After nearly three months,hundreds of entries and thousands of votes for the DJ Magazing Top 50, one man has emerged victorious - and that man is Dubai-born Amin Golestan. We talk to the 23-year old, interview the second and third places - Egypt’s DJ Carlos and Jordan’s DJ BeeBee respectively - and also profile the Top 10. Welcome to the dance music circus, Amin...

We here at DJ Magazine don’t believe in destiny. Nor do we believe in coincedence, good luck or fate. But talk to Amin Golestan, the first ever winner of the DJ Magazine Top 50 poll, and we’re dwarfed by an overwhelming sense of destiny, a surety of footing and speech, and a mild-mannered ambition that instantly sets him apart. This was evident even four years ago, when at the ripe old age of 19, Amin was cutting his DJ teeth at salubrious after-parties. Hunched furiously over the decks, his gangly frame gyrating to brooding, back-room house, he was a perfectionist. EQs were constantly tweaked, the crowd constantly gauged for their reactions and Amin constantly searching for that perfect mix to soundtrack the rising sun over Sheik Zayed Road’s Blade Runner vista. Fast forward half a decade, and Amin has now got a hat trick of prestigious DJ titles to his name - none more so than the latest - having won the Palme award, followed by the Asian DJ of the year award in 2008. He’s progressed from DJing into production, and released music on several high profile labels - notably Sander Kleinenberg’s Little Mountain and Dave Seaman’s Audio Therapy. He’s toured the world with his trademark super-smooth tech house sound, and has just signed a residency with a Moscow club. He’s been endorsed by Pioneer - which is little heard of in the Middle East - and was the first DJ in the region to get his hands on a pair of the highly coveted CDJ2000s, displaying their Ableton-aping talents at an industry showcase a few months ago. And he’s risen to become one of the UAE’s most consistent DJs, booked for headlining shows in Sanctuary’s gargantuan main room to warming up for the man from UNKLE, James Lavelle. Not bad work for a man who was only legally allowed into Dubai’s bars and clubs two short years ago. And yet talk to Amin, and he’s remarkably calm and collected - apart from the initial phone call to confirm the top billing when you could audibly hear him smile for a full five minutes. So calm and collected that he’s printed out the answers to the interview questions we ran past him for preparation, evidence of a previous encounter with a less than reputable journalist. So calm and collected that he’s pre-ironed his wardrobe changes for today’s photo shoot, and arrives at Global Village for our photo shoot a full 20 minutes before any one else (and an hour before the actual shoot start time). And when we do sit down to talk, he does so with thick, elongated vowels - a product of his American-based schooling.

What does the award mean to you?
It means a lot and it’s a good step for getting to
where I want to be. But at the same time it
makes my job harder - I need to keep myself
motivated to stay number one.

Where were you when you found out?
I was in our office working when I got the call
and I was asked not to tell anyone which was the
most difficult thing to do.

Do you think you are the next Armin Van Buuren
- there’s only one letter different after all...
Every individual is a star in a sense and manner.
I tend not to compare or judge anyone, but
rather admire each of their achievements in
their own way and use it as an example in my
personal life.

Are you happy representing the Middle East?
Not only am I delighted to represent the Middle
East, I’m extremely proud to represent Iran –
home to the world’s oldest continuous major
civilization, dating back to 7000 years. As you
you can see, that’s a lot of responsibility.
You see what we mean when we say calm and
collected and studious? But move away from
the pre-prepared answers, and Amin starts to
open up. After a quick two minute chat, we
find out that his family moved over from Iran
in the late 70s following the revolution, (as
did a lot of Iranian expats in Dubai) and
moved here with his mother, father and
brother. His dad owns two restaurants in
Dubai, while Amin opened up Mansion Models
with his brother Amir, an equally goodlooking,
Hugo Boss wearing 26 year old
(who’s very much ‘single’ says Amin, trying to
set him up mid-interview). Were his parents
supportive of his music career?
‘Family is very important in Iran, and we hang
out a lot together. Like every other parent,
they wanted me to be a doctor or an engineer.
My mum always thought that DJing was just a
hobby, and wouldn’t be anything more. I’ve
been breakdancing since I was 12, so I’ve
always been into music. But I left that after a
couple of years, and my mum thought that
DJing would be the same and I’d leave it. But
now, they really believe in it - they know it’s
my passion and that I’m really good at it.’
But despite being fully booked every weekend in
Dubai, and further afield, Amin still has his
Armani-clad feet firmly on the ground, and is
aware that in this oh-so-transistory world of
clubs, things can move very, very quickly.
‘Even with everything going on, I still want to
study,’ he says as a gut-busting rollercoaster
whizzes over head. ‘The original plan was to go
to Australia and study audio engineering. But
my Iranian passport made it quite tricky to get
over there, and now I’m so busy with DJing, and
production that I don’t really know when I’ll find
the time.’ And considering his schedule has just
opened up to include a mix CD for Audio Therapy
and a residency in Moscow to go alongside his
monthly Sanctuary gig, that’s looking
increasingly likely.

There aren’t many full time
DJs and music producers in the region - are you
capable of making the leap?
‘Definitely, 100 per cent,’ he nods confidently. ‘I
wouldn’t like to call the music I’m making now
commercial, but I like to make music for people.
Before, I was making music for DJs and for
record labels and to get that recognition. But
now I want to do more music for crowds. And I’d
like to have a radio hit. Everyone always bashes
commercial music, but why not. And it’s not I’d
be selling out, or it has to be obvious - I just
want to connect to as many people as possible.’
Why not indeed? Making music that connects
with people is a huge talent, and one we’re sure
Amin has. And when pressed on the DJs Amin
admires, he’s equally candid and forthright.
‘This might upset a lots of DJs, but I admire
Tiesto and David Guetta. I don’t like or play
their music, but I admire what they’ve done to
the music world. They’ve made dance music a
lot more popular. I’ve done both kinds, and it
made me realise that you can never satisfy
everyone and the key to failure is when you try
to satisfy everyone.’
No, we don’t believe in destiny. But we do
believe in hard work and huge amounts of
talent, both of which Amin has in abundance.

James Lavelle Live in Dubai (More pictures visit www.mumtazz.com Photographs: AmorD)

He’s had a varied old career, has James Lavelle. In the early ’90s he started the Mo’Wax label, home of DJ Shadow’s seminal Endtroducing… album. A year later, he brought Shadow into Unkle, his trip-hop band, releasing a debut album in 1998 that featured artists as diverse as Thom Yorke, Kool G Rap, Metallica’s Jason Newsted and Mike D from the Beastie Boys. In fact, if you take in all of Lavelle’s colleagues, associates and former band members you can probably connect him to almost anyone in alternative music.

Since then Unkle has rotated through several members, but always with Lavelle at its heart. His solo work’s been just as impressive; he’s produced progressive house tracks for Global Underground as well as remixing tracks by Massive Attack, Beck and Garbage, to name but a few. He has also developed a career producing soundtracks for film, including Sexy Beast and the recent X-Files movie, and is currently working on a film from Pi’s Darren Aronofsky and a film about director Abel Ferrara.

But more importantly for you guys, he’s a long-time resident of London’s Fabric club and even mixed the Fabriclive.01 album.