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[ethereal music]

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[man] I remember being on the plane,

being really scared because I think it was the first time.

I was seven years old when I came to America

and it was the first time that I was on a plane

and we literally tried to take everything of value,

everything that meant anything to us.

We were, like, really scared about,

not only facing our new home

or what was to be our new home

at least for the foreseeable future,

because our father was going to university.

Just scared about having left Iran for the first time

and going somewhere that we knew

was going to be completely different.

I saw that there was room for

a lot of opportunity to eventually present itself

and I saw that had I stayed in Iran,

I probably would have done what was expected of me

and done what everybody else had always done,

which is become a doctor, become an engineer,

become a lawyer. You know?

And in America, I felt more freedom

to express myself in creative ways

that maybe, had I stayed in Iran,

I wouldn't have been able to do.

Since I used to be English teacher there,

I was helping Ali to learn the language,

which he picked up pretty quick.

The only time that Ali and Arash had a hard time was,

there was a hostage crisis in Iran

and they were kids and they didn't know anything

and at this school,

although their school staff was very understanding

and supportive of them,

but the children at this school couldn't understand it,

so they were giving Ali and Arash a really hard time.

So, they made them practically miserable.

So, that was the time that they needed a lot of help.

Ali was average, actually, at school.

There were some subjects that he was pretty great,

but the rest he didn't pay attention,

simply because he was in love with music.

[ethereal music]

With help of his friend, Brian Transeau, BT,

he was his classmate.

Eventually, he went into music.

He loved very much

and he constantly continued this interest.

They saw it as a side hobby.

I don't think they ever realized

he would pursue it as a career

and at the time it was sort of in the nascent stages.

I mean, it was pre-EDM, if you will.

I mean, DJs were not on magazine covers,

especially in America, you know?

It was a real, sort of underground career path

and I think my parents, at the time, were worried.

They were really hesitant

about him moving into that

as a full time career.

I think their initial feelings were probably disappointment.

[Rouhi] He came to me and actually requested,

"Mom, if you allow me to pull out and focus

all my attention to my music,

I feel I'm going to be somebody."

And after a long conversation,

I agreed that, for him, to focus one year on his music

more than his education

and that was actually the year that everything turned around

and, by the end of the year, he proved to himself and to me

that this is really a special talent that he has got.

[Ali] The closeness of family really

has kept me grounded over the years.

I think, had I not had that,

I probably would have, you know,

fallen in with the wrong crowd,

maybe gone off the deep end

with the excessive partying,

the crazy night life.

That's basically a part of my scene,

but those core family values

kept me on the right path.

[upbeat club music]

[Hutchy] Ali use to spin hip hop, house,

acid jazz, and funk

and I used to spin reggae

and throughout those genres,

I gave the flavor and the mic.

Before then, this was unheard of.

This never had been done before

as far as, you have an MC, you know,

toasting over acid jazz music,

hip hop, and stuff.

It never had been done before.

My little brother, my younger brother,

threw a party at a place here called--

It was a pizza shop, basically, called Milo's

and he closed it down and rented it at night

and begged me to have Ali play

because Ali was a sick hip hop DJ.

Actually, the first time I heard the music

I remember asking people, what is this?

Who is this?

And there was a DJ up there

next to a Jamaican guy who was rapping

and everyone told me it was a guy named Dubfire

and they were playing what's called acid jazz.

And so, essentially, he started playing acid jazz

from what I recall.

When we started off, Washington was a ghost town.

Literally a ghost town.

You can count the clubs on one hand

and every club has their own specific ways of doing things.

We came in young and radical

and transformed the whole thing,

but we were the first to go into a club

or a restaurant and make it into a club for that one night.

We happened to be about two and a half blocks away

from the place that I first met him.

Well, it was called the Down Under Restaurant,

but on Fridays and Saturdays

we used to have a night called Exodus

and he came in.

He was a very quiet guy, actually.

For the kind of noise he made with the turn tables,

he was a very quiet guy. [chuckles]

And he's very focused, didn't say much.

I mean, he came and did his thing

on a regular basis within the years, you know.

But I remember the first time,

he just came in with his record bag and started playing,

but he was very

down to earth,

but very focused.

We didn't participate too much with the crowd,

but every time you would go back and listen to him,

the music would change.

I felt like it just get better and better every week.

Sharam kept coming at Exodus,

but you know, Sharam's music

was completely a different background,

you know, which I respect 100%,

but it was a great combination because

I understood Ali's music was more bottom heavy,

bass-oriented music.

Whether it was slow or fast, it was very bottom heavy.

And the thing with Sharam,

he has the melodic aspect of music.

