Davey Asprey’s ascent to the upper echelons of the trance scene has been no accident.
Having DJed tirelessly in the UK underground scene over the last decade, he has slowly built his gig CV up and down the country, developing a great reputation for his diverse range of styles and sets. Perfectly at ease with both warm-up duties or the peak-time frenzy, he inevitably drew the attention of the major clubbing brands, earning himself a place on the line-ups of many of them.
One festival that he recently was a part of was ASOT 900. Right after his set, we had a conversation where Davey explained his nervousness on opening the “Who’s afraid of 138?!” stage, and also went on to reveal his plans for 2019.
Elsi – Here at ASOT900 with Davey Asprey! How nervous were you to open the “Who’s afraid of 138?!” stage tonight?
Davey Asprey – There’s obviously always a lot of pressure with the opening for a stage because you have to set the mood and the tone for the rest of the night. But I approach every gig with the same sort of mindset, you know, big or small I sort of imagine I’m back in my bedroom and nobody’s there. But yeah, a lot of stuff going on in the background to even make it to the opening of the stage. The car that was meant to take us to the stage on a two-minute journey got stuck in traffic for 20 minutes and ended up being 10 minutes late for the set. We ended up jumping out of the car and sprinting across the street, in and out of the traffic, up to an embankment into the venue just to make it for the set. I’m still kind of exhausted from it.
Elsi – Well, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one with a crappy start…cars, and traffic!
Davey Asprey – Everything that could have gone wrong for a DJ, went wrong for me during my set. Hopefully, everyone else enjoyed it!
Elsi – Were you satisfied with how the audience accepted your set? Because you did explain on Instagram already what you were going to do.
Davey Asprey – I had 10 or 12 original tracks, two remixes, of the original tracks there were also collaborations with some of the artists I actually manage so it was good to give them exposure. But yeah, I think it went really well. There was one point when I looked up and the lights came on at the same time and I could see far back into the arena and it blew my mind. Think I smiled a bit too much at the camera. My phone’s buzzing constantly, I think the feedback is been quite positive even though during the set there was a network error with one of the CDJ’s and I had to turn it off and on again. That ruined one of my tracks so…But I really, really enjoyed it.
Elsi – I was going to ask how your overall experience was so far but I guess that pretty much answers that question…
Davey Asprey – It started off stressful, then went really well, then a bit stressful but it ended on a high note. I got to play the tracks that I wanted. There were three or four that people were expecting I’m guessing that I just couldn’t fit in due to the delay of me getting to the arena. But hopefully a good exposure for the artists that I’m working with because I’m all about promoting the next generation of trance artists.
Elsi – You were on early, so which stages do you really want to see still?
Davey Asprey – I’m going to try and pop into every stage. A lot of my friends are playing here tonight and just dip my head in and out, in and out, in and out. The one guy that I did want to see was EXIS, we were playing at the same time.
Elsi – He was very good!
Davey Asprey – He’s a good friend of mine, we had a great time playing at EDM Mania last year. That’s where I first met him. We’ve kept in contact since. But I’m really happy to hear that he absolutely smashed it, that’s really, really cool!
Elsi – So, you’ve got 12 new originals, are those the releases for this year? Or do you still intend to do more?
Davey Asprey – It’s going to be a difficult one to schedule, I’m not sure what Armada want to do. Some of them haven’t actually been confirmed as signed yet but I’ve still played them tonight. The reaction was good, so we’ll see!
Elsi – Will we be able to catch you at any big festivals this summer?
Davey Asprey – Yeah, there are still several that I have to keep quiet because they’re not announced yet. I’ll be back at Cityfest in Prague and then Legendary Festival in Zagreb, I’m playing at Boogaloo. That’s going to be fantastic that is – actually I can’t mention what we’ve done for that. Still very top secret, sorry!
Elsi – 2018 was a big year for you, how are you going to make 2019 even bigger?
Davey Asprey – Good question…I’m just going to try and be as consistent as possible with the quality of the releases even though I’ve done…it’s 12-plus actually because there is still a lot that is a work in progress. I’ve got a good relationship with my manager at Armada, we’ve already pulled two or three releases because we both just weren’t happy with how they ended up sounding. They were signed very early on in 2018 and as the year progressed and my sound slightly evolved it doesn’t fit anymore. We’ll see!
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