"It’s a record with incredibly brave production it embraces intensity. It felt like a true discovery of my own - a form of coming of age. But this album came into my life through my own research. "Before that so much of the music I was into came from my dad and his record collection, so a lot came from hearing stuff in the house. It reminds me of going out into the world on my own because it was a record I discovered by myself. I remember listening to it for the first time on headphones and being transported somewhere else. “I was probably about 16 when I discovered Loveless and it remains my favorite album. It’s his fascination with off-kilter and occasionally unsettling melodic journeys that has not only inspired his own work, but has helped to shape the identity of music that has gone on to deeply impact others. The songs Avery has chosen are all examples of fearless artists daring to create music that finds beauty in the eerie spaces and ethereal sounds of an other-wordly consciousness. You’re connected to something that is deep inside you.” To Avery, the artists that have inspired him most, have done just that. “I think I’ve won if I can see people with their eyes closed, but that doesn’t mean it’s a passive experience. From there, his path towards DJing, and techno, began.įor many, listening to techno is an experience in zoning out, but for Avery, it’s more about zoning in. After months of “hanging around too much” he was offered the opening slot on the weekly line-up. It was here that he realised how expansive electronic music could be when intelligently placed beside other genres. He soon came across a club night called Project Mayhem, which was run by a guy called Matt, who also managed a record shop in the town. It remains one of my most exciting times.” “At 18, there was that real rush of discovery of going backwards and making those connections with things like Black Sabbath, New Order, The Stooges. “Guitar music became my first love”, he tells me when we meet in a coffee shop in West London. His father, an avid record collector, introduced him to some of the greats, taking him to his first gig, The Prodigy, at the age of 11. What he saw in his immediate field of vision were clubs and a buzz for music that didn’t resonate with him. Growing up in the seaside town of Bournemouth, the music scene felt very insular.
But as Avery points out, when he looks back at the music that impacted him most, it’s telling that he didn’t discover techno first. Daniel Avery sticks out in the mind as an accomplished electronic DJ and producer, with tracks that gradually layer hazy textures and vibrations to create full-bodied sounds that audiences around the world have excitedly absorbed.