So, I thought when they were kinda partnering up,

I was like, this could be a good combination.

And then, obviously, we saw it blossom

to this thing what's known as Deep Dish.

It's great.

[Sharam] We met through a mutual friend at a party.

We were booked to play the same party

and we just hit it off musically

and decided to create Deep Dish and here we are.

It's like a marriage:

some days you hate it, some days you love it.

-Yeah, because-- -Yeah.

[laughing]

In the beginning,

they started a bet each other,

but then they started as a friend.

Ali, first he made his room as his studio

and then Sharam used to be with Ali

in our home almost all the time.

And since both of them love Persian meal and Persian food,

so I was always ready to make them food

and they used to go to that little room

and work with each other.

[Man] So you were like brothers, weren't you?

-Do you feel like brothers? -We're brothers.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

I always wanted to have a twin brother, you know?

I thought it would be cool.

And then, God gave me this guy.

Yeah, right. Right.

It's wicked.

Which I'm regretting--

You know they say be careful what you ask for?

That was just at the start

when he was Deep Dish with Sharam,

I think in 1993.

I used to go to his resident party,

which was at State of the Union,

a small bar in Washington, DC.

I was at university

and this was a gig where him and Sharam

had to assemble everything,

all the equipment, all the speakers,

CD players, turn tables,

and they had to play from beginning to end

and they probably got, I don't know how much,

but I'm guessing $150 to play the whole night,

both of them together.

Well, needless to say, things have changed.

[laughing]

So, you know--

We go way back

and, even though things have changed a lot,

it's nice to see that he hasn't.

[upbeat club music]

I wanna say quiet, but that's not the right word.

He was always the deep in the dish

in the Deep Dish equation.

So, he was kinda the deeper guy.

I think as a DJ, you know,

he liked reggae and hip hop sounds.

He obviously had friendships with many of the local DJs,

but he was always sort of the deeper part of that.

They were the biggest DJ duo

in the world at the time.

They were on magazine covers,

they were headlining the best festivals,

their music was number one.

You know, anytime they put a tune out

it was number one at Winter Music Conference

it was number one on the UK charts.

They started getting mainstream US press

and, again, this is sort of pre-EDM,

pre-Skrillex and Deadmaus on Rolling Stone.

This is 2005, 2006,

so the industry was just sort of emerging,

at least in the US.

It wasn't getting the support that it gets now.

It was really sort of in the embryonic stage.

And for them to achieve what they did with Madonna

and with the remixes and the touring,

it was really significant at the time.

[Man] Wednesday is one of the biggest nights

for the musical world.

It is Grammy night.

There are several people from our area up for awards.

One is the DC-based remix duo called Deep Dish.

Deep Dish is Ali Shirazinia and Sharam Tayebi.

They were just children when they immigrated here from Iran.

Now, the guys find themselves LA bound,

nominated for best remix recording

of Dido's chart hit Thank You.

We take a song, it could be a rock song,

a pop song, any sort of original material

and we, more or less, reproduce it.

We write our own music,

our own drum programming on top of it

and we give it our flavor.

The commercial side of things

really came towards George Is On

where Flashcance happened at some stage

and it was clearly the most commercial record

that they'd ever done.

It wasn't really a commercial record

because at the time it was crazy.

It turned into a commercial formula

after Flashdance was successful,

but at the time that Flashdance started to be created,

it was impossible to predict.

It would not have been possible to predict

that that would be a commercially successful record.

[Flashdance by Deep Dish]

♪ He doesn't mean a thing to me

♪ Just another pretty face to see

♪ He's all over town

♪ Knocking them down yeah honey

♪ And I'd never let him next to me

Madonna was doing a pre-tour event

at the Roseland Ballroom in New York

and wanted Deep Dish to open up for her

and the reason was a phone call,

not a fax or an email at the time was,

this was all super-secret.

Nobody could know.

It was gonna be a surprise thing. Blah blah blah.

And, to make a long story short,

the guys ended up opening up for Madonna,

phenomenally successful and this was the precursor

to her Music tour at the time

and given that it was in New York,

given that it was in such a small venue,

this was a moment from Heaven for press.

So, a super media event.

And two weeks later, I get this call from Versace

saying that Donatello loves their sound

and would they be willing to consider

working on Versace's fashion shows?

I called the guys up

and I had to do a lot of explaining and coaxing

because they weren't really into commercial stuff

like that at all and they agreed.

So, we flew out to Milan and then did that show

and it was crazy stuff, you know?

Imagine sitting there.

I went on those trips with them.

Imagine sitting there with a fashion designer

who's saying, "I really want this to sound brown.

It has to feel warm."

