Artist of the Month: Sammy Virji

Over the last few years, Virji has become a key figure in growing the historic style of dance music into a major player within the American scene. But behind his hallmark toothy smile, he tries not to think about being the “UK garage guy.”

“That could be quite daunting if I am the guy. There's loads of people that are doing it as well. I'm just trying to enjoy myself, play my own tunes, and enjoy the fact that I've got fans over in the US now, which is still crazy to me,” Virji humbly contends.

Virji’s own tunes are a surefire reason why he has become the face of this current wave of UK Garage in the US and beyond. Numerous of his original productions have garnered over 10 million Spotify streams, with his 2023 single, “If U Need It,” closing in on 100 million (even though Virji doesn’t consider that one UK Garage). 

He’s also become a significant presence in the live circuit, playing Coachella this year to massive crowds and also hitting iconic venues and festivals like Forest Hills Stadium in New York and Bonnaroo, which he played the one night it was open before the festival was cancelled due to weather concerns.

Now Virji will capitalize on his fierce upward momentum with his new album, Same Day Cleaning, which is due out September 19 via Capitol Records. The LP features a huge 16 tracks that span the full range of his musical palette. Beloved melodic bangers like “I Guess We’re Not The Same” sit alongside “925,” Virji’s new collaboration with Chris Lake, and “Dis Badman,” which unites the icy soundscapes known to be heard in UK Garage sets with stalwart talents Champion joining Virji on the beats and IRAH on the grime raps.

However, listeners will hear a side of Virji that hasn't been shared as much in his original productions as of yet. Tracks like “Doctor,” his collaboration with the legendary recording artist MJ Cole, and “Burn The River” show off his penchant for jazz, soul, and other deeply instrumental styles of music.  The former balances flashes of trumpet solos and soul-singer riffs with floaty broken drumbeats, while the latter begins as a full-fledged R&B crooner before Virji ignites the percussion. The album opener, “One For The Books,” with UK grime stalwart Giggs, kicks off with a full-fledged horn overture, recorded by Virji’s father, Fayyaz, who plays trombone, and a few of his mates.

“There's this theme within the album. A lot of instrumentation. A lot of strings. A lot of horns as well,” Virji says. “I tried to keep this live instrumentation thing in with it. I just love the merging of that with some Garage-y drums. It sounds really cool. Sounds nostalgic. Well, nostalgic to me, anyway.”

Beyond developing a fondness for the sound of instrumentation, his early exposure to R&B, funk, and soul fueled a deeply musical understanding of melody as a concept. So much so to the point that he is confident in giving directions on how he wants vocalists to deliver their melodies over his beats. One example on Same Day Cleaning is “Nostalgia,” with Issey Cross. 

“There's a major chord that I wanted Issey to sing, and I sort of put my foot down and said, ‘Can we make this a major chord?’ It's this euphoric feeling,” Virji says, further remarking that he feels like he can very well support singers when he’s in the studio with them. “I feel like I have more to offer vocalists, because I can comment on the melodies, which is something that I like to have an input on.”

When it comes to the vocal style that generally lacks melody, rapping, Virji takes a backseat to let the rappers figure out what’s best for the song. Several bucket list moments for the UK native came when he collaborated with his fellow countrymen Giggs and Skepta, both of whom contributed their unmistakable grime flavor to different cuts on Same Day Cleaning. 

Where his past work with rappers like Flowdan was remote, Virji was in the studio with Giggs and Skepta, watching them write their hooks and verses then and there. On “One For The Books,” he remembers being impressed with how fast Giggs was able to deal out the lines. They finished the entire track in a few hours.

Skepta’s process was a bit more involved. Virji wasn’t even going to initially show him the instrumental for “Cops & Robbers,” but that ended up being the one Skepta liked the most:

“He listened to it for about half an hour to an hour. Straight on repeat. I was just watching him, and he was spitting bars in his head,” Virji says. “He had a UK garage documentary on in the background, and then he put his lights on around the room to create a mood. He didn't write anything down, and then he stopped the beat. He's like, ‘I'm ready to record.’”

As soon as Virji started recording, Skepta said the hook for the song: “DJ, play one for the badman/DJ, play one for the ladies.”

“Giggs, Flowdown, Skepta, these are all people that I listened to as a kid. I would never have thought that I would ever do a tune with them,” Virji says. “I still need to pinch myself, really.”

Despite his commitment to the music from his home country, Virji’s sound has also been compared to a starkly American phenomenon: EDM. As Virji and his cohorts, like Interplanetary Criminal, gain larger and larger followings and play bigger and bigger stages, the term “NUKG” has come about, differentiating the sound from the earliest garage platformed by the likes of Bakey and Main Phase.

Virji admits there are certain overlaps between what he plays and EDM: big buildups and drops; bootlegs with classic vocals. But he sees these elements as a way to make his music accessible to both the most seasoned heads and newer fans looking to do some dancing.

“I'll try and hit all branches by having a build-up that's a well-known sample and then switching it into something else. Or doing a capellas over things, and just keeping it accessible in that sense, but still running it with an old-school garage tune, or an underground instrumental,” Virji says. At the end of the day, these techniques aren’t adjustments he made to his style to appease the pop-leaning crowds.

“It's something I'd do anyway, I've always done it since I was young, before I even DJ'd, I was doing little mashups and organizing things into keys. Then, when I learned how to DJ, I was just putting grime acapellas over bassline tunes and things like that, so I've always done it.”

The one thing about his career that precisely overlaps with EDM is his level of fame. Giant main stages with fireworks shooting off in front of thousands of fans. A record deal with the biggest label in the world (Capitol is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group). Over a year ago, when he spoke to DJ Mag, he called his meteoric success “scary.”

Today, Virji says: “I'm even more scared. It is just scary being in the spotlight. It's a daunting thing, but it's also what I've dreamed of as well, so it's also good. It's really good. It's good scary.”