What inspired you to become a DJ?
“My uncle Noel in Derby (U.K.). My parents would go to his event as adults, along with his friends. Later on I read how popular he was in the British Scene in Reggae, Jazz, and Popular Music. Also, my uncle Earl had a 3 store bar in Baltimore (in Park Heights) with jukeboxes on each floor. I was given all the 45’s when he would change the music.”
What are your career goals performing as a DJ and musician?
“To tell stories that are popular, rare, and obscure in many forms. Being a Deejay to me is more than just about playing music – it’s a way of speaking and finding how we are all connected by rhythm and tune. It’s using those sounds to tell stories about our ancestry, our dreams, our sense of self, and using this media to communicate in a visceral way. One of my dream projects that I am currently working on is a Jamboree called Afternoon Delight in the summertime. The point of the jamboree would be to bring together various deejays in Montreal – both French and English and all ethnic backgrounds – so that we are experiencing diverse sets of music mixing throughout the day and the audience can get to know how music is a universal language that we can all use for joy making, generating peace, and enigmatic conversation. I want deejaying to be seen as family spaces too, not just for clubbing spaces. I want our kids and communities to see and feel how this art form really is for everyone, especially since I think it’s so important for kids to get exposed to the power and diversity of the art, all of the potential for connection. I would really like to get off the road and running this year in Montreal. Another project that I am passionate about seeing com alive is the Black Classical Symposium. I currently only have two out of the four groups that are better known and grooving at the moment. Oboro is the current big project that I have going with Brandyn Lewis. Oboro is meant to ‘(re)introduce’ the world to the rich history, diversity, and metamorphic magic of classic music of the black diaspora. So that’s one of the projects, but there are four different symposiums that I want to get going throughout Montreal so that each touches on different instruments, styles, and themes especially seeing as a lot of the involvement and contributions of the black community have been lost or erased.”
What are your interests outside of music?
“Architectural designs, sports, fashion, reading, collage and subjects relating to nature. They inspire me because get mind thinking about how these different forms of activities also are inspired by rhythm and music and culture. I think about the interconnectedness of these art forms and how they can have the potential to influence one another.”
What are your strengths with DJ music?
“Collecting obscurities and reading liner notes referring to different characteristics of an artist. I’m very motivated to create dynamic spaces and I am very good at making community spaces that promote the arts, music, radio, deejaying, and connecting people. One of the parts of my deejay career that I feel best showcases this is the radio show project I got rolling in Cape Town. It really just started off with me knowing a couple of people from Montreal, contacting some people in the Cape Town radio station, pitching a project, and seeing if they’d go for it. At the time, the station was lacking some diversity in music like funk, jazz, diasporic music, and so on. So, we were there trying to provide a musical and educational space where there would be more exposure where there previously was none. So, yeah, I’m really just very good at connecting people, getting individuals passionate and curious about diverse music, and creating new interconnected art spaces. I’m always looking to collaborate with institutions and other artists and am open for work.”
*For more information about DJ ANDY WILLIAMS visit his website.