Pammi Pasqual on Balancing Passion, Perseverance, and the Evolution of Electronic Music
Pammi Pasqual, a DJ and Producer from Greece, now based in London, has been crafting a unique journey within
Pammi Pasqual, a DJ and Producer from Greece, now based in London, has been crafting a unique journey within Electronic Music throughout his time on the scene. From discovering his passion for music through local radio stations to performing at major festivals and founding Playdance Records, Pammi’s story is one of persistence, growth, and unwavering passion. In this interview, he delves into his early inspirations, career-defining moments, and the challenges of balancing creativity with the demands of the industry.
Hi Pammi Pasqual, how are you?
Hi, I am doing very well thank you 🙂
You started your career back in 2005. What originally inspired you to step behind the decks, and how has that passion evolved over time?
When I first started my journey back in my hometown in Greece, I was more into the radio world! Back then, I had no idea what DJing really was. I volunteered at a few local radio stations, and I discovered these old-school American DJ decks at one of these stations. I started observing another radio DJ mixing with them and I remember vividly how excited I was with what he was doing on-air while presenting his show!! It was so so so exciting for me! I instantly knew that I had to learn how to do it too!
At the same time, my music taste had evolved more into Dance and Club music and I started exploring the sounds of House music too. Six months later, and after hours and hours of practising after school, I was able to mix live on-air with this, not great but still ok! Then I started my daily radio shows where I was mixing and presenting at the same time and eventually, I was confident enough to play this music live in front of people!
My hometown, Serres, used to have an amazing nightlife before the economic crisis in 2008-9. Not a great Electronic Dance Music scene, but still the city was buzzing and there were many good options for a good night out for a small city like this. I remember the first times I went to the Alex/Daluz club, which was the biggest club in my city and my excitement when the DJs would spin tunes from Faithless, Tiesto and Guetta! The music was mostly commercial with charts, Pop and Greek Folk music, but occasionally they would play some Dance anthems, commercial House and some underground club tunes and that was my favourite bit of the night out! By the end of high school, I had experienced being a DJ and radio presenter at two of my favourite local radio stations Music Radio and Alfa Radio and I ended up working as a resident DJ and lighting guy at this club! At the same time, I was running, with my team, our own Electronic Dance Music events and playing at various venues around North Greece! Back then I would DJ and release House, Deep House and Progressive House music as a part of the DJ duo called BACK2BACKTM, which consisted of myself and my friend Martin Levon.
Although I was progressing as an artist, in reality, that was financially unsustainable. I realised that the hard way when I tried to live by myself and study music production at the same time in college. The economic situation back home was getting worse and worse, and I couldn’t even find a part-time job as a waiter to sustain myself and my studies. The effects of the economic crisis and the austerity measures had been unfolding in the society and that was very miserable. As an ambitious young man I couldn’t cope with having my dreams stuttered and any future aspirations destroyed. In my early 20s moved to the UK to study music production aiming to continue growing my music career abroad and maybe escape from this miserable situation!
Moving to the UK was a big decision and a risky one since I had no savings and backup support at all. Although, I took a leap of faith and did it!
During my early 20s, I learned the craft of music production, and I volunteered in a few recording studios as an assistant while DJing around various venues in London with some occasional gigs overseas in Germany. Throughout my 20’s, I had been working in the hospitality and events industries in various jobs trying to make a living abroad while pursuing my dream to become an established DJ and Music Producer. Although, that constant chase for making ends meet left me behind as an artist and sometimes I felt that I’d almost given up my passion for music from being overworked and consumed by my day job. I found myself focusing on my plan B which was a safe, secure job and stable future while at the same time, I had been losing focus of my music career path and my music passion. Even the gigs that I had were so draining and consuming, having to play music that I didn’t really enjoy or respect and that was sad! Having to drink excessively on a regular basis in order to enjoy what you’re playing and make the people in front of you enjoy it too, was even worse!
So, talking about my passion for music and DJing and going back to your question about it, my passion has always been there but at the same time, I’ve been trying really hard not to have it buried under my financial struggles over the years!
On a more positive note, I’ve recently managed to quit my day job, and I am pursuing my dream as a full-time DJ and music producer for real! Now in my early 30s, I feel stronger and more passionate than ever before! I decided that it was now or never, so again, I had to take a leap of faith, take a few risks and dive in without any other distractions!
