Balraj Samrai is part of The Artist’s Table, a new initiative that brings together a group of artists living and making work in the North West of England to help identify and explore the skills artists need to develop now and in the future.
Balraj Samrai is a musician, DJ, facilitator and youth worker of Panjabi/Sikh ascent who has been based in Manchester, UK since 2006. His work bridges music, activism, and education. He is a co-founder of Swing Ting party/label and SEEN Magazine. He currently co-chairs the Musicians’ Union’s Climate Emergency group.
As an artist he has performed at festivals such as Unsound, Glastonbury and Bluedot and has been commissioned to create musical works exploring social justice themes for Season for Change, Opera North and MIF. In 2023 Samrai released his debut album Work & Roti, followed by singles “End the Occupation now” and “GAZA” with Mr Scruff.
His most recent performances with Nuradin Abdi celebrate intergenerational diasporic sounds, a love of soundsystem culture, and the resistance spirit of solidarity. The duo have taken their ‘Liberation Sound’ to stages at festivals such as SFTOC, The World Transformed and We Out Here.