you have social media, you have YouTube, you have all of these platforms where people go and listen to music and create these trends. So I think in a way is more

Fast food-ish like, it's quick consumption, song is hot for two weeks, then it's not, you don't hear that song anymore. I think it's harder to achieve classic status that stands throughout the test, throughout the time. I think it's harder for you to produce music like that right now, the way that music is being consumed.

But I think good music is always going to be good music. And that depends on a lot of different factors. know, melody, is it catchy? Is it in the trend of where music is going right now? Because also at the same time, if music is way too different, is it going to be matching with whatever else you're playing? So it's a lot of different factors that go into what you play, how you play it, when you play it. But it's always going to be with, you know, popularity. doesn't mean that certain songs that are not played as much are not good. But there are also DJs that are out there looking for the most obscure songs that nobody has ever heard. So for the sake of being different, that's also not productive, I guess. So, yeah.

Adel (01:20:23.333)

And the struggles of performing as a DJ, as you say, it's art. This isn't a science, this isn't just pressing buttons.

Victor (01:20:23.463)

Yeah, 

DJ Guelas (01:20:30.609)

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then there's so much music. So you also have, I like to play a little bit of everything from old school to music that's being produced now. And you have a very specific timeframe where you need to do this. So sometimes you have an hour set, an hour and a half, two hours. And then like, what am I going to play? Like also depends on what the other people are playing. know, certain DJs out there, they're only looking to play the current bangers.

What is hot right now, but that doesn't mean that music that was produced before is not good or it shouldn't be played. So you also can find your niche over there in terms of like, I'm gonna take this opportunity to take this crowd in a different journey from music that from back in the day or from, you know, a year ago, that maybe it's not being played as much anymore and you need to find your own because if everybody goes and plays the same music, then the crowd is the one that's that suffers from that. I already heard this song five times today. Maybe good, but not that good.

Yeah. Yeah.

Adel (01:21:35.716)

It gets boring.

Victor (01:21:35.795)

Yeah, no, great. Thank you for that insight. And okay, I have a question for you, right? Before we get into festivals and legacy, this is a left field question, okay? 

DJ Guelas (01:21:48.67)

All right. I'll try to have a left field answer.

Victor (01:22:02.513)

You say, you know, if you listen, if you look at your phone, there's a range of music on there, right? So I want to, I just want to take us back in a day, a minute, right? Just bear with me with this one. So back in the day, we used to have these things called mixtapes, right? So we had the tape and we made songs, all that kind of stuff. And sometimes you might make a mixtape for your girl. Okay.

DJ Guelas (01:22:28.85)

Right.

Kizman (01:22:31.195)

So I'm just trying to ask you have you made any mixtapes in your time for your wife

DJ Guelas (01:22:47.27)

I had some mixes that I'd played live that usually were... She likes to have input and she has very good musical taste. And a lot of times she will send me songs even the other day. Last night I was in flight on the way back to Miami and she sent me a song like, listen to this song, whatever. So there's definitely sometimes mixes that I do that I have in mind that are specific songs that we both like that we like to dance or just appreciate. And sometimes, yeah, there's a couple of mixes that definitely have that in mind, or her in mind.

Victor (01:23:28.721)

I got you, okay. I had to ask man. I remember back in the day making tapes, know, mixed tapes for, know, the girl I was dating at the time. It's just, you know how it is, right? But anyway, it's all good. Love it that you're doing it still.

DJ Guelas (01:23:30.45)

Ha

Yeah.

DJ Guelas (01:23:37.0)

Yeah. Yeah.

DJ Guelas (01:23:42.138)

Well, now the question is, what music did you put in it?

Kizman (01:23:46.129)

Hey, hey, man, this is my podcast, man. What's going on here?

DJ Guelas (01:23:48.424)

Hahaha ⁓

Victor (01:23:54.002)

No, I'm joking, man. Yeah. Let's just say it was nice. Anyway, moving on to festivals. Okay. So listen, Kizomba festivals, I mean, I've been dancing Kizomba for maybe, I don't know, 13, 14 years, or let's say trying to dance Kizomba, but I'm in the Kizomba world. And since that time festivals, I mean,have been there.  But now it's just everywhere.

Victor (01:24:23.323)

Yeah, so I guess the question is, what's it like watching the growth of that? And do you think there's too many right now? Or what are your thoughts on festivals in that regard?

