High-energy global club. It’s a pretty quick and easy way to describe Sydney DJ XNYWOLF, who’s coming to Bangkok this week to play UV and Rover. But within that brief description, a good DJ can take things pretty much anywhere, and XNYWOLF is capable of moving in whatever direction the crowd would like to go. He’s also a prolific remixer with edits for all occasions. Want some hard house mixed with deep rap cuts? He’s got you. 2000s R&B blended into afrohouse? Sure thing. Jersey club and baile funk? Yessir. He’s got what you need.

XNYWOLF truly found his place after a trip to Latin America in 2017, when he was in Rio and exposed to baile funk for the first time. It caught his full attention immediately; once he asked the bartender what it was, he went down a wormhole and switched his whole game up, even changing his name to fit this new obsession. “It just blew my mind,” he says, with surprise still in his voice all these years later. It fit with his earlier interests in rap and Jersey club as well, which are natural companions to the genre, providing a clear path for him to take. The move worked, too: Since there weren’t many people in Australia playing it yet, he was able to build a name around the sound, first in Sydney, then in Melbourne, and finally the rest of the country.

Once the pandemic hit, XNYWOLF refocused on production, pumping out near-daily remixes to keep his name alive until the parties started up again. It connected him with a more global audience and filled his crates with unique sounds that no one else has. So why would he stop? He’s kept producing as a daily practice, and the Latino-Australian DJ is even one of the rare producers in the Pacific making urbano or el movimiento edits, recently throwing reggaeton and dembow into the mix with ease. He says he tests his edits out on the dance floor, and the ones that work climb higher in the ranks of his folders that he consistently draws from. What you hear online may even change by the time you catch it in the club, since he fixes them up as he learns from the crowd.

XNYWOLF continues digging up new styles from new locations. That’s his comfort zone: “I really value the freedom to play what I want. I wanna show you guys these crazy new sounds or these crazy new edits that I spent hours looking for, and when I get a reaction like, ‘Yo, this is crazy!’ That’s when I feel my best. That’s the moment I thrive on.” Often, he doesn’t even feel the need to play an edit. “There’s some original tracks you don’t even have to touch because, like how could you ever make it any better?”

While XNYWOLF is always keen to put people on to new sounds, he’s also conscious of what the dancefloor is responding to. “For every country I go to, I do a little research about who played before me and what crowds they had. From that, I decide where I might go with my own set,” he explains. If he’s in a house and techno city, for example, he’s got edits to incorporate those sounds mixed with others. “I like to mix stuff with rap, especially the deeper rap cuts. But I have a safety net of tracks that everyone knows to keep them comfortable. I just wouldn’t go so far to the right that it gets corny.” And while he’s definitely a high-energy DJ, he can keep a chill vibe going when needed, pointing towards something like an aprtmentlife-type set of house and R&B as an example of what he’d drop in more relaxed settings. What will he actually play once he lands in Bangkok? That depends on how the night goes. But you’ve got a good idea of what to expect if you made it this far in the article. Come though and find out!