AS TOLD TO BC PIRES

My name is Basti and I moved away from accounting to get into DJing.

My full name is Justin Lovell-Bastien but nobody has called me anything but Basti since my Queen’s Park Cricket Club hockey coach, Raffie Govia, called me that in my first training session. It just stuck on the team and became a thing in school.

I checked my Instagram and there are, like, 1,000 people who know me as just “Basti.”

Basti is also my DJ name. Not DJ Basti, just Basti.

I don’t just want to be a DJ. I want to be an artist.

I was born in England, in London, but I’m not really sure of the environs.

I come from Maraval, where I mainly grew up.

In England, we grew up in a place called Sudbury. 

My mom, Marty (short for Martineze), from Jamaica, met my dad, Efrem, from South Trinidad, in the Caribbean diaspora in England.

Dad is in Trinidad now. Mom is in Bournemouth.

I don’t remember much about my English childhood.

I think I was around three, four, five when we moved to Belmont. Where we had some family connection.

And then I kind of moved back and forth between England and Trinidad.

I started off at Holy Name Prep, moved to Blackman’s Private School and then did the full seven years at St Mary’s College, CXCs and CAPE. 

I did business, economics, accounts, Spanish, history, literature… I’m forgetting some, because I have nine subjects.

At CAPE, I did business, literature, history…I swear there was another one…

I was born a Catholic but have grown up to, well, not favour religion too much.

I’m still working on what I believe in, just learning. 

But I’m not a heavy person who believes in the existence of a god or higher power. I more believe in the powers of the universe.

[caption id="attachment_915355" align="alignnone" width="683"] Justin Lovell-Bastien, whose DJ name is Basti, wants to be an international DJ and music producer. - courtesy Que Media[/caption]

I don’t have any children and, right now, I don’t feel like having children. Like, ever. I’m that concerned about the state of the world, the planet, our economy and our environment.

I started a finance and business degree at Bournemouth University and was in halls (of residence) for a year.

But then my mother got breast cancer. And I felt guilty for my parents to be paying that amount of money for my education. While my mother should have been the focus. I felt my education could wait.

I’m a momma’s boy. I love my mom to bits.

She’s now fully cleared of cancer.

The book series Eragon really stuck with me but the books I read at St Mary’s, like Earl Lovelace, didn’t, because it was all schoolwork.

I don’t like being told what to do. Even read. 

I would very much like to get back into reading (but) my attention span right now, it’s very hard fo