DJ Guelas (01:24:33.896)

I think like everything else it's about cycles. I think for some reason kizomba. It's on a down cycle right now. I think a couple of festivals in France are having the responsibility to carry Kizomba and where Kizomba has successful festivals. I'm not even talking about Urban Kizz, right? I do think that Urban Kizz, there's a lot of different festivals, especially in Europe. It's overcrowded right now. In Kizomba, I don't think that's the case. Kizomba itself, like Mwangole, just happened last week, I believe. And I think it was successful. had a couple of friends that were there and they told me very good things about it. There's a couple of other festivals in France in particular. So I think those are helping to keep Kizomba,festivals afloat. I do think that worldwide Kizomba is on a down cycle right now. Hopefully that will be changed soon.

More festivals, more people are willing to invest in risk because it is a risk as well as an investment of your time, money. But it goes through cycles. I  think that nowadays it's harder to pull and find community in Kizomba folks, as well as promoters that are willing to create communities in their cities, which is the backbone of having people going to these festivals and funnel these people to festivals, right? I think back maybe 10 years ago, there were more people that were willing to do that and put in the work. And nowadays, think folks, the folks that were dancing then or were learning then, I think that they feel that they don't, they've reached a plateau as far as what they could learn.

DJ Guelas (01:26:46.95)

They want to go to parties, they want to dance or whatever. And there's not a new generation of dancers which are the fuel for the workshops for, you know, bringing teachers because they want to learn and are thirsty to learn. I think that's lacking right now. And I think that’s throughout the globe, I think that there's a lot of different festivals that are finishing, like Awake in Australia finished. Our festival finished last year. It was 10 years. Usually it seems like that 10 year mark is the marker for the endurance of a festival. Very few have been making it past that, or very few have owners and people that are willing to invest past that, unfortunately. On the urban kizz side, I think that there's a lot more people. There's been a younger generation that's been able to recruit more people, more dancers. I think they also have the ability to promote it better, they deal better with social media as the world is how they grew up. So they're better able to expose it with more exposure, there's more people that are willing to join that. 

And so I think that's why there's the urban kizz, besides the music and how it attracts younger people, has been able to exponentially build on the festivals that they've been making. That's why, especially in Europe, there's festival after festival, sometimes four or five festivals in the same weekend.

Victor (01:28:33.819)

Yeah, yeah. It's sad that, you know, what you're saying is that it's on a decline, you know, hopefully we can, well, is there anything you think we can do to keep it up, keep it there?

DJ Guelas (01:28:46.12)

Again, I think that more people are willing to invest in local communities so they can then fuel interest in festival goers and all different kinds of places. I think that it lacks that. I think that there was a generation of promoters and people that were willing to invest that have reached mentally, they've plateaued. A new generation of people need to come in and pick up where that work is left off and like, okay, let's, let's try to do something. 

On another note I think it’s  something that I've been saying for a while.  

African Dancer was a festival that created a lot of teachers. Because it fostered competition, there was structure to it. It gave visibility to people. So African Dancer produced many teachers that for many years were touring the world teaching. That fueled interest, that fueled people to funnel into these festivals.

And unfortunately African Dancer disappeared and there hasn't been anything that's been able to replace that. I think Urban Kizz created something sort of similar, which was the Olympiads and some other events that they were doing. So they were having local events in all different kinds of parts of the world. And the winners would go to Paris to compete. There was a component of Kizomba to it, but the focus was urban kizz. I think that's lacking for Kizomba. I think there's a couple of folks over here in the States, Asita and Rina, they were just this weekend at the Sawa Sawa Festival in Washington, DC. They organized this Jack and Jill that they had, it was well attended. Folks were interested, they were competing. I think that it starts with that to create more interest, especially in the novice folks that are coming in. So they'd see enthusiasm, they see, and then they become eager to learn and want to compete and want to travel and do all that. That helps. But I think it starts with that. 

I think that that should probably be the basis of generating more interest so more people are funneled to these festivals because otherwise I don't think it's going to survive at least in the current format.

Victor (01:31:18.92)

Yeah, Yeah, no. Okay, anything we can do to keep it up, man. That's what I'm interested in.

DJ Guelas (01:31:27.366)

Hey, listen, podcasts are also important. And so, yeah, this is an important conversation happening over here so people are aware. yeah.