So far so good, it’s been only a few months on this new journey but I’m already seeing some progress and I will let my passion for music drive me and let’s see where it ends up! These days, I am DJing on a weekly basis around venues in London and most of the time I feel lucky enough to play music that I enjoy from House to Dance music. On top of this, I have had some great opportunities over the past year to DJ alongside many established artists and that has sparked my passion for my music career. Now that I am all-in, I am actively pursuing more of these opportunities and hopefully, I will be able to become a headliner at some point in my career soon and headline at major clubs and festivals in a few years time.
You’ve performed at major festivals and supported renowned artists like Chase & Status and Rudimental. How do you prepare differently for festival sets compared to more intimate club shows?
When it comes to more intimate club shows usually my sets are longer between 3-4 hours and that means that I have more time to take the audience on a journey and introduce them to new music and tunes that they would possibly not expect to listen, I like that surprise element in my sets. I like mixing between different styles of Electronic Dance Music and a club setting gives me the time and the opportunity to do that, which is great! I can go from Deep House to House and then I can go a bit darker and dirtier with some Tech House and Progressive House or take a more melodic and anthemic direction with Organic and Melodic House, Afro-House and Melodic Techno! I love taking people on a journey with me, while we are exploring various EDM gems and dancing the night away!
On the other hand, when it comes to a festival set, usually I’ll get just one hour to perform for a larger audience. There are higher expectations for more bangers and classics and thus, my approach is different. There’s less flexibility in the genres that I can choose to play within an hour, and I have to take into consideration the timings and whether I’m playing before or after the headliner. When it comes to a festival set, I’ll have a playlist ready and prepared specifically for this one-hour set – something that I don’t have to do for a longer club set where I can just go with the flow and improvise more.
You’ve played at iconic venues and events, including the Brighton Music Conference. What’s been your most memorable performance so far, and what made it stand out?
Some of my most memorable performances were at the Karma Club at Freiburg in Germany. I used to travel there before COVID, and I would play every few months. I used to love it because I got to experience how it would feel to be an international DJ, travelling from one country to another for headline gigs! I used to travel from the U.K. to Germany for the weekend where I would be the guest DJ coming all over the way from London, and the locals were so excited having me at their venue and partying with me all night long! The venue used to be a hot spot for major House names back in the ’00s and it was a basement with like 2-3 floors underground, with stony walls and a capacity of around 300 people in a tunnel-shaped room! The parties were so intimate there! You could feel the love! I loved the city of Freiburg and the venue so much that I even shot a music video during one of my trips there! Unfortunately, I’ve never released this, but now that I am thinking about it – I think I’ll just go ahead to post it on YouTube, why not?
As the founder of Playdance Records, how do you balance your work as a label owner with your DJ career? What challenges do you face managing both roles?
To be honest, I have been very quiet in terms of music releases over the past few years – COVID hit me quite hard and there was a time when I almost gave up. I’d lost my daytime job, gigs and any mood for music creation during that time. I ended up retreating from London back to my hometown in Greece and living with family for a few months at the age of 30! I paused any label operations for a few years.
Even after COVID, my priority wasn’t music but having a better job and stabilising my life back in London again! It took me a while to recover from the shock! After all, I am proud that I made one of my dreams come true. These days I am full-time in music, and I am only focused on my DJing and my music career as artist DJ/Producer Pammi Pasqual.
Playdance Records is my home label where I can just release what I want, when I want it and how I want it. I am still developing it, but the main focus is on my artist alias, Pammi Pasqual, right now. As you know it is quite challenging doing both at the same time, and these days I feel that the need to develop myself as an artist comes first.
Your sound blends various genres like House, Tech House, and Dance. How do you curate your sets to maintain a unique flow while incorporating these diverse influences?
That’s a very good question. The way I curate my sets depends largely on where I perform, whether in a bar gig, a club gig, a festival or my weekly Playdance podcast.
When it comes to gigs at bars and clubs, the sets are usually longer so I can take the audience on a journey and I can easily curate and perform a multi-genre set within the spectrum of Electronic Dance Music, combining all these genres smoothly and with ease from the start of my set to finish. I can play a lot of new music and switch from one style to another to keep this interesting and evolving with the spectrum of a 4–5-hour set. I really enjoy this type of DJing.
The above is harder to do when it comes to festival gigs. Of course, I enjoy them a lot because the audience is bigger, the stage is bigger, the lineup is bigger, the production is bigger. The same reflects on the music. The songs have to be more ‘banger-type track,’ I’d say, and since I only have around an hour-ish to perform, with these types of DJ sets I tend to focus on a style or two that works better for the occasion, and usually for these gigs I will focus on my main DJ styles which are House and Tech House.
