Azpecialguest: "The connection to the crowd is everything, really!"

From Copenhagen’s vibrant club scene, DJ and producer Azpecialguest has emerged as one of Denmark’s most compelling electronic artists. His sound blends melodic house, techno, afro, progressive, and organic elements, creating hypnotic and instantly recognizable atmospheres. With over sixteen years behind the decks, releases on respected labels, and performances at international clubs and festivals, Azpecialguest brings energy, precision, and careful attention to detail that captivate every audience.

How did you get started in electronic music, and what led you to shape your unique blend of melodic house and techno?

Many years ago, in New York City on a fun night out, I ended up at the legendary nightclub Cielo and instantly fell in love with the music playing there. It was back when soulful house really was a thing and when there still was a big record store on Times Square. I think it was Little Louie Vega who was playing that night, and I just got lost in the music.

I was hooked on this music and needed more, so I went to the Virgin store at Times Square and spent the rest of my money buying Cielo compilations and other recommendations from the staff.

Sadly, the club is now closed, but when it was open, I always visited it whenever I was in town.

I wasn’t really going out clubbing and listening to electronic music before that trip to New York, but that definitely changed when I got back home. It was around the same time that I moved to Copenhagen and started to be a regular guest at clubs like Culture Box and KB18. The scene was different back then, and you could always go out and meet the regulars, kind of like a scene from the TV show Sams bar… damn, I’m old with that reference hah!

A friend of mine, who was a DJ at that time, noticed my growing interest in music and suggested that I join him at a gig. It wasn’t anything fancy, but the party was good, it was a lot of fun, and I know this sounds corny, but during the night these two girls came up to us, lifted their shirts and flashed their boobs at us… After that night, I knew I wanted more. On a side note, the flashing part with boobs hasn’t happened since, but the passion for playing music is still there.

So after that experience, I bought this horrible combo mixer that could play CDs and USBs all in one and started practicing at home a lot. My friend and I were lucky to get more gigs, so I was learning things pretty fast. I guess it also helps when you feel that you have a flair for playing music in front of a crowd.

I was lucky to be able to borrow money from my mom to buy a pair of CDJ 1000 mk3 and a DJM 700 mixer and a flight case with wheels, super heavy, but I could take it everywhere. I basically played all the parties I could get my hands on, getting the experience from different crowds and spending all my money buying music and building my back catalog, and of course paying my mom back for the CDJs. Around that time, I was lucky to have two residencies at more commercial clubs, but I always felt a bigger appeal towards the underground music and audience, and the only parties I attended when not playing were with underground music.

I think it was around 2012 when I completely shifted my focus to underground music and club culture. I was bored playing the same hit records over and over again, and dealing with the typical drunk mainstream crowd. But there was also something about the deep and tech house at that time that I loved. Artists like Noir, Karol XVII & MB Valence, Kruse & Nuernberg, Maya Jane Coles, and Bicep became a big part of my constantly growing music collection.

I started playing more underground gigs in Copenhagen, building relationships and getting introduced to new artists and I must admit that at some point I was a bit overwhelmed with all the new impressions and genres, so I didn’t really know what genre should define me as a DJ. Especially, all the music from Innervisions at that time was amazing, discovering Giegling blew my mind, together with all the amazing DJs that I experienced back then.

I think tracks like Engage from Patrice Bäumel, The Barnt remix of Moment from Tale of Us, and Vaal, and not to forget Lost from Frankey & Sandrino, are what started the direction of the style I represent as the artist I am today.

It hasn’t happened overnight, but slowly developed over the years, in the same way as I’m evolving as a DJ and now an artist, and I hope it will continue to develop over the years to come.

Your music combines afro rhythms, organic elements, and progressive sounds. Where do you find the ideas for these unusual mixes?

I guess it can sound like an odd combination on paper, but as mentioned before, my journey through music has taken me in many directions, so my back catalog is packed with many genres. I also played many different kinds of parties, and I know how to read a dancefloor. Sometimes you just need to add some afro rhythms or a more progressive vibe to move the energy to another level.

I must admit it can take some time to find the right tracks and the right combination to make it work, but when it works, it's totally worth it. Especially when you manage to sneak it in a way that gives the audience that “did he really do that” look on their faces, of course in a positive way. I also must mention that it is so much easier to do that in longer sets where you can take people on a journey, not always give them what they expect. Some of the best DJ sets I’ve experienced did that in their own unique way.

I guess it’s rarer these days to find these longer sets.

After 16 years performing, how has your way of DJing and producing changed?

I’m taking things a lot more seriously now, don’t know if it has something to do with me getting older. Especially with the production, things have changed a lot. I still have a 9-5 job, so in order to squeeze in as much studio time I have to organize my day like a week ahead, so I still have time for friends and my girlfriend.

