If you listen to riddim or dubstep, you most likely already know who SampliFire is. At only 28, he’s been destroying stages all over Europe and the US for the better part of the last ten years. We were able to sit down with him to learn more about what being a touring producer from Europe is like in our latest installment of Who Are Ya?!
Electronic music has always been a part of Samy Beyou’s life, his dad is a huge techno fan and would take him to see shows. He has been producing music since he was in high school. He learned how to play piano at age 15 and then started learning to produce in FL Studio from there. These days he still uses FL Studio, but also works in Ableton to make it easier to collaborate with other producers. When he first started producing, he was making more techno and electro influenced music. It wasn’t until his dad took him to a show that had a bass stage where Rusko was playing, that his love of dubstep began. When Rusko dropped “Jahova,” that was the moment he knew dubstep would be the style he was going to make going forward. “It was really distinctive, the next day I was on Youtube trying to figure out what was this tune that I heard.”
When he was coming up with his name, he decided to combine a series of words into one. “My name is Samy, but I thought what else would be fun? I use samples and amplifiers for the sound and then fire is just cool. I bundled that all together to make SampliFire.”
SampliFire is originally from a small town in France near Paris. Even though he’s been producing for years and touring in Europe for a while, he has only been playing in the United States since 2019. He is still based out of France, so when he is touring in the US, he’s thankful that fellow Disciple producer Barely Alive will let him crash with him. If he’s in Canada, he’ll stay with Infekt. When he is able to go back to France, he enjoys hanging out in Paris, shopping, and being able to stay in and be cozy. “I like to do something wildly different from touring when I’m there, before when I would come back I would party harder than I did on tour.”
Over the years, SampliFire has gone through a few different phases of his sound. He tends to follow trends but also combine them with whatever genre he’s listening to at the time. He likes to draw inspiration from genres outside of bass music. If you haven’t listened to any of his tracks, he recommends that you check out his track “Game Over,” a collaboration with Ivory from his Never Say Die era, “Berserker” to check out his viking riddim era, and “Manticide” with Yakz for his current trench era. He’s released songs on Disciple and Never Say Die, but he would love to release more tracks with Monstercat and Bassrush.
For anyone just starting out, he encourages them to “dedicate time to trial and error and making mistakes, because by doing that is how you create your sound. We have access to so many sample packs and lessons now, knowledge is more easily accessible. What’s not accessible and surprisingly not happening anymore is mistakes. The mistakes create uniqueness and uniqueness creates success.”
SampliFire has been fortunate enough to collaborate with a lot of amazing producers, including Downlink, Svdden Death, Marauda, and Barely Alive. There are still more producers he would love to create tracks with. In the bass scene, it would be Space Laces. He’s made a few drum & bass songs lately and would like to collaborate with Hedex for one of those. He would also like to branch out and collaborate with producers from other genres, like hard techno. He has recently been making tracks that are more techno influenced, which could potentially lead to a side project if he creates enough of them and maybe release them on a techno label.
He just released a remix for Sullivan King’s track “Let Me Go” on Monstercat last week. With this remix, he wanted to maintain the musicality and the vocals of the original song but throw his flavor into it. “I loved the intro, but I needed to bring the tempo down to fit the trench vibe. I obviously had to bring the SampliFire sound on the first drop. But I encourage everyone to listen to the second drop because I went a little bit more emotional but still heavy. It’s something I have been doing on different tracks lately.”
SampliFire has crossed off performing at some major festivals in the last few years. His first ever show in the states was at EDC Las Vegas in 2019 and that is still probably his biggest show to date. “As a dubstep DJ outside of the US, playing here is a massive step.” In addition to EDCLV, he’s played Lost Lands and Rampage. Those have been some of his favorite shows to play yet. He would also like to play more festivals in the US like Bass Canyon, Forbidden Kingdom, and Gold Rush because he wants to expand to different markets.
Some of his most memorable moments in his musical journey so far have come in the last couple of years as he was making a strong comeback in the US after covid. He went on a US tour with Infekt last year and just wrapped up his Firestorm tour. Through these tours, he’s been able to visit a lot of places he’s never been before like Albuquerque, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Portland, and Spokane.
Looking to 2024, his goals for next year are to go on a proper US headline tour and play more festivals. He will be releasing a lot of new music including collaborations with Kayzo, Wooli, and Svdden Death. He will also be dropping his annual EP, although he’s not sure what direction that will take yet. Be sure to follow SampliFire on all of his socials using the links below to know when all this music and shows are announced. He also recommends grabbing some of the new merch he just dropped as well. We can’t wait to see what SampliFire accomplishes next and to listen to everything he has in the works.
