Pathaan: Chill Out's Angriest Man

His latest mix CD's called World Peace, he's increasingly called a hippy and his favourite musical genre is chillout, though Stoned Asia chief DJ Pathaan is anything but relaxed. "I'm really f**ked off," he admits. "I'm sickened."

Sickened on one level by the continuing worldwide fallout of September 11, what's really spoiling the mood of the alcohol loving non-practising Muslim DJ, is the media vibe towards his beloved genre.

""I'm sickened by the fact that chill out's become a dirty word," he roars.

"I've got some journalists giving me some proper negative vibes right now, saying World Peace is too hippified. Fuck off, it's a dammed good CD."

Laughing about the journos, he's serious about the new CD whose theme of World Peace came to him after a difficult experience with US immigration on his last Stateside visit. A frequent visitor to Manhattan where he ran a thriving monthly night Global Rotation for two years, he was forced him to cancel the club, following September 11.

"My full name is Farooq Ahmad Khan and with that name, going through US customs became difficult. There are loads of Ahmads on the Wanted lists," says Pathaan. "I've been back to the US just the once and it was horrendous."

Even more unfortunately, Pathaan's last job before turning to full time DJing was working at United Airlines, a position he escaped courtesy of David Bowie. The pair met when Bowie heard him DJing in an East London bar in 1997, resulting in Pathaan going on two Bowie tours.

"No-one knew who I was but it was a case of every time I did a gig, the crowd would be like 'Well if David Bowie likes him, we'd better listen'," he recalls. "He opened the door for me".

Five years on, he's one of the leading lights of chillout, though World Peace marks a distinctive step towards World Music. Bob Holroyd's hauntingly beautiful ambient epic Call To Prayer opens proceedings (featuring the voice of one Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens) wailing the traditional Mosque welcome. Other contributors include Eastern Dub Tactik (Texas) and Chill Chillaz (Vienna).

"Do I really think music can change and influence people- Yes, I think it can and yes that might be a hippy, flowered up way of looking at things but fuck it, man."

World Peace is out on Kickin Records shortly.
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