Conversations with Raj Gujral

When I was 17, one of my closest friends said that my mixtapes were good and I should become a DJ. He knew another friend of his who wanted to be a DJ as well. He linked us two together and we started DJ’ing. That was the start of my DJ career, way back in 1995.

After about a year, my partner lost interest but I wanted to continue to DJ. I was hungry to learn how to master my skills as a DJ. My older sister, Rani, had already been attending CSUF for a few years now and I was just starting as a freshman. She was a leader in the college Indian Club and they used to always hire Hooter from Kumba as their DJ. For those that don’t know, this man is a legend in our industry. She took me to his house one day; he was making a culture show mix for them. He had a garage full of real vinyl with real turntables, Technics 1200s, and I was in pure awe! Shortly after I started working with him. He would give me smaller gigs. When I didn’t have gigs on my own, I would follow him around and his other two DJs, Burn & Vishal. These three taught me my fundamentals of DJ’ing, mixing, MC’ing, and the handwork that goes behind every gig. They showed me what a true DJ does and how to give it all you got. After every gig I have this euphoric feeling of making people happy on the dance floor and walk away rocking every single party.

I was with Kumba for approximately 7 years and then in 2002 I left to start Sound Nation. Throughout the 2000s, Sound Nation began to dominate the South Asian scene from college parties to weddings.

During the late 2000s, around 2007, Indian destination weddings started to hit the market. By then I had established a strong customer base in So Cal, so these clients who were having weddings in destinations, they started to take me with them. I’ve been to places like Costa Rica, Panama, and my most memorable experience was on a private island in a castle in Ireland. Of course, I’ve been to Mexico over the years for gigs as well, Cabo, Cancun, etc. since that’s where a bulk of the destination weddings end up. Through these events I met clients from all over the US who would fly me to their hometown as well, which helped me see some amazing US cities, Santa Fe, St. Louis, Daytona Beach, D.C., just to name a few.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My first biggest struggle was when my year one partner decided this wasn’t for him. All the equipment was his so he decided to sell it. I had no equipment and I had just discovered my passion. My family was far from being well-off financially but my mom saw that I was struggling emotionally not being able to DJ. My mom asked both my sister’s, Tripti & Rani, to take her credit card and go buy me equipment. I made a deal with my mom, I will give her all the money from the gigs and just keep a small amount for my own personal expenses. After this, I was on my way to doing all my own gigs, from set up, djing, to striking.

DJ’s also have a tough life. We are always on the road, we sleep late, wake up early, and eat terribly. People honestly think DJ’s live this glamorous life of girls, booze and parties but if you don’t know a DJ, you should get to know them personally. 99% of what we do is the grind! Social media, especially these days, only shows our glamorous lifestyle and I’m guilty of doing the same thing but thats because that is what the people want to see. No one wants to see a tired out DJ after working 18 straight hours, but they do expect us to put on a smile, be hype and energize their crowd with minimal rest and sleep.

I’ve sacrificed many birthdays, weddings, special occasions of my family & friends. Now over 30 years of DJ’ing, I’ve learned to balance my family life with my DJ’ing. I still take on every gig I can, because I’ve always just wanted to DJ, but I’m not in it for the money. This helps me pick the days I need to be with my family over my gigs. Changing priorities to family & friends over DJ’ing  does take a toll on my career but I’d rather focus on my family every chance I can. It’s not always perfect since clients book months to year in advance but I do my best. Those that know me personally, know if they call me to DJ an event for them, I just show up. Let’s play music and have some fun.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Recently someone called me “OG.” I was unsure of what my initial reaction should be. Is he calling me old or is this a compliment? Obviously this was a compliment and I was truly humbled and flattered. I never imagined reaching a point in my career where someone gives me this kind of respect. I’m just glad to have been able to contribute my talent to so many special events and memories for my clients. I guess you can say that I’m proud to now be known as the longest running South Asian DJ in Southern California.

I feel what really sets me apart is that I’m a DJ, through and through. Music is my passion and DJ’ing is a god given talent to me. Growing up I was a shy kid but being a DJ really blossomed my personality and allowed me to be who I truly am. I’ve been able to meet so many amazing people and have so many amazing experiences. I credit all of this because of this talent I was blessed with at a very young age.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
For Hindi music I’ve noticed our clients now are starting to go back to enjoying music from the greatest Bollywood Music era, 90s Bollywood, you know the Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Rani Mukherjee type songs. When it comes to English music, years ago I couldn’t play a track with any foul language. Now its seems like our culture has become more open to it. Clients demand that we play the explicit version so they can sing along rather than the version where the words are cut out. Let’s face it, when we are in our cars listening to any streaming service, we do like the explicit versions and we do like to sing along. I’m glad to see this is being normalized now.

The one thing that I feel is lacking is good Bhangra music. Most of this genre has moved towards a rapping style and it simply isn’t danceable. We are lucky to get 1 – 2 good Bhangra songs in a year, the reset has to be remixed. I really hope Punjabi artists go back to making Bhangra the way it was meant to be.

Let’s also talk about the South Asian wedding market. This is a bulk of my business now and I’ve done every kind of wedding you can imagine, big, small, multicultural, destination, you name it. I’ve seen this wedding market dynamically change over the years. First the trend was, let’s see who can have the biggest, baddest, most expensive wedding. One family topping the next family. Then it was destination weddings. Lately I’ve been seeing a return back to local weddings. Most are still in a grand scale and yes there are still lots of destination weddings, however, I believe clients are returning back to local weddings because destinations used to be cheaper 15 years ago, now they cost even more.  One thing is for sure when it comes to the South Asian wedding market, it’s the biggest and its always setting whatever the next biggest trend will be.