Clubbing Magazine

Record shopping with Deep Dish

In September 2003 I went to the Scandinavian Music Convention (SMC) in Stockholm where Paul Van Dyk, Deep Dish and Behrouz were headlining two mad days of music at the famous halls of Berns.
Waking the manager for the first time
On the 22nd of September I took an early plain from Copenhagen to Stockholm, and after 25 min in the Arlanda express I was in the centre of the city. I went to my hotel to change my clothes and then on my way to the Berns hotel to get hold of the managers of Deep Dish and Paul Van Dyk as agreed to at an early communication that I had have with them. As I came to the door of the hotel Paul Van Dyk´s manager came out of the door, we know each other from previous meetings and quickly we setup a time for the interview with Paul later the same day. Into the hotel and in the lobby Paul was doing one of his 20 interviews in two days promoting his new album “Reflections”. At the hotel counter I asked to speak to Deep Dish’s manager and I called his room, on the phone I got a very groggy manager (I woke him up) and we talked about the time for the interview, and we agreed that I should contact him the day after.
The convention sucks	Ali, me and Sharam backstage at Berns.
	At the convention that was placed at the world renowned Grand Hotel I meet up with representatives from the gear- and record-industry. Sorry to say, but the exhibition was very pure attended and the exhibition itself was very small. The only great thing was Pioneer showing their new mixers DJM-707 and DJM-909. The convention was not a suitable match with the massive music opportunities that was offered in the night. The highlight of the day came when Paul Van Dyk came for an hour press conference. I did my interview with Paul van Dyk afterwards and it was very nice to speak to him again. After my scheduled interview at Berns Hotel with Behrouz I went back to my own hotel for a short rest and then back to Berns for the SMC award show and to experience Behrouz and Deep Dish DJ sets. What a great night encapsulated in dark progressive beats and rhythms until 5.00 in the morning. The Swedes really know how to party – they were rocking all night long.
Waking the manager for the second time
Around 15.00 on the following day I went back to the Berns Hotel and once more I woke Deep Dish’s manager that I shortly had meet at the gig the night before. I told him that they were scheduled for a press conference in an hour – he didn’t believe me and I went to the Grand Hotel, to tell the organizers that they had a problem. I went back to Berns with the program and called him again, shortly after he came down to the lobby and he could see that it was scheduled with the Swedish Radio. He called Ali, Sharam and Behrouz. Sharam wanted to sleep but Ali and Behrouz were up for it – and on we went to the Grand Hotel. The organizers were happy that I came with them, and after the press conference I did my interview with Ali.
Going record shopping	Sharam and Behrouz at Berns
	After the interview Ali and Behrouz wanted to go record shopping, and they asked me if wanted to go with them. Sure – we walked the streets of Stockholm and came to one of the best records shops in the city – Pitch. Normally I can use many hours in a recordshop, but compared to Ali and Behrouz it is nothing. Ali told me that he seldom went to a recordsshop, but after they had closed their own shop back in Washington he felt he needed to see what was going on, besides what was send to him as promotion. Pitch extended its opening hours for them, but after two hours I couldn’t find anything else that I wanted to listen to, so I left them. They had invited me out for dinner - saying thanks for saving their day and keeping their appointments and we had arranged to meet at the Berns Hotel at 20.00. Around 20.30 Ali and Behrouz arrived with each two big plastic bags full of records. After a great dinner we all went to Berns to hear and see Paul Van Dyk putting on his show using Final Scratch and his computer. A great night in trance and in the early morning I was on the plain back to Copenhagen and back to work.
Ali behind the decks at Pitch.
What a trip, what a crazy experience I had encountered. What a story – that I have hesitated to give to you before now, because I felt this was a very personal experience – but after some time after having being telling my friends about my trip I thought this would be a great insight into a fraction of a day of some of the worlds biggest DJs when touring, showing that they are totally down to earth and are very forthcoming. You can read the interviews with Paul Van Dyk and Deep Dish very soon on this website.You can read the Behrouz interview here. You can see photos of Deep Dish @ SMC here and Behrouz @ SMC here.
Text and photos by: Christian Almind	Behrouz having a great time.