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“Every failure is a lesson, and if you
don’t see it that way you will
never succeed.”
Erol Sabadosh is a queer New York based DJ, music producer and audio engineer originally from Bosnia and raised in London. Dubbed one of London’s most “prolific” DJs by Dazed & Confused Magazine before moving to New York where pretty soon Billboard recognized them as one of New York’s top “tastemakers.” After putting out a track on Legendary Chicago House label Trax Records Erol recently dropped Staring at the Sun independently, an old school influenced hip hop track mixing lush synths with boom bap drums featuring Texas rapper Ron Wayne, and is getting ready to release a mini album that continues with a similar sound, mixing trap, boom bap, indie, lo fi and rnb, titled Pushing Up The Roses.
Hello Erol! Thanks so much for taking the time to answer these questions. Talk to me about your current feelings and emotions… Hi Hatchers, thank you for having me. Right now I feel a mix of feelings: I’m happy and grateful for the positive things in my life like my friends, family, my dog and of course music, but I feel anxious as ever about the state of the world. I think we’re all quite emotionally drained from the last four years and in particular the last year here in the States with Trump and Covid, but I choose to be hopeful for the future.
“I get to do what I love for a career
and am very grateful for that”
Tell me about your early life, and your journey to where you are at present… I was born in Sarajevo in Bosnia, an only child to working class parents. The Balkan War which was a really horrible civil war that lasted eight years, broke out when I was around 3 and my mother took me out of there as it continued to escalate and we fled to London where we were given asylum. We lived dirt poor in government housing but my mom worked really hard to make enough money to keep us fed and me schooled while my father was stuck in the war since it was mandatory for men to serve in the army. He eventually escaped with his life and made it to London where he was allowed to stay alongside us but this was after years of being separated. Growing up was tough; looking back I am grateful that we were given a second chance but all this trauma really took its toll in different ways on me. I went through a lot of toxic experiences that I either put myself through or fell into, and it took me a long time to get to a place where I could climb out of my sadness or even process some of the things that had happened to me while my mind was still in its formative stage.
“I took myself out of my comfort zone
on purpose to push myself to be
better at what I do”
What have you found to be the biggest challenges, and learnings of 2020/2021? After DJing and doing events full time for twelve years not being able to do that because of Covid was difficult to deal with mentally, but after being depressed for a while and feeling like it was the end of my life and livelihood I decided to stop lamenting and adjust, I started going to bed early and waking up early, being more focused and productive in the daytime, I learned how to cook more and I dived hard into producing music and now I feel good, I miss DJing but I found fulfillment in the meantime, I know it can be hard sometimes to lift yourself out of negative feelings but taking steps no matter how small is always positive and should be encouraged.
What has been a pivotal moment in your life? Moving to New York. I took myself out of my comfort zone on purpose to push myself to be better at what I do and to learn and meet new people in a highly competitive yet thriving environment and I am happy that I did because it’s made me grow so much as a person and forced me almost to really sharpen my skills in a fairly short amount of time, I feel stronger having not been broken down by this city, if anything I still want to work even harder and hustle more.
What can we expect from Erol Sabadosh in 2021 and beyond? I’m about to release a small collection of tracks I produced featuring friends, it’s called Pushing Up The Roses and it should hopefully be out by February. It’s quite dark in places, it’s different and it’s not dance music, which is the biggest departure from my previous output. It’s lo fi with a mix of trap, RnB and indie. It’s also dedicated to my late friend SB Rosa who is one of the artists featured on the album.
“Never underestimate the power of keeping
supportive people around you”
Who’s your biggest influence, and why? It’s really hard for me to pick one influence as the biggest. Growing up I played guitar and so it was Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin for a while, then it was Jack White from The White Stripes, then Julian Casablancas from The Strokes, then Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest… yet despite being a club DJ there’s no other band or artist I’ve listened to more than Low, a small band from Minnesota who’ve been putting out slow tension-filled music for twenty years, almost the opposite of what I would play in a venue. If I had to pick one person though, I think it probably would be Julian Casablancas just because The Strokes are who really made me want to be in a band and get up on stage which I did from around age 16 to 19 before DJing took over.
Tell me about your journey moving from London to New York… I always loved American film, music and literature for some reason, Jack Kerouac, David Lynch, Miles Davis, Richard Linklater, Jimi Hendrix, Quentin Tarantino… these were the artists that were taking up my attention as a teen and over time I went from feeling like I could never possibly live anywhere other than London because I loved it so much, to wanting to make a change and feeling like I needed it in order to challenge and invigorate myself and so there was almost no question that it would be America for me. I had encouragement from a few friends including DJ Jodie Harsh (never underestimate the power of keeping supportive people around you) and so I just put my life savings together to try to get a visa and move and it worked out, shout out to my immigration lawyer Joe Adams in Los Angeles whom I’ve never met in person but who helped me immensely.
“It will bounce back…I think it’s important to be
safe right now so that we can
overcome this virus.”