Victor (01:31:36.155)

Yeah, no, no, that's great. And then let's talk about what you mentioned and I was very lucky, lucky enough to come over to Miami, I think it was 2018 to experience your festival there at that time. Obviously Miami, what can you say about Miami, right? Amazing, right? But yeah, that festival was nice, man. So I guess the question is not what happened, is it what you were just talking about reaching the plateau or any other reasons for that? Can it come back or is that that?

DJ Guelas (01:32:07.59)

Yeah,

Listen, never say never, right? I think that we were in a situation where we did it for 10 years. It was a good run. Everything runs its course. I think it was important for us to go out at least on top, at least as of right now. We don't know if it's gonna come back in a different iteration in different formats or in the same format. We don't know. I don't think so at this point, at least.

Victor (01:32:14.621)

Yeah.

DJ Guelas (01:32:41.874)

But it was important for us to go out on a good note. And I believe we did that. We had a record number of attendees last year. It was a good addition. Folks had fun. Folks are still asking everywhere. We go for us to bring it back because it became a part of at least the Cape Verdean community over here in the States. They don't have many opportunities to go out and have fun and go to an event where they feel that they are represented. And Miami became that for them, became the vacation spot. They weren't going to Cape Verde, they were going to Miami, which was initially one of the goals that we had. But then again, there's limitations, there's lack of support, sponsorship would have been important. I think that an event of that magnitude should and needs to have sponsorship in order to help support the expenses and support the risk that we take because it's all fun and games until, know, and people see a lot of folks out there, attendees and people for many years thought that we had a lot of money, that we were rich. It's definitely not the case. 

Victor (01:34:10.045)

Yeah.

DJ Guelas (01:34:12.551)

But yeah, people do think that', you know, it's more successful than it actually is. There was a lot of effort, was a lot of time consumption, and it was a lot of investment on our part to make that festival happen. A lot of times for the detriment of our own financial situation in order for people to have fun. And that's all great. We love to see people have fun, but at some point it needs to make sense for us as well.

Victor (01:34:50.321)

Yeah, well, like I say, it was great I only went there one time, I would love to have gone back as many times as I could. But it was a great thing in terms of what you put on. And like I say, obviously, Miami

DJ Guelas (01:34:59.753)

So I believe you probably, if you went in 2018, you probably saw Yola Semedo and er, I think it was the fifth anniversary and if you went.

Victor (01:35:08.989)

Jennifer Diaz

DJ Guelas (01:35:11.802)

Yola Semedo with Jennifer Dias. Yeah, Jennifer Dias on Friday and Yola on Saturday.

Victor (01:35:12.787)

I thought Jennifer was there. Yeah, I think that was the one. She was there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what can you say? But anyway, it's all good, man. But anyway, if the future holds well and that comes back, then it will be a very, very, very good thing. But thank you for the memories of that because that was great. That was great. 

DJ Guelas (01:35:35.731)

Yeah, yeah.

Adel (01:35:38.031)

I feel like I missed out. I should have gone. too late.

Victor (01:35:41.235)

Hahaha ⁓

DJ Guelas (01:35:42.185)

You did Adel, you did.

Victor (01:35:46.131)

It's all right. It's coming back. Don't worry. I'm joking. Yeah No, man so Guelas with all your experience. Okay, you know has there been anything that's totally surprised you either on the dance floor or behind the decks funny moments, silly moments, embarrassing moments, anything that you can think of just one thing that you can share?

DJ Guelas (01:36:10.985)

Definitely surprising moments. Back 30 years ago when I was starting my first steps in music, I never thought that I would be traveling the world, doing something that I love, playing music and exposing folks to Pol op music. Definitely remote places in Australia.

In India, not that I played in India, but I know that there's a community out there and they're doing a very good job of exposing the culture. But Brazil, all over Europe, over here in the US, so many people are being exposed to the music and actually enjoying and sometimes appreciating more than Palops

That's definitely something that was pleasantly surprising that I definitely take into account and definitely appreciate these people's efforts in bringing artists into sometimes in situations that are very difficult financially wise and to bring artists out there to make this effort just because they love the music and the dance. So that's something that's been definitely pleasantly surprising and something that I definitely appreciate to this day.

