Head Nodders Artist Bio

Head Nodders is a DJ duo comprised of Ali Sweidan [Sweidan] and Danielle Bakhazi [Dani Drops] mixing mostly tech house, with deep and minimal leanings. The pair met while sharing a residency and it was not long before they realized their similar ways of understanding music.

In the days of the 28.8k modem, when Hip Hop was the dominant genre, Ali Sweidan was the first kid on the block to start blasting trance. His instant connection with this novel sound and his unrelenting passion helped him struggle with cassette tape decks to mix tracks in impressive feats of stubborn creativity. 2003 was a defining year for this electronic music aficionado: this was the year he discovered house. Drawing inspiration from Danny Howells, Deep Dish, Sultan and The Greek, Ali joined the growing ranks of house music addicts. He would get his fix in different ways, picking only the venues that booked the best. Coming home at the break of dawn from Stereo — Montreal’s legendary home of House — tripping on a musical high, he would attempt to recreate the aural bliss he’d just experienced. Once he invested in a set of turntables and his very first vinyl record — Louis Vega’s Diamond Life — his love of spinning drove him out of the basement and into lofts and house parties where he performed amongst friends. Few things are sweeter that that first paid gig though, and Ali’s came a year later at a private Formula 1 party at Hotel St-Paul. That led to a series of bookings and residencies at several Montreal venues such as L’Apartement, Cherry, Circus and Alkemista. He was also booked several times at Tribe Hyperclub on Thursday nights, opening for local DJs and eventually for Laidback Luke in July 2008. Music will forever be the driving passion in Ali’s life, and this Head Nodder definitely bobs his head to a groovy tech house beat.

Since the sixth grade, Dani was the staple DJ among her peers, keeping the dance floors pumping by reading the crowd and reacting quickly on a 3-disc changer. Before the birth of Napster, she had set about in an ambition to build the ultimate archive of the influential tracks that defined the musical culture of the time. In doing so, she uncovered trance, and perceiving it as the closest thing to modern classical music, she became taken with collecting and studying this young genre as it began to flourish before her eyes. By 2001, Dani was a fan of a wide range of electronic music from world lounge to drum and bass, and she strayed from the masses and into the UK Garage scene that had formed in Dubai. She started experimenting with different DJ software but did not find satisfaction until, in 2005, she laid her hands on her CDJ-200s and mixer. With these she learned to mix classic, French and deep house, sharpening her ability to anticipate trends and favorites before they bloomed. Dani’s desire to develop her craft drew her away from the commercial once more to Aria and Circus, where she attentively picked up DJ tricks while dancing the night away to progressive and tech house. Driven by a nostalgia for the joy of making people dance and encouraged by the popularity of her recorded sets, Dani sought out her first gigs: mostly spinning at McGill events where she became a trusted crowd pleaser, reaching up to 400 people at Studio Just for Laughs in 2007. By 2008, with critical acclaim from gigs at Academy, Koko and Koi bar under her belt, Dani was scoping Alkemista for her first residency when she met Ali. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.