Exclusive Sammy Porter Interview

With him recently releasing a remix to Todd Edwards’ ‘The Chant’, we got the chance to speak with DJ / Producer, Sammy Porter. From his favourite songs to his favourite Youtube channel, we got it all.

Sammy Porter how are you, how has lock down been treating you?

Good to be fair! Half enjoying having some more time during the first lockdown, last one dragged on though. Feel like I’ve learned A LOT this past year. Been a weird one here with the whole on off lockdown situation, more than ready to get back to business now though.

Describe your sound in 5 words 

“Rave-Sounding-Warehouse-Tech-House” but recently also found that this fits

“Not-suitable-for-social-distancing” fits it pretty well too.

What new skill have you discovered during lockdown?

DIY, DIY, and way to much DIY.

Built a fully soundproofed studio / livestream setup in my loft in the second lockdown and helped build a “socially distanced” outdoor pub beer garden venue during the last lockdown. Never knew how easy it was to rent tools and machinery that you could potentially kill yourself with, with almost zero knowledge of how to operate them other than the odd YouTube tutorial. Also didn’t know that if you stepped on part of your loft floor that you would fall through it but found that one out the hard way.

Todd Edwards’ tune, ‘The Chant’ is a big boy track. What made you want to remix this one?

I mean, its Todd Edwards. If it wasn’t for Todd Edwards music I still think I’d be knee deep into US rap & rock and might never of actually got into dance music in the first place. CD 2 of Pure Garage “Four To The Floor” mixed by DJ EZ and Todd Edwards was a moment for me, listening to that on school trips I discovered I was into more than early Eminem and Dr Dre rap music some questionable Limp Bizkit albums.

We got the opportunity to check out your remix of ‘The Chant’. You’ve added a whole new dimension to it, giving it more of a techy house bounce. What was your inspiration for creating this remix?

I wont lie, I made it for clubs. And we are yet to reopen clubs fully here. I made this remix going for a slamming club vibe and even went into a club that I work with to test the mixdown. If they let me I would of sat in the middle of E1 London ngihtclub with the full system on to finish this remix.

You have travelled around the world (and we have followed you to some places lol). What would be your top 3 clubs / festival you have played at?

So hard to just have 3, feel playing Ushuaia was a a big one, mainstage We Are FSTVL was massive and then Creamfields, all on the highlights list. Although I did accidently unplug the left deck when I got on stage at Ushuaia and it happened to be the deck that was playing. I still like a gritty / sweaty warehouse as much as I do a mainstage though. Feels like a lifetime ago though.

When you’re performing, do you prefer stage smoke or stage bubbles?

You know what, neither you know. The amount of good drops I’ve seen go wrong with the C02 going off at the wrong time would surprise you and a bubble machine reminds me when I was about 16 years DJing my birthday parties with a portable, not very pro, DJ set up and lighting rig.

Purist question here, Technics or Pioneer?

As much as I love a 1210 and all my old scratched up UKG and (what I feel is classic) grime vinyl collection, I don’t miss lugging them around train stations and airports with me. Rolling around with USB stick and some headphones has done wonders for my back and posture.

Your music catalogue is something to be admired. What Sammy Porter songs can’t you live without?

I owe a lot to the “A Bit Patchy” record which then went on to be “What We Started” with Jessica Agombar, took me so long to get the sample cleared and the vocal version got me a record deal with Sony in the process. Also feel “Back To Funk” with Martin Ikin, it came out right at the start of lockdown and I’ve still only ever played it in a full scale club once.

What tracks did you discover during lockdown that you can’t seem to stop playing?

Oh god, this defo isn’t going be the answer you were expecting or after or knew you needed. I feel like I’ve listened to podcasts more than anything this last year but that’s a whole other rabbit hole of weird listening. I also found some page on Spotify that has tracks that help you sleep with tinnitus, I’ve listened to that loads too when trying to sleep 😂  Been listening to quite a bit of UK rap when I’m not in the studio, Dave’s stuff is so sick,  even some of the drill lot. Been a strange year hasn’t it.

What’s your favourite Youtube channel and why?

Ah this is going sound weird AF too, there is this Swedish dude called Wintergarte.  He has basically built a machine that plays like a one man band, fully from scratch, that plays drums, a xylophone and a bass guitar using nothing but marbles. You have to see it to see what I mean, but he blogs how he has made it and I think I’ve watched every episode. The engineering ability mixed with making music appeals to me in uniquely geeky way, I can’t get enough of it.

What’s next for you in 2021?

Hopefully get back out there doing full scale gigs. Although it’s been nice to play some socially distanced shows over this semi lockdown, I’m itching to get back to playing normally. Never felt my music was that suited to sit down events and even though it’s better than nothing, turning the music down every time every the crowd gets up to dance is a headache that I don’t wish upon anyone.

I don’t think many promoters in the country have done as many socially distanced shows as some of the brands I work with and they have been great for keeping people entertained and employed during a extremely testing time for the nightlife industry, but organising and managing a socially distanced show is about 10x more stress than a normal one.

I’ve been busier than ever with remixes so got a nice stream of them lined up for the rest of the year, plus what could be a nice vocal summer single for the end of July. Never really had the timing right for a big summer song so could be a good one if we finally manage to get out of lockdown fully and get the clubs open.

Sat on so much club music that I’m dead eager to get out, just want to be able to road test a few of them first, this time with people actually in the club rather than just me sitting in the middle of it with my laptop plugged into the mixing desk.