[upbeat music]

Did Deep Dish pave the way for Swedish House Mafia

David Guetta, Calvin Harris?

I would say, yeah and I think if you ask those guys they would tell you,

especially David Guetta, he's older.

I think that Deep Dish influenced a lot of DJs.

I remember being at Pacha

and I was a B DJ in France,

but nobody knew me really outside of France

and I remember saying hi to Ali and Sharam

and going back to my agent

and saying, oh, my god! I just shook their hands!

[laughing]

And I was so excited because I shook hands

with Ali and Deep Dish and it was such

a big deal for me to meet them.

Deep Dish was definitely one of the first,

well, probably the first house music that affected us

and that we heard, you know?

It was Deep Dish and Armin van Houten, I think,

that really got us hooked in the scene.

That was really like an American sound.

It was sort of a club sound that you really don't hear

that much anymore nowadays.

It was so--

I call it mouth music because I'll show you.

I can only show you what I mean with that.

I think that Ali and Sharam reached

the natural life cycle of any creative partnership.

I think that working together for almost two decades

and constantly having to run every decision

past another person,

I think that kinda placed its toll on them

and I think they had both matured.

I think that they had grown a lot over that time

and I think they were more definitive

about what they wanted out of life.

They were more definitive about what they wanted creatively

and they were veterans at this point.

So, I think there was that conflict of values,

of each direction Ali and Sharam wanted to go to.

I think that was in conflict at the time.

And he said, "By the way,

Sharam and I fight a lot." [laughing]

"You're gonna be spending a lot of time with us

and you're gonna see us go at it.

Just excuse yourself from the room,

step outside, hang out,

go down the street, get a beer,

go smoke a cigarette, go do whatever you gotta do.

Eventually, everything's gonna kind of subside

and we'll get back to work."

You know, if you think about it,

ten years of touring,

ten years of having to be that close with the same person.

You know, it's difficult.

You know, the studio relationship,

the creative relationship,

the magic that happened between them didn't come easy.

It wasn't the type of thing where they sat in the studio,

said, "Oh, that's a cool sound. Yeah, let's use that."

There were a lot of fights.

I used to go for a walk a lot. [laughing]

You know, funnily enough, thinking back to it,

I don't know if it was that much of a surprise that they split.

I think that there aren't that many DJ duos

and when you've been together with your partner

for as long as they had,

then, in a way, I think it was quite a natural thing.

I think they'd felt they'd taken it as far as they could go.

I think they both--

the more I got to know them better

and the longer that relationship went on,

they both had kinda--

they were totally separate people.

They both did something different.

I think it's very hard to find someone

who isn't somehow attracted to money and fame.

I think everybody wants it a little bit,

at least once in their life

and you have that chance, you go that way,

and then you have to decide if it's for you or not

and from my feeling and understanding with Ali

is that he had an incredible ride and had a lot of fun,

but at one point found that there was something missing

and I think that's why he looked in another direction,

not only musically, but also for friendship and support

and to, some people would say,

to get back to the roots,

but I think it was just, you know,

get back to why he got involved

in this music in the first place.

You know, we don't follow the rules

and we see ourselves as, like,

you know, I wanna make it in music

and everybody tells you no.

If you wanna work in music it's not gonna work.

So many people, you should have to be very lucky

and you can make a living

I just say, "No. I want it like that."

And you just fight to make it like this.

But at the same time,

if you're not happy in a situation,

you have to be honest enough to say,

"You know what, I'm in a peak,

and fuck it, fuck everything,

I wanna try again from the beginning."

I didn't think there was anything rocky about them.

I just thought it was just two brothers are together

all the time and they wanted to kill each other, you know?

And if you're together with the same person every day you're gonna fight.

Like me and my partner, we fight all the time and we have disagreements.

That's what I sensed.

I didn't sense anything like to what it became.

I didn't see it coming like that.

[light music]

What I think is what he's done really well for himself,

he got out of Deep Dish just at the right time

where the techno scene would still embrace him

because everybody in the techno scene--

that's a really hard scene to get into

because everybody's really cool, you know?

And to be part of that scene,

you gotta really say goodbye to anything

that has to do with other than techno

and he did it really well.

You want the real me, man. Right?

This is the real me.

I'm gonna give you the real me.

Whatever you want.

Forget all your preconceived notions.

This is Taipei and this is Dubfire.

Initially, there was resistance, you know?

The techno scene is very cliquey.

You have to kinda show them that you're one of them.

Ali spent a lot of time convincing people

that he was part of that new scene

and, you know, we had to help him do that.

I remember him sometimes paying to play.

So, he would be in the UK

and then all of a sudden he has to got to DC10

and basically he would pay to fly himself,

pay for his flight, his hotel,

and then not get paid.

