When Sammy Virji was DJing in room three of a local nightclub in Newcastle with his uni mates, he didn’t anticipate that the bouncy, bombastic bassline and UK garage sounds he was obsessed with would become so big across the pond. In June, he shut down New York’s Times Square with a set to announce his new album, Same Day Cleaning, followed by headlining his first North American stadium show. “It didn’t feel real, I was freaking out,” says Virji, still in disbelief.
Also real: the tens of thousands singing along as he spliced the dreamy intro of Radiohead’s Everything in Its Right Place with his 2023 track If U Need It at this year’s Coachella. The 28-year-old from the market town of Witney, Oxfordshire, made his debut on the California festival’s second-largest stage in April. It was “the most nervous I’ve ever been,” says Virji, on a phone call from LA ahead of another festival set, “but I converted that into excitement and I was able to enjoy myself.”
