UK based “Damion Houchen” better known as “Genix”, has built up a reputation as one of the most fresh EDM artistes with cutting edge production and DJ sets that have cemented his name on the biggest events around the world, standing shoulder to shoulder with the likes of “Armin Van Buuren”,”Above & Beyond”, “Tiesto”, “Paul van Dyk”, “Ferry Corsten” and “Sander Van Doorn”.
His 10 year+ DJ career has taken him across the globe, playing at the elite clubs and brands across the UK, Europe, USA, Asia, Middle East, Ibiza. Genix is the former Resident & promoter for Passion @ The Emporium in the UK where he has warmed up for the DJ elites such as Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk, Armin Van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Eddie Halliwell and is hugely experienced for over 10 years behind the decks.
Recently he visited India for Vh1 Supersonic in the month of February and also supported for Above & Beyond Holi Tour last week.
It was perfect moment to sit back and have chat with him & it was an honour to speak to him. Check out the whole conversation here:
EDMLI – Last month you played at ‘Vh1 Supersonic Pune’, how was your experience?
Genix – It was my first time with Supersonic, the entire festival was organised very well. Crowd was so good, and I was really happy to see that people here are really really passionate about music and as a artist its a big honour to play for passionate people and in country like India. It was awesome, fantastic and yes I was really impressed. Crowd was very much musically educated, as for me I came from distant place called “England”, and people already knew all my tracks, was so happy to see so many smiling faces & it felt so special to me that it made all the travelling, jetlag worth the while (smiles).
EDMLI – You are a Guinness world record holder for playing 84 hours, how did that idea come from?
Genix – Aah, I don’t even remember how old I was. I think I was 18, trying to do almost everything and getting much exposure to DJing. I was young, was stupid, probably when you are young, you don’t care (laughs), yeah so it lasted 4 days, started wednesday morning 9 AM to saturday night 9PM, and its the hardest thing I have ever done, my head was completely gone, so yeah it was hard, really hard.
EDMLI – 84 hours is a very long time, what kept you motivated and energetic during that time?
Genix – I am very driven and motivated person and when I set some goal for me, I have to achieve it, there was no way I was gonna fail. It was hard because it was physically tiring and the mind was confused, I didn’t know where I was actually for the half of a day. It was like a dream, hallucinating, but yeah i had few friends who helped me in the last stages to just tell me what to do because i was confused and finally got picture in the famous book, so yeah its a Big achievement
EDMLI – Your tracks are getting released on Anjunabeats/Armind, so is it pre-decided that this track is for Anjuna, and this one for Armind because tracks released on both labels have variation in sounds.
Genix – When I start creating track I do not think of releasing on this label or that, I don’t specifically target my ideas into some specific direction and I think its better when you start creating music because if you start forcing your ideas into something then you will not really get the quality one which your mind really wants, so it finds its own path and ends up in its own feel.
EDMLI – How did you come up with the name Genix?
Genix – (Laughs) Ha ha, I don’t like my DJ name, well I think I was looking out for names and was in college, somebody passed by me and said something that sounded like this, and then I thought oh, its a nice name, may be I should keep it. So yeah that’s Genix, but really I don’t like it but probably people are used to it now, so yeah this is it. 🙂
EDMLI – Last month you also played at one of the biggest trance event on planet earth. Yes we are talking about A State of Trance 800, how’s this festival and crowd differs from others?
Genix – It was amazing and yeah I played at Mexico as well around 18-19 months ago, and the size of the venue is huge. I have never been to that venue and I think “Transmission” or something was in the same venue and heard great feedback for it but I didn’t actually realise how big the venue was, it was having 4 rooms and every room was so so big and packed, almost 30 artists and big thumbs up and credits to all who pull that on because that was mind blowing. A perfect example for different diversities, different religion, different countries but one love thats for MUSIC, so i am proud of being part of such epic thing.
EDMLI – How did you come up with the idea of going b2b with Sunny Lax ?
Genix – I think it all started when we were on a US tour around 2 years back then followed by some other tours, then we made “Black Water” and “Seven” was done on a tour i think Chicago in the hotel room and then we started second tour and then we thought lets just start with a concept instead of DJ sets, we were ready to do a b2b. We had never done it before and soon after that people really liked our b2b sets and we started to get lot of bookings as well like from Dreamstate and from other stuff as well and we are really good friends together so its good we are doing b2b.
We were really amazed and happy to meet him in person and wish him all the best for all his future projects and can’t wait to see him back on Indian shores.
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