DJ Nick León on Rosalía, regional Latin club sounds and rejecting success: ‘I was losing my edge’ | Music

A number of years in the past, Nick León made successful. Not successful hit, like a Drake/Sabrina/Taylor hit, however successful in sure circles. His single Xtasis, made with the Venezuelan producer DJ Babatr, was one of many defining membership tracks of 2022. Named monitor of the 12 months by Resident Advisor and a staple at events all through the summer time and autumn, it launched León from his standing as one in every of Miami’s most fascinating underground DJs into the worldwide membership circuit.“It was like, we’re hitting the bottom working – we’re gonna be touring and DJing on a regular basis, and there was this mission of spreading the music that so many individuals have been enjoying already, from Latin America and the US,” León recollects of this era, sweating by way of his tie-dye T-shirt in an east London cafe in June.‘I needed to recalibrate somewhat bit’ … Nick León The issue? León didn’t essentially even see himself as a membership producer. “For so long as I’ve been making music, there’s been two paths in parallel – manufacturing work, as a result of I come from that world making rap beats and doing manufacturing for artists, after which I had my digital aspect quest,” he says.As Xtasis was popping out, he was making ready to lean additional into manufacturing – he had simply labored with Spanish pop star Rosalía on her generational 2022 report Motomami, and signed a publishing deal off the again of it. Subsequent minute, he was deep within the scene, and starting to really feel like he was “dumbing myself down, enjoying too four-on-the-floor, not taking any dangers” compared to how he used to DJ in Miami. “I used to be somewhat fearful about the place I used to be going within the membership world, being in Europe a lot. I used to be getting boring, dropping my edge.”Burnt out, León dedicated the cardinal sin of any working DJ: he parted methods together with his agent and took a while off touring to be able to work out what Nick León music ought to truly sound like. The result’s A Tropical Entropy, a muggy, magical debut album that synthesises each side of León – pop producer, experimental membership wizard, maker of heaving, skewwhiff beats – and acts simply as a lot as mission assertion because it does a survey of Miami, a metropolis that’s far too usually represented in tradition as both a 0.1-percenter’s playground or an ungovernable mattress of sin.“With this venture, I needed to recalibrate somewhat bit,” he says. “I feel I’ve a bizarre entry level to bounce music that’s not the identical as quite a lot of my friends. I’m studying that Berghain is essential from my buddies, however I don’t care, you recognize? I actually like being within the studio.”León grew up in Fort Lauderdale, a metropolis north of Miami, to a Colombian mom. He began making music as a teen utilizing a duplicate of FL Studio, a digital audio workstation, that was on his brother’s laptop computer. He started producing beats for rappers in Miami, working classes in his household dwelling. Throughout a quick relocation to Boston within the early 2010s, León was launched to the experimental membership music effervescent up across the east coast. It impressed him to start out incorporating membership sounds into his productions, touchdown on an irresistible fusion of Latin traditions corresponding to reggaeton and dembow with home and ambient techno. León rapidly turned related to a gaggle of artists and labels all over the world – Mexico Metropolis label Naafi, Colombian label TraTraTrax, ambient reggaeton producer DJ Python – who have been fusing related types.León describes the “mission” of that scene as one in every of garnering respect for regional membership types in a world that’s notoriously gatekept and, too usually, racist and thoughtless within the methods it both excludes or gentrifies sounds from exterior the western world. It’s ongoing, he says.A Tropical Entropy – stream Spotify“It feels approach higher than it did even two, three years in the past when it comes to like … OK, artists from Latin America are getting booked – are promoters placing their cash the place their mouth is and paying for visas? Or is it only a hype second?” he says. “Touring in Europe definitely gave me extra perspective on the factor, since you play events and also you’re both the wildcard or they’re mad that you just’re not enjoying extra reggaeton.”Because it turned out, taking time away from the underground membership circuit – and betting on the concept DJs can nonetheless discover a significant, viable profession exterior its infrastructure – proved fruitful. Final 12 months, León launched Bikini, a collaboration with Danish musician Erika de Casier that turned an indie-pop crossover, and was hailed by many publications as top-of-the-line songs of the 12 months.When León made the music, it gave him a blueprint for a way he needed A Tropical Entropy to sound – complicated however pop-leaning, taking within the multitude of dance types which have formed him. “Bikini felt like one of many first occasions I used to be capable of get an concept out that actually showcases all the totally different music that I like,” he says. The mission with this album is no one’s however his personal, he says: “I very a lot need to hear extra pop music that seems like this.” A Tropical Entropy is out now on TraTraTrax