Her sound

A marketer by day and DJ by night, Shanaki Perera – or Missy Flame as she is otherwise known, once the only female DJ in Sri Lanka, is soon to have some female company.

Since we spoke to her last, Shanaki has been busy furthering her marketing career, while continuing to encourage her passion for music. Talking about her experience of playing at some of Colombo’s leading night clubs, she casually adds - “I have also completed a course at the DJ Academy.”

DJ Tareeq

A DJ Academy, you say? Academies offering different training courses are established a dime a dozen, but who would have imagined the concept of a DJ Academy?

DJ Tareeq did. “The DJ Academy,” he says, “is not so much an ‘academy’ or formal training arena, as a place for DJ’s and aspiring DJ’s to learn a few more tricks and technicalities of the trade, while fine-tuning their work, practicing and experimenting with new styles.”

Established in September 2008 by DJ Tareeq, the academy now has roughly 40-50 up and coming DJ’s training up before making their big break into the industry.

Once describing herself as a bundle of nerves before a gig, who would calm down only once the crowd started dancing, Shanaki now stands poised and confident at her console, eagerly anticipating the music and the changing moods of her audience.

“It is crucial,” she explains, “that a DJ is completely in tune with the audience’s constant changes in mood. When we first began, we were always so intimidated by what is called a DJ’s worst nightmare - where no matter what you play, the crowd will just not get onto that dance floor! Experience, along with training at the academy has taught us how to predict these changes, understand them and to know which music is best for each mood.”

With Shanaki and the family of DJ’s at the academy – on an encouraging note, some of them are from Matara and Bandarawela - they all have one thing in common: The knowledge that their choice to be who they are originates from a real passion for music and for giving an audience a good time.

For DJ Tareeq too, it was nothing but a love for music and a passion for imparting knowledge which spurred him on to establish the academy.

Shanaki in action

“I learnt as most DJ’s do,” he recalls. “It was an informal sort of education which was helped along by interest. Yet I felt it was necessary to start up an academy of this nature if anything, to help improve the degree of professionalism in the next generation of DJ’s as well as to give them some first hand experience of state of the art equipment and on the job training.” And this is not all the DJ Academy offers. It also specializes in other industry related courses such as Media Training and Event Planning.
Starting up had not been too much of a challenge. As part of the launch, Tareeq published his book - Learn to be a DJ - which has also been translated into Sinhalese.

Many in the industry were also of the view that a DJ Academy was necessary, “and so I had a lot of industry support,” says Tareeq, “including the Disco Mix Club sponsoring us by providing us with all the necessary equipment. We are also supported by foreign academies like Thud Rumble and the DJ School by Qbert, the latter of which sponsors a programme where local DJ’s get the opportunity to have three weeks of training under Qbert himself.

Adds Shanaki, “at the end of the course, we are also given an opportunity to play at gigs to gain good exposure, and this helps a lot.”

“All in all,” enthuses Tareeq, “it is extremely satisfying to see DJ’s like Shanaki improve their performance and really come into their own – and that is what is most important to me. We still have vast amounts of untapped talent which needs the right training and exposure. And that is what we do best!”