DJ Kiraz a.k.a Elin Ekdahl shot by David Yamamoto
From her humble beginnings in Sweden, where she first began honing her skills as an electro DJ, to being requested to play some of the biggest clubs in Japan, DJ Kiraz, has watched her dreams come true at record speed.
While her music falls under the rather broad genre of electronic music, what separates DJ Kiraz from most other DJs is her ability to play an ever changing range of tracks spanning the likes of deep house, psytrance, progressive, drum and bass, and her all time favorite, good ‘ol hard hitting trance.
Besides her captivating beauty and highly energetic stage presence, DJ Kiraz,who is known outside of the music industry as Elin Ekdahl, is a genius when it comes to feeling out what her audience wants to hear.
She says the most fulfilling thing about being a DJ is “To be able to hear the music that I love booming through the speakers of a giant club, and seeing the crowd go crazy to it is an amazing rush.”
She adds, “I feed off of the crowd’s energy and they feed off of mine. It’s like this incredible connection is made between us.”
In September of 2011 Kiraz was asked to play Japan’s “Get Hi-Tech” event at Club Asia in Shibuya, Tokyo, listed as the number one Best Live Music Scenes in Tokyo by Japan Talk.
Not only was Kiraz excited to play for the massive crowd at one of Tokyo’s most recognized clubs in the EDM scene, but she was also over the moon about the fact that she would get to play with one of her all time favorite DJs.
Kiraz explains, “I was beyond excited to play at this event as it was always headlined by a Japanese DJ that I have been a fan of since long before I moved to Japan. When I first started listening to his music he was called “Yoji Biomehanika,” but by the time I got to DJ with him he had shortened it to just “Yoji.” I had heard him do Pete Tong’s essential mix a couple of years earlier and I had seen videos of his massive sets at Sensation Black.”
The event was towards the beginning of DJ Kiraz’s rise to the top of the industry, so she was still a little shocked by the caliber of artists she found herself playing with. Although she had never been one to be “star struck,” after all, even the most successful people are just humans like the rest of us; but when it came to DJ Yoji, things were a little different.
“When I walked in the green room that night and the anime character looking Yoji started speaking to me, I felt star struck for the first time in my life. It was definitely a memorable night,” recalls Kiraz. “I ended up becoming good friends with Yoji and he would request me as a DJ for several of the upcoming “Get Hi-Tech” events.”
Needless to say, DJ Kiraz’s career took off. She began playing at a long list of other high profile events in Japan including Opera in Tokyo alongside French house DJ and record producer Stephane Pompougnac, Yolanda Be Cool at Origami, XEX Nihonbashi with Sweden’s hottest female DJ duo Rebecca & Fiona, and others.
Today DJ Kiraz is asked to bring her unique sound to clubs and events all over the world, and frankly, we couldn’t be happier to see this talented beauty getting the recognition she deserves.