Dutch artist Julian Anthony has been steadily embedding himself into the consciousness of the world’s dancefloors and with the skill set at his disposal, this is no surprise. Working his way through the ranks of his home scenes, it wasn’t long before bigger and bigger parties beckoned. With a rich and diverse electronic scene within touching distance from an early age, Julian soon became entrenched in the world of dance music.
These early encounters let us begin our discussion about his continued adventure into sound, “My first memories of electronic music came from my parents. When I was little they were listening to a lot of disco, funk and pop music. During the late 70s, they started to use a lot of synthesizers to recreate those genres. Also, my dad used to play some house back in the day as I was born in the 90’s. The next step was playing the drums for me. When I was 9 my parents gave me my first drumkit for my birthday and I’ve been playing it until my late 20s which helped me shape my musical journey.”
Holland has always been at the forefront of clubbing and with Julian coming of age he had the world at his feet. Julian is recognised as a rising star in the realm of tech-house, so it was interesting to learn that this is not where the first steps were placed, “I was 17 when I started going to my first raves. I mainly got into techno when I was that age and I still really love ’90s techno to be fair. I was also listening to some Drum and Bass, Dub and Jungle during those early years. It wasn’t until my 19th though that I started listening to a lot of house music and went to places like Utrecht and Amsterdam to party.”
The Dutch domestic scene is rightly seen as a pillar of the Euro scene with many of its major cities being synonymous with house, techno and its many harder variants, as well as the world-beating trance of the 90s. Julian gives his side of the story of the current Dutch landscape, “I think the Dutch scene has been quite incredible over the years that I’ve been going to parties and during the time I was coming up as an artist. Especially the last few years it’s been better than ever. The Netherlands is small and we have a big club and festival season every year. There are a fair few locations to throw parties, especially in Amsterdam and the quality of music has been very high. You have crews and parties like Slapfunk, VBX, Picnic who throw parties in Clubs like BRET, Shelter, Club Raum, LoFi and some of the best festivals like Wildeburg, DGTL, Awakenings, Dekmantel, Lowlands. Also, Amsterdam Dance Event is a massive highlight every year.”
It would seem that Jullian has already gone full circle with regards to the clubs he first attended as he is now a regular at these events, “Mainly Slapfunk and VBX. Those were the parties I’ve been going to since the beginning of my partying years. Both of them still stand stronger than ever as brands host stages at incredible festivals and parties all over the globe. Also, festivals like DGTL, Dekmantel, Awakenings were leading the way for me during those early years in the Netherlands.“ Julian goes on to explain what he feels is so exciting about these events, “I think what makes Slapfunk and VBX so special is a combination of their curation of DJs in combination with picking the right venues, making sure the sound system sounds great and their built-up community. Having a passion for quality music and not for the fame, money or status.” He continues to heap praise on these two powerhouse promoters, “I think they’re still the ones pushing quality over anything. The big difference compared to a lot of newer events these days is that they’ve built a strong community of like-minded people who will come to their parties no matter what. This comes forth from years of organizing those parties.”
Any aspiring DJ needs these sorts of goals to work towards and with this in mind, Julian explains how his DJ journey began, “My first DJ gig was in my hometown in the Netherlands which is Zwolle. I was asked to play a set in a bar but I had never touched a CDJ or turntable in my life at that point and I said yes to the gig. I had to learn how to mix right then and there on the spot which was not the easiest, to say the least. From then on I started taking it more seriously and working on my track selection a lot. I worked as a bartender at that time and we had a DJ setup in the bar. Before my shift, I would go there and just try to mix for an hour or so and after that, I’ve picked it up quite quickly. From there on out it has been quite a journey where I played a lot of opening slots for pretty much no fee or anything just to build up experience.” Julian also goes on to explain what sort of music he was playing at this time, “I was playing a lot of house and techno from my friends at this point who were producing music like Locklead, De Sluwe Vos, Wouter S, Samuel Deep, Malin Genie, Chris Stussy. Most of it was newer music. Nowadays I tend to play pretty much only older music.”
Self-promotion is now such a huge part of the DJ toolkit, but if you are lucky enough to come up in a well-nurtured scene, a popping Instagram or Facebook page is not always needed. Julian explains that he went down the old-school social route to promote himself, “Just going to the parties that I wanted to play and meeting people there helped a lot for me. Also, I didn’t really do it just to get a gig out of it but more to meet like-minded people who were into the same music as myself and I really enjoyed going to those parties as well. Back then were the early years of social media so when I had a gig I invited friends personally through Facebook messages or by texting them to come to my gigs.”
With Julian now making serious moves up the ranks, he explains that it was not always the case and like everybody, he had to play the difficult early slots, “As I said earlier I had to play a lot of opening slots in the early days. I was playing for empty rooms without getting paid or only getting gas money. I didn’t really mind since I got to play all my found music on a big sound system instead of listening to it at home.” He goes on to explain how things soon began to pick up for him after a meeting with a friend, “Two years later I met my good friend Wesley (Locklead) at a party in my hometown and he made me start producing my own music that’s when I got picked up by Prunk, also Chris Stussy who gave me my first opportunity to play in Amsterdam. I played together with my good friend and wicked DJ – Raw Equipment. We used to do all-nighters in the 2nd room where we played quite deep and minimalistic.”