Victor (01:37:49.415)

Fantastic, fantastic, no, great, great, great. So speaking about artists, well, I know that you release CDs or you have released CDs in the past, but we're gonna talk about that when you come back on the next episode. In depth. All right, so see what I did there, but anyway, all right, so yeah.

DJ Guelas (01:38:06.505)

Okay, deal. All right.

Victor (01:38:18.119)

You work with lots of different artists and you make music, but you know, are there any artists you think people need to hear more of right now, any names that you can share?

DJ Guelas (01:38:37.353)

People that are, I guess, getting into Kizomba right now, artists that they may want to pay attention to. All right, let's see. Definitely, I would say Grace Evora from Cape Verde, artists that span different generations of music listeners, started late 80s and is still going, still releasing great music. So there's a great library of music that they can listen to from both individual efforts on his own and also groups that he was a part of like Livity, like Splash. So that's definitely a huge library of music that they can be exposed to if they haven't already. From Angola, I would say Paulo Flores, Yuri da Cunha, still releasing great music. Paulo Flores, again, the same, making music since the 90s and still producing great music.

Victor (01:39:23.347)

Great.

DJ Guelas (01:39:35.789)

And if they have a chance to really either translate the music or pay attention to what he says because the depth of his music is not only instrumental wise but lyrically, he's definitely one of the best that we have out there and what he sings about, he sings for the people. Yuri Da Cunha being the entertainer that he is also lyrically, musically,

He's one of the top ones over there. Yola Semedo, one of the great voices in Africa. Berula, it's a lot of different artists out there that are waiting to be discovered. And fortunately with the platforms that we have out there, Spotify, YouTube and all that, folks have access to them. But yeah, think that, Kassav for sure.

I can't forget Zouk. Kassav, just because if you listen to Kassav and Zouk in general, I think you can see the basis of where the music is now, Kizomba-wise, as far as the instrumentation, as far as what they brought to the table, recording methods, always having great production. So I think those artists would be great to explore and to listen to and to be exposed to.

Victor (01:40:35.88)

Yeah. Yeah.

Victor (01:41:08.369)

Fantastic. No, Thank you. they are, every single one of them is great. And anybody new listening or watching, know, check those artists out because you will be enlightened and in heaven with the music that they produce and play. So thank you. I'm just, you know, what are some of the projects coming up for you then, Guelas? Anything that you're excited about that you're working on in terms of just music, DJing maybe, anything that you want to talk to us about or promote?

DJ Guelas (01:41:36.946)

nothing that I can share as yet, as far as there was probably a project maybe coming up that we, that I add that we have in mind. we had the, the idea was maybe supposed to start this summer, but unfortunately we weren't able to have time to really dedicate to that. Maybe perhaps winter or next spring, hopefully maybe, that's as far as organizing.

Victor (01:41:41.914)

Okay.

DJ Guelas (01:42:06.351)

An event, not a festival. But other than that, I'm looking forward to certain events that I'm going to later this year. Like I'm going to Senegal for the first time to play in Dakar. I'm looking forward to that because I do have family over there and it's a place that I've long been wanting to go to. So I'm really looking forward to that. WKD Alianza is the name of the event. 

Kizman (01:42:30.803)

Nice.

DJ Guelas (01:42:36.617)

There's going to be also tours and exploring the city in the car so looking forward to that and there's some other events some other cool locations that I'm going to later this year Buenos Aires as well so Cape Verde I'm going also for a private event but always always looking forward to to go to Cape Verde perhaps Angola so as well at the end of the year so

Victor (01:43:00.209)

Yeah, yeah. Hey, listen, all of those places sound amazing, very lucky. Yeah, enjoy it, man. Just as well. What I got to say, enjoy them, enjoy them. So yeah, no, that's great. So just gonna, you know, almost wrap up and talk to you about the future with you. So Adel, over to you.

Adel (01:43:20.547)

I appreciate that. Speaking of the future, you've come a long way, clearly, as we've had here the conversation, we could continue on for much longer. Looking at the future.

How do you stay inspired and keep learning? Not just the technical skills, but also just in general with artists and music and production events after all these years.

