The day before Addicted spoke to Danny Howard, winner of Radio 1’s Superstar DJ competition, he had touched back down from Ibiza and headed straight to Blackpool’s Revolution to play a set. Life, since he entered the contest, has been pretty manic: “It’s been a hundred miles an hour”, he told Addicted.
Danny started DJing at eighteen when his friend lent him a pair of vinyl decks which he took to university and practiced every day. “I blagged a set at the local Student Union and got my friends to say how good I was!” – this led to a five year residence. When UK national station Radio 1 launched their hunt for the next Superstar DJ, he was a little slow on the uptake – “I wasn’t originally going to enter but a few friends gave me the nudge”. In his entry video, a nervously grinning Danny selected the first three tracks that he would play at the Radio 1 Ushuaia Beach Party if he won. He chose Ray Foxx – The Trumpeter, the Dario Nunez mix of Can’t Stop and Calvin Harris – Feel so Close (Benny Benassi mix).
He got a call to say that he had made it to the final six and that four days of DJ challenges in London awaited him. This included having to mix live on air for eight million people for five minutes which he describes as “amazing” but cites the MC challenge as the toughest “it was long, five minutes of having to hype the crowd”. On the Thursday that Danny won, he flew out to Ibiza and opened the beach party with a forty five minute set. Ushuaia was “the most stunning venue I’ve ever played at”.
Danny had holidayed in Ibiza two years ago and fallen for the White Isle’s offering of “the world’s best DJs and best clubs” but says it was nothing compared to traveling to Ibiza with Radio 1 and “being backstage with people like David Guetta and Carl Cox”. The magic didn’t stop after the Ushuaia Beach Party. On the back of his performance, he was instantly offered a two hour set at Space later that night. Since then the twenty four year old, who was “always into house music but liked to mash it up” and was inspired by Erick Morillo, has played Space again for Pukka Up, started looking at production by putting some tracks down with Sonny Wharton and played dance festival Creamfields.
His summer has been all about Ibiza though – “watching Bob Sinclair at Pacha absolutely blew me away” – and he’s hoping to head back out for the closing parties. Addicted asked him for his end of summer anthem? “The Jamie Jones mix of Azari & III – Hungry for the Power“.
Danny Howard spoke to Fran Harris, editor of ladyadventurer.co.uk. Find out more about Danny at his Facebook page.
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