DJ Alok backstage at the O2 Academy, in Brixton, London Clément Protin/Disclosure via BBC It was with a bittersweet feeling that Alok returned to London in June to open his next tour, Rave the World. From the same sidewalks where his fans now waited for the opening of the doors of the O2 Academy, a music venue in the legendary Brixton neighborhood, the DJ collected cigarette butts in 2010, when he moved to the British capital with the dream of making a living from music. He and his brother, Bhaskar, had started playing together and saw some tracks perform well on electronic music streaming platforms. They decided to move to London, attracted by a market more open to the genre. But the plans didn't go as expected, and all Alok managed to support himself was a job as a barback, a kind of barman's assistant. "Coming here gives me some triggers, you know? At that moment, I was cleaning the floor while the DJ played, collecting cigarette butts from the street while people stood in line. Many Brazilians come here with a dream, end up working hard, but I didn't realize it and went back to Brazil", he recalled, in an interview with BBC News Brasil, before going on stage. This type of work, however, was not strange to him. It was the same path that his parents, Ekanta and Swarup — who would later become seminal names in psytrance, a psychedelic subgenre of electronic music in Brazil — took. The mother moved to Orlando, taking her children, to work as a cleaner in a nightclub. It was there that he discovered psytrance and decided to start playing. "My father came to visit us and ended up enjoying it too. They started to get vinyl records, sound equipment, take them to Brazil and play for 30 people. It was almost counterculture, because electronic music doesn't have a Brazilian origin, like samba, pagode, country music and MPB. As I saw their process, it was natural for me to follow mine too", he says. Born in Goiânia, Alok says that, until around the age of 13, he was almost nomadic. In addition to the American city known for its theme parks, he remembers in detail, for example, when he lived in Amsterdam, in a hippie community. "My parents took me out of society. In Holland, I lived in an abandoned building that had been a hospital. Then I went to Alto Paraíso, in Chapada dos Veadeiros. When I was inserted into society, in Brasília, I had a shock of reality and started to question my own values, as if that were completely outside the system", remembers the DJ, aged 34. Alok will have a fee of R$850,000 Reproduction Perhaps Alok's family was really outside the system. But today he says that was precisely what saved him. Almost two years after accumulating unsuccessful attempts to become a DJ in London, he decided to return to Brazil and thought about resuming his International Relations course. But then his own parents disapproved of the idea. "My father told me to drop out of college and not give up on being a DJ. For me, it was very complex to continue making a living from art. I saw my father and mother going through a lot of financial difficulties, and I didn't want that. But then I tried to give it another chance, I left psytrance, which came from them, and it was the best thing I did", he says. It was at this time that the DJ began to specialize in so-called house music, a more melodic and danceable aspect of electronic music, with vocals, something very different from the psytrance of his parents, marked by faster and more intense beats aimed at the hypnotic atmosphere of raves. The idea was successful. With works that were still underground, ranging from remixes of From Snoop Dogg to Barão Vermelho, he began to reach audiences in the millions. In 2016, he released the song that took his career to the level it occupies today: "Hear Me Now", recorded in partnership with singer Zeeba, owner of the track's vocals, and DJ Bruno Martini. With almost 1 billion plays on Spotify alone, "Hear Me Now" became not only a milestone in the DJ's career, but also in the Brazilian music industry. Ten years after its release, it continues to be the Brazilian track. most played on Spotify, the most popular music streaming platform in the world. Alok talks about feat with Jennifer Lopez: 'She made my job very easy' Depression and healing with indigenous people The success of "Hear Me Now" was not enough to guarantee stability for long. The problem, after all, was no longer financial, but emotional. DJ. After traveling the country by plane, car and boat, the DJ says he received the blessing of a shaman and was presented with a headdress that, although he doesn't wear it, out of respect for indigenous culture, he keeps it at home as a souvenir. "I made professional music, it was in the top ten of the charts, and they made music to heal," he says. What exist are different values ??and objectives. I genuinely connected, for the first time, with nature." Alok received a headdress in the Yawanawá village, in Acre Mila Petrillo/Disclosure via BBC The result of this bond was the project "O Futuro É Ancestral", composed of an album recorded with different ethnicities, and a tour. Furthermore, a kind of library was born from the recording of hundreds of indigenous songs to help preserve this culture, at the request of the very leaders with whom the DJ had contact. "Many things they don't write down. They transmit through music, through songs, so I wanted to help create this great catalog for new generations. I showed a recording to a shaman, and he cried. He told me that he sang that song every night by the river so he wouldn't forget it", recalls Alok. From the stage to the stage The connection with the indigenous people led the artist, who at that point was already omnipresent on radio and television, to make his first political demonstrations, going to Brasília and taking the stage against the time frame — the thesis that the demarcation of indigenous lands can only occur where these peoples already lived when the 1988 Constitution was promulgated. "The indigenous people told me: 'It's cool that you want to help save our music, our culture, but you also have to save those who sing'", recalls Alok, who has formed partnerships with United Nations Organizations (UN) for initiatives related to the environment. The DJ says he is against the idea, which he considers to be increasingly widespread, that the environmental agenda belongs to only one side of the political spectrum. He states that he seeks, as an artist, to amplify the voices of indigenous people; and, as a person, reduce your own environmental impact — to do this, you no longer have a private jet and pay companies that offset your carbon footprint. "They put everyone on the same cake, as if the environmental issue were only on one side. That's really silly," he says. "With denialism, it's difficult to talk. I talk, I listen, but it's difficult. What we do is bring awareness to the subject, because, once you're aware, it's no longer a mistake, it's a choice." New tour and artificial intelligence Another issue that concerns Alok is the future of the new generation, the theme of his new tour, "Rave the World". Inside a kind of LED container with projections of inspirational phrases and dancers, he presents his new set, bringing back sounds from the beginning of his career, including psytrance. Known for superlative technological devices, including laser cannons that attract attention at open-air shows, like the one he did on Copacabana beach last year, the DJ says he reflects a lot on the use of technology, without which, he recognizes, he wouldn't even be able to practice his profession, but which, at the same time, can be dangerous. One of the uses that the DJ says he makes of artificial intelligence (AI) is to test vocals in his productions, asking a program to create voices inspired by a certain singer or simply with a female or male timbre, before inviting an artist to record. "AI is a wonderful tool and comes to bring comfort, but art is not just to comfort. It is to confront us, to make us reflect", he states. "We have to be careful not to take humans out of the equation. AI can be a tool, but it cannot take our place." Alok performed at Coachella in 2025 with 50 dancers to reflect on the humanity of art and the use of artificial intelligence Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images via BBC