You’ve mentioned that you adapt your sets based on crowd energy. Can you share an experience where you had to completely change your planned set to suit the vibe of the room?
That has happened so many times, haha… and anytime it happens, the same amount of stress hits me before I make it to the DJ booth! So even though I said earlier that I usually have a set playlist for a festival gig, this is still just a plan and, as you may know, plans often don’t go as planned! So being flexible is super important.
So, in this one “extreme’’ occasion, I remember I was DJing an hour after LF System with a quite known D&B act between us. It was this summer actually, just a few months ago. My plan was to start with one of my personal favourites, my track called ‘Infected’ and continue with House and some Dance anthems towards the end of my one-hour set, since I was closing the festival and I wanted everyone to leave the place singing and being happy! It was a student summer ball festival after all! However, at this particular student festival, because of noise restrictions, they had decided that the sets past midnight would become silent disco! And so here is the plot twist! So, LF System were playing a great House set on the PA, but after midnight there was a D&B act who was super unlucky to have to play D&B for a silent disco! Have you ever been to a silent disco? If yes, you might have noticed that the quality of the headphones isn’t great at all! Certainly not good enough to compliment the sound of D&B. On top of this, during their D&B set everyone had the option to switch channels and listen to what was being played on the second stage, which was 500 metres away with two DJs competing on throwbacks and cheesy tunes! So imagine the dancefloor on the main stage filled with around 3000 people, dancing in front of a D&B act while 99% of the crowd were listening to the music of another stage over their headphones and singing ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ and ‘Jump Around.’ Everyone had switched to the music of the 2nd stage listening to Pop throwbacks while only around 10 people on the front row were tuned into the D&B DJ! I’ll be honest with you I felt sad for the guy and at the same time, a huge amount of stress kicked in when I realised that I would have to face the same situation myself a few minutes later once it was my turn to perform!
So, what do you do in this situation? Do you get up and play as planned for 10 people or do you adjust? Are you going to play the main stage, closing the last party of the student year having no one listening to your music? So, the answer was obvious to me. Challenge accepted! I had to adjust without completely throwing my sound identity out of the window and I improvised by playing a commercial House and Dance set where every tune had a cheesy hook, the most uplifting House, mashups and Dance remixes I had – from House remixes to singalongs to anthems and classics, delivering quick transitions to keep the crowd engaged and singing. By the end of my set – mission accomplished! The whole dance floor became green and everyone sang with me ‘Freed From Desire.. mind and senses purified’’. That was a happy ending on a gig that could have turned into a nightmare if I hadn’t had the flexibility to adjust and think on my feet!
From radio shows to live performances, how do these different platforms influence your creative process? Do you approach your radio mixes differently than your live DJ sets?
With the radio, I have more freedom to play various styles of Electronic Dance music and dive into music that I don’t often get the chance to play live but I’d like to be able to. I don’t have an audience right in front of me to judge me or a venue manager/promoter who has certain expectations and I have the freedom to play how my heart feels! The music that I play on my podcast will most likely be listened to while someone’s at home, on their commute to work, gym or generally during his/her own time and not at a rave or a party! So, of course, I take these things into consideration when creating my podcasts. On my radio podcasts, you can listen to what I play at various gigs at peak time but at the same time you can listen to my opening or closing tracks, as well as music that I listen to at home when I’m alone or the Electronic Music that influences my production and songwriting – in particular, you can hear music that I haven’t even released yet! The theme on each episode is slightly different and one week I might dive into Afro-House, Electronica or Melodic/Organic House, while the other week I might pick new Dance and House tunes that I find special and I want to showcase them to more people. This gives the listener a chance to experience different sides of Electronic Music with each podcast and someone can maybe discover his or her new favourite style or song in an Electronic Dance music genre that they haven’t been as familiar with.
In a sense, the above makes my Playdance podcast series more special and unique to the listener!
When it comes to my live DJ sets, it’s a completely different story! There are many more factors that dictate my music decisions here. The type of venue, what time of the day is it, what’s the crowd like, what are their reactions to what’s been played currently, what’s the overall vibe, what’s the theme of the night, where do I want to take them? I will consider all these factors in a live performance, and this will affect how I curate my DJ set and how I adjust it spontaneously.
When it comes to the radio, my mixing is more shuttle with smooth longer transitions. I make this podcast in my living room with my pyjamas on, so of course the mixing style will be more relaxed compared to a live performance! When I have a crowd in front of me the energy is different and that affects my style of mixing too! I will use more effects; I will do more risky but exciting transitions and I will improvise more with samples and live mashups!
