From Call Centre To Working With All Your Heroes w/ DJ Harpz

DJ Harpz: [00:00:00] If you really want to do it, do it. People say, are you sure? Say I'm sure. Do it. Take the risk. I'm not saying quit your job straight away. It took me 10 years to quit my job. Working in a call center, I would walk in 9 to 5. We heard you on the radio, you know, got bills to pay. To then, being crazy and going on tour, people sing back songs that you've produced.

DJ Harpz: It's, it's the happiness. It's very fulfilling. It's weird. It's like, wow, I'll sit in a room with Jazzy B, Sukshinder Shinda, Panjabi MC, B21, Dr. Zeus. It's weird. Like, what?

Amardeep Parmar: Welcome to the BAE HQ podcast, where we inspire, connect, and guide the next generation of British Asian entrepreneurs. Today, we have here with us Harpz, who's a DJ and producer. How are you doing today? 

DJ Harpz: I'm all right, you know. What are you saying? Are you okay? 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah, yeah, I'm good. So... Tell me about like, your career has gone like to like new heights all the time, right?

Amardeep Parmar: But when you started out, when you were a kid, did you ever [00:01:00] think you'd be doing what you're doing today? 

DJ Harpz: No, not what I'm doing today. I'll be honest. I didn't know what I was going to do to be fair with you. Like I knew one thing education wasn't for me. I, I realized that from a really young age. Like I was, I was good in school.

DJ Harpz: I wasn't like a naughty boy that much, but I sort of realized I was very creative. So I think something creative. Yes. But I didn't think I'd be doing what I'm doing. You know what I mean? So yeah.

 Amardeep Parmar: How did you start in music?

DJ Harpz: So, I used to go gurdwara a lot with my mom. Went to Panjabi school, got kicked outta Panjabi school for being naughty,  sorry.

DJ Harpz: Stay in school kids. So my mom goes, look, you're gonna have to come gurdwara with me, so you have to do something. So I learned harmonium and doubler as a as, as a youngin. And um, that sort of was my start to the creative side, learning music in that sense, in the classical end, and then at home on my PlayStation one.

 Amardeep Parmar: back in the day. Yep. 

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DJ Harpz: Back in the day. I'm showing my age now. On my PlayStation one, I used to play a game called EJ. EJ was like a music creator. You could make loops and [00:02:00] make a beat on that. And I was, it was elite for those early 2000s, late nineties era type of thing. It was amazing. And that was the sort of the starting and the flow of, I wanted to do something in music.

DJ Harpz: I didn't know what I was going to do. 

Amardeep Parmar: And like, did you ever do something else before you went full time into music or did you just go straight into it? 

DJ Harpz:No,  I used to work. man. You know, if anyone ever tells you that they never worked and they were just like, yeah, I was born and I was elite music producer.

DJ Harpz: They're lying to you, right? Yeah, I worked. I didn't like, like, like I said, education wasn't for me. So I done my sort of GCSEs, done all that sort of stuff. And I went straight into working. I was working in call center. To be fair with you, I've actually stuck at it quite, quite a long time. I did 11, nine years of sales after leaving school.

DJ Harpz: So from the age of like 17 ish, I went straight into call centers, straight working. And, and that was me. And then on the side, I was obviously DJing, getting into it, learning my craft. Um, doing sort of the local gigs in [00:03:00] Leicester. Uh, that's where I'm from, obviously, originally. And sort of going to bars and, and those days you had to do the whole night for like 20 quid.

DJ Harpz: And for some, and I started in, in bars when I was 15. Yes, underage, but I don't drink or anything. So they let me do it, right? I've never drank. I've still don't drink to this day. And yeah, I used to get like 20 quid as, as a 14, 15 year old. That was a lot of money, right? And I was like, I can do this. This is great.

DJ Harpz: Not knowing I was doing like five hours of work for 20 quid, you know what I mean? 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. It's a lot of Freddos you can get with a 20 quid back then. 

DJ Harpz: A lot of 1P sweets. 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. 

DJ Harpz: You know, 1P elite sweets, right? They were the ones. Yeah, that was, I was working. And then obviously as like I said, as I got older, I was working as well as doing music as well as learning music production and sort of honing my craft in that side.

DJ Harpz:  ‘Cause uUltimately, DJing is amazing. It's, I get the biggest buzz of doing shows and performing all over the world, Australia to Japan, to us, you know, to Dubai and obviously all around the UK, but my real, [00:04:00] real passion was to actually make music. And that's where the itch came from when I learned Harmonium. 

Amardeep Parmar: So how did you get like that big break to start DJing abroad?

Amardeep Parmar: What was that journey? Like, so you said originally you were like doing bars and stuff locally. Where did you start getting noticed? How did you start getting that traction? So 

DJ Harpz: So I started getting noticed locally. Um, and I say this to a lot of people, a lot of young up and coming DJs, I say this all the time.

