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Johannesburg - Dino Bravo is not happy. And he says radio is to blame!
The former 5FM Ultimix resident DJ used to be the hottest act in the club and on our radios, but it all kind of went silent, starting with the day he left the popular radio show.
You see, Dino left the show under a cloud, feeling "used, broken and unappreciated".
"I had this platform and everyone was happy. But behind the scenes, I would make my own music and that same radio station that loved playing my mixes, would reject my music and tell me it was too deep, even though they would play DJs like Hardwell and David Guetta. It broke my heart," he reveals to The Juice.
That was when he says he decided to conduct an experiment. He claims he submitted a song he had made. As expected, it was rejected. He then approached Hardwell to put his name on that very same song and the track was submitted and accepted.
Dino says that was all the proof he needed and that was when he turned his back on radio.
However, 5FM has distanced itself from the claims. "This was not about the music. Dino had a residency at a SABC sister station, GoodHope FM. While we were unaware of this at the time, the SABC likes to retain talent within the group and we made the decision that Dino would be better suited at that station," says 5FM's station manager, Justine Cullinan.
5FM has also reiterated that it was not Dino who turned his back on radio, but rather 5FM, together with GoodHope, that made the decision that he would end his five year residency at 5.
Dino, meanwhile, is adamant that he was betrayed.
"I've been lucky enough to travel around the world and you know what? Not a singe country has a South African top 10, not even a top 1. They just don't care about our music and somehow, in South Africa, we seem to give them everything! Who are we trying to impress?"
So Dino threw his energy into developing a DJ academy for aspiring DJs and in making quality music.
He tells us that the academy currently has 30 students who receive personal training from him, with a two year waiting list.
He has also released a new single called Drop and an album he hopes to drop by the end of the year.
"The thing is, I'm a perfectionist. I'll often tweak a track until it sounds perfect and I won't focus on more than one track at a time. That's why the album was supposed to be out in September, but it will probably be delayed because I don't want to rush anything," he says.
After all, you can't rush perfection, right?
