DJing in the Middle of Nowhere | Nooriyah Qais

DJ Nooriyah’s iconic Boiler room set with her Baba on the oud, growing up between Saudi, Japan and London, and her beloved CDJ 2000s Pioneer decks. We sat down with Nooriyah Qais to talk about everything DJing, her guide to safeguarding yourself in the club industry, and how she transforms a sample into an infectious dance track.

We also touch on the community she’s built with her curated event and party series “Middle of Nowhere”, how she’s bringing SWANA music into the mainstream, and her favorite Arab cities to play.

Nooriyah Qais is a radio host, producer, DJ and journalist. Through her work as a DJ and audio producer, she champions music from the Arab region and diaspora, founding “Middle of Nowhere” which is a “SWANA focused collaborative in London”. Her iconic Boiler Room set reached over 1 million streams in the first 3 months. Nooriyah has performed at global dance festivals including Glastonbury.

Created & Hosted by Mikey Muhanna, afikra

Edited by: Ramzi Ramman

Theme music by: Tarek Yamani https://www.instagram.com/tarek_yamani/

About Quartertones:

QuarterTones is a music show. It is an opportunity to listen to music, across genres, from musicians of and from the Arab world. This series is similar to NPR’s All Songs Considered that is focused on the Arab world. afikra will be inviting musicians of all genres, as well as music historians, to help better understand the music that they perform or study. In this series, the guests will be invited to talk about their work and play their music, whether live or recorded, in three segments. The series will host current musicians who play contemporary and modern, including alternative scene or hip-hop, electronic, classical music, among other genres. The musicians will also be from different geographies.

Join the live audience: https://www.afikra.com/rsvp

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About afikra:‎

afikra is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region- past, present, and future - through conversations driven by curiosity.
Read more about us on afikra.com