DJ Guelas (01:43:50.769)

Listen, I think it's easy to do that just because I think that the moment that you think that you reach the peak of learning, that you can't learn anything else, you're not doing anything in the field and you might as well quit. I think it's a world of constant evolution. I think as a human being in general, I think that's an attitude to have because you don't know everything.

and the moment that you feel you do, then that's when you start regressing. So there's always, I think I try to learn from everybody that I get in touch with, either being even younger DJs that are not as experienced, they may do something different that I don't offer a different perspective. When you are in the field for that long, you...

sometimes get set in your ways and those ways may not be the best or the most efficient. So there's always an opportunity to learn something different about how to do something. Same goes for, you know, music, music production or anything like that. You know, I was a part of a group that we did production. I don't necessarily play any instruments, but there was a producer with us that translated the ideas that we had. So definitely.

Music production is definitely something that I have to learn a lot about. So that always keeps me on my toes, although I don't have much time to do so. Yeah, so getting back to your question, I think that you always have to be in a learning mode because the minute you start doing that, you start regressing. That's something that definitely isn't.

Adel (01:45:39.01)

Very humbled by that. Very very much humbled by that because it is really keeping yourself young that mentally you've always got something to learn, you've always got something to stretch then.

DJ Guelas (01:45:49.725)

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Adel (01:45:51.832)

I appreciate that. Appreciate also that you've taken us on such a beautiful journey here. No, really, it's been insightful, it's been amazing to listen to the experience that you have and answering the questions that we have for you. And like I say, we could probably stay here for hours and hours. We appreciate that time is limited, doing a bit of a full circle here and coming back to the beginning.

Adel (01:46:18.52)

Taking into account all the experience that you have, all the connection you've had with the music, as you were saying from a very early age, what does kizomba represent and mean to you?

DJ Guelas (01:46:31.85)

A lifestyle.

DJ Guelas (01:46:41.002)

It means party, it means being in touch with your roots, it means socializing, it means appreciating life, appreciating music, appreciating other folks. For me, it also means sustainability, it means traveling the world, a means of doing something that I love to expose people to.

So it represents a lot of different things. Funny that kizomba means the same thing as Zouk does, which is party, which is gathering, which is, and I don't know if by accident, don't know if by definition of things of what it is, it's just crazy that a musical genre that influences kizomba so much means exactly the same thing. So it represents all those things for me.

Adel (01:47:46.945)

Beautiful things in life have come from the African continent. I'm biased, I know, but... There we go, there we go, we have it there. Africa is my DNA, there you go, I like that. I need to get one of those T-shirts, so I appreciate that, appreciate that. We've come to one of my favorite parts in the Kizomba Conversations podcast episodes, which is the three questions. Victor, over to you.

DJ Guelas (01:47:50.096)

Absolutely.

Victor (01:48:03.272)

Beautiful, Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, so the questions, but just before we get there, just where can people or listeners find you or follow you, your socials, what, know, tell us.

DJ Guelas (01:48:29.212)

I've been doing a horrible job of that. I used to have a professional account for SoundCloud. Something happened and it's not a professional account anymore. I've had the same five mixes because it's the limit that SoundCloud allows you to have. Same five mixes over there forever. But I've been trying to keep or I'm going to work more on my YouTube page and it's a DJ Guelas YouTube page that I've been uploading some mixes. I have a recent mix over there. I'm gonna try to upload something every month But all my social media, know, Instagram is DJ underscore Guelas YouTube is DJ Guelas SoundCloud is also DJ Guelas I'm also on mix cloud, but it's also some old mixes over there so YouTube is gonna be the platform that I'm going to try to keep more updated and try to Yeah update regularly at least every month put a mix over there because or else Tania is going to kill me. So, because she keeps on insisting and I need to, I need to put my work out there.

Victor (01:49:34.211)

YouTube is a main main space but is there anything around Instagram or Facebook people can get you on?

DJ Guelas (01:49:38.506)

Yeah, like Instagram I'll post some events I'll post my events over there I'll post I'll also if I post mixes on YouTube I'll also announce on Instagram. So my Instagram page is DJ underscore Guelas So, yeah

Victor (01:49:58.077)

Fantastic,  Great. So you heard it here people, you know where to find him. You know where to find him. And then just lastly, in terms of questions, I know you did a podcast. I know you, Tania and  DJ Gallo, who has also been a guest on our podcast. Yeah, I know you did a podcast. It was called Unapologetically Kizomba. Yeah.

DJ Guelas (01:50:11.434)

Briefly.

Victor (01:50:27.655)

Great, love the name. Is that coming back?

