Label manager of Do It Now Recordings and resident DJ at The Warm Up, Brian Blaq is on top form at the moment. If you haven’t managed to watch this guy – The Warm Up hosts this resident the first Saturday of every month at the legendary Citilec Rooftop and wow is he good.
Pulse Radio’s Hayley Illing caught up with Brian to chat about who this budding artist really is.
Hosting a radio show every Monday night from 7pm – 9pm called the Soulfull Kollective. What started out as a podcast twice a week has now evolved into Brian, Sai and Jiyane playing host to a number of guest DJ’s, putting out mixes and reviewing all the latest tracks. Brian explains that there was a need for a podcast or radio show that catered for the black house , hip-hop and lounge market and that’s exactly what you can expect on a Monday, music ranging from House to Hip-Hop.
Playing at The Warm Up once a month to regular crowd, how do you keep your stuff fresh? The trick is to keep checking out what other DJ’s are doing, check out the internationals, check out other local DJ’s and try to learn as much as you can. I also constantly check different websites like Beatport, Pulse Radio, Soundcloud.
Is there anyone at the moment who you are absolutely loving? I am digging Chris Ladner and constantly checking him out. Locally, Phat Jack, Tulani da Warrior are huge inspirations. Tulani was one of the first guys I started working with.
Now the label manager of Tulani da Warrior’s label Do it Now Recordings, what do you have lined up for us? Next year see’s the celebration of Do it Now Recordings 5 year anniversary which we are very excited about. To commemorate the anniversary, we are releasing a 3-disc compilation.
With signing artists to Do It Now Recordings, is there any producing going on yourself? I had the Mechanics of House, which came out in February this year. It was a 2-disc compilation, which included my track Happiness.
You can catch Brian Blaq at the next Warm Up on the 7th of December at the Citilec Building or this Saturday in Soweto for the Ubuntu Kraal party. Brian is also opening for the Live house band Torched Soul coming to South Africa soon. You can also catch Brian at the Space Jam Sessions.
“This year set the foundation, next year bigger and better things” – Brian Blaq