SILK B2B Broke Magazine: Day One Decks, Spongebob Memes, Mullets & New Music

When we first stumbled across SILK at the start of 2023, we slid straight into his DMs, asking for an interview with the emerging producer/DJ. Fast forward a year or so later, and we’ve finally pinned him down. Finding his stride with ‘Quiver’ and solidifying the fragmented drops, electrified emotions and chest-punching euphoria that’s as signature to SILK as his messy mullet, we caught up with EDMs next big name following the release of his newest single ‘Last Time’ to ask him the intrusive questions we all wanna know the answers to…

Broke Magazine: Do you have any music-related stories your mates would rinse you for?

SILK: I was desperate to get into DJing, and all I wanted to do was play my first gig, so I was DMing promoters, and 512 in London went, “Yeah, come down”. I went to play a set, 2am ’til 4am, no one turned up, which was fine, you know, it happens, but all my mates came and it was sick. The promoter said at the end of it “Here’s 50 quid, come down to the next one and I’ll put you on at midnight, Saturday night.” So, I’m on the way down to London, I bigged it up so much, midnight, headline slot, it’s gonna be unreal. We get to the club, walk in and to the side, there’s a buffet of chicken wings and stuff. I thought, “Weird, but okay.” We walk into the club, there’s a bashment DJ on and loads of middle-aged women. Turns out it was this Jamaican lady’s 60th birthday he’d booked me for, I was like, “Oh yeah, this is gonna go down well”, I’d prepped a bassline set, nothing like what I do now, it was hardcore. I got to the stage, I’d seen dancefloors clear before but never like this, before I even played a song, they were pissed that this DJ before me had come off and were just staring at me. It was the most intense moment of my life. I reckon I got about two songs in, one of them was ‘Champion Gunshot’, which is the lightest thing I had in my record box, felt like hours and then like five, ten minutes into my set, the promoter guy came over and was like “I’m gonna get the other guy on, I’ve stitched you up, here’s the money for two hours”. I get another £50,
he’s like, “I’d get out of here now if I were you”. It’s funny cause everything after that was a walk in the park.

Broke Magazine: Can you describe your music in the most unconventional way possible?

SILK: You know that Spongebob meme, where he’s got his headphones on, and he’s like…hang on (pulls phone out). Spongebob…(typing), headphone…(typing), meme…(typing). THIS ONE!

Broke Magazine: We’ve been stalking your Spotify since you popped up on our TikTok fyp. What’s life been like with more and more people paying attention to your music the past year?

SILK: It doesn’t really feel like much has changed at all, the travelling has been the maddest thing, seeing the change in the size of shows. I did a live show in London, and that was quite a seminal ‘What the hell is going on?” moment because we sold that out.

Broke Magazine: That must be an immense feeling. How did you first discover EDM?

SILK: My dad was into dance music when I was younger and would always have it on around the house, but I never really got into it, I was always into pop-punk stuff. When I got into college, you know everyone starts smoking weed and shit…

Broke Magazine: Wait, sidebar for a sec, what’s your dream blunt rotation?

SILK: I would do…ah hang on…one hundred percent Tom DeLonge from Blink 182, cause imagine getting stoned with him and talking about aliens and shit, how mad would that be? Joey Diaz…or Theo Von…actually, yeah, I’m gonna swap Joey Diaz for Jon Theo Von. Ross from Friends, David Schwimmer, but as Ross from Friends, that’s a sick lineup. They can all freak each other out.

Broke Magazine: We rate that rotation, carry on…

SILK: So yeah, one of my mates, Rob, who now subsequently hates all dance music, played this My Nu Leng set round his one night, and I was like, “WHAT IS THIS?” Once he played me that, I was off down this massive rabbit hole. I watched DJ EZ’s Boiler Room, who followed me by the way, just throwing that in there…

Broke Magazine: A solid namedrop if we’ve ever heard one.

SILK: Hahaha, that was like a serious box tick for me. I was like, “Oh shittt”, but yeah, I watched his Boiler Room set and was like, “Jesus Christ, I need to start. My 17th birthday was coming up, and my nan was like, “What do you want?”. We went together and brought NuMark’s…do you know those mini decks?

Broke Magazine: Wait, I think we actually have those exact ones. (Holds decks up to the camera)

SILK: YES, them! How weird is that? 

Broke Magazine: So your nan brought your first pair of decks? That’s adorable, like fucking great.

SILK: She’s always been the number one fan, wholesome content.

Broke Magazine: So, you quit your job to pursue music. What solidified your decision to do this?

SILK: I was at a point in my life where I was struggling with mental health, and both my parents moved out of Watford, where I grew up. I was working this job, and it wasn’t something I really wanted to do. I noticed my music had taken a backburner for a couple years, and the longer I’d been away from it, the worse I felt, so I thought, “I’m 23 this year, I’m only young once, you can afford to take this opportunity.” I saved about three months worth of money, managed to stretch that over six months and basically took a sabbatical from my job. I literally sat in my room for six months, made music all day, stopped drinking, stopped smoking, didn’t get a haircut for like three months, that’s where the mullet came from.

Broke Magazine: The mullet is so SILK-coded like it’s entwined with your music now.

SILK: That’s when the project was born! It feels like cutting it off would be bad luck now, we’re nearly two years later, which is insane.

Broke Magazine: Any advice for other creatives considering doing the same?

SILK: If you’re making music in this day and age, there’s certain boxes you need to tick with social media and stuff, it sucks, but I saw something really cool online last night that said back in the day, you’d have to go out, tour and play to three people every night and I think that probably would have sucked as much as posting a TikTok and it getting 200, 300 views and not feeling validated.

Broke Magazine: Which DJs are in your DMs right now?

SILK: My DMs? I’ll tell you a mad one, I had Ben Nicky recently, and he sent me a really nice message after ‘Last Time’ came out which said… (checks phone) “Absolutely loving your music mate, keep it up”. I replied, we got chatting, and we’ve actually started a tune together now, which is bonkers.

Broke Magazine: You’ve gotta pick an opening track for a set on the spot right now, what’ll it be?

SILK: It would be the intro to my new EP, which isn’t out yet, it’ll be March.