With over a decade in the music scene, how has your style evolved, and are there any trends or emerging genres that excite you in today’s Electronic Music landscape?
I’ve been always making rounds around House music and its various sub-genres. In my early days, my DJ sets were influenced by commercial Club/House music and Electro House which was very popular in the 00’s. In the early 10’s and while I was part of the DJ DUO BACK2BACKTM our sound was rawer and more influenced by Deep House, Techno and Progressive House. This is when I started diving more into the underground sounds of Electronic Dance music.
These days, and as a DJ, I am more into Tech House, House music and Deep House while as a producer and songwriter, I am currently experimenting with some downtempo and electronica combined with my influences from Dance music. I am currently listening for inspiration to music from artists such as NTO, Monolink, Bicep and Bonobo while I am super excited with the sounds of Melodic/Organic House and Melodic Techno which, I believe, have seen growth in their audience over the past years.
Finally, I can tell that I haven’t been untouched by the trending sound of this new type of Afro-House which is a current trend that quite a few DJs complain about. In my opinion, it’s a great trend, I prefer, for example, seeing Electronic Dance music, in the shape of a modern Afro-House track, making it to the charts and the radio, rather than seeing Trap music continue to dominate the charts. Trap had been dominating everything for a while… luckily not as much these days…That’s just my opinion but when Electronic Dance music genres are trending and are slightly commercialised, I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a bad thing.
Think of the bright side, these trends offer a gateway to new audiences to discover and eventually explore and fall in love with the treasures of Electronic Dance music and the underground. I am saying this out of personal experience! I started with the most commercial styles of Electronic Music back in the ’00s by listening to commercial radio stations. David Guetta and Tiesto, just to name a few, were my gateway into the Electronic Dance music scene. Such artists who made it from the underground to the commercial radio stations introduced millions to the sound of the club scene and Electronic Dance music. For me, that set the foundations for an amazing journey where I’ve been exploring and falling in and out of love with various genres of Electronic Dance music ever since. Commercial and underground! I have no taboos on this, if the music is good and resonates with me and with the dancefloor, that’s it!
What role does technology play in your DJ sets? Are there any particular tools or techniques that have become essential to your performances?
Big changes here over the past few years, and as technology evolves we evolve with it, don’t we? So yes, I’ve been taking advantage of the quantise button which helps my sets be more accurate. The auto-loops and auto-cues are great too and they give me so many creative options when mixing. And yes, I will praise here the evil and controversial SYNC button.. haha! If someone says that they don’t use this and they remain original to their roots or whatever, it’s like listening to the argument of real DJs playing only with vinyl, or to those who refused to switch to a smartphone and got stuck with a NOKIA 3310! Beat-matching by ear is great but when this tool is just there, it’s hard to resist temptation. Especially when knowing that by using it, you can have the freedom to be so much more creative with your mix and achieve a greater result by the end, which is the main point!
One thing that I haven’t managed to apply yet is the mentality of a set preparation on Record-box and organising someone’s library that way with all the CUEs ready and many other small details that can help someone elevate his set. To be honest, I’ve been a bit of a dinosaur on this, refusing to follow this way of preparation which I know is more efficient. I’ll change though 🙂
Looking ahead, what are some of the goals or projects you’re most excited about for the future, either as a DJ or through your work with Playdance Records?
I am super excited about the decision I took recently to finally follow this career path religiously and work only on my music projects and my development as an artist, DJ and music producer. No plan B, no more music as a side hustle, no more excuses. I am all-in for the first time, working only on my music career as an artist. So, it’s a great time for me – feeling more motivated and determined than ever.
Regarding my goals, these have been changed recently and after I attended ADE. I have better clarity now as to where to focus my energy and time. My main goal is to become consistent, focusing on my artistic output over the next few years. To achieve artistic consistency for the first time, I am planning on releasing new music every 6-8 weeks and working harder and more consistently on my social media and on how to communicate my work as an artist with a broader audience. These are my main goals for now and I can’t wait to share more of my music with you and your audience, with a new track coming up in the middle of December.
As he commits fully to his career as a DJ and Producer, Pammi Pasqual emerges as a determined force, poised to carve a unique and exciting path ahead. With our interview now coming to an end, we thank him for his time and look forward to seeing where his journey leads him next: a talent to take note of, be sure to stay connected with Pammi Pasqual by following him across social media today.
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