The line-up for Summadayze this year is phenomenal. It’s a line-up that includes the likes of The Presets and Carl Cox, plus the blistering talent of DJ Danny Howells. As a veteran of the DJ scene with 18 years experience under his belt, Howells will be bringing a sound that is loud, polished and uniquely his own. He chatted to OUTinPerth about the upcoming festival season.

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How do you find the touring these days?
The work never gets boring. The actual moment you sort of get into the club the actual work doesn’t get boring, but the travel does become draining. I find it a lot harder now that I’m older than I was when I first started doing it, obviously. I think when you are in your mid 20’s you do have unlimited energy and you can go nights and nights without sleeping and you can go to after-parties and just keep going, bang-bang-bang kind of thing, without really feeling it.

Is there anything about this festival that you’re looking forward to?
There’s a lot of people on there I’m actually dying to hear like James Murphy and Juan Maclean, whom I’ve been a big fan of. There’s a lot of people on there I don’t normally get to play on the same bill as. Take some of the DJs, for example; there’s a lot of guys on there that I’m really quite desperate to hear play, people whose records I buy and am a big fan of. It’s really great for me to do that; to play events where you’re actually sort of inspired by the line-up and it’s got a really brilliant, diverse line-up. I don’t know what to expect. I’ve never done this festival before but judging by the sort of people that are playing there it looks like it’s going to be a great time.

Do you have an all-time favourite festival?
Glastonbury. I think the whole event is like a four, five day event and the whole thing is a story; it’s difficult to really think about any particular thing that makes it so special. For me, everyone’s got their own favourite place they love going to. I’m the same with Glastonbury; every time Glastonbury finished I feel tearful and start counting down the days of the year til the next one comes along.

What can you tell our readers about this new label, Dig Deeper, that you’ve set up?
It’s just a label – so far I’m releasing my own music on it. I set it up basically to have an outlet for the music I was producing because I was producing quite a lot, so it made a lot of sense for me to keep it all in one place rather than trying to send out tapes to all these different labels, trying to get deals. So mainly the bulk of it’s been house; there’s been some dance-tempo stuff on there, there’s been some ambient and some drum and base, but predominantly house music. A lot of it is deeper, hence the name of the label, and I’m up to eight releases so far, this is the eighth release now – I think it’s actually out now, it’s called In Black.

What do you currently love the most about the music industry?
I like the fact that music on a whole is the stuff that I’m into; it’s a lot slower, a lot groovier, the techno’s fused with the house and the house producers are getting more techy. It’s kind of been a complete reversal of styles over the last couple of years, you know; people who used to be producing techno at 140 BPM are now making house music at 120 BPM; it’s all kind of completely reversed itself and genres have gotten even more mashed-up than they were. You can constantly be surprised, because you’ll get a track from a producer you’ve not heard from in a couple of years, and you suddenly hear where they’ve ended up, production-wise, and it’s like a sort of mind fuck to hear the way people have diversified their sound. I think musically, we’re not quite sure where it’s going, which is part of the exciting thing. But yeah, I think we’re seeing a complete mash-up of all the genres right now and it’s really inspiring music.

Danny Howells will be appearing at Summadayze on Sunday January 3 at the Supreme Court Gardens. Tickets are available now. www.summadayze.com.au