DJ Harpz: If you can, sounds really arrogant, but if you could dominate your local area. And you walk down the street and people are like, Oh, yeah, that's Hobbs. He did it. Hey, hey, hey in Leicester. And then you can expand anywhere you want, because if you have your city behind you, you can have the country behind you. Right.

DJ Harpz: Not saying I'm Drake, I wish. Right. But that's how I done it. I created a local buzz. From then, I touched wood while, you know, like, God's blessing, I've got a national buzz in my scene, in the Bhangra scene. To then, being crazy and going on [00:05:00] tour in Australia and people sing back songs that you've produced in your box room.

DJ Harpz: It's like, what? What? How do you know this song when you're 24 hours away? But my first ever break going international ever to do my first ever international gig, you know, just a little artist producer called Pujab BMC. Everyone knows Pujab BMC, of course, you know, I'm not ashamed to say he's my idol. He's the person that I listened to the most still to this day, all his old CDs.

DJ Harpz: He actually took me to Dubai for my first ever international gig. And this was 2012 was my first ever international gig. So that's 10 years ago. Yeah, that was my first ever international gig. It was at a club. Well, there they weren't them days. It weren't clubs, it was, it was inside hotels.

DJ Harpz: Now there's clubs, inside hotels. It was a place called Excalibur, which at that point was like the five star hotel. Like yeah, there was no Armanis and stuff like that back in those days. Um, [00:06:00] and yeah, it was me and him. You know, he picked me up from Leicester. We drove down to Heathrow, told me a hell of stories.

DJ Harpz: I got to go Dubai with him, perform alongside him, and come home. It was... It was the most weirdest 48 hours of my life. It was only that 48 hours. It was, yeah. 

Amardeep Parmar:The flying trip. Yeah. 

DJ Harpz:Literally flying trip. Yeah. That's where you sort of experience like, wow. And sort of knowing and sort of learning how the international scene works. It was amazing.

Amardeep Parmar: And with your own producing, like. Who helped you there? Like how did, you said you're inspired by Punjab MC, but how did you get your albums released and get like signed and all that kind of stuff? 

DJ Harpz: So the person that actually helped me, uh, well, the people that helped me, shall I say, one of them's not around anymore is what I consider my brother.

DJ Harpz: He's my best friend Inder from Twin Beats in Leicester. He sadly passed away not too long ago, just under a year ago. He was actually the first person to fully teach reproduction. I sort of [00:07:00] knew what I wanted to do, but I just wasn't good at it. You know what I mean? I had the ideas. I sort of knew, but then like, you know, I wasn't the best at playing keyboard and putting stuff together.

DJ Harpz: And funnily enough, Emerson back in the day, him and his brother Pram, uh, from Twin Beats, I used to say to them, Oh, where are your DJ? Where are you guys DJing? They'd be like, Oh, we're DJing here. I'd be like, well, I'm DJing here. You know what I mean? Little kid I am. They're older than me. Right. From there, we built a friendship.

DJ Harpz: We became like us three. We were like the three amigos. Everyone knew us. Right? And they knew that if twins are there, Harpz is going to be there. If Harpz is there, twins are going to be there. And from there, like, we became such good friends. I was like at their house every day learning how to do this. And then Circle, that was 2005, 2006

DJ Harpz: being friends, to my debut single coming out, my official debut single coming out in [00:08:00] 2012, a song called Jaan Nachdi with Bakshi Billah. It was all those years of learning how to do it and they were in the video as well, little cameo appearance and, and yeah, and they were the ones that got me the deal with, with VIP Records, um, who still to this day release songs with me.

DJ Harpz: Again, VIP is like my family as well, like label, family type of thing, so yeah, that's how I learnt. I was inspired by Punjab BMC. 

Amardeep Parmar: It's one of those things where I think a lot of people look for instant success and sometimes people feel like if they don't get into success and they've failed straight away.

Amardeep Parmar: Whereas what you're showing there is like you're working for like several years in a call center while you're doing it on the side. But you had the talent and you had the passion as well. Cause obviously it's like, how do you make friends with someone like Twin Beats and like Punjab MPC? It's because they can see that you care about what you're doing and you're enthusiastic about it.

Amardeep Parmar: And you didn't like, you didn't have that entitlement attitude of like, Oh, I've got to get it done in a year.

DJ Harpz:.

Amardeep Parmar:  It's like you did the hard graft. You're like, you put in the effort there. 

DJ Harpz: The thing is people, people see nowadays, especially now, remember when I started, there was no social media. There was no [00:09:00] Instagrams.

DJ Harpz: There was Twitter, I think. Yeah. There was Twitter. Facebook was a bit dead. High five was great. Oh my God, I'm so old, you know? And when I released my first song, there was no streaming. You had to buy my song, 79P from iTunes. And iTunes was new. 

