PUBLISHED July 1st, 2016 11:29 am | UPDATED August 19th, 2024 02:39 am
Born and bred in Singapore, Yadin has been spreading his positive energy at intimate parties and venues such as Good Times by Syaffi and Eric, Headquarters by The Council, Koi, just to name a few. When he’s not on the decks, you’ll find him searching for songs with just the right blend of weird-ness, raw-ness and sexy-ness.
On top of all that, Yadin started the Breakfast Club in Singapore last year for the party people, which got a lot of attention and good vibes – and we were glad that we managed to thank him in person for that!
In this edition of City Nomads Radio, we catch up with Yadin about life, Breakfast Club and his curated mixtape.
So how did Breakfast Club started?
Hello! Thanks for taking the time for this little chat. Given that Breakfast Club was a completely illegal affair, I’ll refrain from naming names. After years of being frustrated by the lights coming on at three in the morning, the Singapura party peeps found the patron saint of after hours in the form of a lovely laid back bar owner who had a pretty “no f*cks given” attitude towards licensing, cops and life in general.
He sorted out the venue and logistics while I sorted out the music. It was the 2015 Chinese New Year long weekend, so we decided to do it three nights in a row. No social media marketing, we just passed out little pink cards with the address. First night was kinda quiet, mostly close friends and some randoms. But word got around and the next two nights were filled to the brim. I was blown away and overheard someone saying “oh god, finally!”. And we served breakfast to everyone (as promised) at 7am.
Will Breakfast Club ever make a comeback?
It’s highly unlikely; towards the end of the year we began getting regular visits from the party police. The bartenders were passing out from exhaustion. Attendance was dwindling, perhaps the novelty had worn off. A neighbour was threatening to sue because of the noise. Our patron saint of after hours, bless him, was forced to start giving a little bit of a f*ck. We had an great run, I made some really good friends along the way (including you Sharmaine!).
There’s something really special about sharing a dance floor with a group of people at nine in the morning. The crazies somehow always find each other in the end. We had a great dynamic amongst the DJs that came through to play, no set times, whoever was feeling it just went for it. It was really magical for me.
A little bird told us you’ve relocated, where have you been?
I’ve been moving around for my day job a fair bit this year, but my decks and records are in Bali, so I guess that’s home for now! Singapura’s a great place to live, lots of people say it’s boring but it’s usually boring people who say that. I love coming back here, I just needed a little change of scenery is all.
And how’s life in Bali so far?
I’m still terrible at surfing and my Bahasa is awkward as hell, but I’m working on it! Musically, it’s been so inspiring. There are some serious deep digging DJs on the island. The CALYPSO parties, run by Seb and Angie, is hands down my favourite place to be. Great vibes, from italo to new wave to ghetto house, they got it covered. Every time I’m there I find myself wanting to just stand behind the DJ and trainspot all night long.
Describe your sound in three words.
I can tell you that every time I look for music I have a little venn diagram in my head with the labels “weird”, “raw” and “sexy”. If a record can somehow be all those things at the same time, It’s going in the bag. Bonus points for strange hi hats.
Tell us more about your curated mixtape for City Nomads.
I’ve been wanting to do a kinda “Breakfast Club Thank You” mix ever since we ended it but simply could not find the time. So finally this is it! I have some many amazing memories, playing these records for the floor last year so hopefully this mix brings back some great memories for everyone else too! There’s a couple of new tracks in there too, including the latest release by Jonathan Kusuma that absolutely kills it everytime I play it out.
[mixcloud https://www.mixcloud.com/citynomadsradio/city-nomads-radio-yadin/ width=100% height=120 hide_cover=1 light=1]
Any other shouts?
Big love to the late great MC Roz. He was a bro but being a bass-head, he was never shy about telling me how much he couldn’t stand my “techno shit”. It became kind of a challenge for me while digging, thinking to myself “I need a track so dope even ROZ would like it!” Still brings a smile to my face every time I find one.