So, it's an interesting process to build yourself down

so you can build yourself better

and it's admiring to see somebody do that.

Ali was coming to our parties.

When I say our parties, it was in the early 2000s.

This was where my career started off

and I was playing this kind of percussive,

bringing minimal techno into it

before all of this minimal thing started.

So, he was coming to Ibiza and then I met him in the States

and I always paid my respects.

"Wow, Ali! You should do something like way back in time

and why don't you? Yeah."

And he was like, "Yeah, you're right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right."

And then I remember him coming back from Ibiza

after going to DC10

and being like, nope. This is what we're doing.

This is the approach.

This is what I wanna do.

And he was so blown away from that experience

that it was all he could see, you know?

That was the only way that this was gonna go down.

We started working on records that were very much

inspired from that trip and several others

and Road Kill, I think,

was one of the turning points for sure.

There was a couple, you know?

I think the Lucky Heather remix

was another big turning point for him musically

and also Ribcage was probably, I think, for me,

for him was one of the biggest turning points.

After that, I think it really helped solidify

his sort of sound and style

and I feel like that record

has a lot of Ali in it.

I do remember that I asked Ali,

can I release that?

And he was like, "No, we already gave it to local guys

and it's gonna be just like number one."

And I remember that really well

because Ali made some great music before and afterwards,

but Ribcage was a track which

kind of was two tracks in one, you know?

It was like there was a really different beginning

to the very different end,

but it made total sense.

And there, you suddenly had a track

that put you on a journey.

Not only the DJ set puts you on a journey,

also the little track puts you on a journey.

When Ribcage came out it was really such a defining sound.

It was so unique, you know,

and yet it worked so well.

And it was also an inspiration of saying,

"Hey, you know what?

It doesn't matter where you are at any given point.

If you have belief and talent, you can take it anywhere."

And that's the beauty of this music, I guess.

Electronic music gives you the ability

to really become or create whatever you want.

And he showed it on a really high level

and it showed guts and it showed excitement

and it showed commitment

and there was no doubt in my mind

he would take it all the way to where he has taken it.

I think the singles, when he put both of them out,

I mean, people from Armin van Buuran, to Tiesto,

to Richie Hawtin were playing

and I think people were really taken aback.

They were like, "Wow, where is this coming from?"

You know, there was this darkness and this anger

and this new sound that people not only didn't hear,

but they weren't expecting from a guy

that had done Say Hello and Flashdance.

So, I think there was a real surprise

and I think there was a real appreciation

for his great creative art.

[speaking German]

I mean, it was like a "What the fuck?" moment for me.

I don't remember exactly when it was,

but it was definitely

when I heard that he came from another place,

he really came from a place where a lot of techno records

weren't coming from at the time.

So, I knew he had something.

[upbeat techno music]

Sven ended up being one of the early supporters.

He put out Ali's first techno compilation on Cocoon.

He started to bring Ali into Cocoon.

Nights in Ibiza are at the Cocoon Club.

So, he was a strong supporter before Richie even was

and I think it was because he connected

with how genuine and how driven

by creative reasons the transition was.

That's why it worked, because it was genuine.

[audience cheering]

Since many years, I love this guy.

[audience cheering]

[Ali] They wanted me to stumble.

They wanted me to find my own way,

but they weren't just watching me

fall apart, so to speak.

They were really there to give me moral support, friendship.

They were there to give me

creative advice, technical advice.

So, I'm pretty indebted to those guys.

You know, and I'll never forget what they did.

[upbeat techno music]

I worked for the first tour manager and babysitter

and party-bringer.

[laughing]

And basically, the main thing is probably

setting up all the equipment

and basically just making sure that everything runs smoothly

from pickups, hotels, dinners.

So, he can basically just walk in, do the gig,

feel comfortable not having to worry

about anything sort of technical.

I'm making sure we're picked up, hotels are paid,

dinner's looked after.

So, basically, he can just come do his thing

without having to stress about any of the small details.

So, that's my main part of the job.

He's always been someone that really likes to push

the limits of technology

and it's really good working with him on that

because we always just try to incorporate something new.

So, a lot of people talk about my rattlesnake effect,

which is just this tape delay thing that I have.

[upbeat techno music]

And what I try to do a lot of times

is to create a new version of what I'm playing

just by looping different songs together

and maybe I'll eventually--

I mean, if I'm having too much fun

just looping parts of a track,

I'll just leave it at that

and other times, eventually, I'll kick in the track

and then it creates a pretty great

feeling in the whole room. So, yeah.

Mike, have you seen the fader plugs?

