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Taking Hard Techno Global: The Explosive Show of Fatima Hajji
An exclusive interview with the spanish Fatima Hajji, the 'Queen of Techno'
After playing one of her most recent sets, it doesn’t take more than a few minutes to feel and understand the power of Fatima Hajji.
With an electrifying personality, the DJ of Hispanic origin and Arab descent owns one of the most explosive and fun performances today, because she manages to balance her spontaneity with that raver energy that we love so much.
“For me it’s a great achievement to have more and more people listening to my tracks on different platforms and that gives me even more strength to work hard and keep doing my thing, giving back to the public a little bit of the joy they give me at each performance. That’s the real key for me”.
Hajji has fun mixing each song while still executing the job with mastery, presenting a careful and well-constructed musical selection. Dubbed by many as the “Queen of Techno”, the title is not for less; just the last month of April, she filled her agenda with 12 dates across Europe and her name has been growing especially in the United States and South America.
But according to her, “numbers are just numbers, but the feelings will never be forgotten”.
She played more than 120 gigs last year and, for 2024, she already has more than 20 festivals confirmed on schedule.
This ascent is also is reflected in digital, so much that she reached the mark of more than 500k followers on TikTok with just a few months after starting the page, in addition to the great adhesion of her playlist Fatima Hajji’s Track IDs in partnership with Spotify, with more than 47k people following.
“Social media is a great tool, but it can also be a trap too. It just depends on how you handle it,” she reinforced.
We had the opportunity to talk to her to learn more and share with brazilian audiences about her music, career and, why not, a bit of her personal life. Read on!
Hi Fatima! Thanks for this interview. What motivates you to continue doing what you currently do? What’s your fuel?
I grew up in a house that music was present the whole day, I started working at 12 and most of my friends were playing while I was working at a small grocery of my mum; so music was my way to scape and feel happy.
Aside from that vinyl mixing contest you won when you were learning to DJ, do you remember your first big gig professionally?
I start to be booked in clubs on own my city first and in the arounds later.. I was 16 and I felt every day that this was my life and I only wanted to focus on music.
It wasn’t easy, I was toooo nervous before each gig, felt sick (with vomits), but after some time I realize how to lead those nervs to adrenaline. So I’m happy to keep doing my job.
“Since I was a child, my memories are shared with dogs that I loved too much.”
But before jumping headlong into DJing, you had a few other jobs and one of them caught my eye: dog handler! Very cool and a bit unusual... You even named some EPs you released after your dogs, didn’t you?! Tell us a little more about this…
Since I was a child my memories are shared with dogs that I loved too much.
When I grew up and moved from my bron city to Madrid I did it with Nuska an Staff that was clever than most of the humans that I know hahaha.
The first years in Madrid were difficult, and she was my pillar, more than love. An amazing relation with a soul during 16 years of my life. Now she come with me everywhere as she is tattoed on my arm.
She gave me the confidence to explore more on dogs behaviour and I decided to learn about positive dog training.
I started with shelter dogs preparing them to be adopted and then I worked helping families with communication issues with their dogs for some time.
It was a great experience. Now I have 2 dogs from shelter and 2 stray (not anymore) cats that are my family.
I also heard that you love to cook - something you must have done a lot, especially during the pandemic. At what moments can you exchange the jogs for pans and seasonings? Any favorite dishes? What do you like to prepare the most?
I would like to forget the pandemic time hahaha. I cooked too many cheesecakes and It was a big effort to leave those calories exccess.
Yes, I love to cook sometimes. When I get to focus on things like gardening, cooking or any work with my own hands, I’m able to relax my brain; it’s like a meditation thing, putting out all the thoughs and it’s only the work. But to be honest more than cooking I love to eat good :)
The times I were in Brazil I felt in love with Pão de Queijo!
Are there any other hobbies that you try to keep alive during your free time?
What is free time? Haha! When I’m at home, I like to walk my pack through the forest. Also I train meditation, it helps me to keep the balance and to get to know myself more.
Back to your career: on Instagram you got almost 500k followers; on TikTok, you’ve already passed that mark in just a few months. How do you deal with all these numbers? From what we can see, this digital interaction with the public is important to you, right? Although many artists don’t like that… what’s your opinion?
Socials are a great tool but they could be a trap too. It just depends on how you handle it.
I was when Myspace happy to have a place to show my work to the world and that made it easy to get that. But every day it became more and more complicated.
In my case I use most of the more known socials since the beggining (as most of my generation did) and I have developed some skills making a difference between what is real and what is fake.
Not an easy thing nowadays but important I think, as a big quantitiy of the things we seen are not reflecting the reality. Also about of the numbers with this new fashion to buy followers and likes, but people are learning how to distinguish this.
Of course I can understand why some DJs don’t like socials, but it’s still a great tool to show your work to the world, to discover new artists and music and also a tool that allowed electronic scene to became a global thing in few decades.
“Social Media is a great tool but they could be a trap too. It just depends on how you handle it.”
Speaking of numbers, some of your tracks have surpassed the expressive mark of 1M plays on Spotify, such as ‘Violines’, released about 10 years ago, and the more recent ‘Ykn’ and ‘Mother Earth’. Do you believe you had any of them that was a key turning point in your career as a producer?