So to give you a little insight into my day, it starts at 6:00 am, where I get up and get some breakfast, then I go into my studio and spend 1.5 hours before going to the gym and then to the office, where I work with urban planning. I leave the office around 5 and go home and spend time in the studio before getting dinner. Then sorting some emails, making SoMe content for social media, or looking for music if my girlfriend or friends aren’t around. Then I go to bed before 10 pm and then start all over again the next day. I was definitely not that organized 10 years ago.

When it comes to DJing, I feel way more confident and present on stage now. I know who I am as an artist and what I can do with a dance floor and how I want to do it, that is definitely something that has changed over the years.

You’ve reached milestones like two Beatport #1s and a Danish Club Awards nomination. Which achievement stands out most to you, and why?

I think my biggest achievement so far was playing the Sunday sunrise set on the legendary Tanzwüste stage at the German festival Fusion. I was starting in the dark and playing through the sunrise in front of a packed floor.

I have been to Fusion many times as a guest and had so many amazing moments there. It was at Tanzwüste that I first got introduced to the Giegling crew and saw Richie Hawtin for the first time. So being invited to curate the music there was special, and I knew I had to make it special for the audience as well.

I arrived a couple of days earlier to enjoy the festival but also to do some homework. I knew the sun would be up around 4:45 am, and I was playing 4–6 am so I spent Friday and Saturday morning at the stage, taking notes on how and when the sunlight would hit the stage and the dancefloor so I could incorporate that into my set.

I had a couple of tracks prepared for that moment and ended up playing The Silence by Monolink and Stephan Jolk. It was just perfect, and it still gives me goosebumps when I think back on the response from the crowd. The track has this epic breakdown, and when the sun crawled over the trees, you could start to feel the warm energy from it. It became this epic moment with the sun, the crowd, and the music – pure magic.

It made it even more special seeing a lot of my friends in the crowd that morning; their support meant everything to me.

Can you describe your creative process? How do you work with field recordings and rare samples in your tracks?

In order to be as efficient in the studio with the spare time that I have, I have created a template in Ableton Live where all the core elements in my tracks are ready whenever I turn my computer on. I have it organized, so I have a couple of tracks with my drums, percussion, bass, melodies, and effects grouped and ready, so I don’t have to spend time on setting that up when I want to start something new. My drums are always red, percussions are orange, bass is green, melodies are blue, and effects are purple. I have also organized the different synths, VSTs, and plugins that I use into folders, so they are easier to find and interrupt my creative process as little as possible. I’m also trying to work with a few good tools and become more familiar with them to work faster and more efficiently.

That is the technical part of the process. The creative part is as follows:

I start with a simple kickdrum and some kind of bass pattern just to get the creative process flowing. It’s always the same kick and the same bass sound because the purpose is not to be super focused on these elements in the beginning, because you might need to change them later, so why waste time on creating the perfect kickdrum if it doesn’t fit with the rest of the track when it is arranged?

I like to jam out a couple of melodies on my keyboard and see if something sticks out. If not, I try to make some more. At some point, I have something that I believe could work in a track and I start to add different elements to it, like hats and percussions just to have a groove going together with the melody. If I don’t feel it at this point, I drop it and start over, but most of the time I have something to work with now. Then the bassline needs some treatment. So, I start to work on the sound design and layer it with a sub and a top bass. It’s also here that I start to work on the kick. When I’m happy with what I got, I start to arrange it into something that looks like a track.

Now the fun really begins to unfold because I have something that looks and sounds like a track, the arrangements and groove are working, and it’s time to start adding field recordings and create weird samples of the elements I already have in the track.

If you listen to the track I did together with Desaint (Remind Me Tomorrow on 3000 Grad), you can hear the zipper from my Horizn suitcase and the voice from Desaint recorded on my iPhone and processed afterwards in Ableton.

I also have a couple of guitar pedals that I can send my signal through and back into Ableton. I hit play on a melody, send it through the pedals, and turn all the knobs while recording everything… 97% of the recording is rubbish, but sometimes you find something special and unique that is usable in the track. There is no way of recreating it, but that is the beauty of it; the randomness makes it a lot of fun. I have no idea about what I’m getting out of the recording, and if I can use it for anything, but when I can, it’s a win for sure.

When everything is finished, I send it out to different people to get feedback. I can highly recommend that people do that, but you have to be picky with the people you ask for feedback from. One of the people I ask for feedback from is Paul James Nolan who I have worked with for some time now. He always gives me honest and quality feedback and helps me push my tracks to the next level. Then I go back into the studio and work with the feedback that I got, and try to test it out in clubs before sending it to mix and master. Paul is also the guy who does my mix and master. Some would probably say that I should mix my own tracks, but when I don’t have more time to make music than I have, I prioritize doing it this way.

