DJ Kizzi on South Asian heritage, community, and no phones at her set, please.

Photo by Dhruv Sabherwal

Born and raised in Hounslow, Kizzi began to DJ at the young age of 15 –  an experience that undoubtedly shaped her sound. Her speciality as a DJ lies in blending what she grew up with: the Dhol she picked up at a young age, the Bhangra she danced to with her mother, the Afrobeats she heard at school. Her distinct and vibrant sound moves from South Asian beats to old-school hip-hop classics, with SXSW asserting that she is “carving her own path in the music world”.

Kizzi’s rise has seen her begin at the community station Westside Radio, where she presented the first ever Desi Rap Show, to playing euphoric sets on one of the world’s most impressive stages: Glastonbury. 

Her rise does not end there: from Kizzi & Friends events that sell out a month in advance to 70,000 listeners tuning into her BBC Asian Network Show every Saturday, Kizzi’s community is only growing. It’s unsurprising, when taking into consideration how building and preserving a community is such a driving force for her. For international women’s day last year, she collaborated with the widely loved restaurant Dishoom to host a night celebrating South Asian women. The same year, she returned to the Global Academy as an alumni to present a passionate speech to younger students, with the Global Academy sharing how she “[inspired] the next generation”.

Last month, Kizzi & Friends took over the stage at Dialled In, a festival that champions South Asian creatives and a full-circle moment for Kizzi, whose first ever festival was Dialled In five years ago.

What inspired you to pick up DJing at fifteen years old?

When I was eight, I started playing the Dhol, which is an Asian drum. Then I started another drum called the Tabla, which is more on the religious, Sikhism side. As I got older, it became a very male-dominated space, especially the Dhol, which sometimes wasn’t the best environment for me. I stopped and moved to the piano and different things at school.

It was then my engineering teacher who randomly suggested DJing at a parents' evening. I was studying production engineering and making adverts for radio shows, which I really enjoyed. When I was mixing in the tracks, my teacher told me I understood BPMs. She told my parents ‘you should get her decks, I think she could DJ’ and that was it.

Without her, I probably would have been a bit too scared to even go near it. Big up teachers, they can change your life.

Were your parents immediately supportive of you DJing?

No. My parents weren’t super supportive at the start. My dad loved it and wanted me to do it; my mum was team education. My mum told me I could either pick Maths or English and if I got A-stars in my GCSEs and A-Levels then I could DJ. I picked Maths and I got the A-stars. My dad said he would give me £25 and I had another £25 from working at Legoland at the time, so we bought £50 decks from eBay, and I taught myself in my room. My first gig was my mum’s friend’s 65^th birthday, just old school Bollywood music, but it was so fun. From there, I got a wedding dinner where someone paid me £100 and I was so gassed.

When I got older, I did an apprenticeship first, and when I wanted to quit my job to DJ full-time, I had to give my parents a three-hour long presentation. My mum straightaway said no but my dad said yes, so I said I was going to do it. They are so happy now. They have come to so many shows and they love radio.

How has your heritage influenced how you DJ?

I grew up in Hounslow, so at school there was a lot of Afrobeats, dancehall music, and a lot of grime in the local area in West London. Then at home, my mum was on the proper Bhangra side that she loved. She loved dance-y Afrobeats. My dad would always show us old-school hip-hop and proper old-school Punjabi music. Growing up, it was a big mix of genres, which was quite nice.

Starting out as a Dhol player also influenced me. For example, at Dialled In festival, I got to bring out a Dhol player, and I knew how we could mix things together. My heritage has shaped the way I think about things and the way I blend things. It taught me that drums could be Afro House, they could be Arab tech, they could be anything; they’re all just drums, and once you understand the way drums work, then you can put songs on them. It's quite fun.

A lot of my friends are either Egyptian, Moroccan, or Iraqi, and I love how that whole scope of music is based off drums and that's what I think brings South Asians and other genres of music together, because we all just love beats and music. When I first found an old Iraqi CD ten years ago, I knew it would work so well in drum and bass. Experimenting is the fun part of it. It feels like you are a music scientist.

