Recognise: DJ Danifox
After spending the next few years hunkered down at the production controls, 2019 saw the release of his debut EP, ‘A Long Walk’, via LA’s Point Records. “I thought it was a scam at first, like why is someone in LA getting in touch? It’s far,” he says. Driven by his own vocals, luminous house-cushioned keys, and his signature patter of hand drums, the EP introduced his vibe to the world. He would go on to join the international Tia Maria Produções crew after returning to Lisbon a few years later, turning in ‘Xupetilson’, the intoxicating opening track on the 2020 ‘Lei Da Tia Maria’ EP. In 2022, he reprised ‘Long Way Talk’ on his aforementioned debut EP for Príncipe, ‘Dia Não Mata Dia’, before tying up the strands of his sound with the arrival of ‘Ansiedade’ last year.
Nowadays, his ideas arrive like waves, comprising busy bursts of activity during which he’ll refine scores of tunes at once. He has carved out a distinctly cool identity in thrall to melody, and sometimes melancholy. “I’m more jazzy and less percussive, depending on what picture I’m trying to make.” For ‘Ansiedade’, he turned to the blues as a reference point, evoking the iconic figure of Robert Johnson on track nine, where he blends MIDI guitar licks and woodwinds into a sunset jam. Bristling with clattering rhythms and twitchy low-bitrate energy, his DJ Mag Recognise mix picks up where the album left off, showcasing his USP for mixing his own unreleased tracks in his sets. “I’ll DJ a track I made like three days ago or sometimes one I’ve literally made 10 minutes before I get to the venue,” he explains.
A few weeks after our conversation, Veiga debuts on Platform 23 at Glastonbury’s legendary Shangri-La, a set he was already gearing up for then, along with the sheer earth-shaking immensity of the festival itself. “I’ve seen the pictures of the grass versus people. Just a lot of heads, not much grass. It’s gonna be insane,” he says. After that, he’ll continue to chip away at his neverending stack of creations to get them “just right”, before putting them out there for his fans to enjoy. For Veiga, the thrill is in the innovation. “I’m just always thinking, ‘What can I do to change this and make it sound new?’”