Amardeep Parmar:Is this  when everybody was still like doing the, like, cassette tapes and selling them?

DJ Harpz: CDs, CDs.

Amardeep Parmar: CDs, okay, CDs, yeah. 

DJ Harpz: And I got a quarter of a million views in like a year. And that was like, wow. A quarter of a million people heard me. And now what people... see on social media is overnight success, they think. You know, some people want overnight success, but it doesn't happen. You have to look at the years of graft that we put in and, and sort of learning your craft.

DJ Harpz: I always say this to people. I don't want to sound like I'm like a martyr or some, some sort of teacher or star that I'm not. I'm still learning every day because you never stop learning. But I would always say just, you know, [00:10:00] work on your craft every single day because I still do. I still practice every day.

DJ Harpz: I make a beat a day. And I was taught that by Panjabi MC, make a beat a day and you'll never lose your fingers in regards to, you'll never lose your art. You miss a day, you miss two days, you slack, you'll miss three days, you'll start, you'll start getting complacent. Don't ever get complacent. 

Amardeep Parmar: I think one of the things that often  happens is where

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Amardeep Parmar: people are doing things for a long time before they actually get noticed. And then they get noticed all of a sudden, everybody knows them at the same time. And then it feels like it's overnight success

DJ Harpz: Oh, a 100 %

Amardeep Parmar: when it's just because people didn't see the earlier days. And then like, you don't, if you didn't see that, you just assume, Oh yeah, they just started the first song.

DJ Harpz: Superstars superstars. Right. 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. 

DJ Harpz: Yeah. 

Amardeep Parmar: And like being in this world now as well, because obviously knowing the people you do and interacting with them, how has that been? Because obviously you came from like the humble beginnings and trying to get there for so long and they're now interacting with all these different people.

Amardeep Parmar: Do you feel like people have the attitude right in terms of they're trying to help out like the stuff that you're doing as well? 

DJ Harpz: What the new generation, you mean? 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. Yes. And the older [00:11:00] generation, like how they treat you, how, how there's relationships. 

DJ Harpz: I'll be honest, the older generation, we, we all know each other, right?

DJ Harpz: So like I'll sit in a room with Jazzy B, Sukhshinder Shinda, Pujar BMC, B21, Nazir Bhuttar and Bali, Dr. Zeus, and you know, all of us, it's weird because they're all older than me, but I started around them. That's the best way to put it. I'm the youngest older, right? And because I was, like I said, I was, I was on shows with, you know, Pujar BMC in 2006, 2007, you know, um, and what I've realized with the newer generation, because it's such a social media age, you can Rise to fame very quickly because, you know, you, the world is at your fingertips.

DJ Harpz: Um, and that does change people's attitudes I've realized, but I, like I said, I always tell people, listen, just keep your head to the ground because as fast as you go up, it takes two seconds to go back down. You know, I've never been up. I'm not, I never, I've never considered myself [00:12:00] a star or some sort of popular figure.

DJ Harpz: You know what I mean? I'm very humbled that people know who I am and listen to my songs every day. I'm like, wow. you listen to my songs. 

Amardeep Parmar: How do you think like the time you spend on different things has changed over the years as well because obviously  the beginning you're mainly DJing and then working and you're working as well.

Amardeep Parmar: Then now you're producing. How's that adapted like over time from like the focus in 2012 versus the focus today? 

DJ Harpz: The focus hasn't changed in regards to I'm still trying to work the hardest I can. The time of work has changed because I'm never at home. I'm sitting here right now with you, right? But the work ethics not change.

DJ Harpz: It's just the amount of time I put into the work has. And that's why I had to, in a way, think, okay, hops, you can work and do the DJing and do the music production, or take the leap of faith. You do the music production, you do the DJing and you just focus and make that your job. 2015 I made the jump, scary jump.

DJ Harpz: It was a great job. [00:13:00] 

Amardeep Parmar: Have  you ever regretted it or how like, how scary was it? 

DJ Harpz: I regretted it. Regret's the wrong word. I was scared, scared, still scared to this day because it's like, you're responsible for your life. You're responsible anyway, but you're responsible for your everything, your income, your outgoings, your bills, your family, everything.

DJ Harpz: You know what I mean? So that was the scariest part and still is. 

Amardeep Parmar: What advice did people give you when you're making that jump? Well, people kind of saying like, yes, it's time to do it or they like, Oh, are you sure about this? 

DJ Harpz: Yeah. Are you sure about this? Do you think you're ready? Are you making enough money?

DJ Harpz: It always comes down to money. Are you doing enough? And then I had to sit down, calculate and think, can I do this? And I was like, if I don't do this, I'll regret it. That's where the regret would've been. And so I made the leap of faith and all that I've done was made me work harder. And that's what I do like, because said, today I'm here doing this podcast, doing another podcast [00:14:00] after this.

