Whitehorse DJ and musician Daniel Ashley on the songs that move him

This story is a part of a web series called Music that Matters with CBC Yukon's Airplay host Dave White. Dave sits down with Yukoners to talk about five pieces of music that inspire them.

Daniel Ashley has been surrounded by music his whole life, and he's made plenty of his own music as well.

As DJ Dash he was part of the Root Sellers, one of the first hip hop acts from Yukon to gain some attention. A decade later, he continues to write and record his own music, and he's also an in-demand DJ in the territory.

"One of the great things about being a DJ is you get explore a bunch of different music styles," Ashley said.

"I've DJ'd a lot of weddings and what's great about a wedding is you discover music because you're forced to. Someone makes a request and you think, 'I've never heard of that.'"

Ashley said his favourite style of music is funky instrumental hip hop. Dance music, anything that gets people moving, always catches his ear.

"Growing up in the Yukon I've been really fortunate [to be] shaped by a lot of Indigenous music, which I think is really powerful because it always has this amazing connection back to the land and the languages of the people who were here long before the settlers got here."

Ashley's first pick is a song familiar to most — Superstition by Stevie Wonder — and even though most of us know the beat, we probably don't know it was created by legendary guitarist Jeff Beck.

"They were working on this record together and they're on a break, and Jeff Beck just jumps on the drum kit and bangs out this beat, which is a really distinctive thing on this tune. And Stevie says, 'keep doing that,' and he improvises the whole song over it," Ashley said.

Ashley's next track is Ready Or Not by The Fugees, a song that surprisingly samples Enya.

"If you're like me, you've been having a lot of feelings the last few weeks, feeling those big feels. The great thing about music is it can really help you let those emotions out," said Ashley.

"This is one of those songs that can help you do that."

Ashley calls his next song a "great example of techno music."

"This is a progressive house techno song called Cowgirl, by Orbital," said Ashley.

"What I love about this song is it's very progressive, it's got this four-on-the-floor beat put together with a very affected vocal. So this is a very good example of what techno actually sounds like."

Ashley's next song is Nina Simone's Feeling Good.

"This track is really inspiring because it was originally written as part a musical in 1964 called Roar Of The Greasepaint - The Smell Of The Crowd," said Ashley. "But nobody remembers that, they just remember the Nina Simone version she recorded in 1965 for her album I Put A Spell On You.

"If you every wake up in the morning and you don't know what the day is going to break or what the world is going to look like, this is the perfect voice for that moment."

Finally, Ashley brought it back home for his final choice; Generation Hand Down by Jerry Alfred & the Medicine Beat.

"This is very much the soundtrack of my childhood, driving out to our cottage at Lake Laberge," Ashley said.

"I don't think my Mom is generally someone who turns it up to 11, but when Jerry Alfred comes on she turns it up to 11 ... you can hear thousands of years of history in Jerry's voice."