A familiar face to Dublin, London-based DJ Huxley is vital listening if you plan on getting in amongst the House scene here. A Garage influenced maestro who has been honing his skills for 15 years, getting lifts to Watford to buy records in his local store at the age of 11, leading to a career in mixing variants of deep house and skipping percussion.
Speaking to him ahead of his Friday night set in Casa Bacardi at Electric Picnic, we get a chance to delve into his influences, what makes the London club scene great, and exactly how much he loves Dublin.
Inspired by one of his favourite writers, Aldous Huxley and the novel “Brave New World”. Taking the surname of the famous writer and using it as his moniker is both simple and clever. Now as he plays gigs in Amsterdam’s burgeoning dance scene and further onto the States, it is safe to say he’s prominent fixture.
Starting out, a younger Michael Dodman (Huxley) first stepped into music while listening to his friends do the same. Going to his local record store, Freedom Records, in Watford to buy releases that, by then, were difficult to source given the pre-digital download era. Club nights were hard to come by also, only making it to Bass raves at around the age of fifteen.
The London club scene is quite the topic at the moment with the incident at Fabric and the newly launched Night Tube. ”I used to go to places like The Quay and also The Cross in King’s Cross which aren’t around anymore. It is a shame really, I was lucky.” Asking if he believes the city is on a clampdown of such venues new and old, he adds, “I think there is a clampdown, as a lot of these places are being turned into flats and stuff. I hope they don’t, it is as If they start to get rid of the things that make London great.”
Compared to our own scene, which is rising with various promoters and club nights across the city, how would Huxley rate it on his previous visits? “It’s great, even though in Ireland you have an early lockout time”.
As his own show on Rinse FM comes to an end next month after 3 impactful years, up next is the 7th release from his latest project on label No Idea’s Original, an outlet for a wide range of “techno and weird” sounds from Huxley and artists. Developing into a showcase, he hopes that it is “music I wanted to play, but putting it out myself”.
For now, following a few days off, Huxley will headline the Friday night of Casa Bacardi at Electric Picnic. A stage he has “heard a lot about” , which after describing it to him as a sort of ‘white chapel of house music’ in the middle of stages to around 50,000 plus people, he adds; “It sounds like a great stage to play on”.
It will not be his only performance on Irish shores this year though, as the recently announced District 8 line-up will see him return in November. “I won’t be here for long unfortunately, flying out Saturday morning. But I am close to the guys at Bedlam and District 8, I’ve never had a bad show in Ireland.”.
Huxley plays Casa Bacardi stage at Electric Picnic on Friday night at 10pm. You can also catch him at District 8, Dublin on 26 November 2016.
RobMoro 
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