DJ Harpz: Then I've got a show tonight, I've got a show tomorrow, got a show on Monday. But you have to do that. You can't, you, you can't make that leap. 

Amardeep Parmar: What parts  of it do you enjoy the most now? Like what's the bit that you really light up about? 

DJ Harpz: Making people happy? It's a great thing. Either that be on stage behind the decks making people happy when I play their favorite song or play one of my songs that they love.

DJ Harpz: Making people happy when they're walking around and I hear my song in their car playing or they're playing it on Spotify or they're reposting it on their stories. It's the happiness. It's very fulfilling. It's weird. It's like, wow. 

Amardeep Parmar: Even with their musical style, has it changed over the years?

DJ Harpz:  Yeah, a hundred percent.

DJ Harpz: So when I released my first song, which was 2012, my thing was, yes, UK, Bhangra, Dlol, Dumbi, make everyone dance on the dance floor. That is it.  And done three songs. Jan Natsdi Nakarapa jabbada paranda from 2012 2013, within one year I released three songs. Since then I've never done that, I've released [00:15:00] one song a year, right?

DJ Harpz: 2013, I took a break. I wasn't happy with my music. I was like, I'm making music to be in the same box as everyone else. This is not what I like. I'm not doing it to be happy myself, you know. And so I took a two year break. Again, honed my craft, worked on music. Thought, what direction am I going to go in?

DJ Harpz: Spoke to people, spoke to friends. Said, look, this is what I'm thinking. I'm going to go fully urban because I'm brought up on Panjabi music. I love Panjabi music is my core. It's my heart, but I love UK Garage. I love hip hop. I love R& B. 

Amardeep Parmar: I love that era of like the early 2000s of like that music. And it's like, it's kind of gone away a bit, but it's like, those old songs were really good.

DJ Harpz: I've got a song coming. I'll show you. I've got a song coming, which will give you a bit of a nostalgia. But yeah, so like I had that chat even with myself thinking, Harpz, you need, you're going to make a style of music that not everyone's going to like, you know, [00:16:00] your hardcore punk rock fans are not going to like it.

DJ Harpz: They're not going to, it's not going to be really dance floor songs, but make what makes you happy. And that's what I've done. I've done trap songs with Rockstar and rap songs with Ikka and Bohemia and Falak. And got a chance to do an R& B song with a rapper and a new artist at that point called Ezu, who's now huge, with Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

DJ Harpz: I would have never thought I'd work with Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. You know, that's like a tick..Box. Like what? When I got the vocals in my inbox, I was like, I showed my mom, I said, mom, look, it's Rahat singing. She went, what? And this is in my box room. There was no fancy studio. It's my box room, my PC as he was 17, I think at that time he's, he's older now he's blown up.

DJ Harpz: I'm so proud of him. And Ikka was this massive rapper from India and I was free reign to do what I want. And I was like, yeah, I'm going to make what I want. And I put Rahat on a trap song. [00:17:00] Wow, no one does that. And so I just, I was just making stuff that I wanted and that's what fulfilled me. 

Amardeep Parmar: Do you have a song that's like your favorite of the ones you've made?

Amardeep Parmar: Is there one that's closest to your heart? What was it?

DJ Harpz: My baby is always going to be Jaan Natsdi. 2012, Jaan Natsdi. That is my baby. That is my nearest, dearest, favorite song that I've ever made because it was the first one. After that, I would say Chakkar. Chakkar, which was me, Prophecy and Bambi Bains. That will always be close to my heart.

DJ Harpz: The song that I enjoyed the most making, no, no, no, I lie. I enjoyed making Chakkar. The second song that is nearest to my heart that I enjoyed making as well as Chakkar was Patakke. Me, Ezu and Amar Sandhu. That was just the fun record. And at that point, I loved Afrobeat. And I was like, why don't we do Afrobeat and Panjabi music?

Amardeep Parmar: Tough,  you're working on now. Can you give us any insight into what's coming out soon? What people should be looking forward to? [00:18:00] 

DJ Harpz: I'm at a point where I'm making music. I just want to release it. I just, I just want to do. And what I want to do now is work with a lot of new artists. You know, I've worked with a lot of artists I've always wanted to work with.

DJ Harpz: I've done them all like prophecy, Amr Sandhu's, Kanika Kapoor's, Bohemia, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Falak Sabeel, you know, the list goes on. And now I want a new artist to break through. That's what I'm doing. I'm working with a lot of new artists. Still working with you established ones, the big ones that people know and they're coming soon.

