As he marks his fourth full release on Hot Creations with Flashlight, we interview leading UK talent Darius Syrossian about the release and its influences which date back to ’90s U.S. House sounds.
Selector, producer, label curator and radio host Darius Syrossian has dedicated his life to collecting and sharing the highest quality house and techno records. His productions have landed on respected labels including Get Physical, Drumcode, 8Bit, Moon Harbour, We Are The Brave and Defected, with whom his ethos is strongly aligned. Alongside his exploits in the studio and on the road, he has also launched his own record label – Moxy Muzik, which hit the ground running in 2019 with regular sold out Moxy Muzik events at 93 Feet East in London and South Nightclub in Manchester.
Delving into his extensive back catalogue of vinyl, Darius explains how his early admiration of Junior Vasquez inspired the release.
“I listened back to one of his sets that I used to have on cassette. He was a massive influence on my sound and a DJ I really appreciated, not just for the tough US house sound but he believed a DJ should play long extended sets. He never really sold out, turning down big money to tour, but stayed and played both Friday and Saturday night at the Sound Factory in New York. Flashlight is inspired by him… he used to shine flashlights on dancers on the dancefloor when he was spinning and Madonna used to come down and she would pick her dancers who toured with her from the club…. I watched a documentary about this the night before I made this track”.
Flashlight embodies the warehouse sound with tough snares, a raw bass and thunderous kicks. On the flip Boujee B’ takes inspiration from Darius’ love of the Strictly Rhythm house sound.
“I said this year I wanna go back to my roots and focus more on house, those US house ‘dubs’ that were played by people like Sneak, Van Helden, Gemini, R Sanchez, Derrick Carter etc… this is inspired by that vibe…”
It’s clear Darius’ productions have been influenced by a longing of the past, so we felt it was apt to catch up with him to see how he has been doing during these COVID-19 lockdown months.
Read our exclusive interview with Darius Syrossian below.
Hi Darius, nice chatting with you! It’s been a while since you were here in LA and a lot has happened since. How has 2020 been for you given all the unprecedented things we are experiencing and living through?
Hi guys, yeah I enjoyed my time back in LA when I was over, met some great people and looking forward to coming back. 2020 has been a strange year for obvious reasons but I have made sure I am putting the time in lockdown to good use and I’ve been very prolific in the studio. I’ve had releases on my on MOXY MUZIK label, as well as Phil Weeks’ Robsoul label, a remix on Defected, an ep on DFTD, also on Hot Creations and I have lots of forthcoming releases, on Steve Lawler’s VIVa MUSiC label, Ben Rau’s META label, on Moan Recordings from Italy, a remix for Ronnie Spiteri and I’ve also remixed Frankie Knuckles ‘Your Love’, which was an honour.
I’ve also done a few collabs with Bushwacka, and I’ve just finished a new collaboration with Jamie Jones which everyone will be hearing in the coming months, so yeah very busy in the studio.
How have you been doing in lockdown? Where did you spend that time and how was it there?