Other than when you were starting out and you had to create a three-hour presentation, has your heritage presented any challenges while pursuing a creative path?

For sure. My mum’s friends and my aunties made up every type of rumour under the sun when I started DJing. But my parents had my back. I would tell my mum what I got up to, and my parents knew about all my gigs. My dad would drop me off to a lot of the gigs as well. But when you get into this nightlife scene from the age of seventeen, and you're from a background where there's religion and there’s modesty, even though I've always dressed quite modestly and kept to myself, everyone's still got something to say.

I would say battling the stereotypes of what a Sikh, Punjabi, 24-year-old girl should be, versus what I am, is an ongoing battle. Every week we face a new challenge. I don’t think it gets much easier. When I was starting, there were a lot of people that had a lot to say about it and would say to my mum ‘that's a boy sport, why would you let her do that?’. The kids of those same aunties come to my shows now.

Why are events like Dialled In so important to you?

I feel like South Asians, Arabs, Mauritians, and all smaller communities in a space where it's predominantly not them, like in England, always try to be represented. Dialled In have come in, made up of people that have access to spaces or access to business partnerships, and they have made it a mainstream thing. They’ve brought us out of this bubble by putting us in mainstream venues and magazines. It’s really powerful. We need that.

Also, fun brown people from every type of background, walking around Dalston – I just loved it. It felt like London was our city, we knew how to throw a good party, so we were going to do that! I feel like that meant a lot to a lot of people, and it meant a lot for me to be there. Dialled In was my first festival five years ago in London. To go back 5 years later and get to play there was very special. 

You DJ for live events and you are a radio presenter. How would you compare the two? What's unique about each of them that you like?

Radio is my favourite thing in the whole entire world. I grew up quite an anxious person, and I was not super confident. When I understood the world of radio, my friends would always make the joke that ‘I've got the face for radio’ because I love not to be seen. I love that there's no recording and there's no video; it’s just a mic and you, and no one can see you. I started at Westside, which is a community station in West London. I feel like that’s where I built my confidence and got to know myself and meet people in the same industry who all mentored me through it. I feel at home on the radio.

Photo by Dhruv Sabherwal

DJing is just fun. I absolutely love DJing. It’s so fun to see people's reactions to different songs. I think the energy that can be created in a room when you DJ or when you witness someone DJ is so special.

They're both very different, but they both enlighten you in a way.

Do you find one more difficult than the other?

I would say it's changed a little bit. I used to find radio harder because I never wanted to stutter; I wanted to say the right words and to come across nice and friendly. Radio is a lot harder than it looks. People think you can just pull up a mic and start talking, but you have to become this person that, no matter what type of day someone's having, they would keep the radio on. 

I did find radio a little bit harder before because I would worry about saying the right thing. Whereas around three years ago, radio started to become very comforting for me. You can walk into this room for three hours and play your favourite tunes, talk to people, and be happy. It made me feel like, no matter what day I was having, I was going to go there and be happy.

I always loved the challenge of DJing, but I would say in the past three years, DJing has become different and it’s all about recorded sets. People just want content. I think when people go out, they should be able to make mistakes, have a good time, kiss who they want, and come home. Whereas now, you'll be on TikTok tomorrow. I don't like that. DJing has become more challenging than radio because I think your music can get lost into needing to make appearances. A no-phones party is like a home to me. It’s the best time in my life.

What's the process like for you when you're creating a set? Is it different for radio and DJing?

With a lot of sets, I just like to ‘YOLO’ it, which is very risky but very fun. People can plan a drum and bass set, but if you get there and people really want to have a 2-step, have a drink, shuffle around a bit, and you’re playing hardcore drum and bass, that's not very exciting for the people there. Sometimes if I know where the gig is, especially if it's a London gig like Dialled In, I don't want to plan my set. I just want to go there and see what people like and then figure it out. 