DJ Harpz: I can't say when because that's their choice. But the songs are done, you know what I mean, they'll be done in COVID, to be fair, in COVID I worked so hard, like the COVID times, I was just in the studio working every day. Stuff that I can tell you, it's all about new artists. You'll see a lot of new artists with DJ harpz working and coming out just to give people a platform.

DJ Harpz: No one helped me with a platform. People helped [00:19:00] me to get into the scene. Taught me everything but being DJ harpz, I had to do myself. You know what I mean? That Indra and Pramabhai brothers, Panjabi MCs, my brother, they taught me and showed me what to do. But to become DJ harpz, I had to do myself. What I want to do is help someone so they don't go down the wrong path and make the mistakes I do, because there's a lot of mistakes made in the way.

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Amardeep Parmar: What are  some of those mistakes? 

DJ Harpz: Industry shafty sometimes, but it's alright. 

Amardeep Parmar: And that's one of the scary things for some people is that, especially when you're new and just starting out. And connected to sometimes the podcast, right? Some people might have... a certain level of self importance. Yeah. And then you've got to navigate that in a way which you want to still maybe work with them, but then it's almost you're trying to prove yourself.

Amardeep Parmar: And then sometimes it can take advantage of that. And it's very difficult in the beginning to like navigate that because we're now I've done over a hundred podcasts, right? Somebody tries to be behind the scenes in a certain way. I don't [00:20:00] need you. Like, you don't want to go like, cool. You're not coming on the podcast, right?

Amardeep Parmar: I can have that ability now because I'm established. Earlier on, if somebody was treating me in a bad way, then sometimes I just get them on anyway. 

DJ Harpz:You just have to take it. 

Amardeep ParmarYeah. And that was a tough thing of, in some ways it's, it's also, sometimes you have to be a bit open about it with the people around you, because sometimes it might not be that you have the power to do anything about it, but sometimes somebody, you know, might.

Amardeep Parmar: And they might be able to help you or like encourage you or like, Oh, okay. Like don't worry about that person. Like, and they'll give you that self belief because if somebody is a lot, like they've got a bigger name than you and then they're trying to push you around, it can be quite intimidating. It also put you down quite a lot.

Amardeep Parmar: Right. And it's one of the struggles that a lot of people go through and they're trying to do something creative is the people above them. Now, like this is idea, I think, which a lot of people like now promoting is like, we want to help the people come up. Was sometimes there wasn't the case and it's still sometimes not the case, right?

DJ Harpz: It, it, I was just about to say it's still not the case, man. Uh, ego is, is an evil thing, man. A lot of people get, have a lot of ego. [00:21:00] Some people have ego for no reason, bro. And I don't believe in that. I believe that there is space for everyone in a creative industry. Be it music, painting, dancing, podcasts, like, do you know what I mean?

DJ Harpz: Like consumption is at all time high. So why not? Everyone's, there's space for everyone. Everyone's got a chance to do something. So I would never, ever, ever want to block anyone's path. 

Amardeep Parmar:  Yeah.

DJ Harpz:  Or hinder their path or stop their path or take time to go left. Just keep going straight, man. It's cool. Do you know what I mean?

Amardeep Parmar: A lot of the big thing as well to me is like about people's attitude, right? Like if they've got the attitude of like, you see, they care about what they're doing. I want to help you. If I can see you're only in it because you want to use people or like, I'm not going to introduce you to somebody if I think you're going to try and use them because I'm going to protect my friend.

Amardeep Parmar: Right. 

DJ Harpz: A 100%

Amardeep Parmar: If I think you've got the right intentions. Sure, like, I'll help you out. And that's why I think sometimes people get wrong because they're too direct. They're too like, Oh, hi, I heard you know this person. Can you [00:22:00] connect? It's like, I don't know who you are. If I don't know who you are, then how can I introduce you to my friend?

Amardeep Parmar: Because I don't know what your intentions are. I don't know like what you're like. And then I don't want to set my friend up for a bad interaction. 

DJ Harpz: A 100%. 

Amardeep Parmar:  So I think sometimes people need to think about that as well. Like, how can you build trust first? And then once you've built the trust, I'll offer to help you.

Amardeep Parmar: And you've got to do it that way around. 

DJ Harpz: I get  them phone calls all the time. Oh, you're all right, bro. Yeah. Good man. Good. How are you, bro? Yeah. So you speak to such and such a guy's number. I'm giving you his number. You, you're all right, mate. DM him on Instagram. It's the easiest way. That's how I spoke to majority of the big singers.

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah, he's like, I've got the thing we've said. So I've interviewed like the founder of Netflix and the founder of Twitter, right? 

DJ Harpz: Oh, yeah?

Amardeep Parmar:Yeah. It's just like, they're not my best mates. Like, I can't just be like, Oh yeah. Hi. This person wants to like make a Netflix documentary. Can you like, you can't do that.

