FestPop’s Scotty Moore, CEO/Founder, caught up with the talented Saeed Younan at this year’s BPM Festival held in beautiful Playa del Carmen, Mexico. The two talked about Younan’s favorite festivals, musical influences, dream collaborations and more. Check out the full interview below:
1. This is Scotty Moore CEO/Founder of FestPop and I’m here with DJ/Producer and label owner Saeed Younan! How’s it going?
I’m doing great! This is my seventh year at BPM and it get’s better every year!
2. Viewers at FestPop love music festivals, so what has been your favorite festival that you have been to?
Well, I’m a kid from the 90s, when raves were huge back then, so I did my share of raves and festivals. Probably, the one I can remember the most was a festival that was in Washington DC called Future Festival. DJ’s that played were Scott Henry and Donald Glaude. There were a lot of old school cats on the lineup.
3. Who are your music influences? Did you play any musical instruments growing up?
I played the drums. I know how to play the keyboard if I hear some things. I’m a pretty much hands on kind of guy, if I hear something I could pretty much play it out.
4. Is your family musical?
Not at all. I have some cousins that are into music, but I’m probably the only one that is a professional DJ.
5. Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and I came to the United States when I was 12 years old, and I have lived in Washington DC ever since.
6. So, in terms of us going into different genres or music. Has it always deep house or has there been other genres that you have played?
If we go back to my roots, like I said, I started off in the 90s, when there was no deep house or EDM. It was all basically house or techno music. For me musically, it has always been about house and funky percussive beats. It’s always been driven from that. My roots that I grew up with were very percussive bass driven and I just love that and that’s what I’m all about. I used to play progressive house, but it always had the elements of bass lines, percussion and all of that.
7. Have you ever been in a place while traveling and all of a sudden you hear some beat you like?
Well that’s the amazing thing about the iPhone. Every time, I hear something I like I can record it. I actually do a lot of beat boxing. I do a lot of sampling at dinner tables like this. Usually, I will put my phone down and record. It’s an amazing undertone that you can add to music, when you do stuff like that. You can have people carrying a conversation and have amazing beats and having an undertone of people carrying a conversation, you can chop it up and use different words. As far as technology goes and ideas, that’s how ideas come, just sitting here and record a drop and just sampling that.
8. Who are your influences?
My musical influences as in DJs/Producers would be Danny Tenaglia and Carl Cox.
9. What is you dream festival you want to play at?
I actually played quite a few festivals last year, Ultra Music Festival Miami, Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas, Escapade and Electric Forrest. Those were all amazing festivals.
10. Tomorrow is Armagedon and you have one track you can play. What would it be?
I would have to go with the biggest track I have ever made, [which] was “Yeah Ha.” It was number one on Beatport for consecutive weeks.
11. Who do you want to collaborate with living or dead?
I would love to do something with Herbie Hancock. I think that would be an amazing collaboration. Acutally, me, Herbie Hancock and Chaka Khan singing.
If you couldn’t make it to BPM this year, catch an hour of Saeed Younan‘s two-hour set from this year’s fest, as well as his unreleased remix of Loco Dice‘s banger, “Phat Dope Shit!”
With his latest tracks, “Drop It” and “Funk Much Bigger” as evidence, it is clear that this year’s going to be an even bigger one for the already-thriving DJ/Producer. Both tracks are available for your listening pleasure (and to purchase) here.
Follow Saeed Younan to stay up to date with his latest tracks, tours, and more:
Younan Music
Saeed Younan’s BPM Compilation
By FestPop Senior Editor & Social Media Director
Courtney Young