The ability to make a crowd of people sway and move to the music can be an intoxicating experience for a DJ.
It’s one that Richmond’s Mandeep Sandhu — DJ Emenes to his fans — knows well after two-plus decades in the business, playing his own brand of mainstream dance music he has infused with Indian influences.
It’s that unique blend that proved to be a big hit when he played at India’s largest music festival last December.
“It’s such an empowering feeling,” he said. “I enjoy being able to express the music I like and see the effect it has on people.”
At the Sunburn Music Festival in India, Emenes — pronounced to correspond with his initials M and S — performed for tens of thousands who grooved to his special mixes that incorporate Indian instruments such as sitars, tumbis, dhols, dholaks, plus various Indian chants and vocals.
“It was pretty amazing. Sunburn was always on my list of things to do,” he said, adding he was quite fortunate to get a shot at being the only Canadian invited to perform.
To show his Canadian pride to the crowd, Emenes donned a Canadian Olympic hockey jersey with his name printed on the back.
“It was mainstream, electronic dance music that I was infusing with an Indian element. I was exploring a mix of dance with a South Asian element.”
He was only scheduled to play one set, but the audience’s reaction to him was so positive that the music festival’s organizers, who he had earlier pitched to get a spot to play, granted him a second show.
“I had been expecting a different reaction from the crowd, but it was awesome. It was pretty much the same as here,” he said. “It emphasized that music is truly universal.”
So too, it seems, is his ability to read an audience and choose just the right blend of music for the occasion. It’s an attribute Emenes said he didn’t know he had.
Heck, growing up, he wasn’t even into music in a big way.
“I really didn’t know I had a knack or passion for music. I never really listened to mainstream or Indian music. But it was in high school when I heard a cassette tape of an artist from the U.K. called Johnny Zee with an Indian song called Now I’m Gonna Dance. He was mixing pop music with Indian music. And that concept jumped out and allowed me to connect with the music and being Indian.”
The die was cast.
“Prior to that, I was into whatever came out on the radio. But from there, I grew attached to Indian and mainstream music.”
His first gig was a party at the conclusion of a Grade 9 camping trip to Strathcona Island with his classmates from Richmond’s Incentive School Program, that was, at the time, attached to McRoberts secondary.
He was sold on the experience and went about building up his catalogue of music so he could DJ other events.
“I was trying to figure out what people would enjoy,” he said, adding that now, after years of experience, which included being the DJ for a party following the Times of India Film Awards (TOIFA) held in Vancouver in 2013, he can look into a crowd and get a good feel for what they want.
“You always hear that you’ve gotta play for the crowd, not what the DJ likes,” he said. “But when I go into a room, I always look at each event as a unique challenge. It could be the same crowd, or the same event. But the energy is always going to be different.”
Emenes said he tries to find those subtle vibes in the room, then casts his “musical net” into the appropriate area in terms of style.
“It’s like when you go fishing, you throw your bait into the water and see what people take to,” he said. “And if I tap into that energy, I build around it.
“I’m always watching what’s working and what’s not. What’s making people move. And an experienced DJ will know what is the next song they should play and what’s needed to build the energy.”