Amardeep Parmar: Like, unless you've got some credibility, I'm not going to send these guys those emails. And well, the one might've been answer me, who knows? Yeah, it's like, you got to like, [00:23:00] think about, okay, like stepping stones, right? Like who's the next person to reach out to who can help you rather than going straight to the very top.

Amardeep Parmar: And it's a, it's an interesting thing about, I've heard like, do you remember Clubhouse, right? 

DJ Harpz: Of course. 

Amardeep Parmar: It's like huge, right? Quite a lot. And I heard from a lot of people about how networking is more important than. Actually being good at what you do. And it's like, you get caught out. Like you can network for a bit,

DJ Harpz: 50/50.

Amardeep Parmar: But it's like, you can only network.

Amardeep Parmar: Networking only works. If you're actually good at what you do, sooner or later you get caught out. You can only get so far. It's like people are like, oh yeah, you get a job by being good networking. He said, yeah, but then you might get that job. But then if you're not good, you're not going to survive very long.Right?

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DJ Harpz: Your networking can be worth nothing. 

Amardeep Parmar:  Yeah. 

DJ Harpz: What I mean? Like that's one thing that I've done a lot. Over the years, I've met a lot of people doing all these shows, getting in all these rooms. I spoke to every artist, you know, and they'll tell you, like, if you ever speak to anybody in this Panjabi industry, they'll be like, Oh, DJ Afshar, we know, ‘cause my network.

DJ Harpz: But then I had to back it. I had to be a good DJ. I had to be, [00:24:00] well, hopefully I'm a good producer. You know, people think I am, hopefully, you know, I'll never say I'm a good producer because I'm not Panjabi MC. You know, well, I'm not frantic camo, I'm not Bhuta Jadpao, you know, the best ones or Shusuk Shinde Shinda, you know what I mean?

DJ Harpz: So I had to back it. So networking is great, but you have to back it as well. 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. And  that's the thing. It's for example, the people I talk to, right? Like, for example, getting on this podcast, right? It's, I was talking about what I've done and how I've did it and like my attitude and why it matters to me.

Amardeep Parmar: And that's where he came on. It's not just me, like begging you to come on or sitting next to..

DJ Harpz:  podcast. Come  on over. Okay. 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. Yeah. It's like, it's not just like, come on. It's more like. So this is what my mission is. This is why I care about this. This is who I think I can try and help through this.

DJ Harpz: A 100%.

Amardeep Parmar: And that's why you'd come on. It's not like, Oh, because of this or that, or if like that, or because I know this person it's because of that mission. And like, obviously we sat down and chatted about it. 

DJ Harpz:  We did. Yeah. 

Amardeep Parmar: And obviously like, so how we met is then the Seeker Watch, right? 

DJ Harpz:Yes.

Amardeep Parmar: And you were sitting with the guys from Vitanic 

DJ Harpz: Yes. 

Amardeep Parmar: And I was chatting [00:25:00] to them as well, but What are the, what stuff are you doing outside of the DJing and everything else?

DJ Harpz: Top secret, man. I'm doing a lot outside of music now. Um, you know, with, with Vitanic and lovely drinks. 

Amardeep Parmar: Can you tell us what those are? The people who don't know? 

DJ Harpz: Yeah, there's a drink  company called Vitanic. It's, it's a non alcoholic cocktail that is, it's, it's done really well already. Um, the founder is a guy called Saab, uh, from Birmingham.

DJ Harpz: So we connected about three years ago. Two years ago, three years, two, three years ago, hit it off straight away and I'm involved in that. He also has another company called Lovely Drinks, which is like a organic, sort of, you know, ginger ales, orange juices, apple juices type of thing. I'm involved in that.

DJ Harpz: So that's the side hustle, shall we say. On top of that, there's a lot of behind the music scenes type of A& Ring and finding new talent and, you know, events [00:26:00] and more global events, not UK. Um, yeah, that sort of stuff. Still staying in the creative aspect, but also laying a foundation for when I stop music, I can chill.

DJ Harpz: That's my goal when I stop it.

DJ Harpz: I don't wanna do it until 70. You know what I mean?

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah, when you're 70 you're going to a freshest week still and like..

DJ Harpz: Oh my D, oh my D.. I used to DJ him back in 2010, . Do you know what I mean? 

Amardeep Parmar: So can you tell us more about what you're doing at Vitanic and Lovely Drink? Like what's your role there?. What's the goals of what they're trying to do?

Amardeep Parmar: Because obviously I've chat to 'em, so I know myself.. 

DJ Harpz: Yeah. Yeah. With, with, with Vitalic, it's, like I said, it's, it's, it's a vegan, uh, non-alcoholic, uh, cocktail drink. We'll talk about Vitanic itself. The mission with that is, is to be, obviously nationwide as a, as a, a substitute to, to alcohol. You know, a lot of people are now not drinking as much, which is [00:27:00] great.

