DJ LEO - LEO'S MINISTRY

As seen on BC MAGAZINE - 16th Feb, 2006 Edition

DJ Leo
The night has suddenly turned cold. We are sitting outside on the patio, but DJ Leo appears unaffected and sits calmly nursing his hot coffee.  though we now sit relatively sedately facing the harbour and talking about life as a DJ.

His set mixes traditional Bollywood with fat house beats: four-on-the-floor big booming slaps on the eardrum but with instrumentations of Indian tablas, strings and flutes. When the vocals come in, the crowd goes into a frenzy.

Truth be told, blending Bollywood with house isn’t a new thing; Talvin Singh did it a long while back, but it is only just beginning to be accepted on the international stage. Rishi Rich, who earns around 20,000 Pounds per gig, is a successful example and even Indian pop star Khaled wants to be a
part of it.

DJ Leo is one of the main resident exponents of the Indian sound in Hong Kong. But he wasn’t always a DJ. He graduated with a degree in commerce and economics at the age of 21 and moved into business, only later realising he really wanted to make a living from his love of music. So he went back to India for an intensive course of audio engineering to learn the whole recording process, as well as how to make music from scratch.

And it has all paid off. In 2004 he played five gigs, in 2005 over 80. He relishes the fact now that “people know me, I don’t know them”. But because of the hectic schedule, he no longer records his own music. He has to leave that to his friends and colleagues back in India who send him piping hot tracks every other month or so.

With the sudden success, how does he relax? “Music is my religion, and I meditate listening to it. I just close my eyes and even with no sound, I can hear music in my ears.” As the evening deepens, he is amiable and exudes a more-than-confident ease. Sitting just across from him, listening to him talk, the vibration is palpable.

Obviously he is not fazed by competition from other DJs. “Just as long as it’s not the bad kind, competition makes you perform better,” he says. But before I can frame the question about ‘bad’ competition, he surprises me. “I’m lucky,” he continues. “Very lucky because hard work is noticed only because you’re lucky. Whatever success comes my way is usually 90 percent luck and 10 percent talent. I’ve found that to be true of most people as well.” I wonder if he is glossing about karma, but don’t dare the question. We could be here all night.

Does he play requests? He’s not partial to it: “I have no problem playing requests but the audience should know to request something I like to play and which could meld into the music. You can’t ask me to play R’n’B in a house set. There was this one time in Bangkok where I was held at knife-point by this drunk guy. He was slurring emotionally about music and requested that I play one of his favourite songs. That doesn’t really leave you with a choice, does it? Eventually the security took him away and I played his song anyway. He ended up buying me a whole bottle of champagne. Ha!”

Strange, sitting here, the evening at peace with the world, talking to a music man about drunks with knives. But it probably wasn’t a big deal for the DJ  he handled it. Ninety percent luck and ten percent talent? Nah, it was all good karma, I reckon.

http://hk.bcmagazine.net/hk.bcmagazine.issues/bcmagazine_webissue202/07clubscene.html

As seen on  BBC ASIAN NETWORK Breakdown by Markie Mark

DJ LEO : HONGKONG

Just before midnight we headed back into Hong Kong Island to celebrate Diwali at Club 97 and see how the HK Desi's get down. We weren't disappointed - though the music was straight-up 'paneer' Bollywood-House with a little British-Asian music thrown in (predictably Rishi Rich Project and Rouge) the vibe was good. DJ Leo (pictured) was mixing things up and pulled out an interesting bootleg fusing Dr Zeus' 'Kangna' and The Bee Gee's 'Staying Alive'.

The paneer-level went even higher when we were told that DJ Leo chose his DJ name in honour of Leonardo Di Caprio, but we like to think that it was because of that impressive lion's-mane mullet.

Markie: "The favourite Desi DJ's in Hong Kong are normally flown in from Mumbai - the likes of DJ Aqeel and DJ Suketu play out here regularly -

Anything to prepare like prizefighters for the nights gig, especially after seeing DJ Leo (a local Desi DJ Celeb) do the business at a club in town on the previous night......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/breakdown/tour_diary.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/breakdown/tour_gallery.shtml?select=07#gallery - Pictured = DJ Leo - As seen on BBC Asian Network site.

BEYOND SINDHI MAG - APRIL 2005 Edition

HK MAGAZINE , SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST Regular basis

Additional Personal Info  - www.friendster.com/profiles/djleo

Performed in - Hongkong , Guangzhou (China), Macau , Mumbai, Bangalore, Bangkok , Phuket etc