[FEATURE] VIPER PRESENTS: SAMMY VIRJI

UK-based DJ/Producer Sammy Virji had a huge 2023, with a sold-out headline London show, followed by Australia, New Zealand and North America tours! Get familiar with this VIPER interview…

What five words define your sound?

Summery, bouncy, swingy, bassy, smooth.

Tell me something unique about your creative process.

Lots of trial and error!

Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?

‘Find My Way Home’.

Where’s the most comfortable you feel writing music?

Weirdly I’m most comfortable making music lying in bed procrastinating instead of sleeping. I’ll just make music with my headphones for hours!

What’s the best / worst experience you’ve had on stage?

Best: On my recent US tour multiple shows people had made T-shirts with my name on them and their own versions of merch.

Worst: Back in the Bassline days I used to play a track where me and my MC (Cunning) would to get the crowd to jump from side to side which usually worked amazingly well and really hyped up the place. We did this one show where they just weren’t up for it quite as much, but I played the tune anyway hoping Cunning wouldn’t call out the crowd. Unfortunately he did and I ran on stage to back him up – we were both jumping trying to get the crowd going but they were at an absolute standstill – one of the most embarrassing things I’ve done on stage

What is your favourite song to perform?

‘Shella Verse’

Which artist/song/album made you want to make music? 

Chase and Status’, ‘More Than A Lot’ was the first Dance album that really resonated with me but I’ve always wanted to make music.

If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?

Potentially being a Doctor or Biologist – I studied Biology at Uni with the intention of doing Medicine as a post-grad. I never wanted to do it, I always secretly wanted to do music.

What’s success to you?

If your music can resonate with one or more people on a deep level.

What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?

When I was at Uni I was getting booked for a fair few gigs and got to point i calculated i could technically make a living off just the gigs, so dropped out and went for it!