There’s never a dull day when you’re DJ Bliss.
Born Marwan Parham Al Awadhi, the well-loved Emirati talent was signed to Universal Music MENA this year, releasing his first major label single, Shining (ft. Mims and Daffy), in May.
The catchy pop-R’n’B number sees Al Awadhi move from behind the decks and morph into a singer-producer. He says he was inspired by his musical past (he was the guitarist-drummer in a high school band) and a new trend set by DJs such as David Guetta, DJ Khaled, Avicii and Afrojack.
“It’s definitely nerve-wracking when you go out and do that, because you never know what people will say,” Al Awadhi told tabloid!, speaking of his decision to sing. “Especially in this day and age, people are just waiting for you to do something and to give you their opinion on it.”
But Al Awadhi need not fret — he has his eggs scattered in several baskets. Newly married, he owns his own entertainment company, Bliss Inc, helps out with his father’s business, owns a barber shop and has years of experience as a television personality, broadcaster and disc jockey under his belt.
Talking to tabloid! the day after his 33rd birthday, Al Awadhi told us how he’s planning to propel the local music scene forward and why the haters don’t get him down.
Your song Shining has an early 2000 feel. What inspired it?
We’ve been working on it for 2 or 3 years ... It has some elements of some of the new tracks that are out, but it definitely does have some sounds from, you’re probably right, 2002 or 2005 maybe. Some people have told me that it sounds a little dated, but if you listen to some of the songs that are out right now, like Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk, that song sounds like it’s from the ‘70s or ‘80s.
Have there been any haters so far?
There always is. You can’t please everyone. You just have to take it with a pinch of salt. Sometimes there’s some facts to it — not everyone tells you in the nicest way. You have to be a bit thick-skinned when you’re in the industry, because the truth of the matter is there’s a lot of people out there who don’t want you to succeed or reach certain places, and they’re happy sitting at home behind a computer writing stuff about you.
Is there an album on the way?
I’ve got two projects that I’m working on with Universal. One is this one, which is the DJ Bliss project. They definitely want an album, but right now, we’re aiming for a couple [of] singles that I have with me, which we’re planning on releasing over the next couple of months. I’m going to try out different sounds, to see where my passion lies, what people like and what they want to get from me, and then maybe I’ll decide on an album.
On the other side, me and a local Emirati producer, Prince Q, we’ve been working on an album which is a combination of different local artists, and we’re putting them all in one album. We’re calling the album QB7, which is the studio where we work out of. The best way to explain this to you is that it’s like a David Guetta album, but it’s not EDM. It’s like, all radio songs — rock songs, little bit of R’n’B, little bit of hip hop, little bit of dance, little bit of pop, and we basically just made it to promote the local music scene over here.
Has the local music scene evolved over the years?
It definitely has evolved at a very slow pace, but that’s really because the radio stations are not playing enough local music… The QB7 album was made so that the radio stations, we’re giving them good product. And we’re saying, ‘Listen, here’s the right product you’ve been asking for, now will you play it?’ It’ll be interesting to see whether they give in and play it, or whether they’re going to stick to playing their Top 40 stuff like they do all day.
