INTERVIEW:-Simon D’Souza

By rohan ramgude –

September 20, 2015

-Your friends know you as Simon Simzz – What is the story behind that?

Back in 2005 it uses to be cool to keep stage names, Hence ‘Simzz’. Simon Dsouza is my Baptised Name and over the time I realized it’s not about Names, Many friends & fans still call me Simzz.

-What made you select Trance as your genre? You were introduced to EDM in 2002, was it trance since then?

I was popular in my town all thanks to AIWA Music Systems giving out 10 audio CDs out of which 3 were Club hits. One evening when I was playing in a function, Cademan walked up and gave me a Cassette which had ‘DJ Sakin & Friends – Protect Your Mind (Braveheart)’, I instantly went into trance and Started exploring more such music.  2004 December, Mumbai at Kamala mills with Paul Van Dyk on the Console was my Life changing event. That is when I took Djing Seriously and moved forward.

-Tell us something about the Trance Circuit in India. How is it doing? What can promoters/artists/fans do to make it better?

Trance Circuit in India is doing Amazing for the Fans & Promoters, We have had loads of International Artist coming down to India, some huge festivals like ASOT700 gave a pretty good boost to the scene.  On the other hand Club owners have started to realize that they can have equally Great Night’s as they do when they have International acts and are open to exploring DJ’s locally in all Genres. To make the scene better is all in the hands of the FANS & Friends who Love the genre, they can Support the Local DJs with as equal dedication as for any online radios or festival acts. The more Happy faces the club gets for Local acts, the more they would love to keep such nights, After all its Business.

-You recently played for The Gathering, which was considered to be a great success by fans. How was the experience? What was your take away from the tour?

It was more responsibilities than experience. Having been connected with Trancehub.com for 5 years now, We always wanted to start a platform for the local Djs. In India, we have talents beyond our imagination, So many great producers & DJs. We took the opportunity of hosting #TheGathering in Mumbai just a day before ASOT 700 (Which is easily the capital of Trance in India), The reason for the success were the FANS & The DJs who are dedicated towards the Genre. Every city #TheGathering goes it makes a new milestone, First Mumbai @ Local Passenger, Then Bangalore in an OPEN AIR Semi Festival Vibe @ Pebbles & Indore @ O2 Club which was by far the BEST GATHERING Trance Night. #TheGathering has more cities & more DJs lined up.

-Tell us about your personal life. What does Simon D’Souza like apart from music?

Love watching movies, exploring & learning about new Tech stuff. Vertigo, An E-sports destination is what I manage when being not behind the decks.

–Rapid Fire with Simon D’Souza-

Club gigs or Festivals?

 Both

Late Night Bite – Pizza or Burger?

Pizza can never go wrong.

Armin Van Buuren or Aly & Fila?

Aly & Fila hands down

Your favourite action movie?

Tough one, I’ll go with SALT

Top 3 Trance Tunes of 2015:–

 01. Ilan Bluestone – Tesseract (Original Mix) [Anjunabeats] /

02. Aly & Fila With Aruna – The Other Shore (Fady & Mina Remix) [Future sound of Egypt]

03. DJ Misjah & DJ Tim – Access (John Askew Remix) [Perfecto Fluoro], 2015 has been surprising with some really good releases,  feels unfair to list only 3 of them.