Present on all the biggest events of the island, they will be on the Boho stage alongside Kalash and Bamby on Saturday August 12th. Zoom on the journey of two DJs who have exploded together over the past ten years while being able to build their own identity.
When you think of DJ Maestro, you almost automatically think of DJ Big Boss. And vice versa. These two have been a match for many years. However, the story was not written in advance. DJ Maestro grew up in French Quarter and discovered his first turntables around the age of 15. “One of my friends, DJ Eagle, had a small mixer, which would seem ridiculous today”, he remembers with amusement. “We did a lot of things with it and I started going to his place every day.” In parallel, DJ Big Boss, who “had been tapping on everything with a teaspoon" since he was very young, started the drums when he was only 7 years old. For about ten years, he performed in church with the group United Voices. As a teenager, he too gradually began to take an interest in DJing by observing one of his friends, DJ Eyedol.
The two teenagers each played on their own without really meeting each other. “We used to see each other in high school, but we were not friends” Big Boss recalls. After high school, each of the two embarked on their professional life, Big Boss in sales and Maestro in the food industry. But their passion quickly caught up with them. As Maestro began to do “more and more dates” back to back, Big Boss became to be known thanks to the Jeunesse Soualiga high school student organization’s prom. Both decided to “take it seriously” and to fully embark on a career as artists. “It scared my parents more than it scared me,” Maestro jokes. “When it’s a real passion, if you go all out, you succeed. It must be done with your heart.”
THE MEETING
In 2014, the local band Red Eye Crew got closer to Maestro and Big Boss. “They started working with each of us and then introduced us,” says the first. “That’s where the connection happened,” confirms Big Boss. Their collaboration with Red Eye Crew allowed them to quickly participate in big events, thanks in particular to Skelet, the singer of the group and founder of the Kalaboom Events agency, at the origin of key events such as the Bacchanal Sunday or the Oualichi Festival. These two young artists from the French side, multilingual, started making people talk about them, while the DJs well established on the island were mainly from the Dutch side. “It had been a while since there were any new DJs. We were kind of the attraction.” After becoming friends, Big Boss and Maestro spent evenings in the biggest clubs on the island and collaborated with many artists. “We came to kick the house a little”, they say. Most often, the first is on the decks and the second sets the mood on the microphone.
Their career took them to a new level in 2015 when they went abroad, outside the borders of the Friendly Island, first to the Bordeaux Carnival and then on a French tour with Red Eye Crew. Today, they travel all around America and Europe to play in festivals of thousands of people. “That’s what a DJ’s career is all about, starting with a small barbecue with 25 people and ending up in front of 6,000 people. That’s what’s beautiful,” Maestro says. Both DJs are liked for their energy on stage and their eclectic style. If Maestro prefers hip hop and dancehall and Big Boss reggaeton and soca, they are both very open musically and able to adapt to the audience they have in front of them. “By playing in St-Martin and its 120 nationalities, we have to know a wide range of styles. Sometimes we start with Latino and end with Kompa zouk, we play house for tourists, etc.”, Maestro explains, who also recognizes a soft spot for hard rock at home. This eclecticism that they have gradually developed allows both artists to be at ease anywhere. “Anyway, people follow our energy, what we can give,” they say. That’s what they like best about their job, “the reaction of people when they tell us they have had a great night”.
If they seem inseparable, DJ Maestro and DJ Big Boss have still managed to build their own identity, which also allowed them to develop individual projects. “I am trilingual, I speak Spanish so I have been involved in the Latino community and evenings while Maestro has a rather French audience,” Big Boss says. He will also be at the Oualichi Festival from August 4th to 6th at the Carnival Village in Philipsburg, while Maestro will be in Guyana for another festival. Each of the two is building his career while working on a common path. Their goal now: to launch their career internationally. A big challenge when you come from such a small island. It's about “making the right encounter, the right connection.” Their next step will be production. They are currently working on collaborations with other artists to release remixes that will make an impact and give them the additional visibility they need.
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