To listen to Billy Gillies is to capture true joy, because every song he produces and DJ set he performs radiates pure passion and vibrant spirit.

 

The Northern Irishman’s blend of quirky Eurodance synths, uplifting trance grandeur and hard-hitting bass rhythms goes beyond catchy melodies and expert timing, as breakout hits “Lagoon” and “Youth” tap into the very essence of what makes a night spent on the dancefloor with your best mates such a special experience.

 

That’s why he’s earned more than 145 million views on TikTok, filled a Creamfields tent with thousands of ravers at 1 p.m. on a Sunday, and why he’s managed to get an official remix of Madison Avenue’s 1999 hit “Don’t Call Me Baby” after ripping the iconic vocal off the internet.

 

Crowds chant his name from Taiwan to Texas because Billy Gillies dares to do something different; something unique to himself. Now, Billy Gillies is the next superstar-DJ-in-the-making, poised to take over the world.

 

Billy’s musical obsession started in the 2000s when his older sister started buying Clubland compilation CDs and dating a local DJ. One night, the boyfriend came over and brought his decks, but when the couple left to go dancing, 11-year-old Billy snuck into his sister’s room and started playing with the turntables.

 

“I was like, ‘what is this music? I love this,’” he laughs. “On the Christmas list for that year was a set of decks.”

 

His mom delivered with his first set of Kam belt drives, and Billy’s been mad for mixing ever since. Each Saturday, he’d head out of the house with a five Pound note and spend it on a new record (Tiesto’s Traffic being particularly influential). In turn, he’d spend the next week learning to mix that record in and out of his steadily growing collection.

 

When he was 17, he got his first taste of true Clubland. A year underaged, he caught an hour-long bus from Belfast to Banbridge and talked his way into a club called Coach. Japanese DJ Yoji Biomehanika and the UK’s own Lisa Lashes dropped heavy hard-house records all night, and Billy started dreaming of his own chance to rock a crowd, proper.

 

He knew that if he wanted to be an in-demand DJ, he’d have to come up with some original songs. In 2011, he locked himself in his bedroom with a copy of Ableton Live and didn’t come out until he’d mastered the basic trance sound.

 

He fell in love with music production and started sending his tracks to BBC Radio 1 DJ Judge Jules, who played them on his show every Friday night. For 19-year-old Billy, there was nothing better.

 

After spending much of his 20s as a self-described “party animal,” 28-year-old Billy once again locked himself inside his bedroom and churned out a ton of original tunes. The result? A spot on the lineup of Luminosity 2019 alongside major trance legends Paul Van Dyk, Ferry Corsten, Gareth Emery and more. He played a set of all-original material, and when a recording was posted to Soundcloud, it earned more plays than any of the headliners.

 

“I’d brung a fresh sound into the trance scene,” Gillies says. “Everyone was making the same type of thing, where I just look back at my influences growing up and crammed it into the main trance style.”

 

International booking requests flooded in, sending him to Argentina to Australia—and then COVID struck. Many of his peers saw no point releasing music to a locked-down crowd, but Billy saw a chance to experiment.

 

“People need music in hard times, not just for clubs,” he says. “The music I was making around that time was proper emotional melodies, and it was resonating with everyone.”

 

He’d share each tune in a rough clip to Facebook or TikTok, and every post brought shares in the thousands. His fan base wasn’t just growing, it was ballooning, due in part not only to his masterful skills in the studio but also his effervescent personality that spills into each tune.

Sometimes, Mitski feels life would be easier without hope, or a soul, or love. But when she closes her eyes and thinks about what’s truly hers, what can’t be repossessed or demolished, she sees love. “The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people,” she says. “I wish I could leave behind all the love I have after I die, so I can shine all this goodness, all this good love that I’ve created onto other people.” She hopes her newest album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, will shine love long after she’s gone. That’s precisely how it feels: like a love that’s haunting the land.

“This is my most American album,” she says. The music feels like a profound act of witnessing this country, in all of its private sorrows and painful contradictions. Sonically Mitski’s most epic and wise album, the songs introduce wounds and then actively heal them. Here, love is time-traveling to bless our tender days, like light from a distant star.

It's full of the ache of the grown-up, seemingly mundane heartbreaks and joys that are often unsung but feel enormous. It’s a tiny epic. From the bottom of a glass, to a driveway slushy with memory and snow, to a freight train barreling through the Midwest, and all the way to the moon, it feels like everything and everyone is crying out in pain, arching towards love. Love is that inhospitable land, beckoning and then rejecting us. To love this place, this earth, this America, this body takes work. It might be impossible. The best things are.

Email: info@mackygee.com
Management: michael@ctrlfrk.co.uk

Instagram : vinnywest
Twitter : vinnywestszn
booking/collabs/beats: Bookings4VinnyWest@gmail.com

KB Mike never disguises how he feels on a track. Instead, he lets you know exactly what’s on his mind loud and clear. He could reflect with a skyscraping soul vocal, or he’ll get cocky and go hard on the beat with a punchy flow. A melody meant to numb pain might find him in his feelings, or a heartfelt ballad will double as an expression of love too pure for conversation even. This versatility has placed him on the fast track out of his native Chicago and on the way to worldwide stardom. He came up out of the infamously rough South Side. Addiction, violence, crime, and other traps of the street life surrounded him and almost swallowed him whole. As the story goes, he popped off thanks to internet freestyles (recorded and uploaded during house arrest). A series of popular singles followed, including “Distant,” “Addicted,” “Deep In Love,” “Blue Skies,” and more. 2021’s “Used To” amassed over 20.7 million Spotify streams as he signed to Republic Records. It bulldozed the way for his 2022 full-length debut, Old Wounds, which yielded “Thru Worse N Thru Better,” “Insecure,” and “Keep Yo Head Up.” Between earning praise from Revolt, HotNewHipHop, and more, he performed to packed houses on tour with Tink. Everything just set the stage for his most versatile, vibrant, and vital project yet, Euphoria.


“I’m a male from Chicago who’s expressing his feelings,” he exclaims. “Chicago means everything to me, but it has some bad things that come with it. It’s important to my music, because it makes me talk about what I’ve gone through. It also shows me I want to be better than where I come from. Most artists from my town are talking about gangs, drill, and all of that. I’m talking about heartbreaks, and I’m not scared to admit a female actually hurt me.”

He’s endured his fair share of pain and gained wisdom and perspective as a result…

Growing up on the city’s notorious Southside, he watched friends and family fall prey to violence and drugs. At the same time, he gained popularity throughout his high school and community. Stuck at home on house arrest, he honed his voice through a series of freestyles online. During 2020, he established himself as a mold-breaking outlier with a combination of smooth swagger and raw emotion. He brought his Spotify stream tally into the millions on the back of “Addicted” and initial breakthrough “Deep In Love.” He maintained this momentum in 2021 with “Used To.” Perfecting his simmering style with otherworldly melodies and an instantly unshakable hook, it racked up 3.2 million Spotify streams independently as he inked a deal with Republic Records. 

The song itself holds a special significance as it illuminates his penchant for unbridled honesty.

“I was messing with somebody special, and I felt we were becoming distant,” he admits. “I didn’t want that to happen, so I wrote the song to let her know I DIDN’T want us to end up like that. That song means a lot to me, because it made everything in my music career really start up.”

He’s only gaining momentum with his forthcoming debut project and much more to come as he gives Chicago and the game a new kind of leader.

“I’m just a singer and songwriter from Chicago who’s on the path to greatness,” he leaves off. “I’m somebody who came from a bad situation and used it to make something of himself. I appreciate everybody who has showed me genuine love. Music is where I belong.”

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