Five Things wth Doorly

My granddad was really into his jazz, so I guess hearing that a lot has definitely shaped my musical landscape a fair bit, in that I don’t like to stick to the rules. My first musical childhood memories were listening to The Beach Boys when we would go on family road trips, but my parents themselves aren’t really musical at all, so not much inspiration drawn from there!

2. Inspirations

Right now my favourite producer is Kölsch. His music is so cinematic and different to anything else out there; his tracks are brave and just kind of ridiculous how much they go off in a club. Also Maceo Plex, he’s the benchmark for me for a good club record.

3. Your Crew

I moved around a lot as a kid with my dad’s work and have been a touring DJ for over ten years now. Having been around the world lots and lots of times I feel really lucky to say that I pretty much have a wicked crew in every city I go to now. The world is such a small place now with the internet and Facebook, it’s so easy to always be connected to everyone. I live in Los Angeles, so my main crew there are all the expat UK lot (Switch/Jesse Rose et cetera). We’re always working on stuff together.

4. The Music You Make And Play

I aim for my set to be very much a live performance, using turntablism and as much drama as I can conjure with the music I make and play. A set for me should be a journey, not just two hours of records that sound the same – so I move through disco, house, techno and everything in between with a few wildcards to smack the crowd in the face every now and then. I mainly release on Cajmere’s Cajual label, which is in Chicago. I feel that is my natural home as an artist and having Cajmere (my greatest influence musically) as my A&R and mentor is just a beautiful thing. However, due to the spectrum of house music I make, I release on a few other labels as well when the tracks fit. This year alone I have had releases on Hot Creations, Dirtybird, Moon Harbour, Subliminal and Toolroom.

5. Music, Right Here, Right Now

I feel like the scene across the globe is in a really healthy place right now. House music has become a universally very popular genre again so it’s great for artists like me that make the more chunky accessible stuff, and labels like Hot Creations and Dirtybird have really helped that happen, educating people away from EDM. The only thing that ever ruins a scene for me in certain cities is stupid ill-informed local governments placing ridiculously early closing hours on underground music venues where there is never trouble as a blanket reaction to issues with everyman pub fights, which has got nothing to do with our scene.