DJ Guelas (01:50:34.026)

Hopefully, hopefully, that's all I can say right now. We've talked about it. We lead such busy lives that we thought we were gonna have more time to work on it than we actually did. But I think that there's always room for improvement on our time management and perhaps that will make a comeback as far as the portion of the podcast is concerned and perhaps everything else that surrounded that project as well.

Victor (01:50:35.943)

Okay.

DJ Guelas (01:51:02.694)

Lots of things to think about as well. yeah, and by the way, that's not the only podcast that I had. I briefly also had a DJ podcast that I had, which was BPM zone where I interviewed DJs because I felt that what you're actually doing right now, highlighting the DJs and our profession, what we do, what we go through was important and not a lot of platforms were doing that. So I started, didn't continue. So I'm not trying to say that's a trend with myself over here, but time again is limited. But yeah, that's another project that I had.

Adel (01:51:46.121)

Hmm.

Victor (01:51:48.679)

Yeah, no, and look, I totally get it. You know, I'm doing this, it's a lot of time that goes into these things. So I totally, totally understand what you're saying there. But I mean, if they do come back, well, I'll definitely be having open ears listening out. And I'm sure many people will be as well. So let's watch the space. What I'm going to say, basically. Yeah, 100%. But I'm all right. Time has come. See these three.

DJ Guelas (01:52:08.618)

All right, cool, cool, yeah.

Victor (01:52:17.477)

Yeah, so we got green, orange and yellow. And the idea is for you to pick two and then the last one, either myself or Adel will answer. You can choose actually. So, well,which one do you wanna pick for it? 

DJ Guelas (01:52:32.554)

So I can choose two right now, right?

DJ Guelas (01:52:38.257)

Orange and yellow.

Victor (01:52:47.559)

So okay, all right. So your preference here, okay?

Dream set. Okay, what is your dream set out of these options? Sunset on the beach in Cape Verde or midnight rooftop in Lisbon.

DJ Guelas (01:53:18.068)

Sunset in Cape Verde.

Victor (01:53:20.925)

Sunset in Cape Verde? Do I need to ask why or is that... it... yeah? Okay.

DJ Guelas (01:53:25.674)

I think just from the standpoint of I don't go to Cave Verde as often. I feel that probably Lisbon that would be easier to happen. Cape Verde is probably not as easy, but I might actually do just that now in this private event that I'm going to be playing there at the end of the year. So it might happen.

Victor (01:53:54.547)

Okay, okay, beautiful, yeah, well, cool. No worries, all right, and you said orange, right? You said orange and yellow, okay, so this one.

DJ Guelas (01:54:00.116)

Yes.

Victor (01:54:05.349)

You have one final track to close out a perfect night. Yeah, you've probably done this many times before. But anyway, you got one final track to close out a perfect night. Dancers are vibing everybody's everything's nice. So how are you closing it out? Are you closing it out with something slow and soulful? Or something high and energetic?

DJ Guelas (01:54:29.332)

Closing out with something high and energetic. I'm gonna just because it could be millions of songs, but some song that I heard yesterday and it stayed in my mind, still in my mind actually, that's Tania and I's song. And that would be Kassav and the name of the song is Zou, Z-O-U. Great track, great.

Victor (01:54:55.335)

Z-O-U.

DJ Guelas (01:54:58.814)

Go listen to it because it's just a piece of art.

Victor (01:55:01.169)

Okay, I'm on that straight away after this. So, Kassav Zou, yeah? All right, you heard it here people. Okay, no, thank you very much.  There's one question here that you avoided. man, and I wish you had got this one, so I might have to get you to answer it anyway, right?

DJ Guelas (01:55:03.444)

Yeah.

DJ Guelas (01:55:13.898)

Alright.

DJ Guelas (01:55:17.642)

Let me tell you why I didn't pick green because green is the sport of the football team. That's our biggest rival. I'm a big Benfica fan. I dislike them. 

Victor (01:55:32.742)

Okay no worries Okay, okay, that's cool. Now this question, A documentary is being made about your life as a DJ, right? What's the opening scene? Where are we? And what music is playing? Yeah.

DJ Guelas (01:55:53.438)

Yes, yes.

Victor (01:56:21.031)

So a documentary is being made about your life as a DJ. What's the opening scene? Where are we? And what music is playing? Now I'm not a DJ. Yeah, that's like the one you should have got, right? I could make something up, but I'm not a DJ. Yeah.