-[Mike] That's insane. -Yeah.

Traktor controller. Traktor controller.

Yeah, for TraKKtor.

All four decks. Everything.

A, B, C, D. See?

-Yeah. -That's something else.

He has also great insight on the DJ business

and also what the DJ really needs in the booth.

So, he's one of the guys that we like to talk to

even though, I've got to admit,

when we met it was really more private

and really just hang out and learn a little bit

about the DJ life and maybe

one of the managers of one of the companies in our industry.

[Speaking Japanese]

[Ali] It's a powerful feeling.

I mean, DJing can be extremely powerful.

You can be in a situation where

you're in complete control of the crowd.

And that can make you feel, you know,

some people have thrown around that word

and there was that Faithless song, I remember,

like, God is a DJ or whatever,

but it can make you feel god-like in some ways.

When you're sort of above ground level,

when you're, you know, in your pulpit,

it can have a very, you know,

powerfully spiritual effect on you

to be in control of so many people.

[soft dramatic music]

There's so many different parameters at play.

There's so many different variables

that sometimes are working with you,

sometimes are working against you

that you have to navigate through to find

that point where you connect

and when you connect, it's a beautiful--

it's like the eye of the storm, you know?

It's like that calm, serene place

that pilots have driven into,

that scientists have discussed

as a very unusual, very calm place

in the middle of what could be the worst storm in history

and that's what playing in a club is like

because you're surrounded by all these things.

There's people knocking things over around you,

there's drinks falling on your laptop and on the mixer

and a certain audience member's

trying to get your attention,

certain people behind you or the entourage of the promoter

are trying to get you to pose for photos

and all this other stuff

and while all that's going on,

while all that's happening around you,

which is the hurricane,

you're in the center of it all

and you're trying to find that inner peace,

that inner connectivity,

not only within yourself, but with the technology

and ultimately with the audience

and you're trying to bring people into that space.

It's a very warm and inviting space to be in.

[electronic ethereal music]

[music on headphones]

[brass horns]

[upbeat techno music]

[speaking Japanese]

[upbeat techno music]

[speaking Japanese]

[upbeat techno music]

I think what's great about working with Ali

is he travels a lot, he sees lots of things,

he's very open-minded,

he takes in lots of influences

and also, he's willing to take a risk, you know?

We've tried to do a 3D show for 4000 people

and we'd never done it before,

we didn't know how it was gonna work,

and we tried that and it worked,

but you don't always know how these things are gonna work or not or how

much affect they can have. Sometimes, you can have things that

you don't expect to be a big deal

or they're almost something that just happens

and that's when it becomes something of focus.

But what's nice working with Ali

is he's prepared to let those things happen.

He's not too precious or controlling of things

and he places a lot of trust in us

and I think because of that,

he's got the best out of us really.

[upbeat techno music]

[sheet rustling]

When people look at how much money you get

for a night to play a show

and how long you play, maybe you play an hour or two,

it just seems like, "Wow, you make a lot of money."

But then if you think about it,

yeah, I just played an hour,

but I spent eight hours to get to this club

on 30 minutes sleep from the night before

and after this it's gonna take me 12 hours to travel home.

If you scale that whole thing,

you're getting paid like this much to make music

and then this much for traveling

and dealing with the music life,

maybe partying too much and half asleep on a plane

and stuff like that.

I don't think that people realize

how much travel is involved

until you really look at a DJs entire schedule.

If you're club-goer A and you're sitting in Dubai

and Ali shows up to play a gig,

you're like, "Wow, that's great.

Ali was here, I'm sure he's staying three or four nights

and he's spending time at the pool."

No. Ali is probably there for 12 hours

and he's playing a set and then he has to get on a plane

to fly somewhere else

and there has to be time to sleep so that he's refreshed

so that the next day when he plays Aman

or Beirut or Istanbul or London or Toyko,

he's ready and fresh to perform again

and to be creative and to deliver the experience

that the club-goer wants to have.

You can't be a successful DJ, really,

unless you love traveling.

Maybe for a couple of years you can,

but you've got to love getting on that plane,

going to different places,

revisiting and exploring a little bit.

And Ali loves that.

He loves where that type of situation takes you.

When you go to a new place,

you want to meet new people,

you want to go to new places,

you want to try new food, new drinks,

and explore everything about that place.

And then, when I'd go on a weekend

and you go from club to club,

maybe you have two shows in a night

and you're not sleeping and you're like, oh, my god,

I'm never drinking again,

I'm like, this is too much for me,

but then slowly you get better at it and better at it.

Kinda like being in the Army.

You know, when you first join the Army,

I'm sure you're not used to only two hours sleep,

but later you're like, oh, I have 15 minutes,

I'm gonna sleep right now.

