Sam Divine's been building her profile up as one of the most reliable house DJs in the country for a little while now

From humble beginnings to her status as a permanent fixture on the Defected Records roster, Sam Divine has worked her way up to the top with grit, determination and a passion for the music that she pours over the audiences who flock to see her.

As we announce our Defected In The House Special for New Year's Eve at Ministry, these are Sam Divine's rules of success. 

 

One Must Stay Busy

I can easily take myself back to April, when we did the worker’s party, but everything else after that sort of blends into one. I did about 50 gigs this summer, flying backwards and forwards. I get agitated when I have time off - I was on the phone to my friend saying that I don’t know what to do with myself. With all these weekends in the UK, I almost missed being at the airport.

 

One Must Respect Their Fellow DJ

I listen to music every single day, and I’ll save what I like and put it in a folder. When it comes to Friday, I’ll just go through and make a playlist for the night. I think, when I’m walking into a club, what do I want to hear?

You don’t want to have hits being thrown straight at you. You have to be respectful of the other DJ’s on after you - know what they play. There’s nothing worse than having to start and stop your set because you’ve had a shit warm up. I love warming up for Oliver $, we play really similar stuff and Nick Curly at We Are FSTVL last year opened for me really well, he had the crowd really rocking.

 

One Must Respect Their Customers

Everyone’s gone so tech house and techno crazy this year and everybody’s complaining. It’s only the DJ’s who are loving it, and cool, but if you’re a house producer or a house DJ and you jump ship, you’re going to leave people confused and pissed off. If they’re used to hearing you play a certain sound for so long and your productions are that sound, people are going be like “what?”

If you’ve made money from a hit record and you go to raves and play what you want to play, then don’t make that record. Do it under a different name. People are coming to see you drop that record, because they don’t know what you play. They’ve never heard of you.

 

 

One Must Make Shit Happen By Themselves

I’ve just started producing records because it was never the right time for me, but I’ve always thought the most amazing time must be when you make a track and you see people's reactions when you play it out. I did all the promo for my recent track "Flowers" on my own because I knew if I wanted this record to be big I needed to make it happen myself. Now when I play it, people go mental for it, which is such a good feeling.

Three DJ's had it for about two months to build up a momentum. I wouldn’t even give to my friends, because I needed to work that record so hard. I worked in record shops when I was younger, I know how to promote a record. I know what makes a record big. I needed to make it big - I wanted to look back and say my first record was big. Nobody remembers No.52 in the charts.