Sajeeb Saha or Jai Wolf is one of the biggest DJ’s on the EDM scene right now and the appearance of his name on the Dusk Music Festival lineup has created a lot of hype around Tucson and beyond.
Although he has never performed in Tucson, his concerts in Phoenix have him looking forward to playing for an Arizona crowd again.
“Each time I’ve performed in Arizona the fans have been incredible, so I’m very excited about playing Dusk” he said in a recent interview.
Saha’s widespread popularity is due to his take on electronic music. His music cannot be placed into a genre-defining box. The down-tempo, chill-wave vibes on his tracks set him apart from most electronic dance music DJ’s that aim to have their audiences head-banging.
“There’s a lot of elements of indie music but I love ‘80s sounding synth-wave, so I include a lot of retro-sounding synth sounds in my tracks,” he explained. “I think indie-electronica is a nice way to describe my music.”
Saha picked the persona of Jai Wolf because it rolls off the tongue and is a nod to his ethnicity. After tinkering with “Dire Wolf,” Saha and his manager felt it sounded too much like a metal band and decided to incorporate his Indian heritage.
“When thinking about what I wanted my stage name to represent, I picked ‘Jai’ because it reflected my ethnicity and was easy to say. Jai + Dire Wolf = Jai Wolf,” he said.
Saha got his start remixing other artists’ songs and putting his own musical twist on them. He drew inspiration from these tracks and was able to start creating his individual sound.
“I usually have to really resonate with how the vocals sound,” he said. “I imagine what it would have been like if I was recording with that vocalist and writing the song together.”
Jai Wolf is best known for his hit “Indian Summer” which reached No. 1 on Spotify’s U.S. Viral Chart, No. 2 on iTunes’ Electronic Chart and No. 31 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic song’s chart.
The song revolves around massive synths, a pitched-up vocal and a mixed bag of sounds that just make you feel good. Saha says he loves feeling the audience’s excitement and energy when he plays this EDM anthem.
“Seeing people smile when ‘Indian Summer’ comes on makes me really happy,” he said.
Jai Wolf’s sets have been described as spiritual experiences, not only because of the music but also because of the graphics and lighting elements.
“We have a very meticulously-crafted show where every light and visual moment is planned down to the second,” he said. “It’s really exciting to showcase custom visuals and I hope that the fans can be immersed in the world I created for them.”