And then, you wake up and you're fine.

You just train your body to deal

with that kind of lifestyle.

I need sleep and I love to sleep.

Definitely everybody needs sleep and it's very healthy,

but it's funny because during the week,

if I would sleep only for two hours,

the next day I would be like, "Oh, my god.

I only slept two hours."

But on a weekend or when I'm on tour

and because of your flight schedules or whatever,

you get only two hours of sleep, it's okay.

You're like, I got two hours of sleep, you know?

I can deal with the rest of the night

and that basically shows you it's all a mindset thing.

I mean, ultimately, of course you need sleep,

you need rest, but you can do two, three days

with a little bit of amount of sleep

and you can still manage to do your things in the right way.

[dark dramatic music]

You don't get much sleep over the weekend

when you're doing these kind of events.

But not only that, we do have a daytime life as well.

We have relationships, married, kids,

I have a record label to run,

I have a radio show,

I do a lot of remixes,

I work in the studio.

All of these things are cumbersome of what makes a DJ.

And also, when we put the events on,

things all need to be worked out in meetings,

things that you have to go and see,

and not only that, we have people that we need to see

from a financial point of view.

You know, marketing structures,

all this kind of stuff.

It really is a part of-- this success

has created all of what we basically

need to understand and what we need to go through

to be able to go to that party

and do what we do at the other end of it

and that is all time.

It takes so much time,

but it's necessary to do it

otherwise the wheels of the industry

doesn't keep turning if you're just like

[yawning]

"What time is it? Eight o'clock in the evening.

All right, I'll get some food and go to the party."

All these meetings and things are backed up

and things that you need to know about

have not been done

and then, it all falls down.

So, you have to be on top of the game,

not just from the DJing point of view,

but from the nuts and bolts of the industry

point of view as well.

DJing or playing music for people,

it's a lonesome life.

Much like the life of a cowboy

and life on the road is like life on the prairie.

Alone to your words, to your horse and yourself.

[Camille] I never went on tour with him

and I was used to being on my own all the time.

So, I'd be like, see you when you get back,

and I had no idea where he would go.

So, I was like, "Oh, okay. You're going to DJ.

Cool. See ya."

And then, he would come back and he was like,

I'm so tired, and I was like,

"What did you do?

Where have you been?

What's going on with you?"

But he never was like,

"Oh, I'm just gonna sit back and chill."

He always wanted to do something or go out.

So, I probably didn't get the end of that being tired thing

until like two years later into the relationship.

I think to stay on top of everything,

all the DJs just take lots of drugs.

I say that because I think some people out there

actually think that's the case

and that's the only way it actually works.

Most of the DJs I know have had crazy times in their lives

and in their careers where perhaps they were experimenting

and drinking a lot and doing lots of things,

but most of the DJs now

who are on top of their game

are quite disciplined.

So, they have a schedule that's pretty intense

between staying fit--

because staying fit means playing your best.

Staying fit also means a clear mind

that allows you to work and run companies.

[upbeat techno music]

I always make sure that Ali has time for Ali.

I've introduced him to wellness doctors,

to physical therapists.

I think of Ali as a brand.

I think of DJs like brands

and I think that, like professional athletes,

there's wear and tear on the body.

There's constant travel, there's no sleep.

So, I recommend people for him to go see

and he listens to me and we work out together

and I think that there's a whole upkeep

or maintenance element of his lifestyle

that helps keep him going.

You know, we're at the gym very early or swimming,

we're then straight into the office.

We're having lunch and dinner meetings,

which are usually, you know,

very rarely do I see any of us having

really personal time.

It's always somewhat mixed.

If I'm out with Ali,

probably I'm out with Laura, my girlfriend,

and Camille, his girlfriend,

and we're talking personal,

we're talking into business,

we're going back and forth,

and that's kind of how the whole lifestyle is.

Everything is mixed.

[animated conversation]

This isn't a nine to five job.

We don't punch in, you know?

It is a job because it makes our money,

but this is our life

and we really love what we do.

So, our personal time and fun time is our work time.

So, it's very hard to say when anything starts or stops.

[loud bass music]

[high pitched ring]

DJs are a bit like mice on the wheel kind of thing,

always spinning, always pleasing the next person,

and then forgetting to please yourself almost.

You think you're pleasing yourself

because everyone is standing in front of you going crazy,

but it's not really.

So, you have to enjoy the process of doing it

as opposed to just turning up,

thinking I'm going to enjoy it when I have the day off.

You've got to enjoy the whole thing.

[Guetta] What I feel is

life gives you a blessing.