Violines was my Hardtechno anthem. The original track is a popular song singed by 3 argelian singers with Cheb Khaled as head. He was one of my favs when I was a child as my father listened to him a lot, specially that track.
So I decided to made that remix and I use to close (sometimes was an starter too) my sets with this one, still sometimes (speciall and few) doing it. So I am happy to see that it has a good amount of plays on Spotify and also on Youtube.
In the last years I’ve started to produce much more fluently, also the pandemic gave me more time to dedicate to my productions and to get to obtain a better sound quality every day.
Some of the latest tracks have been working really good. For me it’s a great achievement to have more and more people listening to my tracks on the different platforms and it gives me even more strenght to work hard and keep doing my own thing, to give the people back a bit of the happiness they give me every weekend. That’s the real key for me.
In addition to these tracks that we commented on, your success is also largely due to performances as a DJ. As I was writing this interview, I was listening to your All Night Long set at Fabrik, which sold over 10,000 tickets - a pretty impressive number. How was that experience? After all, you were playing at home to a crowd in love with your sound.
Numbers are just numbers, but the feelings will be never forget. I got a great feedback on socials, many people from many different places said they attended, my manager told me all was running good but without being so especific… but Fabrik is really really big and this means quite a pressure.
When I was arriving to the club I started to see many cars but I really thought there were another reason as it was so early for that at 23:30. Few minutes later I got to realise why when I got to the DJ booth, it was so packed as I didn’t seen myself before and it was before midnight. I could not retain my tears. Then was like a dream, time seemed to go much more quickly than normal, tracks look to be mixed without my help even I never use sync on my sets :D.
In fact the night was all too short for me, short but incredibly magical. Not only to have that amount of people at this massice club for the ANL; also because the amazing energy we all experienced there.
I know that special connection could be to use when a DJ speaks about their public or a party but those who were been there felt that same feeling. I’d literally spent a whole week replying messages on Instagram, and tears of joy and happiness still appeared again on several...
“It’s great to have more and more people listening to my tracks on different platforms. It gives me even more strenght to keep doing my own thing.”
Now speaking of Brazil, you’ve been here twice, if we’re not mistaken: the first around 2014 and, again, in 2020, at mov.E Wonder… it’s a very discreet presence. Any idea when we might see you again?
Good memories from both times. Brazilian clubbers are warm and energetic and I love that. For any reasons there are other countries that I play much more.
Techno and Hard are being bigger every year in America so I wish the time to visit your beautiful country more often is near for me.
I know you’ve been supporting the song ‘Dawn Of A New Age’ by a Brazilian artist called LuizFribs, who is a rising name in Hard Techno around here. Besides him, do you follow any other name from our country? Do you seek to give opportunity to newer artists in your sets?
I love Luis track, it’s a bomb! I play what I love, with focus only in the music and this makes me play a lot of stuff from newcomers, specially at this moment that there are loads of great new music and faces every day. What in my opinion is because (Techno) scene is healthy and growing.
You currently have a very busy schedule and many festivals confirmed for the coming months, right? Including a season in Ibiza with exclusive shows at Amnesia and DC-10. How do you try to balance this agenda with your personal life?
What is personal life? Hahaha again :D
Apart from the joke, that has a big quote of reality inside, I’m really happy for this. This year is being huge and I’m feeling I am at one of my best moments ever. Each artist has his/her own path and mine (from my perspective) was slowly growing step by step since the last 2 decades.
For example I have started to play in Ibiza +- 10 years ago, few and small parties at the beggining and every year become a bit more and a bit better. Of course sometimes I wish to get things faster but I have learn that the things that are coming slowly use to remain much longer than the “easy-fast” achievements.
“Silver M label is where I release regularly but also where I can release new names. I listen every demo and it’s only my choice what is being released. If I like it, I release it. Easy.”
In addition, there is the Silver M label, which continues to release new singles and EPs almost monthly. What is the label’s purpose? Do you actively participate in curating when involving other artists?
Silver is the place where I release regularly but also where I can release new names. Apart of my tracks, 90% of the label releases are from demos producers sent to our mail.
I knew that it’s not easy to get released when you are a newcomer and to run your own label is also a thing that needs time and some experience. that’s why I decided to open this door.
I just listen every demo we receive and it’s only my choice what is being released, no matter if I know or not the name of the producer or the sales forecast. If I like it, I release it. Easy.
After all this chat, there’s no denying that you’re a true fighter and that you’ve achieved all of this success thanks to your hard work. So, finally, what tip would you give to artists just entering the scene? Thanks!!
The best advice is do what you love and do it just because you love it. The path is not easy and sometimes is hard and it’s needed passion to remain on your way no matter what happens.
Also do your own thing, do not copy or imitate anyone, each of us has an unique and marvelous potential, just discover and expand yours. Each great artists are unique and probably that is what we most love from them.
At last but not least, to all the new DJs, please learn how to mix for real without SYNC, to feel the magic of the mixing art, even when the mix is not perfect it is a marvellous thing to fix in back.
Follow Fatima Hajji on: Instagram | Tiktok | Facebook | Soundcloud
