Denis Sulta interview: Tweaking Things

There’s an air of fantasy to the whole thing: you’re producing tracks in your bedroom for your own enjoyment one moment, perhaps getting positive feedback from the odd mate or two in the process. Then, all of a sudden, you’re putting out celebrated records and jetting around Europe off the back of an increasingly glowing reputation as a DJ. Such has been the course of the last 12 months or so for Glasgow’s Hector Barbour, or Denis Sulta, as he's known by his ever-growing fan base.

Having released his debut EP, Sulta Selects Vol. 1, on Dixon Avenue Basement Jams just over a year ago – with lead track A.A.S (Night & Day Mix) immediately making an impact and popping up in sets all over the place – Barbour has found acclaim quicker than most do at his stage in the game. “Because it was my first record, I had no concept of how these things worked and I was absolutely blown away by the response,” Barbour admits when we catch him on the phone during a rare break ahead of the release of a new record on Numbers – he’s kept busy by a full time college course, a part time job in Glasgow’s legendary Rubadub record shop and an increasingly hectic touring schedule.

That crucial debut record – comprising two vocal-driven club tracks and a slickly layered disco loop with a similarly potent dancefloor appeal – was certainly a statement of intent from the young producer, whose reflections on the whole experience are reassuringly modest for an artist whose recent press shots (perhaps unwittingly) place the globe within his grasp. “It’s a really overwhelming thing to have people actually buy music that you have been sitting in your bedroom making,” he beams down the line. “I get nervous before the release of every record but it has been absolutely amazing – I can’t tell you how exciting the last year has been. It’s been fantastic.”

Denis Sulta and Dixon Avenue Basement Jams

With his first offering selling out so quickly – a repress is planned for some time next year – it made sense for Barbour to continue his relationship with local tastemakers Dixon Avenue Basement Jams, a label which is itself gaining notoriety with every release. His association with the outlet has its roots in the early encouragement he received from his manager at Rubadub, Dan Lurinsky, who heads up DABJ alongside Kenny Grieve. “Quite simply, I’ve got everything to thank those guys for,” he insists.

“They have been fantastically supportive, really honest and have always got something nice to say... as well as a lot of nonsense. They are hilarious company to go out partying with – I’ve been out on the road with them a couple of times now and it has been great fun. Having those two has been an absolute godsend. I can’t stress enough how good they’ve been from the start.”

Given how accomplished Sulta’s sound has been across his early releases, it’s perhaps surprising to learn that Barbour's taste for house and techno only emerged in recent years. “Before I started working in Rubadub, I was very hip-hop orientated,” he explains. “I wouldn’t listen to any dance music; I hated dance music.” Preferring to listen to West Coast rap, and toying with hip-hop production on an eight-track recorder at home, it would be some time before he was given his first taste of the foundations of house and techno music, which he later began incorporating this into his own studio experiments with increasing success.

“I started finding a style that I really liked in the last couple of years – the vocal house kind of stuff. All of that stuff started to really influence me – disco has played a huge part as well. I’ve never really focussed on any one genre for too long though. I quite like to bounce between different things and take influence from all sorts of places."

In keeping with this need to explore different aspects of club music, Barbour keeps his hip-hop side fulfilled with appearances at Freaky Freaky at The Art School, though he seems content enough to keep his rap productions as a hobby for the time being. “I make hip-hop solely because I enjoy it,” he explains. “I make music because I enjoy it, full stop. It’s quite a selfish thing in some respects, making music. You have to spend a lot of time by yourself, tweaking things.”

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Selfish though the processes and habits behind music production may be, Barbour is more than happy to share the fruits of his labour when he has finished tweaking and is increasingly in demand as a DJ too, having recently played his first set outside of the UK at a club in Florence. Despite being “mega nervous” and unsure of how his sound would go down in a different setting, the experience proved to be particularly rewarding, and confirmed the universal appeal of his craft. “Music kind of transcends all language,” he says. “That’s a very cheesy, cliched thing to say, but it does, man. Everybody was getting really into it and any butterflies I had, or any kind of worries about the night immediately evaporated when I was in the club. The atmosphere was fantastic."

Closer to home, this month sees Barbour go back to back with LiveJam/Relative Records’ co-owner John Swing at his Sulta Selects residency at The Berkeley Suite. Ever keen to refine and develop his skill set, he is relishing the opportunity to get behind an “absolute beast” of a rotary mixer for the evening – a piece of kit which will encourage him to take more time across the four-hour set, as opposed to mixing at his normal rapid fire pace. “I’m really looking forward to pushing myself a wee bit out of my comfort zone – not just playing big belters all night. It’s going to be a really interesting journey.” Again acknowledging the “selfish” aspects of a personal fixation with playing music, he nonetheless realises the need not to become too “self-indulgent” in the booth: “I’m looking forward to finding a way of making it enjoyable for everybody.” Given the popularity of his Boiler Room set in Glasgow earlier this year, few would doubt what he can deliver to that end.

An equally exciting prospect for Barbour is this month’s Numbers Warehouse party in London, where he features on a bill alongside the likes of Koreless, Mike Servito, Jay Daniel and, of course, Jackmaster – another Glaswegian who has backed him from his earliest forays into production. Alongside fellow Numbers founder Richard Chater, the Rubadub alumnus gave crucial feedback when Barbour began to hone his tracks. He jokes that when he worked alongside the Numbers duo, he would “force them to listen” to tracks he had made the night before, and speaks of his delight that latest offering It’s Only Real will become the celebrated label’s final release of 2015. “What Jack’s great at is showcasing what’s new and cool in his home city and I’m so chuffed to be shown to the world through him.”

From Rubadub and DABJ, to Numbers and supporters from further afield like Skream and Julio Bashmore, Denis Sulta is certainly a name which has done the rounds over the past year. Yet the man himself is not at all comfortable resting on his laurels. “I really love and appreciate the support that comes from guys like Numbers and all these other people, but it’s still really important to be able to be good in your own right. I don’t want to be relying on these people.

“I want to go out and prove to them that all the support they’re giving me is for a good reason. You can’t stop working the minute the support comes – you need to continue on working and do them proud. I’m looking forward to working hard and showing them that their support is appreciated.”

Hector Barbour, aka Atlus

A desire to continually explore new terrain and delve beyond local ties was evident in Barbour’s recent return to an earlier production moniker, Atlus, for a particularly impressive 3 track effort on acclaimed Brooklyn-based label Mister Saturday Night. Undoubtedly his most varied record to date, featuring a twinkling ambient track, a rousing disco house offering and a slice of steely, minimalist techno, the Zopiclone EP further buttresses his position as one of the most promising talents to emerge from Glasgow in recent years. Alongside the new Numbers record – an epic dancefloor melody with an almost trance-like feel – Hector’s outing for Mister Saturday Night has been as clear a sign as any of his developing range.

Yet, far from wanting to rush himself, or take on projects beyond his current reach, he seems wise enough to recognise the pitfalls of an impatient approach to what looks like a promising career. “To be honest, I’m still quite new to this,” he stresses. “I really need to spend a lot more time just developing my sound and understanding what it is I do.

“I’d love to be able to say, ‘Yeah, I’d love to do an album’ and all this sort of stuff, but when the time is right, the time is right. I don’t just want to throw together 12 or 13 tracks of meaningless dance music that doesn’t amount to anything. I’d really like it to be from the heart and an honest piece of work – I just don’t feel like that I’m at that stage yet. But in the future I’d love to take my productions to another level. Absolutely.”