When British DJ Yung Singh stepped to the decks at his Bangkok show last month, the packed crowd was primed and ready. The skittering and shuffling percussion of UK sounds like garage, funky, and jungle blended seamlessly with Punjabi vocals and instrumentation while the vibrating subs created a full-body experience. Most of the dancers on the floor at the BeamCube event were from the local South Asian diasporic community, but you didn’t need to grow up around the culture in order to catch a vibe. “People come to my show because they want to hear good music, that’s the ultimate line under everything I do,” he says matter-of-factly. “I play this music because I love it and people enjoy it. I’m always gonna play a banger, so you don’t have to understand the language to get it.”

Singh blew up in 2020 when he released his Punjabi Garage mix, tapping into years of local history in the UK for a new generation. (Punjab is a region in northwest India and eastern Pakistan with a unique history of music that spans generations and genres, from Bhangra and Bollywood, to folk and classical, to pop and poetry. In the UK, the Punjabi diaspora has been heavily involved in local music, contributing to scenes including garage, dub, and rap.) Singh has continued carrying that message, touring globally and throwing local events exploring the possibilities of combining these sounds in new ways while also giving back to those who came before him. But he’s got deep crates to draw from and can make sure that a crowd keeps moving regardless of genre. He’s been on multiple Asia tours, including Southeast Asia, East Asia, and India, and plays to very different crowds in each region.

His crowd in Bangkok was heavily diasporic and his Jakarta crowd was more diverse than the club normally sees as well. But they’re not as familiar with underground music or deep cuts as some other cities. “How much I lean into the Punjabi stuff or other genres depends on whatever crowd I get. Different crowds get different references, even when it comes to UK or European references,” he explains. Generally, in a place like Bangkok, he wouldn’t go too deep into Punjabi cuts, instead relying on stuff with a fat bassline. But that goes with any genre really. If a crowd isn’t feeling faster, percussive tracks, for example, he’ll slow things down a bit or move more towards rap and R&B. “I’m also exposing Punjabi people to dance music. I’m at that intersection of trying to push it forward.”

Punjabi crowds are obviously not a monolith and appreciate different things, particularly depending on age. One of Singh’s favorite eras of Punjabi music is the early-2000s. “It went from weird synth stuff where they got these Japanese keyboards and just went crazy with them, but then they stripped it all back to really solid Punjabi folk instrumentation.” While younger crowds know these sounds, they don’t always get excited by them. “I can kind of tell what type of demographic I have if I play an older hit and it doesn’t go down well.” In those settings, he’ll lean into newer stuff, like edits of the recently passed rapper Sidhu Moose Wala. “One of the most electrifying and incredible moments I’ve had in my career was when I dropped his song ‘0 To 100‘ in New Delhi. There were 1,000 gun fingers in the air immediately.”

In a place like Japan or Korea, there aren’t many Punjabi people in the crowd, but they still get down with the music. It’s similar to other places in Europe as far as English not being their first language, so the fact that there are lyrics in another language isn’t really a big deal. But the crowds are more in tune with UK dance music and have their own local scenes. He’s dropped UKG tracks with Japanese singers that set crowds off, and also rinsed unreleased British tracks that they were able to sing along with. “I was like, how do they know this track?? I barely know it,” he laughs.

Singh says that artists in Asia who combine their local cultures with regional genres from abroad make an important contribution to the global conversation, and he hopes that his time touring here helps inspire more of that. “Don’t give in to Western hegemony,” he advises. “Don’t be afraid to bring your culture into whatever it is you’re doing. Take inspiration from everywhere and give back to the cultures you engage with. One way to give back is to bring your own culture into it.”

Even though Singh grew up with Punjabi music and the UK rave scene, he’s not content with resting on those deep roots and still feels the need to cultivate the culture further. “It would be hypocritical of me not to give back,” he shrugs. One way he does this is through the resource page on his website that links to articles and documentaries exploring these cultures; even delving into visual art, history, and the prejudice that Punjabis and Sikhs face. He also works with the older generation that he looked up to as a kid, booking them for shows and promoting their work to new audiences. And he pushes the music into new areas as well, inviting dhol players for live druming along with jungle breaks and other styles of dance music. “I want to see more innovation.”