You’re often chosen as support for major international artists playing in Denmark. What do you think makes you the preferred choice for local promoters?

I’ve been in this game for a long time now and played a lot of different parties and events as mentioned earlier, so I know how to do a good, solid warmup or closing, and the promoters know that they can trust me to do so.

The zero-to-hero feeling you get when opening a floor to a headliner is amazing and a testimony of patience and self-control as a DJ. I strongly believe that you become a better overall DJ once you master the warmup.

It takes some preparation and some patience, but when you see people starting to vibe on the floor, and you can start teasing them and make them hungry for a climax that they can’t have until the headline is on, it is a special feeling.

Some people say that the art of the warmup is dead. I strongly disagree with that.

There are so many good warm-up DJs out there that have the skills to set the vibe of the night and not just bang it out as soon as the doors are open. I also believe that the promoters have some sort of responsibility to hire someone who not only can do a good warmup but also is a good fit for the headliner and can play longer than their pre-planned set, if necessary, in case the headliner, for some reason, is delayed.

The feeling you get when the DJ before you plays a solid warmup is something I cherish, but also something I would like to give forward whenever I’m doing a warmup for a headline.

How important is the connection with the crowd during your live sets? Do you have any memorable moments from performing?

The connection to the crowd is everything, really! We as DJs are here to entertain, even though some people behind the decks at the moment seem to forget that or simply don’t know it.

I’m not saying that we should play all the hits just to entertain the crowd, but you've got to look at the people in the crowd and try to figure out if they need a harder kickdrum, a long breakdown to catch their breath, a fast tempo, or something completely different. It’s not only about the great TikTok moment, but it’s also about the journey through music with the people on the dancefloor.

If I can feel the crowd under my skin when I’m playing, I know I’m doing something right, and that is basically what I’m aiming for every time I’m playing. We do it together, the crowd and I.

I recently played in La Paz in Bolivia, at the Electro Preste Party and even though the DJ booth was far away, I could still feel them in the booth. Especially in the breakdowns where they were shouting and clapping super loud, that was an amazing feeling, especially because I played a lot of my own music, and they just took it all in, and that made me so happy.

Another great moment was last year when I played the closing set at an open-air party. I played a really energizing set and played Teardrop by Massive Attack as my last track. It was an older crowd, and you could just feel that this was the perfect track to end the night with, so even though the tracks were so slow, the energy in the air was still there.

When producing music, how do you balance creating a distinct sound with making tracks that work on the dancefloor?

It’s not easy, but it’s become easier the last couple of years especially because my focus and my vision for the Azpecialguest project has become more defined. In the beginning, I just wanted to make tracks. Then I experimented with organic and progressive styles, and now I’m making my kind of melodic techno, and this is where I feel most comfortable with my sound.

Having a goal or a milestone to reach for is like a light in the dark, something to steer by. Once you feel that you're locked in your vision, it becomes clearer how you want to express yourself and what to aim for. It’s nice to have big dreams, but dreams without an idea of how to achieve them are nothing more than dreams.

So, my approach to the music I make is simple: it must fit into the Azpecialguest universe, and it must be something I genuinely want to play in my DJ sets. I feel this creates a much stronger connection with the audience on the dance floor and the people who follow me.

What projects are you currently focused on, and what should fans expect from Azpecialguest soon?

I took some time off from everyday life in Copenhagen and spent time in Mexico and Bolivia to work deeper on my brand, strategies for the future, and to try and understand where to put my focus on the Azpecialguest project, and how to navigate in a world of SoMe. It’s not easy and can be a rabbit hole for sure, but it feels like something you have to master or at least have a higher understanding of. So a lot of my energy was put into that, and I also took time away from the studio and from writing music.

But now the focus on music is back on. I have a couple of unreleased tracks that I have been testing during the winter and in Bolivia that I need to find a label for, and a lot of good energy from a month in the sun instead of the cold winter wonderland in Copenhagen.

I started the year with a great release on the German label 3000 Grad, and I’m working hard to follow up on that, so I think people can expect a lot of good music and an even more confident Azpecialguest to hit the clubs and festivals in 2026.

If you could collaborate with any artist worldwide, who would you pick and why?

There are so many great artists out there that I admire and would love to work with; it would be a long article if I started to name them all.

But Massano would definitely be one of them. The guy is so talented and so efficient in the way he presents his music. It’s relatively simple yet so powerful and memorable at the same time. Would love to spend time with him and learn from him. I played at a party last year where he was headlining, and he was so cool and so down to earth despite all his success.

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