DJ Max Graham: Sharing experience in Bali, DJ-ing and career

DJ Max Graham: Sharing experience in Bali, DJ-ing and career

Joseph Mangga, Contributor, Jakarta

Traveling around the globe, Canadian DJ Max Graham -- currently rated number 23 on the planet -- has experienced more than his fair share of surreal situations.

But no event was more shocking than his recent arrival in Bali on Oct. 16, just four days after the horrific bomb blast that completely obliterated Sari Club and Paddy's and many of the unfortunate people inside.

Graham and his girlfriend later stayed right in the heart of Kuta, just a little over a kilometer south of the grim scene at ground zero.

"We walked right by it. The street was closed just after our hotel, and there (were) windows broken for so many blocks in every direction, all the stores ..." says Graham. "It was mind- blowing! It was a very somber, very quiet time there, but we really wanted to go. People said, 'Don't go.', and we're like, 'No way! We're going!' The people there especially need support from tourists, they need the money. It's devastating!"

And absolutely nothing was going to stop Graham from playing his scheduled gig in Jakarta two days later in celebration of Stadium Disco's fifth anniversary.

As he explained, during his interview with 91.45 Indika Radio: "I play Israel two to three times a year and there's (bombings) there; (and) there's crazy drivers in Canada. You're just as likely to have something bad happen anywhere. It's not like there's a war (on) or anything crazy. It's just one event and it's over now and it's past and the chances of anything happening (are very small). I can't live my life constantly changing plans every time something happens. It would be like saying, 'Well a plane crashes. I should never fly again.'"

Graham's devotion to international clubbers, and the massive positive energy and tension release a major live DJ performance can generate, are reasons why he's always made the decision to "play-on".

"Places like Israel, and (now) Bali, need to party more than ever. I go to Tel Aviv a lot, and those kids, they (especially) need to party. Because there's so much tension (over there), when they do party they go crazy!"

Graham started off as a scratch DJ playing hip-hop in the mid- 80's, but later sold all his equipment to become a devoted skateboarder.

"You were kind of a geek (back then) if you were a DJ."

Then, one fateful day in 1992, he walked into an Ottawa nightclub looking for a job as a bartender.

"They said, 'Well we don't need a bartender but we need a DJ.' And I said, 'I know how to DJ.' I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew how to scratch. My mixing was terrible, but I got away with it. I switched over to Top-40 and then in about '96 discovered House music -- a Sasha tape filled with BT records -- and I was like, 'What is this?'"

Graham describes his current music as "pretty much pumping- chunky-bass liney-melodic-progressive house. It's energetic, it's not super high-NRG, but it's definitely not Deep Progressive. I like a bit of pump."

The master later laid out three-and-a-half magical hours of turntable wizardry that fully showcased his innovative scratch-FX and EQ-tweaking skills. The Jakarta crew totally loved every minute of it, but the arguable highlight of the evening was a lengthy remix of Radiohead's haunting Everything in Its Right Place (the intro song for the Tom Cruise film Vanilla Sky) -- a track that drove the packed house of 2,500 orang gila sekali (which can roughly be translated as "fully mental people" from the Indonesian).

Was Max at all worried or concerned about anything while he mixed the night away?

"Basically, all I'm thinking about is the next two or three records. Every DJ will tell you, once you plug in the headphones the whole world goes away. It's just you and the crowd."

As further proof of his total lack of fear or apprehension, instead of bailing out of the country on the first homebound flight, the following day, he and his girlfriend headed straight back to Bali, then Lombok, for a few days of diving in the three Gili Islands.

"I love Asia! I try and do two tours each year. This is my first time in Indonesia (and) I love spicy foods, so I'm in the right part of the world. I'd love to come back to Indonesia."

This will hopefully be in late March, after the release of his new remix collection, Shine, as well as two months of studio work slated for his first artist's album of all-original material.

And just to demonstrate that Graham is not alone in his commitment to keep great music flowing through the world's fourth most populated country for the remainder of the year -- DJ Sasha, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ministry of Sound all reportedly have separate events scheduled for Jakarta or Bali in December, which will go ahead as planned.