DJ AA flies in!

This morning production company Sweet Spot and I picked up DJ Ashton Abels from Jo’burg airport to film an upcoming televised segment for MTV.

The Cape Town DJ was a pleasure to interview and is set to open the Smirnoff Experience Johannesburg Mashup Street this Saturday.

I found Ashton to be a really grounded and warm guy with a strong work ethic and passion for music. What impressed me is that he seeks to unite races through music and views the medium as a means of focusing on similarities rather than differences.

“Growing up the only place you would see different races together was through music,” he shares. ”So it was always my dream that one day I would be able to do that; whether it would be to the world or to South Africa. Or whether it’s going to be to heaven. I want to do that with a real art.”

Ashton started mixing around with cassette tapes at a young age, continuously hitting start, stop and rewind;  something which drove people around him “insane.” But this art he started was something he wanted to go “full out” in.

“To me the equation has always been:  you look at a beat and what you actually do with that song is going to be how you talk to that person. I never use to be big on words, so I would speak through my music.”

It’s a good thing Ashton can speak many music languages then, considering his style is very flexible.

“I play anything from R&B and hip hop to uplifting house. And it’s more about what that person wants and what they enjoy and how I can make that one person feel better.”