Instagram account Techno & Chill’s name doesn't bother disguising what the account is all about; techno music paired with funny videos depicting anything from young children dancing to techno wearing cheeseburgers on their heads, to the signature and often questionable hedonism of the dance music world, and sneak peaks into Ibiza afterparties with Solomun, Tale Of Us and party influencers. While these DJ themed pages are now trending, Techno & Chill was one of the forerunners, and is still one of the most unique accounts, having developed a specific sense of humour that tickles that scrolling finger. While the idea might seem a bit shallow to some, the simple act of starting a niche account would lead this Instagrammer to a new career path, working with the biggest names in the industry, from festivals and clubs like DGTL and London’s infamous Fabric, to promoting DJs and record labels.
The story begins with one of my childhood friends, Rami Samir, an Egyptian techno-head studying business in Los Angeles. Though I was already familiar with the account, I didn’t know it was him until he showed it to me when he came back last year - for some reason, he wanted to remain anonymous for a while. The account was only three months old at the time, but was already going strong with 50K followers, including some of the industry staples like Nina Kraviz, Peggy Gou, Dennis Ferrer and Blondish. For him, it was sharing his passion with the world through a funny and easily digestible medium. “As soon as I made the page, it started gaining a lot of followers. Lots of people were looking at my posts, as I was the only one editing funny videos to techno music. This differentiated my account from the rest and got me a lot of attention.”
A few months ago, the account was gaining so much momentum that Rami decided to ditch his banking job to focus on Techno & Chill. “Banking and the traditional business world wasn’t a great fit for me. Now I have the freedom to work to my own schedule, and to pursue all of my personal ideas,” he tells us. The account now has over 200K followers, which allows him to use it as a promotional medium for artists and parties, and thus make a living out of it, which presents him with the growing pain of either staying true to his followers, or as they say, selling out. However, this wasn’t too tricky for him to figure out. “Now I have a management company in London that takes care of all the festivals and event deals so that I can focus on creating the content that my audience loves. I always make sure that I have a good balance of promotional content and my own original content.” From joke account to management in London? That's quite a jump.
In fact, Rami didn’t want to stop here. “I am always looking for ways to expand Techno and Chill as a business so that I can ensure it will be something that lasts. This is why I looked for other ways to monetize the page, like creating merchandise. Very soon I will also be launching a Techno and Chill record label.” By very soon he meant it will exist within weeks - he doesn't waste time.
Rami is one of the few people who made it into the industry through one of its hidden backdoors, or you could say he created a door for himself to walk through, and in only two years, is already making an impact and getting invited to the top festivals in Europe and the USA; think DGTL, Fabric, Movement Festival, Epizode and more. He withstood the Instagram techno pages wars - by wars, I mean real internet battles: he had to fend off numerous hacking attempts and content plagiarism on his account. Still, you will find people repping his t-shirts in festivals around the world.
