Profile
INSTAGRAM | SOUNDCLOUD | SPOTIFY Oliver Rowley, better known as AZYR is perhaps like no other DJ, his rise to the top comes with a unique and humble story of someone who put everything they had into learning a new skill, which turned into a whole new career, changing his life in every way, and being honourably crowned DJ Mag’s ‘Breakthrough Artist’ of 2024. AZYR pronounced ‘Azire’ was coined from his childhood Xbox gamertag, that was also his nickname, and still is today by all of his friends. Born in Fleetwood in Blackpool, a city that was also called home for most of his life, he admits that he had no idea what he wanted to do as a career, during his school years he didn't feel passionate about any subjects, yet exceled at Engineering, with top grades in his class. This prompted him to take a degree apprenticeship in Aeronautical Engineering and was fortunate enough to land a placement at Rolls-Royce in Sheffield. College years also bought nightlife, and he started to get into dance music when he was 17, from club nights in the UK but also a lot of house parties, where many of his mates used to DJ and was the first place he really took an interest their skills behind the decks. Admitting how bad he was when he attempted it for the first time, it became a hobby he wanted to master. After relocating to Sheffield for Rolls Royce, towards the end of the apprenticeship in 2020, Covid hit the world. Forced to stay home, his engineering future was doomed by the ban on international travel, and after months of uncertainty, he decided to stay busy by learning how to mix, only really for his mate’s house parties, at the time. He used his furlough salary to buy his first piece of equipment, a Pioneer DDJ controller and practised relentlessly, whilst watching every YouTube tutorial online. A year later and still unable to work, his Dad helped him buy his first set of CDJ’s, this was the turning point for his future. He DJ’d all day long, starting out with house at first, and searching for music online daily, he listened to other mixes, inspired by PartiBoi69’s live streams during lockdown, he and his mates started their own streams broadcast on YouTube. Only 6 months after DJ’ing, he knew he needed to make his own music and started his self-taught journey, learning the basics of production. After a mix in 2021 for Interzeek UK Series helped get him some local notoriety, and as the end of lockdown was in sight, he held his first ever event in Blackpool called… Currently #3,714 in the BookedDJ global ranking. Bookings are handled by Spin Artist Agency.
