DJ and producer Kayan tells Arab News about the opportunities for local Saudi female artists at the festival Swedish DJ Alesso to shutdown the event at the BIG BEAST stage on Sunday night RIYADH: Thousands of festival-goers from around the world have flocked to the desert for MDLBEAST’s SANDSTORM in Ban Ban to express their passion for music. DJ and producer Kayan, who performed during the four-day festival, shared with Arab News her insight into the connectivity and power that music holds. “There’s so much magic to music, to sound and connectivity, and how music can really help us feel certain things and inspire us and help us overcome certain emotions,” she said. Regardless of your age and favorite genre, there is something for every festivalgoer to enjoy at Ban Ban. “I was always deeply connected to music, music always created a soundtrack to my life and creating stories and moments together through music is something that I definitely love and enjoy doing,” the DJ explained. Kayan specialises in electronic music with her DJing and production, blending Eastern and Western sounds to create her distinctive style. Her passion for music started when she learned to play the violin, and through her work in radio Kayan started producing her own sound, which led her to perform in front of thousands. “There is always this one type of music that really resonates with everyone. For me it was always electronic music as that is what I have always loved,” she told Arab News. Kayan first collaborated with MDLBEAST during the Noor Riyadh Festival in 2021. “We created something beautiful and magical together for the Noor Riyadh Festival. It was such an honor to work with such a professional team of artists,” she said. “This is my second experience working with MDLBEAST. It’s pretty massive and it is a dream come true. I am so honored to work with a professional team of both national and international artists. I feel very lucky, happy and honored to be a part of his festival,” she said. SANDSTORM boasted eight different stages, including BIG BEAST, DANCE BEAST, DWN BEAST and four UNDERGROUND stages. It also offered one private stage, with each section playing different genres for all festival-goers to enjoy. Kayan performed on Saturday on the UNDERGROUND 1 stage and described her sound as heavy baselines incorporating many synthesisers that blend into a rhythmic melody, “it’s strong, powerful but always has a melodic blend.” Kayan explained that her violin performances are improvised during the show, feeding off of the emotions in the crowd. “When I play violin, I don’t have a piece that I just memorize and come and play. I improvise what I feel in the moment and how the energy of the crowd is. I study it and connect with it and it inspires my sound,” she said. The DJ added that sound has the power to link emotions through sound waves. It is not just consecutive beats, it is a form of communication and linking of minds. “Music affects the human mind like the brain, the brain frequencies, the heart rate, everything synchronises with the speed of music, that encourages the heart and brain to behave in a certain way, which results in different emotions,” she said. “In an event or a festival where you have five people listening to one speed of music — like the fast-beat music that people enjoy here — imagine that they’re all connected to one wave and one frequency in that particular moment.” Kayan also shared with Arab News the many artists she is looking forward to seeing perform, including many local female artists. “The artists I’m most excited to see are the local ones, we have so much talent and this platform is the way for them to express themselves musically, we have so many brilliant female DJs and local artists,” she said. “This is very empowering and inspiring. I think music goes beyond gender, beyond any limitation, including beyond language barriers for us as Saudi female artists to finally have a proper professional platform to express our art and music. This is something I am very happy to see,” she added. MDLBEAST’s SANDSTORM festival will come to a close on Sunday, Dec. 19 with Swedish DJ Alesso shutting down the BIG BEAST stage.