– The young DJ from humble beginnings, seeking to soar to greater heights

Nineteen- year-old Mahin Sugrim is a determined young man. And to prove this point he has barged unheralded into Guyana’s music world after being a disc-jockey for less than a year. He specialises in Electronic Dance Music (EDM)
Sugrim, who was born on December 11, 1997, proudly stated to Guyana Chronicle’s PEPPERPOT, “My development for music in general has a timeline, starting from primary school to now.”

He recounted that when he was younger, he would listen to dancehall, dub-step reggae and soca music and back then he also remembered that he enjoyed those “promotional CDs” where local DJs would record a “mix-tape” of songs from the different genres and use those to promote local events.
“Since from those days, I developed my interest and liking for those music genres and the art of DJing,” the young man reminisced.

However, Mahin’s interest in becoming a DJ peaked when he started at Bishop’s High School in 2009 and managed to discover “Virtual DJ”- a free software that helped him practice music mixing and blending.
Attesting to his humble beginnings that aided him to become the successful DJ he is today, Mahin recalled having an old personal computer which wasn’t exactly the brightest tool in the shed. He remember buying cheap headphones from a supermarket to do his mixing and blending music.

Besides his obvious interest in mixing and listening to music, Mahin also stated that he loves meeting and connecting with new people. He also explained that he has developed an unquenchable thirst for learning anything that could be useful to him in the future, such as photography or keeping abreast with the rapidly developing field of technology. Here, he has hope that he would be able to apply all he has learnt to combat existing problems in our Guyanese society.

However, his heart really belongs to travelling, especially internationally and he has an unwavering aspiration of becoming an airline pilot.
“Travelling is something I will always look forward to,” Mahin asserted and joked also, “becoming an airline pilot one day is my greatest dream ever since I started dreaming.”
His transition from the Caribbean genres of music (dancehall, reggae and soca) to EDM interestingly occurred because of his affection for aeronautics. Sugrim explained that this transition occurred when he saw a video of an airplane taking off but with trance music (a sub-genre of electronic music) playing.

“I was totally hooked!” he exclaimed.
Since then, he began listening to more EDM songs and was especially fond of ‘Levels’ by world renowned EDM DJ- Avicii. Eventually, he honed his DJ skills and is now trying to produce EDM but has only been able to create mash-ups and music edits so far. Nonetheless, he has been able to exercise his skills as a DJ known as ‘Ray Vester’ at various nightclubs for EDM events.
“I had a to do a live mix for the management of EDM Guyana in order to land my first club gig which was on June 18, 2016 at Club 704,” the young DJ highlighted. “Since then I’ve played at four major EDM events.”

Sugrim explained however, that being a DJ was definitely not as easy as it appeared. “Being a DJ is much more than cueing songs and pushing buttons,” he said, adding, “You have to read the crowd and in many cases, test them by playing certain songs to see their reactions.”
The young man explained that EDM is a broad genre that encompasses all electronic music genres and with this in mind, it’s his task to keep updated on the sometimes hundreds of songs released daily, and remain cognizant of how to mix and blend these songs.
Becoming a DJ through his humble beginnings has motivated him to strive to achieve all of his other aspirations too. It gives you the feeling and the drive to never stop trying to do something you actually want to do. It sustains your motivation in life to achieve other goals.”
He admitted too, “It does feel awesome to be a DJ.”

For the fans anticipating his next event, Mahin said that he will be in action for the Glow Eruption event, next month. However he conceded that the venue was still unconfirmed.
While he strives to become a pilot, Mahin balances his life of being an increasingly popular EDM DJ by night and a being a diligent Computer Science student at the University of Guyana by day.

Sugrim posited that just as he was able to achieve one of his dreams and is striving to achieve another major aspiration, youths every where can do the same.
“My advice is to not limit or confine yourself to interests based on the opinion of others; be yourself, discover what you want to do in life,” Mahin stressed and contended more importantly: “Try to influence someone positively every day.”