The blessing of being successful

when there are millions of people out there

that are dreaming to have half of the success

that we are having

and when life gives you this blessing,

I think you cannot refuse it.

We do this because we love it. It comes from the heart

and that's what spurs you on, you know?

If you love something so much,

it doesn't matter where you are,

if you're on your own or how tired you are,

you get in the club and if

the show's amazing, it's worthwhile.

It's worth being tired.

It's worth not seeing your loved ones.

We do this because we love it. No other reason.

There's a lot of difficulties along the way,

but at the end of the day, I think for all of us,

it's that moment that we get to the DJ booth or the stage

and we hit play that it all makes sense.

[upbeat techno music].

When he first stepped into the room

I already knew that he was such a Japan freak

and he knew so much about Japan

in every different levels

and he's just a great guy, you know?

He works very hard and he respects the country

and the culture and the people

and also, he knows how to have fun,

how to have great time with the people around him.

Ali, going back to childhood,

always had a fascination with Japan.

It was always something

when anything Japanese would come

on the television when we were kids,

he would sort of stop and tune in

and over the years when he traveled to Tokyo in Japan,

I think he really embraced the culture.

He felt comfortable there

and I think Japanese culture, again, is very meticulous.

There's an emphasis on quality

and I think Ali appreciates those virtues.

[crowd happily shouting]

Yeah. Like this?

West coast, east coast.

So far, he's west coast and new school.

Many people cannot even imagine,

but there is a big extreme change in emotions

when you're on the stage you are at the max

and then you go back to the hotel,

you are alone, you and your room

most of the times,

but I try always to stay with my friends

after a big gig.

Like, I don't know, big festival.

We have the after hours, the after party.

That's why we do after party

because then it's like the celebrating of a success

and I love also, with Ali,

many times we do this because we celebrate together

the music and the freedom.

You know, the amazing thing to stay together

and to share something.

So, for me the continued celebrating.

Of course, not every time with after hours,

but even when I go back to the hotel,

I have this adrenaline, you know,

that is like, I don't know,

after a school exam, you know,

you have this feeling in your stomach, like butterflies,

and I have this before, during, and after.

So, yes. It's special. Very special.

[phone ringing]

[light dramatic music]

We skip from country to country in hours.

We can play in three countries in 24 hours.

Be in Tokyo one weekend

and one Friday in New York the next.

So, our minds work this way

and that fast-paced mindset,

that love of technology which helps us play,

helps us travel, helps us communicate

is something that I think we all felt in Japan

and I think we all had that similar rush,

that excitement and felt like we were

stepping one day ahead of everybody else.

[light dramatic music]

[speaking Japanese]

[upbeat techno music]

[speaking Japanese]

The flavor is fukuzatsu.

So many things.

One little piece. So many things.

-Thank you. -Yeah.

[speaking Japanese]

[upbeat techno music]

[speaking Spanish]

[upbeat techno music]

If I'm anywhere in the world,

Bulgaria or whatever,

I say, right, to Ali.

Where's the best place to eat?

And guaranteed he'll have four or five places

that are just amazing.

It doesn't have to be high-end,

it just has to be good food

and he is one of these DJs that has a love

and the knowledge of where to eat around the world

because it's important to eat good.

It makes you feel good,

you feel happy about what you've eaten,

and you can go into your gig very positive

knowing that you've eaten well

and it has an affect on you.

It really does.

I mean, even more so than any time before in our lives now

that we're all very health conscious about what we eat

and how it makes you feel.

He had the passion with gastronomy with foods.

He's one of the guys, you understand?

He's eating with all those chefs

and everybody knows him.

That's a nice feeling.

That's somebody that is so emotional with food,

but also has a passion with it

because it's not only food, it's more than that.

[speaking Japanese]

DJs are people loving food.

It's that creative edge, you know?

When you travel around and actually spend

most of your meals in restaurants,

you start to really pick up taste, you know?

And Ali's a man with a superb taste

and most people with taste love,

not only food, but art, fashion,

and other things in culture, you know?

And for us, Ali and I,

one of the top things next to music is--

that tops investment in culture is food, you know?

That taste, the experience, you know?

They're both experiential events, you know?

Like both with--

It's like embodying more than one sense, you know?

There's something about that that's just like

the best thing in life, you know?

Good food, good music, good friends.

Throw some good sex in there,

you can't ask for anything else.

It's a true story.

I thought it was good.

It could have used a bit more seasoning,

you know, for my palate,

but very nice.

Very nice.

The meat was fantastic.

Very tender.

Just for me, a bit more seasoning,

but I could tell it was made with love, so congrats.

He is the number one DJ you call

wherever you are in the world and say, hey, where am I going to eat tonight?

