{"id":28746,"date":"2018-12-09T21:18:08","date_gmt":"2018-12-09T21:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=28746"},"modified":"2018-12-09T21:18:08","modified_gmt":"2018-12-09T21:18:08","slug":"sammy-virji-get-to-know-this-up-and-coming-dj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/sammy-virji-get-to-know-this-up-and-coming-dj\/","title":{"rendered":"Sammy Virji: get to know this up-and-coming DJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sammy Virji is a happy-go-lucky UK based DJ to watch out for next year. He has already amassed over 23K monthly Spotify listeners, more than 13K Soundcloud followers, and is ever growing with each track he releases and show he performs.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Photo credit: Seth Crosby Photography<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Voice of London asked Sammy some questions that will help you get to know him and his music.<\/p>\n

VOL: Where are you from? Are you still based there?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SV: I\u2019m from Witney, near Oxford, but I\u2019m based in Newcastle.<\/p>\n

VOL: Have you ever considered a path in life other than music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SV: I wanted to be a doctor before I went to university. My plan was to do a post-graduate in medicine after my biology degree but the music started to take off so I just went for it as it\u2019s a been a dream of mine since I was little.<\/p>\n

VOL: How did you get into music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SV: I\u2019ve always been completely obsessed with music probably because my dads a musician and I\u2019ve been writing music on guitar and piano since I can remember, so I\u2019ve just been surrounded by it from a young age.<\/p>\n

VOL: What genre do you consider your music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SV: I make all sorts but primarily bassline and garage.<\/p>\n

VOL: What drew you toward creating in this genre?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SV: I\u2019m drawn to bassline as a genre because it\u2019s silly, it shouldn\u2019t be taken too seriously. So my idea of a bassline rave is being able to go and just let your hair loose, not care what anyone thinks, listen to stupid remixes of Indiana Jones or Crazy Frog, or Ghostbusters theme for example, and laugh about it because it\u2019s silly. It\u2019s different to most underground genres, take techno for example, it\u2019s a completely different night out it\u2019s not as intense or high energy, people are taking the music quite seriously the vibe is completely different. It\u2019s the \u2018silly\u2019 aspect of bassline I love. And with garage, just any swingy drum beat gets me gassed.<\/p>\n

See him in action below.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SammyVirjiUK\/videos\/2061857623858110\/<\/p>\n

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VOL: What has been your biggest achievement so far in your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SV: My biggest achievement is probably having my own UK tour and actually being able to sell out venues, and also getting recognition from people I look up to massively.<\/p>\n

VOL: What is the hardest part about being a musician? What is the best part?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SV: Being a musician definitely has its down sides. The amount of people affected by mental health is ridiculous in the music industry. You can\u2019t ever bank on having a gig, you could have loads of gigs one month and none the next so the irregularity of it can really be difficult. Personally, my down side to being a musician is I get very down when I\u2019m not playing or making music. The high I get from performing is like nothing else and I\u2019m at my happiest when I\u2019m playing, but when I get back from a gig, a bit hungover, and no one cheering you along I can get quite down. Also when I get writer’s block, I get very frustrated because my creative side isn\u2019t working when I have a job that requires you to be creative. So there are downsides but luckily I\u2019ve come to terms with it easier than most because my dad’s been a musician his whole life and has passed his knowledge onto me so I\u2019m prepared for all of this. It\u2019s all worth it in the end because as a musician you get to do what you love and people get to love what you do and I couldn\u2019t ask for anything more.<\/p>\n

VOL: Who is your dream collaboration?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SV: I always said when I started out that I\u2019d love to do a tune with Champion or Deadbeat UK, and it\u2019s actually mad because I\u2019ve started a collaboration with Deadbeat and am going to start one with Champion soon. Other than those two though I\u2019d maybe say Flava D.<\/p>\n

VOL: Who inspires you most?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SV: In the scene there are too many producers who inspire me: Dr Cryptic, Deadbeat UK, Joedan, Mikey B, Royal T, DJ Q, Lorenzo, to name a few. But I think the stand out person for me would be Flava D because she was the first garage\/bassline DJ I ever saw live, my mind was blown and I thought to myself \u2018I wanna do that\u2019, so she\u2019s kind of the reason I took it seriously.<\/p>\n

VOL: What platforms can people find your music on?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SV: Music is out on all platforms but primarily Soundcloud. I\u2019m currently trying to get all of my music on Spotify and Apple Music.<\/p>\n

VOL: What’s next for Sammy? What should we be looking out for?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SV: I\u2019ve got two bassline tracks coming out before New Years. One show I\u2019m particularly looking forward to is \u2018Keep Hush\u2019 with Conducta and some of the best UK Garage producers in the scene right now, where I\u2019ll be doing an exclusive livestream garage set.<\/p>\n

Like the sound of him? Check out a couple of his tracks:<\/p>\n