Over the last 8 years, Prïss has established herself as one of Beirut’s finest DJs. She has shown consistency, versatility, and a unique ability to adapt to any dance floor, crowd, or time slot. She’s genuine and passionate about her craft; her drive is contagious; but above all, the freshness and unpredictability of her sets is what truly distinguishes her.

FA— Where does your passion come from? How did it all start?

P— Music has always been important in my family. My Dad used to be an avid record collector and serious audiophile. My sister and I made our first mix-tape together when I was seven. I started building my own music collection when I was ten. It consisted mainly of rock and soundtracks, as well as dance music. I’ve always been infatuated by soundtracks and the concept of soundscapes giving life or completing the visual world. “DJ-ing” started in high school when I used to constantly supply my classmates with CDs and playlists for our road trips and gatherings.

FA— You spend a lot of time looking for music, and I know that given the amount of new tracks released everyday, it can be quite overwhelming. How do you go about finding music you like?

P— Actually, there is no specific process.
One of the ways is looking at an artist or label and really dissecting the whole discography to find those lost gems.
I’m also lucky to travel and dig into crates all around the world. This allows me to have a wider view of music.

FA— When crate digging, do you exclusively look for dance tracks?

P— For me, it’s really not about dancing. It’s about imagining where and when I would play this record. It could be some jazz or rock to chill to at home or some hip-hop to mix at some bar. Broadly, it’s anything with a sweet baseline and a slick sound design. But the whole spectrum of Funk, Disco, House and Techno is prioritized, no doubt.

FA— Your sets always have some sort of acid element to them. I also remember the first synth you bought; it was the TT 303, which is a TB 303 clone, so where does this Acid love come from?

P— My love for acid sounds actually comes from late 90s grunge-y spy/sci-fi movie soundtracks. Feature films like Swordfish or The Matrix as well as Michael Giacchino’s earlier works for TV. The 303 baselines were mainly mixed with broken beats or drum & bass. That industrious sound has been stuck in my head ever since.

FA— I’ve seen you prepare a set or two, and I must say, it’s quite a chaotic endeavor—to the point where I’m always surprised how you actually manage to pull it off.
You go in there with hundreds of tracks, seemingly unrelated, and then how does it all come together exactly?

P— [Laughs] Yeah, it can get quite chaotic, but all this chaos is what allows me to have versatility in my mixes.
The trick is finding a system where all of your tracks are properly sorted.
I organize according to “flow” and subgenres. Even though I sometimes prepare a big playlist of stuff I might play, I rarely stick to it and prefer to follow the crowd, which is only possible when it’s organized.
Plus, I like having most of my library with me. The worst feeling is when you’re dying to play a track but can’t find or don’t have it.

FA— Having a lot of options is great; having too many options on the other hand, in my experience, can be counter productive. How do you deal with that situation?

P— As things occasionally got too chaotic, I started playing records in order to set some limits, and so trusting my initial selection more than compromising my sound to please the crowd. This way, I can really play what I intended to play.
This switch took many years of gathering records in order to have a collection that is large enough to stay interesting gig after gig, even with extended sets.

FA— What are your plans for the future? Where do you see yourself in 5, 10, 20 years?

P— I just turned my daytime job to part-time in order to free up my schedule and actually get some decent work done in the studio. My current target is to have a live audio-visual concept show ready within the next couple of years. Later, I’d like to work in sound-design and compose for different kinds of media (movies, videos, exhibitions, etc.). I also hope to someday create a platform that would help showcase lesser known talent.