Xenia Ghali sat directly across across from me. You knew right away that you were talking to a star. Her spirit was larger than life. A person on the other end couldn't help but be drawn into her mystical world. The woman behind "Under These Lights" made it all the way to #1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. She played insane shows in New York, Miami, Chicago and a place that is dear to her heart--Athens. How did it all begin for the dynamic DJ?
"I basically grew up in Greece. My mom is Greek and my dad is Egyptian. We are American citizens. We grew up in Greece because of various reasons. My whole family on both sides are living in Greece. When I was very young my parents were very adamant on both my sister and I being well rounded kids. They enrolled us in classical piano and flute. I don't tell a lot of people that," Ghali laughed. She continued, "People kind of found out about it but I tend to stay away from it because I was in orchestra. It's very different from what I'm doing now. It was great because I learned classical musical when I was young. Then when I was 15 I started listening to a lot of rock bands, some indie bands. That kind of thing. A lot of punk--The Sex Pistols, The Clash. I was like, 'You know what--I want to pick up a guitar. Flute and piano aren't cool. I want to learn how to play the drums!' Seriously." Ghali then started to have visions of having her music heard on a wider level.
The enigmatic DJ elaborated. "I formed a high school band I was proud of at the time. I started writing songs for the band. I didn't want us to be just a cover band. That's when I started getting into songwriting. By the time I was graduating I had to decide what I wanted to do. My parents were very adamant on me going off and getting a bachelor's degree and a masters degree. So I told them I wanted to play music and I wanted to write music. We made a deal where basically I could do that as long as I receive a bachelor's degree in music composition and a masters degree after that," she said. Ghali followed up by saying, "I ended up going to the UK. I studied music composition and production. While I was studying I went through a bit of a rebel phase. I started going to a lot of parties. It was during the time in the UK where dubstep, drums and bass were very underground. It wasn't in the mainstream yet. Most of the parties were underground and sort of dodgy. Kind of like raves," she smiled. Ghali continued, "All of the DJs in the UK used to spin on vinyl for authenticity reasons because it was an underground scene. So I used to look at these guys and go, 'How are they able to do this and I haven't done it?' I play four instruments. I write classical music because in university I was studying film scoring. So I was like, 'You know what? I'm going to pick this up.' I invested in myself. I got the equipment. I purchased five really old house records. I set them up in my dorm room and I started spinning. Whenever I didn't have class I would check out videos on YouTube and pick up techniques. One thing lead to another and people started finding out I played music. They wanted me to play at very small local bars and clubs. At one of the clubs I played at there was this scout from the Ministry of Sound of London." That was the moment that changed Xenia Ghali's life.
Ghali explained how that encounter helped launch her to DJ stardom. She told me, "It's one of the biggest clubs in the world. Probably the most famous in the UK. It's massive and legendary. There was a scout there. He was a promoter. He comes up to me and goes, 'Who's your manager?' And I was like, 'What are you talking about?' I wasn't even getting paid. I would just go and set up my stuff and get all my friends to carry my records. He said again, 'Who's your manager?' Then I went, 'What's a manager? What are you doing?' Then he goes, 'Okay well, do you want to have a set at the Ministry of Sound?' So I was like, 'Yeah, whatever. I don't even believe you.' So he told me to give him my email. A week later, he sent me a flyer with my name on it for the Ministry of Sound. That's pretty much what jumpstarted me to consider being a DJ as a full-time career." After that breakthrough experience, she became focused on learning as much as she could. Ghali said, "I started learning how to produce a lot of house and electronic music. Using all the different styles like classical, rock and greek music with what I was doing electro