DJ Guelas (01:56:27.55)

Wait, so this is the question you were gonna answer?

DJ Guelas (01:56:34.631)

Adel, go ahead. Okay, let's have everybody answer and I'll answer it as well.

Adel (01:56:43.378)

I'll take the hit first and I'll answer it. So let's start from the song. Grace Evora, Rendez-vous. For sure, no doubt. Beautiful song. It's one of my favorites. That would be the song that's playing. Opening scene.

Kizman (01:56:43.602)

Okay.

DJ Guelas (01:56:51.72)

Okay?

Adel (01:57:01.114)

I would say I'm actually dancing as opposed to DJing and hopefully with the Mrs. on the stage, just with everyone around, everyone's just chilling, having fun. That to me is just the representation of Kizomba, the connection, everyone's vibing. It's all absolutely amazing and preferably on the beach, sunset.

DJ Guelas (01:57:24.22)

Okay? Alright.

Victor (01:57:26.013)

Beautiful, Beautiful. Do you wanna go next? you know what? I'll go next and we'll close out with our guest answer. All right? So I think for this one, I would be asleep. All right? I'll be asleep somewhere on, I think on a beach, right? And then, and then I wake up and then I look around and I see there's all these people on the beach, they're just there, just standing around. And then the music kicks in. And then it's like, you're actually waking up now. And then everybody's just dancing and dancing and dancing. And then the sun's rising. And I'm just in the middle of all these people. And then this beautiful lady comes over to me, happens to be my wife, and asks me to dance. And then we're dancing in the center and everybody's around us just dancing. I should have said it started off in black and white, then it went to color and then everybody's just dancing and it's just vibing. And then I think the song is a splash song. I can't sing it, but that song is there. So yeah, that's me.

DJ Guelas (01:58:35.433)

Yeah, yeah, yeah Okay.

All right. Okay. So for me, the opening scene would have to be focused on people dancing. I may be playing, but people are dancing. I mean, that's what I'm supposed to be doing over there, make people dance. So it has to be that scene. It has to be people enjoying themselves. Location doesn't matter where, as long as they're dancing. Of course I have a preference for the beach, it could be a backyard because we have a lot of backyard parties back home. People enjoying dancing, drinking, and eating food. Because I think that's the best way to enjoy the music and be relaxed, not all uptight in tuxedos or whatever it is or suits and stuff, but relaxed. Because I think that's also a way that I approach life. Don't get me wrong, I like to wear a suit, but I think that I think people mostly enjoy themselves when they're relaxed and having fun amongst friends and family. Again, could be backyard, could be a beach, could be a club, could be anywhere. But in this case, I guess the backyard would be more appropriate or the beach because people are eating and drinking. As far as what is playing.

DJ Guelas (02:00:09.386)

I don't know. And I have 30 seconds to mix this song in, I guess.

Victor (02:00:12.851)

The DJ doesn't know what song is playing.

DJ Guelas (02:00:20.84)

Let me see. Probably a Livity song. One of the fast-paced Livity songs, because it also represents so much joy and rhythm. I think that would be appropriate. And also, I guess sunrise, because that means that people have been dancing all night.

Victor (02:00:46.993)

Yeah, absolutely. No, beautiful answers. We all got there, man. But I just wish you had that question so I didn't have to answer it. But anyway, it's all good. But listen, DJ Guelas, we just want to say, myself and Adel want to say thank you so much for joining us. We have had a blast. It's been very, very insightful, very knowledgeable. We hope to get you back again at some point soon.

DJ Guelas (02:01:05.812)

Thank you. Thank you.

Victor (02:01:14.419)

Thank you very much. People, make sure you check out DJ Guelas on his socials, wherever he is. Check him out, check out the mixes and obviously follow him if you wanna go to some of the festivals that he's at. And I also wanna say thank you to Adel for co-hosting with me today. It's been a joy, my friend. Thank you very much, sir. And we will see you in another episode coming.

DJ Guelas (02:01:21.962)

I appreciate it. Thank you, 

Thank you again for the time, for the exposure, for the invitation. It was a pleasure talking.

Victor (02:01:44.241)

See you very, very soon. So like I always say, keep dancing. Peace.

DJ Guelas (02:01:50.932)

Peace.