Now you may have heard of a DJ scratching a vinyl on a turntable but what about if it was combined with visual images projected behind the DJ as well? To most this would sound ridiculous but DJ on the rise Sampology sees this as just another day in his life. 

I sat down with Sampology before his show at the Avalon last week to find out more about his work. Commenting on this scratching technique Sampology said, “The basics of it is [that] the audio and the visuals are completely synced together…when I move the record backwards and forwards I am manipulating the audio and visual that are locked into one another.”

The way that he is able to achieve this is by using a particular form of digital DJ software, Serato, but instead of just plugging in beats, melodies, and samples he inserts video into the program as well. “A lot of time is spent prepping the sets in terms of layering stuff up over the video,” says Sampology. And his hard work working with multimedia layering and mixing is shown during the eclectic and intriguing performance.

The Stimulation AV Tour makes use of not only illustrations and colors planned by Sampology himself but also includes references to pop culture ranging from movie scenes from The Graduate, Rocky, and Team America to pictures of Ryan Gosling and Jack Nicholson popping up and spiraling towards the crowd. 

Color schemes of blue and pink accented the images and concentric circles extended from the middle of the screen to exhibit a psychedelic experience to even the most sober attendee. Later as horns played in the music illustrated herald trumpets appeared on screen so the viewer could feel like the artist was performing in house. He is constantly surprising the audience with his visual work as he remixes crowd favorites with his own music along with influence from reggae culture. 

Explaining why he produces these types of mashups and remixes Sampology stated that “I really don’t like sticking on one genre for too long in a set. I like to make the crowd happy and flip things that they might know into something else. [I’m] making them happy but also kind of challenging them a little bit.”

When asked what festival he would like to headline Sampology humbly answered, “I don’t really have a real preference. At the end of the day if there [are] people there to see me specifically if they’ve like picked out a nice shirt, caught up with friends for dinner, to get ready to come out and they brought their friends specifically to see me it doesn’t really matter like what setting it is. Because like that’s the kind of success that I want is just people to want to come see me and want to tell their friends to come to see me.”

With his talent and that kind of attitude everyone will surely know who Sampology is in the music industry. Unfortunately, he is now touring back in Australia and will be heading to India soon but I highly recommend you sign up on his website (using the link below) to be notified when he is back in the area. This is a one of kind show that you do not want to miss!

Read more of NT's interviews here.

Reach Contributor Marc Sessa here.