{"id":24802,"date":"2015-11-12T17:34:48","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T16:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/?p=24802"},"modified":"2015-11-12T17:34:48","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T16:34:48","slug":"interview-yousef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/interview-yousef\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Yousef"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yousef is a complete force within electronic music, and has come to represent the ethos of the modern DJ.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

In demand from the world\u2019s supreme labels, festivals, collaborators and clubs, Yousef has provided recent tracks for Loco Dice’s Desolat <\/em>imprint and Ellen Alliens Bpitch Control<\/em>, Crosstown Rebels, Get Physical, Defected, Cecile, Cocoon<\/em> and Objektivity Records<\/em>. He also continues to show the world his peerless deck skills, effortlessly and effervescently smashing the worlds finest clubs and festivals with his colorful take on underground house and techno. Recent \u2018back to back\u2019 sets with Carl Cox, Cassy, Eats Everything, Laurent Garnier<\/strong> and Patrick Topping<\/strong> display the pedigree Yousef is among in 2015. <\/p>\n

Similarly Yousef\u2019s own record label Circus Recordings<\/strong> continues to take confident strides with new music coming from Scuba, Krankbrother, Acid Mondays, Richey Ahmed, Subban, Nicole Moudaber, Dj Pierre, Timo Maas, Demian Muller<\/strong> and endless more. Born out of the label, the legendary Circus events in Liverpool, London, Barcelona, Manchester and Ibiza are all in incredible shape, and a 13th season beckons in September, continuing with its mantra of the world\u2019s best underground house and techno artists only. <\/p>\n

With that, we thought it was high time to catch up with Yousef, anticipating the next Circus event at EGG<\/strong> London this Saturday, 14 November with Cassy<\/strong> and Lewis Boardman<\/strong>. here, Yousef speaks on his impressions of 21st Century DJ culture, Circus’ Liverpool roots, comparing London to Liverpool, and much more. So, if you’re in London this weekend, make sure you stop by Circus on Saturday, and you can find tickets at the end of this article. <\/p>\n

“…the days of just being a DJ, no matter how good you are, are long gone”<\/span><\/h3>\n

When you first kicked off the CIRCUS concept, do you remember what your immediate goals were for it? At what point in its existence did you start evolving\/expanding your aspirations with it?<\/strong>
\nCircus was set up for me to play the music I felt passionate about in my home City of Liverpool. I wanted to have a cool and safe and most importantly fun place to channel my love for underground house and techno. From the off 13 years ago, the energy behind Circus grew quickly. It went from being a tiny party to winning UK club of the year in less than 18 months. The ethos has never changed, it\u2019s great new music, a fun attitude and striving to invite the freshest and best names in global electronic music with me as its centerpiece, resident and booker. It\u2019s now in London, and I have to say the parties at the impressive and ever evolving EGG London venue have been incredible and are just as fun (if not more!) as Liverpool and our parties in Barcelona. <\/p>\n

Has there been a particular CIRCUS event over the years that has stood out to you. If so, what made it so memorable?<\/strong>
\nI would have to say BBC radio one inviting us to host the 500th Essential mix LIVE from Liverpool, any club globally would have been thrilled for the honour but they asked us. Circus put together a strong line up with myself, Richie Hawtin, Sasha, Aeroplane and of course Pete Tong hosting, all in out 1000 capacity club in Liverpool. It was amazing, as in ridiculous, one of the best parties I\u2019ve ever been to or played all for sure. <\/p>\n

Which artists are you most proud of bringing to Circus? <\/strong>
\nI would say inviting totally unheard or names and watching them develop in global stars is always cool. Loco Dice has his first UK gig with us, Jamie Jones and Seth Troxler where room 3 DJs for almost no money at all when we first booked them many years ago, same with davide squillace, all super talented, great people and great DJs, which is the Circus ethos in bookings, but at the time, and in some cases over 10 years ago, they where not name DJs, so it\u2019s amazing to still have the tight relationships with these guys we had for a long time now. <\/p>\n

Who are some artists who HAVE NOT played CIRCUS that you would like to one day see on the bill?<\/strong>
\nThere is literally no one in quality dance music that has not played our events I\u2019m proud to say. \u263a<\/p>\n

