Andre J. E. Sam-Sin, best known as DJ Sun, is one of the city’s grooviest disc jockeys.
Houston’s Andre J. E. Sam-Sin, best known as DJ Sun, knew from a young age that music was his jam, but growing up in Suriname in South America, he didn’t have many options for learning musical instruments. So, around the age of 8, Sun tapped one of his older friends for help. “We often had afternoons where we would nerd out about certain records or artists,” he says.
The radios in Suriname were unformatted, meaning no defined genre, so they heard it all. He and his friend would spend their days picking apart soulful jazz by artists like Bob James and Grover Washington Jr., learning about disco’s coming-of-age, and jamming to reggae. Playing soccer with people from Jamaica expanded his knowledge. In Suriname for jobs in shipping and delivery, the men he played with would bring along their boom boxes and cassette tapes filled with songs Sun hadn’t heard on the radio.
At the time, Sun didn’t realize he was setting himself up for a successful career as one of Houston’s grooviest disc jockeys and the owner of the Flat in Montrose.
The neighborhood music bar, which opened in 2005, is now known for its dedication to fun beats, coffee, cocktails (including cannabis-infused), and pizza. Local publications credited Sun with taking it from a “struggling bar” and reviving it into “Montrose’s hippiest hang” in 2014. Since then, the Flat has also become synonymous with young local DJs, vinyl, and vibe sessions, no matter the hour.
For Sun, it’s part of his music dreams realized. At the age of 10, he fantasized about becoming a radio show host and a DJ. The Flat is just a part of that.
“To me, the Flat is sacred ground,” he says. “It always has felt like that, from the first Monday I played there.”
Born in Holland, Sun’s time in Suriname came to an end when his father’s job relocated his family to Victoria, Texas, about three hours south of Houston, when he was 14. Sun later attended the University of Houston, where he pursued a business degree, but he says he still couldn’t shake the feeling that music was his true calling. He initially buried that sensation, sticking with the “best alternative,” and launched his own trading business. But in his mid-twenties, he got the itch again, and this time it wouldn’t go away. “There weren’t a whole lot of DJs around at the time—late ’80s, early ’90s—and that’s what inspired me to start,” he says.
With high hopes and big dreams, Sun began DJing under the stage name DJ Sun in 1992, teaching himself to use turntables and a mixer. When he booked his first gig for a busy Friday party in Galveston, he proved to himself that he didn’t need years of learning a musical instrument to be successful. “It just never ended after that,” he says.
He started playing in Houston, largely at Solstice, the former Downtown jazz club he co-owned. His growing popularity led him to start his own radio show, Soular Grooves, on 90.1 KPFT, which became a moment of serendipity for DJ Sun. He had finally brought his childhood dream to fruition.
Founded in 1995, the radio show allowed DJ Sun to share soul, jazz, and groove with anyone who would listen. “Back in the day, you didn’t really have the internet, so if you wanted to hear music that was a little different—which is what I played—you would tune into the radio, especially public radio,” he says.
The Flat celebrated its 20-year anniversary in 2025.
While juggling his radio show with various gigs around Houston, Sun began DJing at the Flat in 2005, and he never left. His signature Rock Steady Mondays, named for the Motown-styled reggae he played in his sets, became a mainstay. In 2013, DJ Sun released his debut album, One Hundred, reflecting his musical journey. Nineteen tracks blend funk, soul, and retro-future hip-hop to create lo-fi, vibey beats—a fitting soundtrack for the Flat’s laid-back patio.
Not long after—just as Sun grew tired of hopping from venue to venue to make a living—the previous owners of the Flat approached him about taking over the space. Sun said yes, and within two years of purchasing the bar, the DJ bought out all the partners.
In October 2025, he rang in the Montrose institution’s 20th anniversary with a dayslong celebration filled with guest DJs, coffee breaks, and a special steak night.
Taking on the Montrose bar did come with some collateral damage. After 20 years on air, Sun decided to end his radio show to give his all to his other projects and the Flat. Becoming an owner forced him to wear “two hats” and put his business degree from UH to good use. Now, Sun isn’t just creating. He’s also paying the bills, taking care of his employees, and handling technical tasks, while also ensuring the bar is up to par for his guests. That’s meant making some changes.
In 2023, DJ Sun introduced Sunny Coffee. The daytime coffee program helps bring more people in around the clock, with music, caffeinated drinks like matcha and lattes, and treats from Sinfull Bakery. The hope is to maybe even entice guests to use the space as their newest work-from-home destination. “We want to be able to provide an opportunity to people to be in the space, enjoying coffee in the daytime, and have the Flat be a destination for people [who] are interested in the musical styles we offer.”
Houstonians can enjoy coffee and beats during the day at the Flat.
The Flat has also given the DJ a new avenue to inspire younger generations to follow their dreams. Sun says a handful of up-and-coming DJs express interest in playing at the Montrose bar each week, and, with the help of his life and business partner, Jasmine Richardson, he evaluates who fits best. His one rule? They must not only want to perform at the Flat; they should also desire to help build its community. “You get to a stage of life where [you’ve] been exposed to really cool events, cool spaces, cool environments, and to see others get the opportunity to do that is exciting, but it also keeps building on the foundation,” he says.
Though the Flat remains his focus, Sun hasn’t stopped making music. Just two years after taking over the music bar, Asia Society Texas Center commissioned Sun to work on a project that allowed him to travel to China for 10 days to explore his own ties to the country (Sun’s father is of African and Chinese ancestry, and his mother is of European-Caribbean descent). “It was an ancestral quest,” he says, that resulted in his second album, Qingxi (pronounced “kingsy”). He released his third album, Loveletter, in 2022—a “poetic salute to society” inspired by a combination of French New Wave, ’60s soul, and his desire to “maintain genuine human expression in the modern, technological age.”
Now, with 2026 in full swing, DJ Sun says he’s inspired to create more music—he teases that a new album could be on the horizon. In the meantime, he’s busy entertaining Houstonians at the Flat.