We caught up with Jet Black artist and dance music icon, Dean Fuel. Read on to find out what he’s been up to, and what to expect from him soon!

1. You can have any 3 artists in the studio with you for an hour. Who are they?

Eric Prydz, Kink and Phillipe Zdar (RIP)

2. What are you working on at the moment? Are you able to spill the tea?

Music, music and more music!!! My last release did so well for me here in SA, charting on various platforms and even giving me a DMSA Award nomination last year. Then I had a crazy personal year – so studio time and writing new music sadly took a knock. I’ve now been back at it x1000 and I am very excited to say that thanks to working with some great people, I’m making some of the best music of my life right now!  Very exciting times – watch this space! In the mean time, My podcast #LetsGoDancing has hit its all-important 10th episode, and I am now looking into other new exciting platforms to host it on. I also was selected as a resident for 5FM’s weekend dance show to compile a monthly mix, which has been great fun, my next one will drop at the end of the month, so listen out for it! I’ve got some great DJ shows as well – with H20’s 20th Anniversary, Reset’s 2nd Birthday, Sexy Groovy Love, Rage, Alcazar, not to mention my trip to ADE Amsterdam in October – I’m keeping busy.

3. Can you remember the exact moment you realized you wanted to make music? 

I was probably still in the womb! (LOL). I’ve been exposed to music from before I was born and my entire life has been linked to it through my family… it was ever never an option to not make music. Specifically though, I’ll never forget going to my first ‘rave’. I felt like I had come home! It wasn’t enough to just dance and party – I wanted to know how the DJ’s were mixing, how they were controlling the space with the music and of course how it was made. My first rave was a “Mother” rave – with Sasha & Digweed playing together, I was hooked! Amazingly I have had the opportunity to tour and play with both of them here in SA over the years, which was incredible!

4. Who are you listening to at the moment and why?

A lot of myself actually – ha-ha! Whilst making music and mixing it down, I tend to play it over and over and over … trying for perfection (which of course doesn’t exist – but I still try). Other than that, I dig around a bit to try find stuff that other people might not yet know. Spotify can be cool, and I recently got into using Bandcamp too – I found an incredible album by an artist who I only knew by their breakbeat alias … but its my little secret for now!

5. It’s the end of the world. Everything is being destroyed. You have the power to save one record and send it off to space to be preserved for all time. Which one will it be? 

Damn, how can you ask me this? I’m a music addict and vinyl collector – so there is no such thing as “one record”. How about this – instead of a record, you can have my external hard drive and send that off into space – got over a terabyte of albums, singles, remixes, and mixes … should keep the aliens happy!

6. Who is Dean Fuel? Give us the elevator pitch.

music lover

DJ

producer

coffee addict

tequila enthusiast