Q&A: Our Heartbeats DJs 

Tomorrow night, Friday 30th August, The Post Bar in Tottenham hosts No Borders; a night of global sounds, co-organised by Wile Out Music & Counterpoint Arts, showcasing both established DJs and young up & coming selectors who have come through Our Heartbeats’ DJ workshops for refugees.

Ahead of the dance, DJ Kensaye, the workshop leader and event curator, asked 4 of his students to share some advice, ambitions and tunes!

Let’s unite and use the arts to create social change and uplift migrant and refugee communities.

Shahrorah 

1.⁠ ⁠What is the song you would like to share?

2.⁠ ⁠If you could start your own nightclub tomorrow, what would be unique about it? What would it be called and what music would it play? ⁠

I guess what’s unique about it is that it would have such an experimental music range – everything would be played there, even things you would normally think wouldn’t match. It’ll be called ‘makani’ which means my place because it’ll have all the music I want because I’m the boss after all! My mission will be to play every genre there, because experimenting is fun!

Ruby Riddim

1.⁠ ⁠What is the song you would like to share?

2.⁠ ⁠If you could give one piece of advice to someone who’s interested in learning to DJ from scratch, what would it be?

⁠It’s a fantastic opportunity to feel liberated and to reunite with your artistic senses. I felt amazing when I touched DJ XDJ for the 1st time, it felt magical…but it’s extremely important to know your music well, play music you love, practice lots, and enjoy the experience and the networking.

The Wan

1.⁠ ⁠What is the song you would like to share?

“I’m so Glad” – a song I made during a project with Compass collective – LISTEN HERE

2.⁠ ⁠What is the most inspirational musical magazine/website/social media channel/platform, that you follow? And why?

I don’t have a specific platform that I can mention, but I listen to music on Spotify. A lot of different genres of African music.

Kavunchick

1.⁠ ⁠What is the song you would like to share?

2.⁠ ⁠If you could choose one city to have a DJ residency in, anywhere in the world, where would it be? And why?

I would like to have a DJ residency in a place called Dolosses, it’s near Yalta in Ukraine – a very beautiful village in the mountains. A very peaceful place and one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.