Lets’ talk about the current state of the nightlife industry…. I think it’s sad that the government has allowed the nightlife, hospitality and theatre industries to suffer as much as they have with little to no support in these times. Right now there is no nightlife industry, unless you’re throwing illegal parties and I prefer not to be a part of that as it means potentially putting people in known danger which I don’t believe in. I moved to New York because of the bustling nightlife culture, without it, it definitely feels bizarre here. It used to be such a melting pot of different people and to not be able to get together in real spaces and have interactions really takes away one of the best things about being in what was such a diverse and happening place. You could argue that social media was already detracting from these types of experiences, and I certainly remember a much more socially engaging time before everyone had cell phones in their pocket, but I still had a lot of fun in nightlife until Covid shut everything down. It will bounce back I just really feel for people out of work right now who want to get back to that world as well as the audiences missing the fun but I think it’s important to be safe right now so that we can overcome this virus.
You speak so passionately about creating community through music – tell me more about your thoughts surrounding this… My home country was ravaged for nine years and 100,000 people were killed because of nationalists and racists, division is the opposite of what I want to promote. I have always seen the positive in bringing different people together, there’s richness in diversity and strength in community and music is such a great way to bring people together because its so universal. I’m definitely one of those people who can go to a gig on their own and happily make friends with whomever is around me, I don’t care where you’re from, what you do or what you look like, and that’s the kind of eclectic mix I like to see in a venue, a widely different group united through a common desire to have fun and be free or who want to see a particular band or DJ or gather at a particular venue and have fun alongside one and other.
“I have always seen the positive in bringing
different people together”
Tell me more about your work as a musician and a producer… I started learning guitar when I was around 7 years old but it wasn’t til my teen years that I started writing my own music, which I immediately found very cathartic. The creative process for me is almost meditative, it centers me. I’m very attracted to music resonating on an emotional level, music can make you dance but it can also move you in much deeper ways. For a long time I only produced music for myself but in 2019 I decided to start producing for other people, first just my friends but it was less than a year til I had a nice roster of artists and new clients.
Who are some of the artists you’re currently working with? Neco Starr who’s a really talented singer from Atlanta, Jersey native Cali G Season, Lowlife Molito a rapper from South Carolina and a bunch of others right now. I even produced a spoken word album for Brooklyn based poet Tia Indigo featuring jazz pianist and producer Jarvis Jamar, both really talented; I played a little guitar on that release too. I’ve worked on so much stuff in the last year so hopefully I will have a lot to show in 2021.
Tell me more about your new album… I’ve been wanting to try something new for a while and just hadn’t caught the right inspiration, I kept putting tracks aside until something felt right. Then it suddenly clicked. When SB Rosa passed away I felt an urgency to put something out and I had a selection of tracks I hadn’t released that I went through and finished in a grip of inspiration.
How do you get into your creative flow? I sit in a tidy environment with as little extraneous noise and distraction as possible on a full stomach and I just get to it, I’m most productive in the morning which is something I didn’t even fully realize until I stopped DJing because of Covid; I naturally started going to bed early and waking up early and found it really positive for my mood and productivity.
Talk to me about feeling ‘stuck’…I think the most important thing is to not make yourself feel bad for feeling stuck because it happens to us all sometimes; I just clear my head however I can and for however long I need to, whether it’s by taking a long walk or taking a couple days off to binge watch some nostalgic movies and TV or listen to music as soon as I can find the time to do so. Whether you’re feeling creatively stuck or stuck in life somehow take a mental break and step back when you can, it can be hard to deal with the bigger picture if you don’t see it.
“Social media…it’s too geared around
consumerism and it’s reliant
on addiction”
We’ve spoken a little amongst ourselves previously about social media and it’s distractions, and the enjoyment of ‘switching off’ and enjoying nature – talk to me a little more about this… Social media is, on paper, a wonderful tool to connect people but it’s been absolutely ravaged by corporate and political influence; it’s too geared around consumerism and it’s reliant on addiction; they’re getting people hooked on scrolling and the content that is pushed to the forefront can at times be so overwhelmingly negative, superficial or toxic that it’s no wonder it’s affecting people mentally and making us more depressed in the long run, it might take strength to distance yourself from that, it certainly isn’t easy for me, but I’m trying to spend more time outside or doing things without checking my phone. If I could have my career without the need to look at social media myself I think I would choose that option. I’m trying to stop looking at my phone after a certain time in the evening as I think it’s important to give ourselves a break from being so connected. I love taking walks in the park with my dog day or night; looking at trees is far more relaxing than scrolling Instagram. I am absolutely blown away by the miracles of nature on a regular basis. Admittedly, I do still love memes though.
“Story worrying
so much.”
What’s your philosophy for life? Do what feels good long as you’re not stepping on anybody else.
What advice would you give to your younger self? Story worrying so much.
In western society we’re so fixated on failure – tell me about your biggest learning… I’m extremely tough on myself, I give myself a lot of flack for messing up, but I rarely do mess up badly because of how hard I am on myself at times. I get to do what I love for a career and am very grateful for that; I don’t see failure when things go wrong I see an opportunity to learn and I think every time something didn’t go to plan I grew and became better rather than allowing myself to stay frustrated. Every failure is a lesson, and if you don’t see it that way you will never succeed.
What do you want to be known for? Being a decent human being that was hopefully mostly good to others and creating music that makes people feel something.
What’s your dream? My dream is to own my own home and to be able to continue to make music ’til I die.
Recommendations – My favorite album of all time is Things We Lost in the Fire by Low so if you’ve never heard it go check it out, I have listened to it fairly regularly for over a decade. I love when something is so good you keep going back to it, before I die I want to be involved in at least one album that has that effect on people, there are few feats greater in my mind than creating something out of nothing and having that creation change people’s lives for the better.
