Saeed Younan

A favorite in the underground global dance scene, Saeed Younan has made his mark as an established producer, remixer, and club DJ. With a unique flair for building songs with a fine attention to detail and an acute sense for the dramatic swell, he has gained an international audience by spinning techno, house, and tribal beats together fluidly with smooth transitions and a timeless style of his own.

As an Iraqi native who moved to Washington, D.C., at age 13 in the wake of the Dischord punk scene, Younan had a vision of things to come and strived to make music outside of the box at an early age. While in high school, he became influenced by electro music, partly due to classmate Sharam Tayebi, who went on to form the prominent duo Deep Dish. In 1994, Younan partnered up with Palash Ahmed in college and the two started the Addictive Records imprint while started making their name known as a globe-traveling DJ duo. Before long Saeed & Palash gained the respect of Danny Tenaglia, who used their debut song on a compilation for DJ Magazine. After a strong run of remixed singles, including Peter Bailey's "U Need It," Marc Romboy's "Hyper Harmonic," and Kylie Minogue's "In Your Eyes," the turntablists closed down the label and ended their partnership on a high note, splitting amicably in 2003, just after their remix of Celeda's "The Underground" hit number one on the Billboard dance charts. Younan further established his credibility as a producer in the following years, earning himself a "Best Breakthrough DJ" Dancestar for his Addictive Beats mix. Staying on top of musical trends, he decided to get more actively involved in the digital age of media by starting one of the first digital-only labels, Younan Music, with a focus of making mixes available exclusively in MP3 format. In 2006, Younan released singles from Alex Celler, Souther Brothers, DJ Wady, Tom Sawyer, and DJ Moffy, and released an album compiling his complete work of remixes and production credits titled Re-Mixed on Star 69. ~ Jason Lymangrover