On a day like Dialled In, a lot of the DJs were playing hardcore remixes or a lot of techno music and not a lot of old-school classics. I decided midway through my set that I just wanted to play originals of songs. I was playing Pass Out by Tinie Tempah and Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson. People just wanted to sing, and I feel I could have never planned for that. I did one event in Germany last year that was an Arab diaspora type of night, and for that I found old CDs and downloaded them onto my laptop, trying to make my own fun little remixes. Even then, I had the twenty that I definitely wanted to play and the rest was improvised.

I go out all the time; I love being outside. Sometimes I get to places, and the DJs are so good, but I can tell they've planned the set and then because of that, they can't go off the set. Sometimes the DJ will be on and the DJ after will play the same songs and that's probably because the set they planned had the same songs, but they should just adapt a little bit more.

What are your thoughts on crowd requests?

I would say they need to go. It's happened to me many times and I think it's rude. If you don’t like what I’m playing, you can go. I'm trying my hardest to please you and if that's not a bit of you, then there's other other venues to go to.

Some people think it's fine, but I think it's weird.

Photo by Dhruv Sabherwal

Do you have any other crowd pet peeves?

People at the front standing still and just staring at you. In day-to-day life, you wouldn’t just stare at someone. It’s a little bit uncomfortable for me and a little bit uncomfortable for you. Another one I would say is overly touchy people. I host an event called Kizzi & Friends and it’s the first crowd I've seen in the past couple of years that let people have space. Just let people enjoy and don't put phones in their faces.

Where did the idea for Kizzi & Friends come from?

I would go out and I would hear music that I liked and then I wouldn't hear another genre that I liked.I was out with my friends one day and said, ‘if they're playing dance or electronic music, slip in a couple of South Asian tunes, it won't be that bad’. Then, I went to a Nadia Jae event, and she just had all her mates, and it looked really fun. I thought if I did one, I could put my friends on the lineup, we could pick all the music, and we could make sure that there were no dodgy characters and no weird men trying to move to all the girls. It’s been great. 

I've been able to bring genres together, which I think is very healing for a British Asian person to do. I get to book people that I love and spend time with, and the crowd is so wonderful. It's full of theys, gays, boys, and girls, and everyone's respectful of each other's space. People dance, there's no phones. On some of the nights, I tell DJs not to set up their cameras in the room. I think people don’t need to be filmed. I think they should be able to enjoy themselves.

What are your aspirations for Kizzi & Friends going forward?

Build the community. It’s fully community-run and I pay for everything. I don't make much money at all, but I love it. It’s a passion event. I started Kizzi & Friends with six free events at Boxpark, and then I took them to the Lower Third in Tottenham Court Road, and we’ve done three sold out ones, which is quite exciting. We’re going to go bigger on the venue now, but I want to go back to the smaller venues after.

We’re also noticing that people are coming back, but they're bringing more of their friends with them. One of the girls that came to a Kizzi & Friends event is on her sixth date with a man that she met there now. This is so cute! I just want to grow this big family. I always buy fans that say silly stuff like ‘this hangover is sponsored by Kizzi & Friends’ and give them out to people. Everyone always questions if they have to buy them but no, I just want us to be like a big family.

Doing another festival stage would be amazing. I was so proud of us at Dialled In. We did a big thing for the culture that day. We hung huge flags outside the pub, and it had this real takeover feeling.

I want to keep it fun and cheap as well. We’re never having a ticket over £7.50 in my life.

Who are you listening to right now?

Nabihah Iqbal. She's a DJ and producer and just an incredible person. I always want to shout her name out.

Anish Kumar is my favourite producer in the entire world. I know him personally but I'm still a fan of his. I always make time to see him at any festival I go to, even if I'm working. I’ll run to watch him play. He has this joyous disco feel set, and his song Everything Blooms Around Her is so special to me.

Habibeats is a good friend of mine, and if you’re talking about an energy-maker, that is the person. The way he is representing a community on a global scale is second to none. He does it for the people, not for a viral moment. I'm always shouting his name.

Listen to Kizzi’s mixes on Soundcloud and her BBC radio show. Keep up to date with her on Instagram and Tiktok.