It might seem easy to mix a few tracks together but it takes more than just turning tables to build up a track record like local deckmaster DJ Dean FUEL. What sets – and keeps – DEAN FUEL above the dime a dozen DJ’s popping up every other week is his distinctive knack for connecting with the crowd. A skill that helped get him noticed at his first unofficial gig in 2001 after he “nagged and convinced” his way onto the decks at a party, then kept the crowd going until long after closing. Almost hard to believe when you consider that the only hands-on experience he had up until then was practising on his pair of turntables at home with second-hand vinyls.
Born into a musical family – his father was a guitarist in the infamous S.A band, The Delians – FUEL grew up exposed to lots of different music and learnt to play the guitar and piano very young. But it was only after he attended his first underground raves that he discovered his passion – DJing. His biggest influence, he says, were DJ’s Carl Cox, Jeff Mills, Sasha and Digweed spinning the decks at these events. ‘Watching those wizards truly influenced what I wanted to do,’ he says.
FUEL’s come a long way since then and is now the only local spinner in SA to have played alongside 8 out of the top 10 DJs in the world. Some of his biggest events to date have been heating up the 7000-strong crowd for Jamiroquai a few years ago, performing alongside world-renowned SASHA in March 2009 and opening for the World’s number 1 ranking DJ for the last three years, Armin van Buuren, during the Godskitchen Boombox Tour in June 2009.
When he’s not mixing with the bigger fish at huge ‘raves’ and festivals, he’s keeping his local fans entranced with solo sets or alongside some of SA’s finest such as DJ Fresh, Ryan Dent, Erica Elle and Roger Goode. Between his main residencies at two of Cape Town’s ultimate haunts, Fridays at Karma Lounge in Camps Bay and Chevelle on Saturdays, he has also rocked the decks at bars and clubs around the country such as Club91 and The Bang Bang Club in Cape Town, Natural Groove and Truth in Johannesburg, 330 in Durban, Numbers in East London and 52 in Port Elizabeth.
And his music hasn’t stopped on our shores either. Dean FUEL’s mixes have travelled around the globe via various album releases such as his first international single, Sexy Hippie, a collaboration with Adam Metcalfe which was signed to Danish record label IBOGA Records in 2007. Since then, he’s joined forces with studio partner Sentrafuge to release Trippin’ Out on the House Anthems 4 album in 2007, This One’s For You on House Anthems 7 in 2008 and Wild Ride on Reloaded Vol.3 – Plastik Park in 2009. Currently he’s booked solid at clubs and parties around the country – including the Olmeca Tequila tour parties – and mixing and compiling the next Anthems album due for release in early 2010.
For more information on Dean FUEL and his fully-loaded schedule, visit www.deanfuel.com.