And he's been there and he's found it.

He's amazing.

So, it's all about balance

and finding something outside of the DJ booth

to keep you sane.

Family is obviously a very important part of that,

but it's having other interests as well.

Staying at the top is the fucking hardest thing.

You know, being in this industry for 30 years

and consistently pushing yourself.

Society wants a new hotel,

a new club, a new restaurant, a new DJ.

We all want new, new, new.

The point is, you've gotta reinvent yourself.

You've gotta stay connected

to globally playing to a younger generation

while you grow older and grow older gracefully.

You know, you expect that there's always

going to be someone new and that's good.

That's good for all of us, right?

But learning and understanding that

is more important and it's more important

to look at the long haul and the bigger picture

rather than the five minutes of fame.

The only positive that you can find

when you're at the top of the game

is to be able to be creative and reinvent yourself.

That's the only thing

because you don't wanna do it for the money.

You already have money.

You don't want to do it to be number one,

you're already number one.

So, you already proved your point,

so it's not about the ego,

it's not about the money.

The only way to stay there

is for it to be about the love

and the creativity and the challenge to reinvent yourself.

It's a quarter to, so you might have made your interview.

Could be rocking and rolling.

We have a lot of dance music in Hollywood

and everybody is really into the dance music.

Yeah.

People get spoiled real easily, you know.

Yeah. Yeah.

-Do you notice that when you're in a hall -and it's all-- -Yeah, totally.

Like this guy right here. Yeah.

Everybody's so spoiled.

-They know the music. They know how to--You know? -Yeah.

Do you experience that as well?

Yeah, but I honestly don't even

have time to think about that, you know.

I'm just jetting from one gig to another

or from one airplane to another

or one studio to another.

[Woman] Are you still enjoying that life?

[Ali] Absolutely enjoy, yeah.

The day I stop enjoying it is the day I'll hang--

-You'll quit. -Yeah. I'll quit.

[Announcer] Make some noise! Dubfire!

[crowd cheering]

[upbeat techno music]

[crowd shouting happily]

We could use another set.

My ears are destroyed.

Already?

Three hours.

[laughing]

It's not that glamorous, you know.

Sometimes, yes, we take a private jet

to get to certain parties,

but I've always said,

if I've got to take more than two flights

to get to a venue,

then I'll take a private jet.

If now, I'll take domestic airline.

And the thing with domestic airline,

you can't ever guarantee that your one or two flights

are gonna get you where you need to be.

There's always aircraft malfunctions,

there's always strikes,

there's always mistiming of connecting flights.

You could be waiting on delayed flights for hours

and you're just sitting there, you know.

Three hour delay.

What do you do with that three hours, you know?

It's terrible when you're just people watching, you know.

And this is what takes the time and the energy.

It sucks the energy out of you,

but you still have to step up,

you still have to be inside that fire

that basically gets you to go and do what you're doing.

[mellow electronic music]

I'll never forget Ali used to

point to some of these pictures on the wall

of the big DJs in the world

that he was looking at the picture and then looking at me.

"Mom, one day I'll be as famous as this person."

And another big dream that he had,

he said, "One day can you imagine,

one day I'm going to travel all over the world

to see the whole world."

And the shine on his eyes as he was passionately talking

about being one of those big DJs,

that pointing to the big picture,

and seeing the whole world,

and experiencing the whole world.

That shine is something that I will never forget.

[upbeat techno music]

Because part of realizing was,

well, what else would I do?

You know? Go open up a hair salon?

[laughing]

I did ask Ali one time, how you doing?

To work with him, well,

I am the quiet one, but I need to have some craziness.

He's more sexy than the other

and I think he agrees with me.

It's just like, oh, you're here to have a good time?

Let's go. Let's fucking party.

I think he enjoys vampires and,

from what I can gauge,

I knew he had a collection of some kind

of vampire-type magazines on his coffee table as well.

You know, they brought us horse.

Really, I'm not kidding.

The Japanese restaurant drove horse.

[Interviewer] Okay, you're gonna tell us.

Whores?

-Yeah. -Like, sluts?

No, horse.

You know the ones that are.

[Interviewer] Oh, horse!

I thought you said whores.

-No. I would love that. -[laughing]

Ali picked up an extra hobby on top of that

is to be a food connoisseur

and post every piece of dish that he's seen

in the last two years on Instagram.

[laughing]

If you don't know me,

get the fuck off the bus.

Please. In the nicest possible way.

Because if I came up to you and said,

Hey, how you doing? Can I come to your house?

The answer would be who the fuck are you?

So, if those are real fucking answers,

get the fuck off the bus.

[upbeat techno music]