DJ Harpz: I've never drunk in my life, ever, never touched an alcoholic drink. So for me it wa straight up my alley. I was like, yeah, I had a drink. Let me try this. Boom. I loved it. So I was like, all right, how do I get involved? And lo and behold, I'm involved. I'm part of the, part of the, part of the drink, part of the company.

DJ Harpz: And our mission is to make it as mainstream as possible, get it to as many people's houses, you know, into their hands as possible and, and sort of into the mainstream vendors, you know, i. e. like the Selfridges and the Harvey Nicks and sort of food courts and sort of get into those sorts of places, which we are

DJ Harpz: slowly now in that transition period, you know, it's another helping hand to expand the business and sort of make it as big as it can be and more worldwide, you know, sort of go into different territories like India, like Dubai, where there's a lot, a lot less alcohol consumption than, um, than the West, you know, the East is less you know what I mean?

DJ Harpz: Especially like Dubai and the type of place it is and the u [00:28:00] a e itself. So those are the sorts of places we're trying to reach out. 'cause it's vegan. 'cause it's not alcoholic 'cause it's a cocktail mocktail as you call it. So yeah, outside of music, um, it's, it's different. Not a lot of people say they do drinks and yeah, that's what I'm doing.

DJ Harpz: 

Amardeep Parmar: what's your, uh, favorite  flavor? I think I had the blue one. 

DJ Harpz: Yeah, that is my favorite. Great. That's favorite. Yeah, that's, there's a couple, there's like, uh, summer berries coming, which is like the red one, and then there's a couple more coming, but I like the blue one.  The blue drink. You've seen it.

DJ Harpz: If you've seen it on Instagram, you'll see it on my story. The blue bottle. So that's my favorite. 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. I'll post the link under this podcast as well. It's a Vitanic as well. 

DJ Harpz:  I think it's sold out as well. 

Amardeep Parmar:  Well, then you need to restock.

DJ Harpz: We'll restock. We will restock here, but yeah, it's, it's, it's done well.

DJ Harpz: So I'm glad. 

Amardeep Parmar: And like looking forward as well now. So obviously you mentioned that, but you don't want to DJ forever and you want to do other stuff in the future. Are there any other plans you've got in terms of things you want to do? And you mentioned about helping you off this. What's some of the stuff that people should be looking out for that's coming in the future for DJ Harpz?

DJ Harpz: It will be that, it'll be, it'll be sort of establishing a band of artists [00:29:00] under myself. When I say I don't want to do it, Till I'm 70, means I don't want to DJ till I'm 70. I still want to make music. ‘Cause I don't think I'll ever stop that. Okay. Maybe not when I'm 70, like, that'd be really boring. Like till I'm at a certain age, I don't know, 50 or whatever, right?

DJ Harpz: 34 right now. So not too long left. Yeah. Till like, you know, in my fifties, I want to still be in studio making music and physically having that. And what I want to do is have the next generation of artists. Who I can hone and create and release and establish and let them be on their own journeys and be a part of it, you know, not saying I'm going to sign them and trap them into a deal, but to be part of their, part of their journey so I can make the next such and such AP Dylan or whatever, you know what I mean?

DJ Harpz: And that's my sort of goal. It's like, you know, you've worked hard Harpz, you know, what you're kind of doing, you know, how to navigate, you have the links in the industry, help someone [00:30:00] else build their life. You know, maybe you're a part of their life. They might not want to do it full time. 

Amardeep Parmar:  If there's people listening right now who maybe want to go into the music industry and they're not sure where to get started, or let's say also that maybe you don't have the support where like people are telling them like you got told, right?

Amardeep Parmar: Like, are you sure about this? What would you advise them? Like what can they do?

DJ Harpz: I would say. If you really want to do it, do it.  People say, are you sure? Say, I'm sure. Do it.  Take the risk. But I'm not saying quit your job straight away. Right? Because it's not for everyone. It took me 10 years to quit my job, you know, to be 10 years of working in a call center.

DJ Harpz: I would walk in nine to five. They'll know who I am because they're bro. We saw you on such and such a TV channel. We heard you on the radio. We didn't get started work. I have a very supportive family. My mom supported me. If you want to [00:31:00] 

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DJ Harpz: do this, do this, but he's still going to go to school. So when you're going to DJ cool clubs close at two, right? When you're home, I'll have to wake up for school tomorrow morning. All right. And this is that 15 years old ,go for your dreams. Don't take the risk of doing it full time straight away because that is a very risky risk.

