Techno DJ and producer AZYR has had an impressively quick rise in success over the last two years.
The 23-year-old has had an intriguing career path. AZYR, also known as Oliver, had spent four years at Rolls Royce studying for an aeronautical engineering apprenticeship.
But after experimenting with some decks during COVID, the boy from Blackpool found a new passion. It wasn’t until this time last year that he decided to take the leap of faith and do DJing full-time.
Oliver is a self-taught DJ and producer with absolutely no previous musical knowledge. After receiving the decks as a gift from his father it all progressed from there.
He told Brig he learned through YouTube videos and practiced during the lockdowns. Oliver told Brig “if it weren’t for COVID-19, I wouldn’t have done it.
“With DJing and music production, you’re always learning. There’s always new things to pick up. Then, after a space of two years, I signed with the agency I am with now”.
His mum, Louisa, also told us you could find him out front in the sun putting a performance on for everyone. But we are unsure how pleased the neighbours would have been by that.
Fortunately, Oliver got lucky and was signed to an agency within the space of two years.
After attending a hardcore techno event by Teletech, AZYR got the golden opportunity to perform as other DJs had dropped out of the event.
“Obviously, I turned up with my USB and I played that day. Then on the same day, that’s when they told me about the agency and said that they want me to be a part of it.”
“But before then, I’d only played like three times, So it was weird. At the time I didn’t really feel like I deserved it. I wasn’t doing anything that anybody else was doing.”
Who Influences AZYR
Oliver has always been an avid raver. He is a big fan of things like tech house and people such as Patrick Topping. He says that attending so many festivals has helped fuel the inspiration he holds today.
“It sort of just completely changes your music tastes and your perception of the whole scene. All the inspiration that I had was there just from attending these sorts of events.”
Oliver has played some impressive stages since being spotted by techno event company Teletech, including a set at Manchester Boiler Room which was streamed to millions.
After having only 3 shows under his belt, Oliver was signed to the company. With a crowd of 3,000 people at Manchester Boiler Room, it’s quite a leap from his first gig in Blackpool of around 300 people.
If you are a fan of techno it will be pretty hard to miss the videos of AZYRZ’s electrifying sets as he has taken social media by storm. With 81.8K followers on TIKTOK and over 100k on Instagram, AZYR has gathered quite the fanbase.
The Rise in Techno
In recent years techno and rave culture has become more and more popular among young people, this could be partly due to the increased exposure of sets on social media
Brig asked Azyr what his thoughts were on this new trend.
“The scene has completely changed after COVID. Like I said, I was going to the events before then and the crowds were just so much smaller than what they are now.
“After COVID, everyone wants to just go out and party. This is the new trend at the minute. So everyone wants to go and do it. Everyone wants to go to these big events.
“The hard techno genre that I play, it’s been introduced to the scene and everyone loves it and it’s just become the biggest trend at the minute and I don’t really know where it’s going to go.
“It’s exciting like you’ve just got to go with the times.”
With a fully packed schedule for 2024, including festivals like Creamfields and Terminal V, it doesn’t look like Oliver will be slowing down anytime soon.
I guess there isn’t a party like an Azyr party.
Feature image credit: @ xjmcvmedia on Instagram