URLOPOP: Hi Ravin! It ‘s a pleasure to meet you here at the Marina Club in Jesolo. So, how did you get started as a Dj?
RAVIN: I was very ,very bad at school, and that’s why I quit school, this is the first reason! (laughs!)
URLOPOP: How old are you?
RAVIN: I’m forty-eight I was born in 1966.
URLOPOP: Where exactly were you born?
RAVIN: I was born and I grew up in Mauritius. My mother’s from Mauritius and my father from India.
URLOPOP: How long have you been working as a DJ?
RAVIN: Since I was twenty-one years old, but I was working in music shops selling CDs from the age of seventeen, so I ‘ve been working in music all my life! Because music is my great passion so that’s why I’ve always been involved in it. Discovering, making radio programmes, being a DJ came after, maybe because I don’t like to dance, but I prefer to make people dance.
URLOPOP: Do you also work as a music producer?
RAVIN: Yes, I do.
URLOPOP: What exactly is Buddha Bar and how did it start?
RAVIN: I was working in London in a fashion place Kemia bar (Momos) and then I went to Paris 1995 , that’s where I met Claude Challe we worked together, and then in 1995 I was back in London. In 1996 Claude and Raymond Visan the founder of Buddha Bar, called me back and said, “Listen, come back, we have an offer for you, we will open a new place called Buddha Bar” so I was kind of surprised because Buddha Bar is kind of religious. So I went to Paris and I had a meeting with them, and I discovered the place, then Raymond asked me about my vision about the music club where Claude Challe was playing, and I came like six months after. So the club was playing like oriental stuff, Indian style. This was 1996, when I started in Buddha Bar.
URLOPOP: So were you only working for Buddha Bar?
RAVIN: Yes, exclusively since 1996 till now! Fifteen days a month.
URLOPOP: So you represent Buddha Bar!
RAVIN: Also about the music, the owner Raymond Visan, first of all he wants music from nature, singing birds, waves,
URLOPOP: This is the music I like!
RAVIN: Then after we (me and Claude Challe) told him let’s do like this, and then he trusted us, and everything started like this because we were playing and people were coming to us ask us about the music we were playing. Because the music was unique, world music mixed with electronic, it is a “voyage” of ethnic music a journey of different kinds of music, so this was very important to give this kind of atmosphere, decorate the Buddha Bar with special music. This was very important because at that time it was 1996 and it was a brand a new concept: Buddha, music, food, lovely atmosphere, with a huge Buddha inside, this also was very important.
URLOPOP: But why Buddha?
RAVIN: Because at that time, before 2000, lots of very famous people like Madonna, Sting all these people were going into Buddhism, so that’s why it became trendy and then Raymond opened the place.
URLOPOP: So the fact that Madonna and Sting were into Buddhism was is it just a trend? Or is there something more?
RAVIN: No, it was not only a fashion, I think there’s something more, you know. All these people you know they work too much, so I think they need to feel calm, going to India to relax, to do yoga all connected to Buddhism. It was not only because it was trendy. When we opened the Buddha bar in 1996, nobody knew that, even Raymond Visan was surprised about the success of it. Raymond had a vision of a nice concept so that was how everything started.
URLOPOP: So, will you please tell us about a typical day for your? What do you do every day?
RAVIN: My day starts and ends with music.
URLOPOP: Really!
RAVIN: When I wake up I work in my studio.
URLOPOP: Do you have a family?
RAVIN: Yes I have one son and he is nine years old.
URLOPOP: We know that you are very famous, but which person whom you have worked with has left an impression on you most of all?
RAVIN: Those people that I was working with in Buddha Bar, Nicos, making tracks with all these people are very important.
URLOPOP: Is there a particular singer that had influence on you?
RAVIN:yes old songs from India like mukesh , lata , asha bosle and new scene from London electronic like anokha & nitin sawhney all these famous names of singers, these are the classics, that’s what I was born and raised with in my family.
URLOPOP: Do you play a musical instrument?
RAVIN: No, I am more a sound engineer I work in the studio with machines, I am not a guy who plays instruments! I know how to play some percussion instruments but my work is more connected with electronic music.
URLOPOP: What projects do you have for the future?
RAVIN: I’m doing lots of albums, but also music designs for many hotels like: Starwood, Accor. So I am also planning to open my own studio, releasing all my CDs.
URLOPOP: Do you also work for fashion designers?
RAVIN: Yes, Gucci, ,Jean Paul Gaultier, Giorgio Armani I did music for his parties in Paris.
URLOPOP: Are you also working on other projects?
RAVIN: Yes, I am doing the ringtones for Lamborghini mobile phones.
URLOPOP: Can you tell us something in particular that you remember about the people you’ve worked with?
RAVIN: Yes. When I was playing for Sting in his private house in London near Gatwick. There were lots of Tibetan monks in his living room in his private house.
URLOPOP: Can I ask you how much he paid you for this?
RAVIN: It was just an exchange. I loved the idea because Sting called me, that is he called Buddha Bar and the management called me. I spoke with Sting and he told me I love your music, and I am doing this kind of event yoga party I will have Tibetan monks in my living room, they will draw Mandela everywhere. So I started playing yoga music for them, and Sting himself was dressed only in white and he said thank you Ravin for coming and I also met his wife, so that was a really beautiful experience.
URLOPOP: So that was an interesting experience involving a famous male personality, and what about females?
RAVIN: I think this famous lady in Greece called Anna vissi she’s like the Madonna of Greece, so I had several collaborations with her, making parties for her, a very unique person and very humble. I love to work with humble people, I mean people with great vibes and lovely souls
URLOPOP: In which countries in the world have you worked?
RAVIN: The only place I haven’t worked and would love to go to is Australia, one day maybe! And there is a big scene of electronic music there, hopefully one day!
URLOPOP: Thank you for your time and for telling us so much about yourself!
RAVIN: My pleasure!
2014
