Nadja Chatti is an Arab-speaking Finnish woman who was born and raised in the southern suburbs of Stockholm. She usually spends her days working with music and hanging out with friends and likes to spend money on yummy dinners, travels or vinyl records. Recently, she started the booking agency Esperanto with friend and fellow DJ Johanna Schneider.
What are you working on at the moment?
I just started working for the big industry, at Universal Music Publishing Group, where I do music supervision for film and TV. It’s a dream coming true really. This happened a couple of months back after two amazing years at Under Bron and Trädgården. They’re my second family really. I love those guys and miss them every day.
What do you like about DJing?
The whole DJ thing started off as a pretty non serious thing. It was more a way of presenting my favourite music to friends and people who felt for similar genres. It was me and my best friend in a small bar in Stockholm and I remember it very well as a place where one could exchange the passion for music, as well as hang out by the Pacman arcade machine. This was a bar where people showed up to hear their friends play music and eat burgers. When I mention it today, nobody has heard of this place, it was a bar that unfortunately lasted a very short time, it was called Knast.
What are your favourite night spots in Stockholm?
You rarely go clubbing in new places in Stockholm these days. There was a time where you’d find a new opening every season but that really is getting harder to do in this town. And to be honest, the bars these days function as night clubs really. I mean just look at the sound systems, the DJ line-ups and the opening hours. If I do go clubbing it’s either at Nobelberget, Under Bron or at one of the city’s underground parties. Bar-wise East, Riche or Brillo around Stureplan are good if you feel like listening to quality music in an otherwise superficial and dull area.
There are so many great bars popping up these days, but I wish they just had the courage to do their own thing.
When it comes to content, drinks and interior we certainly don’t need another whiskey-flavoured cocktail bar with Chesterfield sofas and men with beards. Boring!
Would you let us know about your favourite eateries?
I have so many great restaurants I want to tell you about. My top three right now is Matkonsulatet at Kungsholms Strand that serves amazing and refreshing tapas – the profile is set on Barcelona in Spain but it tastes so much better in my opinion. Try the salted salmon with yoghurt and truffled honey. And the chocolate mousse with olive oil and sea salt.
Svartengrens has great food and cocktails – visit them on Sundays where they’ll do movie nights, invite guest bartenders from around the world and sometimes even throw a fancy dress party just for fun. Go here to wear a hat and eat tasty locally produced meat. Also don’t miss the best restaurant in Södermalm right now – Woodstockholm. Wonderful, fresh and tasty dishes straight from the heart and with a sustainable thinking behind it. Great fish.
What is your favourite thing about Stockholm?
In my opinion we have one of the most beautiful and diverse cities in the world. You can walk through it in an hour and experience hundreds of different houses, buildings and environments. The inner city islands are different as well as the people. The suburbs are starting to come alive and people stopped being ashamed of living here. It’s great.
Any idea on how it can get even better?
Continue investing money in the cultural life, and elderly people. It’s what makes a city prosperous and happy. The rest of the population are strong enough to take care of themselves.
You just started the new booking agency Esperanto and you work for Universal. The music business has long been male-dominated. What’s your thoughts on the future there?
It’s getting better, but fact still remains. Men are at the front, and women are behind dealing with the problems. It’s how it’s always been.
Sometimes that means starting from the bottom, too. Some of my friends are running small labels, organizing clubs, running bars and they are definitely not doing enough when it comes to equality, even though there was a big discussion about this years ago, people forget. This is where the great movement is being born.
The music business is starting to realize that there are mistakes being made so I’m hopeful for the future. And when I got my new job I noticed that companies are investing time and money in equality. Now we have five people in my department, two males and three women, which definitely wouldn’t have been the case ten years ago.