DJ Harpz: Do it, work on it, hone your craft, learn your craft, be as good as you can, get the support, show your friends and family what you do, show them your songs if you want to sing, show them, learn. Learn how to sing, don't rely on auto tune, like learn a bit, every big singer uses auto tune, no doubt, doesn't matter if you're Lambert or Sanfordy, you use auto tune, because no one's perfect, you know, but don't rely on it, you know what I'm trying to say, like learn a little bit, learn the craft, hard work will always pay off.

DJ Harpz: I would always say that. 

Amardeep Parmar: So we've got to move on to quickfire questions now.

 DJ Harpz:  Oh yeah. 

Amardeep Parmar: So what's, who's three people you'd like to [00:32:00] shout out that the people listening today should be 

DJ Harpz: following? Panjabi EMC because he's a legend and I don't think our older generation gets enough credit. They laid the foundations for us to do what we're doing.

DJ Harpz: So a hundred percent, they should get all the credit in the world. No matter how successful he is, you know, he's got the biggest song in the world. Mundo Tabachka, you go to anywhere in this world, from Cancun to Australia, that song is being played. But he doesn't get enough credit nowadays. So Panjabi MC because he's foundation.

DJ Harpz: To build a house, you need a strong foundation. He was the foundation. Steel Banglez because he pushed,he took what Panjabi MC done. Mainstream Panjabi song, right? He was mainstream on one point, Panjabi MC. But what Steel Banglez  done is took his talent as a British Asian, who is a mainstream star. You know, worked with the likes of, come on, do I have to say?

DJ Harpz: Like [00:33:00] Dave and AJ Tracy and Mist and the list goes on, right? So shout out to him for being the new generation and inspiring a whole... era of British Asians that you can do more than just Panjabi music, you know, big up to Steel or Banglez, Steel Banglez. Third person to shout out, British Asian, there is so many.

DJ Harpz: So I'm not going to shout out an individual, I'm going to shout out a scene. Shout out to all the British Asians in creative spaces, regardless if you're drawing and painting like inquisitive, if you're dancing. Like the Bollywood Co guys, if you're a singer or artist or a producer like Ezu and Bally Beats and there's hundreds I can go through, right?

DJ Harpz: All these new people and, and, and stuff. And, you know, and no matter if, you know, what, what you do in the creative space, shout out to you because you're British Asian and you're trying to put yourself on the map. And you can do it. And if our scene stays together, we'll expand and be the biggest it can be.

DJ Harpz: Unity is key. And there's not enough of [00:34:00] it. 

Amardeep Parmar: So next question. Yes. If people want to reach out to you, what should they do about? What should they reach out to you about? 

DJ Harpz: Write a letter. If you want to reach out to me, you know, I'll be honest. You can reach out to me about anything you want. Even if it's advice, Harpz, I want to be a singer.

DJ Harpz: What shall I do? Might take me a couple of days but I'll answer, you know, drop me a DM. They can reach out to me even if it's, even if they're having a bad day, you know, us, us as British Asians or just Asians as a whole, we don't talk about mental health enough. We don't, we don't talk about being trapped in a box, you know?

DJ Harpz: So even if it's just a, even if you just messaged me saying, yo, music helps me a lot. What else can I do? I might send you a podcast to listen to, you know, I might send you, yeah, this one obviously, the BAE HQ. Um, or I'll send you a Spotify playlist to listen to or something, you know, just to cheer up your day.

DJ Harpz: Or I might send you a meme. 

Amardeep Parmar: And then on the other side, what should people reach out to you about where they can maybe help you. Is there anything you're looking for at the moment? 

DJ Harpz: You know, the only thing I'm looking [00:35:00] for is a new age of talent. Reason being is I want to help somebody. And what they can help me with is they can inspire, the new age can inspire me to do better in music.

DJ Harpz: So the only way I'm going to get help is listening to the new generation. Because the ideas, the levels are so high right now. So hard to catch up with these guys. It's so hard, but it's amazing to see like these youngers now, Oh my God, like saying Panjabi It's so fast, you know, I had to back in the day, there was no YouTube.

DJ Harpz: So learning a program to produce was mind boggling. Now these are teaching us what to do. I'm like, Whoa, this is great. I'm learning. So the best thing to, for me to read, to help me is let's connect unity, you know, there shouldn't be a bridge of, there shouldn't be a gap between the older generation and the newer [00:36:00] generation.

DJ Harpz: We should all be working together and and pushing the scene forward even more so.

Amardeep Parmar: So it's been a lot of fun today. Love chatting to you. Any final words?

DJ Harpz: Thank you so much for the Bay HQ for having me. Final words is if you have a dream or you have a passion, do not give up on it. And don't think you can't do it.

DJ Harpz: You can do whatever you want. Just the amount of work you put in.

Amardeep Parmar: Thank you for listening to the BHQ podcast today. In our mission to inspire, connect and guide the next generation of British Asian entrepreneurs, it would mean so much to us if you could subscribe to our channel, leave a review and share this with your friends.

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