Sam Divine Interview

The D-Vine Sounds boss and Defected resident tells us about Ibiza, breaking records and her party on Friday March 4th

The globe-trotting Sam Divine has long been a fixture on the international club circuit. As resident for Defected she's played everything from warm up shows to headline slots everywhere from Ibiza to Amsterdam. More recently, however, she launched her own label, D-Vine Sounds, who showcase their depth of talent at Egg LDN this Friday March 4th – with Sam joined by Man Without A Clue, Curtis Gabriel, Jess Bays, CASSIMM and Casey Spillman. Buy tickets here.

With D-Vine Sounds having just celebrated its first birthday, we caught up with Sam to find out more about the label, how she started out and what else, besides music, she considers divine...

Hi Sam. How are you coping with the UK winter? Are you still jet-setting to warm places as much?

Hey! Well, I’m currently in Dubai so I’m coping just fine and can’t complain. I’ve played a lot of UK gigs this winter, which has been a nice change to my usual busy Europe schedule, but that's all about to change from May onwards, so I’m enjoying the motorways rather than the airports while I can.

You've long been associated with Defected, who won Best Label at DJ Mag's Best of British Awards. How did your history with them start? What does being their resident DJ entail?

I bought my first record on Defected in 2003, I went to my first Defected night in Ibiza in 2005 and I was signed to them in 2009, so it’s been a long serving relationship I’ve had with them, even before I was signed. Simon Dunmore, the owner of Defected, has been an amazing mentor. He’s guided me through every level of my career and he’s given me some incredible opportunities as a resident DJ; closing Amnesia terrace, closing We Are FSTVL, playing peak slots at tons of major festivals and headlining shows in Europe, but also letting me play warm up slots, which I still love to do but never get the chance to anymore at clubs like Pacha, Ushuaia and Air in Amsterdam, all my favourite places to do warm up. As a resident DJ you are expected to be put into any situation and bring you’re A Game every time. Simon trusts me to fully fly the flag for Defected all around the world and that’s a great feeling which makes me want to do my best every time.

How important is it spending each summer in Ibiza? Is it still the place where the tracks that break become the anthems for the autumn back in England?

I think it’s very important. It’s not a secret that I’m not a full time producer, so Ibiza has played a huge part in my career. I’ve been a resident at most of the clubs on the island now and this year will be my 11th season. I started out as a resident at a bar in the west end called Hush. This is where I really learnt my trade. Playing sometimes six nights a week to a different crowd every night, I really had to dig deep and get experimental so that I didn’t become a machine playing the same shit every night. Music moves so quickly throughout the summer; back in the day you could play a full set of ‘anthems’ on vinyl but nowadays you’ll be lucky to still be playing five records from May till September.

The party at Egg is hosted by your own label D-Vine sound. How long has it been going and what have been the challenges of starting a label? Are you A&Ring everything yourself?

It's been going just over a year now. We gave a free download away and the feedback was phenomenal. The first official release was April, which went Top 10, and our second release went No. 1 on Traxsource. A lot time goes into branding ideas and how we can grow the label as we are in this for the long haul. The set up of the label was fairly easy as I used to work in record shops as a house buyer for many years, so A&R played a huge role in my day to day duties. A label or distributor would play me a record down the phone, I then had to decide how many units I thought I could sell of that release. It was my job if you like to break certain records. I remember one release, I bought a 1000 units and the label had to repress the vinyl three times. It was all about how you worked a record, what DJs were championing that record and which pirates radio DJs were playing it. I learned so much from my record shop days that I applied that into my own record label. Two of my best friends help me run the label: Kamilla is appointed label manager and Jess A&R manager. We get sent an awful lot of music so Jess filters everything we get sent online and sources new talent, then we have weekly team meetings to go through everyone’s finds. We’re such a strong unit and we’re all on the same page with the label, which has played a huge part of the successful 12 months we have had.

Your most recent release was from Dantiez Saunderson, air to the Detroit techno throne. How did that come about and who else is lined up for releases next? Are there any more tracks coming from you?

Dantiez and I played on the same line-up in Ibiza but we missed each other on the night. He sent me an email congratulating me on the success of the label. I told him I was a huge fan of his work and he should send some music over for the label. Initially I made a conscience decision not to sign anyone big as the ethos of the label is to bring new up and coming artists through and give them a platform to use, but when the demo came through we all absolutely loved it so it would have been a stupid move to pass. We’re so happy we did sign it because its currently at No. 4 in the House charts. Curtis Gabriel did the first release and he’s playing on our UK tour so it made sense to ask him to remix the Dantiez track and that is currently at No. 3.

Your career began after winning a DJ competition in Bristol. How is it when you play back there now? It feels like its now widely know as one of the best places to party in the country.

I love playing in Bristol. More so because I get to hang out with my family and old friends. They see online what I’m up to but never get to experience it, so it’s nice for them to see what I do. Bristol has always been a great city for music. I only moved to London because I played soulful house at the time and Bristol was going more towards electronic so I had to take a leap of faith.

What are three things, besides music (and yourself) that you consider divine?

My best friend, my 2014 Air Jordan 6 Retro Infrareds and Thailand.