Revelstoke DJs: spinning up a storm

By Laura Hodge/Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine

Dexaville

Declan Saville (aka. Dexaville) is a DJ, music producer and radio show host with a penchant for four to the floor, tech and progressive house. A humble guy — his dream rider consists simply of crispy M&M’s & Ferrero Rocher. Dexaville says his wife, daughter and his late father as his biggest inspirations.

Back in 2007, Dexaville played his first club gig — one of the highlights of his career so far. When asked about the wildest antics he’s ever seen at one of his gigs, Dexaville recalls the time he looked up to find that everyone on the dance floor had upped and left. Initially he thought he’d made a bad choice with his song selection, but upon closer inspection discovered that a rather over-enthusiastic man dancing naked had scared everyone away!

Dexaville frequently collaborates with fellow local DJ Si-Fi as part of the DJ-meets-live-percussion duo SiDex. He also holds regular Wednesday and Sunday spots at Craft Bierhaus, as well as hosting Dexessions every Friday on Stoke FM, playing house, deep house, tech house, nu-disco and funk.

https://soundcloud.com/dexaville
https://www.facebook.com/SidexOfficial/

Huws Who?!

HuwsWho?! Photo: Laura Hodge

HuwsWho?! (real name Huw Saunders) has a sound that is constantly evolving. Taking his inspiration from Smalltown DJs, Justin Martin/Dirtybird Records, Skiitour, Bonobo and Calibre, HuwsWho?! never plays two sets that are the same. When playing a more casual night in Revelstoke, Huw favours influences of funk, Latin, hip hop, reggae and soul. For larger and more energetic events he blends house, breaks, bass music, trap, funk, drum ‘n’ bass and more.

Huw’s varied musical style has seen him have some pretty epic career highlights so far: DJing on The Dirty Beetle’s Art Car at Burning Man, last-minute filling in for the Sunday night headliner at Diversity Festival 2016 and DJing a seven-hour set on a homemade floating barge anchored off the beach at Diversity Festival 2015.
You may recognise HuwsWho?! from Big Eddy’s annual Halloween party, which he has DJed for the past three years. You’ll also find him providing casual background music at The Taco Club every Saturday evening.

And if Huw could collaborate with anyone? Smalltown DJs and Justin Martin.

DJ Jayse Aspey

If you’ve ever been to Revelstoke’s famous Toonie Tuesday’s at Traverse, then you may be familiar with DJ Jayse Aspey. Although he plays mostly ghetto funk and regular funk, Jayse is open to anything that will get the crowd moving.

Jayse takes inspiration from a number of different artists, with his top five favourite albums being Blink 182, Enema of the State: The Monkees, Day Dream Believer; Marvin Gaye, Midnight Love, Jurassic 5, Quality Control; and N.W.A, Straight Otta Compton.
Once voted ‘Whistler’s Best DJ,’ Jayse has previously DJed Whistler’s famous Beach Party. At this event, they went all-out and filled the nightclub with sand. One particularly wild image that sticks in his mind is ‘a guy wearing just his Speedos and a swimming cap’ who was bodysurfing back and forth across the crowd on a body board. ‘Quite the sight to see!’

In the future, Jayse’s dream collaboration would be Dillion Francis or Deadmau5. And his dream line up for an event? Stickybuds, Slynk and Skiitour.

https://soundcloud.com/djjayseaspey
https://www.facebook.com/DJJayseAspey/

SiFi

SiFi. Photo: Aaron Orlando/Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine

SiFi — or Simon Hunt as he’s known to his family and friends — brings something a little different to the table, combining DJing with live improvised drumming. Taking EDM and house music as his base genres, SiFi mixes these beats with pieces from his other musical inspirations, adding his own touch with some additional live percussion.
Alongside Dexaville, SiFi puts the ‘Si’ in SiDex, as well as teaming up with a group of fellow talented Revy locals to put on a range of larger musical events. Last Halloween, he headlined and organized a dance at the Legion, raising $2,000 for the planned skatepark. Most recently, he headlined at Revelstoke Mountain Resort for New Year’s Eve.
And Simon’s career highlight so far? In September 2017, Simon played the Luna Festival opening night in the McKinnon Ballroom at the Explorer’s Society Hotel: “The energy in the room was unbelievable!” Simon’s goals for the future include playing Shambhala Music Festival, becoming a music producer and performing internationally. Watch this space!

Keep your eyes peeled for SiFi’s next gig on www.sifibeats.com.
https://www.facebook.com/SidexOfficial/

J. J-Dub

J.J-Dub

Music runs in the veins for J.J-Dub (aka. Joshy Williams), with a mother who is a multi-instrumentalist and singer, and a stepfather who is a rock guitarist.

A big fan of bass house, G-House, deep house, dubstep and glitch-hop/ghetto funk, Joshy’s favourite albums of all time are: Daft Punk, Discovery + Homework; Horrorshow, The Grey Space and Pendulum, Hold Your Colour.

J.J-Dub currently holds a resident position at The Last Drop, where you’ll find him playing every Tuesday — but not for much longer! In March he’ll be saying goodbye to Revelstoke, after six years here, to go study production and to put together an Australia and New Zealand tour.

And if J.J-Dub could have his dream line up accompanying him on this tour? It’d be a pretty epic one: Pendulum, Zedd’s Dead, Ephwurd, Mat the Alien, The Librarian, Slynk, The Funk Hunters, SkiiTour, Eric Prydz, Claude Von Stroke, Daft Punk, Boogie Vice, Vanilla Ace, Beatangers and Small Town DJ’s.

https://soundcloud.com/j-j_dub
https://www.facebook.com/JJDubs88/

This article first appeared in print in Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine.