KETTAMA: The DJ Of The Moment

KETTAMA doesn’t do things by halves, whether it’s the sheer volume of pints downed, gym sessions smashed and steaks scranned or the unrelenting emotional weight of the chords which, in his own words, have become a cornerstone of his dancefloor shattering success. 

“I know my strong points,” he admits. “It’s the big chords and vocals.”

Sprawled over the sofa at the back of the Steel City Dance Discs office, KETTAMA, real name Evan Campbell, is taking up any semblance of rest that he can get as our interview commences. The Irish artist is reflecting on the dusk of a never-ending, supersized summer that has included sets at every major festival you can think of, a first B2B with Chris Stussy at a 20,000 man strong Ormeau Park in Belfast, the announcement of his debut album ‘Archangel’ and an Amnesia residency with Ben Hemsley that, on its conclusion, will have spanned almost a third of the year.

Behind the social media exterior of peak masculinity, where gains, Guinness and Monster Energy collide, there lies an inner tenderness and vulnerability to Campbell. He bristles at the idea of being “a lad” and recalls crying in the cinema watching Interstellar as a foundational experience in his musical journey, sparking a fondness for symphonies.

“Yeah, my tattoos look hard but really I’m a big soft cunt that loves listening to orchestral music,” KETTAMA confides. 

On the brink of the release of ‘Archangel’,  tracks from the album such as ‘It Gets Better (Forever Mix)’ and Interplanetary Criminal collaboration ‘Yosemite’ have already been making waves across dancefloors with their surging sense of euphoria, the latter earning a spot in Mixmag’s Best Dancefloor Bangers Of 2024. Streaming numbers in the tens of millions for each, and other classics from the KETTAMA catalogue, reflect his status as one of the best-loved producers in the game right now, infatuating a young and rabid new gen of clubbers with an unsubtle approach to songwriting which maximises emotional heft in straightforward, irresistible constructions. It’s a style that has been present since KETTAMA’s earliest works, when he started out making music in his bedroom just over a decade ago, and one he has stayed true to in his rise to the top. 

“I bought a Launchpad when I was 16 and it came with a trial of Ableton. I gave it my best shot but the only thing I could do was a remake of the piano from Tyga ‘I’m Different’. I couldn’t even make a drum beat on it,” he recalls of his earliest foray into production. 

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Six months later, downloading a cracked version of FL Studio (FKA FruityLoops) provided a young KETTAMA with his breakthrough. “When I started on that I was like ‘oh this is for babies’, it’s so simplified and intuitive,” he recalls. “My ex gave me a Bluetooth speaker that sounded horrible and I’d spend every waking moment sitting in my bed making music off my laptop, a fat brick that sounded like a rocket ship. The music sounded bad for a good while, and then I started uploading stuff to SoundCloud.”

Listening to both ‘Raw Cuts’, his oldest track on the platform uploaded eight years ago, and his recents works you can hear an honesty and simplicity in his production that has remained consistent throughout his entire discography.

“I barely have any plug-ins now, I still just rip and sample on FL with my broken trackpad,” he reveals. “I used to play guitar, and in Fruity Loops there’s just one toggle where you pitch your samples up or down, which is just like how you’d tune your guitar.”

Rather than chalking that down as a lack of skill, Campbell asserts that creativity comes from limitation. “I watched a FJAAK interview where they say that one of their favourite pieces of equipment is the MPC because you could only use reverb, delay and compression and that’s all you need. I work in FL just like it’s an MPC. If I try using too much shit I get overwhelmed anyway.”

If you’ve ever made music on a laptop then you would know that individually pitching samples on a toggle to make deep and complex chords that tug at your heartstrings on a broken trackpad is as much a musical skill as any other.

KETTAMA’s harmonic register is in full flow from minute one of his debut album. The title-track ‘Archangel’ is his best Zimmer rendition yet with poignant pianos, sentimental strings and brooding bass surrounding tender vocals from Sølv.

“It’s my favourite song on the album and I keep going back to it,” reveals Campbell. “I’d love to record way more stuff like that. I want to do a fucking symphony or some sort of 30 minute orchestra eventually.”

It’s also one of four tracks on the album that feature no percussion whatsoever. “There’s been a lot of people who’ve started following me recently who would’ve heard ‘Yosemite’, ‘Pretty Green Eyes’ and ‘It Gets Better’ who just think I do big tracks, but there is a different side to me who likes making ambient and is inspired by orchestral music.” Irish vocalist seantommy acknowledges the shift from recent works on album cut ‘Split in two minds’, declaring he’s “killing a drumless KETTAMA beat.”

Drums or no drums the album is a full-frontal, two-foot tackle of a 15-tracker that doubles down on Campbell’s penchant for emotive bangers. Rejecting any notion of subtlety is a consistent theme throughout, whether it's his towering chords and basslines, smacking drums or references to poet Dylan Thomas’ Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. There’s a generational run of rave anthems in there featuring heavyweight collaborations from fellow dance music final bosses such as DJ HEARTSTRING, Fred again.., Interplanetary Criminal and Prospa.

“I was actually against an album at first. People have way more opinions on them than EPs,” KETTAMA discloses. He has previously felt burnt from the release of his highly anticipated collab with Fred again.. and Shady Nasty, ‘Air Maxes’. “I remember when I put it out some people were saying ‘unrelease this bro, this is ass’, and I thought ‘fuck off, just because it wasn’t a 4/4 dance tune with big stabs in it?’” While a fear of judgement may have once hindered him, he’s now confident enough in his creative choices to shut out the noise and follow his own instincts. He no longer pays mind to the swirling pessimism of online discourse. “When I first had TikTok I got into a vicious cycle of seeing my name everywhere and following it down. I can’t do that anymore because it’s a crazy negative feedback loop.”

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“TikTok is a very anonymous platform,” he explains, “so anyone can be like ‘fuck this’, ‘fuck that’. I don’t look at it anymore to be honest. I just post on there and leave.”

His instincts are serving him well. Campbell’s star has risen at such an exponential rate in the year since I last spoke to him at a headline show at London club FOLD that he is now selling out venues that are five times its size. 

Lately his stock is so high to the point where it feels like he is undeniably the DJ of the moment, and has even become known as more than a DJ: one day he is on the pages of the Daily Mail with a celebrity ex-girlfriend, the next he is rubbing shoulders with social media heavyweights like the Ibiza Final Boss or Vuncle. If you combine his TikTok and Instagram following together you could pack out five Wembleys.

There is a discernable difference to the KETTAMA you see now to the one six years ago.  “If you look at my first Boiler Room I’m like 15kg heavier. I used to drink way more because I was so nervous. I still shit myself before I go on stage now but I look after myself a lot more,” he says. Clocking in to his recent Boiler Room, you can see that the fade mullet and baggy T-shirt of yesteryear has been replaced by luscious locks and a skin-tight black tank top — a look which is permeating dancefloors as he also becomes influential in fashion.

Campbell quickly brushes off any notion of celebrity status. “Yeah I get a couple more likes on an Instagram post and maybe I get asked for a picture in London a bit more than I used to but my daily life hasn’t changed,” he says. “I still just crack on and go for a walk, go to the gym and make music.”

For the record, I’m not buying it, especially as he has just been telling me about his MotoGP exploits from the previous weekend courtesy of his favorite energy drink brand. Breaking his nonchalant tone for just a second, he admits that “if you had told me that when I was 16, I would’ve chomped your hand off.”

Campbell’s rise to stardom kicked off via a chance encounter with Mall Grab where he handed the Australian DJ his USB led to the latter rinsing the former’s tunes across the club circuit and years later, during COVID, they became room mates as Campbell moved to London.

“When I moved, all I wanted to do was release on Steel City. When I got that first EP it was like a dream come true,” he says.

The independent label has been “the anchor of everything” for KETTAMA and it’s impossible to chart his rise without it. “Ever since the release we’ve been hanging out every day and they’ve introduced me to the majority of the people I know in London, they even took me under their wing and put me on shows.” Indeed, Jarred, Campbell’s manager and Steel City Dance Discs label head, is seated approximately five metres away for the duration of the interview.

When the notion of working with a major label is proposed to him, Campbell flinches. “I won’t show people music unless it’s done and if I had some suit and tie walk in and say ‘no I don’t like it, make some changes’ I’d be like ‘fuck you’,” he asserts.

“I know through good friends who have been signed for two albums and every track they make and love is being said no to. I couldn’t do that, I want to post random shit on SoundCloud when I’m four pints deep at Wetherspoons in the airport.”

Understandably he doesn’t want to lose any of the creative control which has fuelled his success. At the same time, his unfussy and organic approach to making and releasing music, and how he presents himself online, has also become part of his appeal in connecting with audiences.

