DJ Spiro

Biography 2008
You can’t talk about the emergence and subsequently thriving dance scene in South Africa without the name DJ Spiro being mentioned.

Since the early 90s he’s honed his skills on the decks to become one of the country’s most highly regarded dancefloor talents but, more than that, he’s helped develop an appetite in the market for intelligent dance music that contains just the right balance of underground and commercial music to satisfy even the most demanding punter.

The latter has emerged through DJ Spiro’s precedent-setting compilation albums as well as his work as a producer and, more recently, executive producer on many successful and high-profile projects.

2008 alone sees DJ Spiro release the fourth in the Progression series, cementing a dance compilation series that has found serious traction in a crowded market. He’s also co produced various singles with Justin Vee and executive produced the debut album “Just Gonna Be Me” - from Idol’s winner Jody that is already receiving strong reviews and substantial airplay.

All of this is a long way from DJ Spiro’s first start behind the decks as a 14-year-old who was often called on to DJ at his mate’s birthdays and was known for making, with painstaking care, highly coveted mixtapes featuring a mix of early Chicago House & Italian Hi-Energy “…and I guess you can draw a line from those days to the compilations I put out today,” DJ Spiro says with his trademark laugh. “The technology may be vastly different but the passion that I had back then in choosing the tracks and selecting which song goes where is still as powerful.”

It would be easy for the Athens-born Spiro Damaskinos to sit back and look at his dance music career with fondness and from a distance: after all for the past 11 years, he’s worked at Sony BMG, joining the company when it was BMG Africa and now remaining a vital part of its team as it transitions to Sony Entertainment.

But in his journey from Dance A&R to Label Manager to the Head of Promotions position he now occupies, DJ Spiro’s love for dance music has never dimmed.

He admits the terrain has changed fairly dramatically  “since his first residency at the famous Sports Café  in Johannesburg’s Village Walk shopping centre in 1993. DJ Spiro’s combination of commercial material early in the night and harder tunes towards its end hit the spot and saw him release his first compilation The Sports Cafe Master Mix.  “The market has become a lot more saturated since those days just on the record side. These days dance music is rife with so many genres and sub-genres you can lose track. It’s tougher and more competitive out there and you have to work hard to keep the fans.”

The likeable man who is known for his irreverent deck personality , “he says, been lucky in that I have been able to keep releasing compilations which the market responds to.”

Luck may have a smidgen to do with DJ Spiro’s success but those who know his ability to select or help create a tune would say that it has much more to do with his innate feel for a great dancefloor track, whether its on Trance, House, Pop, Chill Out or any of the other styles that DJ Spiro has worked in over the years.

The pioneering DJ first became aware of the power of dance music when he lived in London for two years in the late 80s, soaking himself in the house scene and witnessing first hand the UK rave scene reach its peak in the infamous ‘Summer of Love’. “That was a big wake-up,” he confesses now. “I got a shock to realise that I really didn’t know much.” This spurred him on to watch the likes of David Morales, Tony Humphries, Sasha and Justin Robertson in action at the decks and he returned to South Africa, determined to significantly up his game.

Over the years DJ Spiro has applied his skills to a string of hit dance compilations and releases including the original House Anthems series, The Essential Chill Out Album, Gillmania, Serious Beats and Ultimate Dance. One of his most successful series was Trance House which gave DJ Spiro a chance to show off his on-point mixing skills and his sublime taste in trance music which he fell in love with during his London stint and it’s never let up.

In fact the dance genre plays a big role in DJ Spiro’s successful ‘Progression’ series, now about to be released in its fourth incarnation with each issue demonstrating DJ Spiro’s mixing flair and impeccable song choice. The up-coming ‘Progression 4’ features a number of exclusive tracks, something that DJ Spiro’s offerings are known for.

He’s also proud of his remix work (for artists as diverse as Mauritz Lotz, TKZee and Patricia Lewis) and his production work with the likes of Justin Vee and Jody. And DJ Spiro’s no slouch when it comes to creating original work: working with co-producer Eric McCallaghan, the duo released the track ‘Xplicit’ under the name Heatseeker and it became a gigantic hit around the country.

“I would do more original work if I had the time,” DJ Spiro confides.

But there’s little of that between his compilation work, his fulltime job and his DJing which has seen him play at most of the major dance events in the country and alongside the likes of Fatboy Slim, Paul Van Dyk, Boy George, Faithless, Judge Jules, Kid Creme, and Junior Jack. to name but a few . He also still plays in more intimate settings, recalling his early start in the world of dance music. “I love the interaction with the crowd almost as much as I love playing the tunes. If you take your work as a DJ seriously you can never lose that relationship with the punters because this really is a symbiotic relationship. Too often these days the DJ is the star and I think that that interferes with the energy you create when you’re on the decks and you are watching the crowd, using their vibes to sense where to go next. I can play for five or 5 000 people but if I am hitting the songs right it really doesn’t matter, it is all about the relationship that you create at that moment.”

DJ Spiro has a pretty hectic schedule, the father-of-two is now juggles life as a husband, dad, music industry executive and a DJ.

“ My family knows that music is one of the most important parts of my life,  DJing really play’s a role in feeding my creativity as do the compilations and other production work I do. Music has been part of my life since I was a youngster growing up in Athens, listening to my father’s extensive Jazz record collection, to when I was a teenager doing mixtapes till the early hours of the morning on a school night, it’s just never going to go away,  a legacy I’m passing onto my children in some form or another…..music is food for the soul!”
www.djspiro.co.za

For more info contact Ana De Sousa
ana.desousa@sonybmg.com
Tel:  011 274 5000