With this weekend\u2019s CIRCUS, you bring Lewis Boardman and Cassy to play alongside yourself. How does each of these DJs complement the event, as well as each other?<\/strong>
\nLewis has been with us as our resident with me since day one, he is an exceptional DJ, an expert selector for sure. His recent releases on Circus, Moon Habour, Desolat and Cadenza show his trade as a producer is refined too. Cassy of course needs no introduction, with her residencies at DC10 and Panorama Bar she has the skills and her credibility is globally validated. We play b2b sometimes too, we are great friends too, all 3 of us will really compliment each musically all. Lewis, Cassy, then me is the running order.<\/p>\n

[gallery_bank type=”images” format=”filmstrip” title=”false” desc=”false” img_in_row=”3″ display=”all” sort_by=”random” animation_effect=”bounce” image_width=”600″ album_title=”false” album_id=”160″]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Outside of UK, where have been some locations that have really embraced the concept of CIRCUS? Did any of these places come as a particular surprise? On the same regard as the lineup question, where would you like to bring CIRCUS that you have not yet?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve brought Circus to New York, Miami, Serbia, Barcelona and Ibiza but I have to say it\u2019s our Barcelona \u2018Off Sonar\u2019 parties that really excelled the most. Last summer we did Saturday night at Razamatazz in Barcelona and it was considered one of the Sonar highlights for sure, sold out and going off midnight to past 7am, it was epic. <\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to finally do a Circus tour in my beloved South America, I love touring down there, all the gigs are unreal, I\u2019m just back from a 6 date DJ tour, so maybe next time Circus can come with me!<\/p>\n

What is the place of the venue \u2013 EGG London in the spectrum of London nightlife? What sorts of characteristics make it distinct as a venue? Also, why is it the right venue for CIRCUS?<\/strong>
\nI love the organic nature of EGG. As in they work hard all week to generate money to improve the venue and to give the clubber the best experience possible, like Circus, it\u2019s authentic. The parties we have hosted there have been immense and I have to say the staff and owners and super passionate and I hugely respect that.<\/p>\n

How would you compare audiences in Liverpool vs London?<\/strong>
\nNormally I\u2019d say Liverpool is more up for it, but at EGG it\u2019s almost the same, the crowd are not as energetic as anywhere, I love playing at EGG. <\/p>\n

Having your hand in so many aspects of the industry (DJ, curator, brand ambassador, producer, radio host), do you ever find yourself privileging one role over any others? If so, which is it and how do you manage to keep the even balance of responsibilities?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m pretty busy always doing my best to contribute to the scene in some way but nothing will ever exceed my love and passion for DJing, that\u2019s what I do and what I\u2019m best at for sure. All my other attributes support my DJing and support each other I suppose. I enjoy developing ideas so having the range of roles is exciting in some ways. But nothing beats the feeling of rocking the shit out of a club. <\/p>\n

A prominent theme in your philosophy as an artist is the idea of the \u201c21st Century\u201d. In your words, can you describe a 21st Century artist? How does this compare to the artist of the 20th century? <\/strong>
\nThese days its important to be skilled in range of electronic music\u2019s attributes and to even understand them all. I\u2019m not a person that likes to be baby sat too much and I\u2019ve learned to DJ, produce, run a label, do my radio show, mentor all myself. I do have an amazing team at circus and help with circus recordings, and of course an amazing team at Safehouse for my management and bookings, but my point is, the days of just being a DJ, no matter how good you are long gone, even being a producer DJ is getting harder. You need to really contribute to the scene and be self sufficient to cut through in 2015 in my opinion, and be very good at all the attributes too. It\u2019s tough out there but it\u2019s such a fun privilege that the commitment part is easy for me <\/p>\n

Soundcloud <\/a><\/span> Artist Page <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Egg_Yousef\"<\/p>\n

14 November | Yousef presents…Circus<\/a> | Tickets<\/a> | Egg London<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yousef is a complete force within electronic music, and has come to represent the ethos of the modern DJ. In demand from the world\u2019s supreme labels, festivals, collaborators and clubs, Yousef has provided recent tracks for Loco Dice’s Desolat imprint and Ellen Alliens Bpitch Control, Crosstown Rebels, Get Physical, Defected, Cecile, Cocoon and Objektivity Records. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":24804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3971],"tags":[567,7674,4042,7676,7675,4530,5254],"class_list":["post-24802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","category-interviews-london","tag-cassy","tag-circus","tag-egg","tag-lewis-boardman","tag-liverpool","tag-london-london","tag-yousef-london","post_format-post-format-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}