Campbell sees SoundCloud as key to his journey. “SoundCloud still holds it down and you can definitely make a career out of it. If I was an artist starting out I wouldn’t be flogging my shit on Spotify,” he says. “It’s great for listening and discovering music but they make so much money and pay fucking nish and you can’t interact with an audience.

“I'm here because of that community I built in SoundCloud and went from, like Facebook groups and stuff like that. The message, comment and repost factor is so huge,” he adds. “Getting in touch with people who like your music: that’s how you build a community.

Community building is still a key part of KETTAMA’s approach today, whether it is making a conscious effort to do more interviews, organising meet and greets for the album, or his new RAW CUTZ DIARIES YouTube series showcasing his life on the road which veers between vlog and mockumentary.

“I don’t just want to be an untouchable person behind the decks, that’s not who I am or want to be,” he declares.

This is a stark contrast to previous times we’ve met at Rinse FM’s studios where Campbell would often refuse to speak on the mic during his residency. “I’d be shitting myself going in there to the point where I’d have to drink 200ml bottle of vodka before I came on.”

“I think at the start I didn’t really have anything to talk about but now I do,” KETTAMA reflects, “I want to be able to explain my thought processes and chat more openly in a public setting, and the only way I can get better is by doing it more.”

“I always want to put more stuff out now, especially on YouTube where we’ve got 40 minute long movies following me around.”

When touching upon the ‘Archangel’ meet and greet lined up at Dublin’s Spindizzy Records, Campbell underlines its genuine importance to him. “I would’ve given an arm or leg to see Mall Grab or Denis Sulta when I was younger, and I did. I fucking begged, borrowed and steal to get backstage with these people,” he recalls. “If I can do a little pop-up, play some of the album, pop a couple of Monsters and get to meet people it’s a blessing.”

While there is a clear commitment to giving back to the Irish scene, the Galway-hailing artist is concerned about its future in light of draconian licensing laws which make nightlife venues difficult to sustain. A 2025 study reported there’s beem an 84% decline in number of nightclubs in Ireland since 2000, while a proposed bill to extend opening hours has been repeatedly delayed. “It’s sad because the crowds are just the best in the world, young and raring to go, and there’s so many talented DJs and producers, but there’s nowhere for them to actually play,” he says. “If there were clubs open till 6:AM like in Northern Ireland it would be unreal.”

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In 2021 Campbell started G-TOWN RECORDS with fellow Galway local Cóilí Collins, better known as Shampain, releasing tracks from kindred spirits like X CLUB. and Tommy2k. Such is the meteoric rise of both its founders and the label itself that three years on from its first release the imprint was taking over the Big Top stage of Galway International Arts Festival to thousands of jubilant locals. The resounding success of the takeover is a testament to KETTAMA’s assertion that there is a clear appetite for dance music in Galway, and Ireland as a whole, that is being held back by red tape.

A scarcity of nightlife options in his youth meant that Campbell’s introduction to dance music came via YouTube, rather than through shared experiences in the club with friends. “I used to be big on there, finding whatever. Avicii, Oliver Heldens, big piano, Y2K kind of stuff. It’s where I got the thing for big chords from,” he says.  From there, he became further entrenched via his laptop. Sets from Jamie Jones and Jackmaster, in particular his J.E.S.u.S. set with Eats Everything, Skream and Seth Troxler.

Fast forward to the present and KETTAMA is 12 weeks deep into his Amnesia residency with Ben Hemsley, kicking it where his idols made names for themselves. “First and foremost, I’ve always made and played house music. It’s been so good going back to that in Ibiza,” he says.

A behemoth residency at one of the island’s flagship clubs has offered the DJ a consistency that he hasn’t had before. “It’s definitely changed my sound,” states Campbell. 

“I don’t know if it’s me getting older,” he chuckles to himself, “but I cannot listen to myself play ‘Fly Away XTC’ for two hours anymore. It’s fast bro!”

“The whole residency is mental. We had practically booked out my whole summer and then this came about later and we just thought ‘fuck it’. It’s been really good and I love the place.”

As a result, Campbell’s summer has been in a constant state of flux. “I come home from Ibiza on a late flight on Tuesday, which means I wake up on a Wednesday in London and then I’m off again on Thursday. You see other club residencies and you’re talking eight to ten weeks … I’m doing 16!” Read from the top, KETTAMA doesn’t do things by halves.

'Archangel' by KETTAMA is out on October 3 via Steel City Dance Discs, pre-order it here

Tibor Heskett is Head of Content at Rinse FM and a freelance writer, follow him on Instagram