Julian Antony is now a name that is well-known for infectious dancefloor earworms and he has a growing number of underground heaters to his name. One such entry in Julian’s back catalogue commands serious respect as it is the release that helped to break his name into bigger circles, “After 3 years into my production journey, I made the track ‘Raspberry Flurry’ which came out on Beeyou Records. I met Reece and Jamie (Laidlaw & Just Jam) a few years before that in Ibiza and we never stayed in touch until Laidlaw had his first gig in Amsterdam. We’ve invited him to do a radio show with us in Amsterdam and after that, I’ve sent him some music. This track became the breakthrough track for me as it made me start playing in the UK a lot.”
Anthony’s sound is tailor-made for the UK. With more than a nod to 90s garage and funk-infused tech house, Julian landing this pivotal EP on this London-based Beeyou was the catalyst for more UK adventures, “Playing in the UK felt like coming home for me because I had listened to so much UK-influenced music and of course, the sound that Slapfunk pushed at that time had influenced me a lot as well. I really love the musical culture of the UK since it’s a perfect blend of different sounds from all over the world. I started playing in the UK regularly for Beeyou, Appetite, Infuse and had the honour to play fabric Room 3 during a sold-out fabric night.”
“After that, my gig schedule started to pick up more and more in the Netherlands and I started playing festivals and parties like DGTL, Awakenings, Wildeburg, Thuishaven, Slapfunk, and VBX – 3 years later around 2018 I started touring South America for the first time and Australia as well which have been a big highlight every year for me personally. It wasn’t until last year that I started to dive deeper in the sound I love and started to play for the brands and parties/festivals that resonate with me deeply like Half Baked, Gottwood, Fuse, Wildeburg, Paradigm, VBX and Slapfunk. One of the highlights of this year has to be playing at Glastonbury Festival. It’s probably the best festival I’ve been to in my life, so it was a massive honour to be able to play here.”
Being a full-time artist in the ascent is no easy task and being true to oneself and their craft is even harder. The trend of social media being key to the success of a musician is a hot topic that is furiously contested, but one that Julian is acutely aware of and seems to be navigating with care, “I don’t think I’ve ever tried to follow a trend or a hype. I think the best marketing move is genuinely being yourself and being content with what you’re radiating out to the world. Also, I’m aware that being active on social media is a way of connecting with the people that love your music so, I try to keep everything as personal as I can while also being professional about it.”
Remaining on the topic of Julian’s productions, he explained his ethos on crafting the infectious bombs that his sets are crammed full of, “I’d say, my production always has a certain feel or emotion in them that reflects the mood I’m in at that point in time. I’m not aiming to sound like anything or anyone else, but I’m obviously inspired by all the music that I’ve heard on dance floors over the years. For me, personally, it helps a lot to be on the dancefloor listening to another DJ’s set and going into the studio after that.” Being much further down the road in his artist development, Julian gives insight into his creative process, “It keeps on changing all the time. I feel like this has been a thing for me where there are too many different sounds and genres that I like. So when I started out I was sticking to a certain sound in production and because of that I wasn’t really feeling the music that I was making as I had something in mind that was completely different from what I was making most of the time.”
He continues to explain how his studio sessions often pan out, “I said to myself that every time I sit in the studio is just try to make music without thinking of certain genres, labels or anything in that order. It took me 8 years to release my first EP and I think this shift in the studio has helped massively with that. I’m trying to take my time with releasing as well as I feel like the market is quite saturated right now with music that doesn’t stick with people. I never have a firm idea. Whereas I just go with the flow. A lot of people say that I have a certain sound but I don’t hear it myself at all. I just try to make a lot of music in different styles and only put out what I think is worth putting out. Every piece of music that I put out is a certain milestone for me during my journey as an artist.”
As well as his impressive touring schedule, Julian has also been juggling his recently acquired parenthood with his burgeoning artistic career. He of course still makes time to get into the studio and with a string of releases that recently include a rock-solid 4-tracker on x-kalay and a remix on Caposile Music, new sonic material is on the way, “I’m doing a release on Dungeon Meat which should be coming out in a few weeks. I’ve been sitting on these tracks for about 4 years now and some of them have been my most requested tunes till date. I’m very happy it found such a great home and I can’t wait to get it out there. I’m also releasing a track on fabric which will be out on the 4th of October. Next to that i’m working on a few EP’s for 2025 that I’ll be able to announce in the future.”
We round out our discussion with Julian by him giving us the inside track on how he crafted his offering for Free Download series. “On Da Floor” is a tidy slab of Grade-A dancefloor weaponary and here Julian explains his production process, “I made this track as a tool for my own sets and it has been doing it’s thing on the dancefloor. All the drums and are sampled from my own record collection. I’ve decided to keep it simple on this one where the main element is a 303 bassline. Before making the track i’ve just bought the ABL 3 plugin which is a 303 emulator and this came out as a first try. The vocal comes from a mephis funk record that i’ve sampled and chopped to fit the track. Hope you’ll enjoy!”
You can download “On Da Floor” by Julian Anthony via our Soundcloud page.
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