Label of the Month: doof

What does doof mean? In Scotland, it’s another word for a banging tune. In Australia, doof means party. In dance music circles, many will associate doof with the record label, event series, studio space, and annual festival doof in the park, all founded by the Scottish DJ and producer Hannah Laing. It’s also the word her gran would use when referring to hard house and techno: “that doof doof music.”

In 2024, two years after her breakout set opening Patrick Topping’s Trick stage at Creamfields, Hannah launched the hard house, trance, and techno-oriented label doof. Since then, she’s toured the globe, held a residency at Hï Ibiza, played B2B with Armin van Buuren, and released on labels like Armada Music, Tidy Trax, and many more. But Hannah’s own journey in DJing and producing began way before doof and her subsequent achievements with the platform.

Born and raised in Dundee, Hannah’s young parents were “heavily into dance music.” It was the '90s, and trance and hard house were “literally exploding in the UK.” At home, Lisa Lashes, Anne Savage, Lisa Pin-Up, and most of the Tidy Trax catalogue, plus trance heads Tall Paul, Seb Fontaine, and Paul van Dyk made up Hannah and her parents’ CD collection. It was the combination of the “banging energy” of hard house and the “euphoric feeling” of trance that made Hannah “fall in love” with these sounds. “There’s different energies about them,” she says. “But they’re both fast, and that’s why I like them.”

At 15, Hannah went to her first club night in Dundee, headlined by Dave Pearce. Around this time, she started going to various afterparties, where she’d give the decks a twirl. In 2013, she bought her own set and began mixing at home.

When Hannah turned 18, she went on holiday to Ibiza, attending iconic clubs like Space and DC-10. The next summer, she went out to work the season and DJ’d regularly at Scottish bar The Highlander in San Antonio. A friend showed her the ropes of music production, and on her return to Dundee, Hannah paid for one-to-one tuition, driving for over two hours to get to the studio in Dumbarton, where she could learn the craft with a proper set-up.

Between a slew of bookings in local bars and her DJ residency at the Students’ Union in the University of Dundee, Hannah started her own event series and built a loyal following in Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. But she struggled to get her tracks signed because they had “a bit of trance, a bit of hard house, and a bit of techno but with vocals,” she explains, so they didn’t “necessarily fit anywhere.”

In 2022, two turning points occurred. Patrick Topping released her hard house-flecked track "And Back"on Trick’s Tasty Techno Volume One, and invited Hannah to open the Trick stage at Creamfields. Having played across Scotland for nine years solid at that point, Hannah’s Scottish fans showed up in droves to support this “big moment” in her journey. “That was the set that really pushed me, because I was able to play the sounds I really loved, and the people loved it.”

The idea of doof had been at the back of Hannah’s mind for some time. She’d used the phrase online so often that she decided to make a couple of T-shirts emblazoned with the word. They sold out, and then people started getting doof tattoos. If that wasn’t surreal enough, in 2023, she went platinum with the single "Good Love" feat. RoRo on WUGD/Polydor, and quit her job as a dental nurse shortly after.

In 2024, with her DJ and producer career in full flow, Hannah felt it was the right time to start a label, where she could support lesser-known artists who would fit on doof and were too niche for other imprints; Hannah knew that experience all too well. Her EP Triple F marked the first release on doof, but before that, she’d set up a demos email account. “We had loads of demos in the inbox,” she says. “I knew that I would have to start with small artists, and championing them felt so good because I literally just had that break from Patrick.” Hannah began filtering the demos and hosted small doof parties with artists from the label. “It just started to grow like that.”

A turning point happened when trance artists Mauro Picotto and Bryan Kearney approached Hannah separately to float the idea of releasing on doof. “I was like, ‘Okay, these artists are already signed to loads of different labels and are doing massive shows, and they want to be on my label? That’s so cool.’” She credits the “ecosystem” of running the labels and the parties as the reason why artists of this calibre want to get involved with doof. “I think what we’ve built with the label and around it is so strong that it’s now appealing to bigger artists. It’s mind-blowing.”

In the two years since launching, the label’s artwork has evolved from a stick figure with a ponytail (representing Hannah and her trademark hairstyle) – inspired by the stick man of Tidy Trax – to a simpler aesthetic; bold typography and a mainly neon blue colour palette. But it took her a while to grasp the visual direction of doof until she was “100% happy with it.”

Staying on top of the demo inbox was another learning process for Hannah, especially during peak tour periods. “I know I can get somebody else to maybe filter it and stuff, but at the end of the day, I just feel like no one has my ear and will know exactly what I’m looking for, and we could end up missing something that I really want.”

When does Hannah know if a track is right for doof? “Honestly, I think I know within about 15 seconds of listening to a lead melody or something,” she says. “Either I like it, or I don’t, but there are loads that I like, and I’ll download them, but I will never, ever sign a track if I haven’t played it out…Once I see how they are on the dance floor, on big sound systems, then I get a real feel for it.”

One of the most rewarding aspects for Hannah is seeing the growth of artists after they release on doof. She cites MDDLTN, who’s been with doof since the early days, and will make his doof in the park debut on 4th July. “That’s so rewarding, because not long ago, that was me in the same position,” she says. “Now there are a few artists we’re doing that with, and it always feels amazing.”

One would think that running a label, event series, and touring full-time as a DJ and producer is quite full-on, but that didn’t stop Hannah from launching her own festival in Dundee. Last year, doof in the park sold out before she even released the lineup. Aware of how much weight the doof name carried, she went into “attention to detail” mode with her team and festival partners, EE Live. She thought about every element: Would there be enough toilets? Would anyone miss their favourite DJ because they were stuck in a queue somewhere?

“I’m across absolutely everything”, she says. “I really care about it so much from the dance floor and a DJ point of view, but I think that attention to detail, and how much I care about every aspect of it, is what made the first year so successful.

Armin Van Buuren headlined the first doof in the park. Hannah says that he told her he was a little nervous before playing in front of a young crowd, some of whom may have been unfamiliar with him, but there was no need to worry; Dundee’s response to Armin was “insane.”

“I think it’s reassuring to know because I’m the same,” says Hannah, referring to pre-DJ set nerves. “I don’t think they fade, and it’s about learning the tools to go with them. And the fact that Armin still gets nervous, and I hear that from him, that makes me feel like ‘Okay, I’m all right.’”

Last year, Hannah launched doof studios. Recalling the petrol-draining drives to Dumbarton, Hannah wanted to provide the people of Dundee access to high-end decks and production equipment. The studio space is in a “deprived area” where Hannah grew up, operated in partnership with the award-winning Scottish charity DJ school, Turn The Tables. doof studios are there for anyone who wants to give DJing and/or music production a go. “But also, it’s for people who want to really take music seriously; there are both ends of it,” she says. “It’s just something for people to do, to get up and have a hobby, but there are people using the space now who are really trying to do something with music."

Meanwhile, doof continues to churn out quality hard house, techno, and trance-shaped tunes. Hannah has just released the latest single on doof, a collaboration with Marlon Hoffstadt feat. Caroline Roxy called "Stomp Your Feet." “I’ve loved Marlon for years now, and I’ve been wanting to work with him for a while, and it’s finally happened,” she says. “The fact that he was open to releasing on my label was amazing.”

doof has taken off across the UK and Ireland, and next up, Hannah plans to bring the livewire energy of doof across the pond. “I’ll definitely be taking this to Europe and America,” she says, smiling. “And signing more great tracks.”

Listen to doof's 'Label of the Month' chart below: