Meet Billy Sang | DJ & Music Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Billy Sang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Billy, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I think risk is almost interchangeable with regret if you think about it as the counterpart. Like if I don’t take this risk today, how much more will I regret in the future? This way of thinking about risk helps me navigate through big decisions like choosing music as a career, even though I’ve been told it’s a very risky career path with little to no guarantee of success. Or maybe I’ve learned at a young age living under strict parents that risk can be good, it can teach you a lot more than staying inside all the time.

And so I’ve used risk to plan out my future, knowing that as long as I don’t flush out I still got a good hand to play.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What separates my art from others is the groove in the music and having a lil bit of love in the lyrics. My latest releases “Sweet Woman” on Quincy Boy Records and “Nothing On You” on Dim Mak Records are about being fascinated by someone and carrying that bliss with ya on the dance floor. I think most of my songs lean towards love and sacrifice actually.

Professionally, I just kept at it for 6+ years and didn’t look back. I knew if I kept at it long enough, something would work out eventually. It’s not easy though, because what works for someone in the music industry might not work for you. So every piece of advice I took with a grain of salt while also trying different things and pivoting here and there to see what would work for me. Another lesson I learned is there really is no overnight success story, it’s something that happens over years and years of work. This journey isn’t easy, but it does get easier over the years the longer you stick to it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Being based in New York City, I would take them out to my favorite neighborhood, Lower East Side in Manhattan. I would take them out to Thursday Kitchen to grab some Korean style tapas and then head over to Doc Holidays to get that Texas bar feel in the middle of New York. If we decided to stay out later, I’d take them to my favorite dive bar Welcome to the Johnsons where you can still get $3 PBR’s and reserve a pool table for a couple quarters.

For a day trip, I’d take them out to Domino Park out in Williamsburg to enjoy the scenic views of the East River, then go thrift shopping around Dumbo Flea Market, then catch the ferry back to Manhattan.

A few more spots I’d take them to would be Chinatown, St Marks Pl, Little Italy, Koreatown, Soho, and West Village. There’s a lot of culture in these neighborhoods and I always get a rush of excitement walking through these streets.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I always gotta shoutout my family first, especially my mother who at first didn’t agree with my career choice, but has come around to be the most supportive person in my life. Being a business owner herself, she knows the difficulties of starting something from the ground up and she’s always there to encourage me even on the days I don’t quite believe in myself.

A book that changed the trajectory of my life was Think and Grow Rich. I started reading it right after college at the age of 23 when I first had my corporate sales job. It taught me powerful things like envisioning your future and really asking yourself what you want to do in life and who you want to be surrounded by. I think it’s one of the few books that gave me the courage to jump into a music career.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sangarang.music/

Image Credits
Alexander Hoefer – photographer