With previous support from Annie Mac, Danny Howard and Pete Tong, Après teams up with Perfect Havoc & Night Beast to release ‘Give It Up’…
Après, welcome to DMC World, where are you right now?
Thanks for having me! I’m actually in JFK airport, New York, waiting to jump on a flight back to London.
Before we get into your new record, where and at what age did your musical journey begin?
My musical journey’s always been around really. I grew up learning to play the drums and piano since I was about 5-6 and haven’t stopped since! I went to uni with the aim of being a session drummer but discovered House music and DJing the summer before starting and that was it.
You just dropped ‘Give It Up’, tell us about this record and your inspirations for it?
Give It Up’s been sat on a hard drive waiting to see the light of day for about 18 months now. It started with a bootleg MIA vocal and was all built up from there, then along the journey of tweaking and tweaking, the vocal got swapped out for the sample you hear today. The inspiration came from those old, deep, ravey bass lines that Dusky came out with and the euphoric piano chord sequences that sit on top.
You’ve had a lot of support from some prestige names such as Pete Tong, Annie Mac & Danny Howard, how do you keep your music fresh?
For me it’s simply about creating tracks that I’d want to play out in a club. If I achieve that then hopefully other DJs will follow suit and club-goers will react to it. I’m a huge fan of those euphoric moments in a DJs set and try to produce music that could be one of those moments for people.
What’s the best advice you could give a new aspiring dance producer?
I think it’s important not to get caught up in the trending sounds of House music at that moment in time. Create music you are really into because trends will keep changing you will struggle to keep up so pick a sound that you’re passionate with and run with it!
What are your top five career highlights up until now?
In no particular order.. Hearing my music on Radio 1 (never gets old!), Supporting Disclosure in Prague (they were a huge inspiration when I was just getting to know the dance music scene), Playing Dalt Vila in old town Ibiza (the view, the crowd & the support from Annie Mac was overwhelming), watching Laurent Garnier play my track at a Boiler Room session (the crowd went crazy for it!), DJing at the Warehouse Project (really going to miss the Store Street venue for their epic nights.) 
What can fans expect in 2019 from Après?
2019 will be a year of loads of new music. There’s some really exciting material that I’m sitting on, eagerly waiting to share with you all and also a year of collaborations. Making music with mates in the industry has been so rewarding recently and having just moved into a new London studio.. there’s a lot of collaborations to be had over the next 12 months!
Lastly what are the big 5 tunes in your box this weekend?
Camelphat & Cristoph – Breathe
Skeleton Keys – Night & Day
Gorgon City – Blame (Terrace Dub)
Huxley – 5 Dollars
Pirate Copy – Piano Track
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Follow Après on:
ttp://facebook.com/apressounds
