Titilation

Robinson is developing a 'live' show for 2014. That the genial quick-mix DJ, who's twice joined our festival circuit, has committed to a club run is significant – it's always been his endgame. “It allows you to do some stuff you otherwise couldn't when you're fighting for people's attention against other artists and when there's tonnes of stages and distractions.” However, Robinson is looking to challenges beyond DJing. “It's maybe the last tour I do before I start a new style of show.” 

The EDM “saviour”, ranked No. 40 in DJ Mag's poll, never planned to DJ, but produce. He studied production techniques online, while connecting with other EDM aspirants and eliciting feedback on tunes. Though Robinson, who turns 21 this month, issued music early on as Ekowraith, he'd shed that handle for 2010's breakthrough Say My Name. Skrillex picked up Robinson's Spitfire EP to launch OWSLA. Next, Robinson aired the vocal Language via Ministry Of Sound. When he played his inaugural DJ gig in San Francisco, it was only his second visit to a club. “Culturally, I'm not a dance music person. I've always been an electronic music person.” Ironically, Robinson now has a residency in Las Vegas at the Wynn resort nightclub complex. 

Robinson pioneered the post-dubstep 'complextro' (complex electro) – less a genre than an approach, like IDM. He's not interested in pop, famously spurning Katy Perry. “That headline has been so, so very circulated!” demurs Robinson. Indeed, Robinson's rise hasn't been without drama. The veteran BT accused him of being “self-focussed and selfish” on Twitter for apparently abandoning a collab. Today Robinson maintains a dignified silence on the subject: “I think I'll probably leave it alone!” Over the past year Robinson, his most recent tune Easy with Brit Mat Zo, has been absorbed in his debut album, already suggesting that it will be melodic, experimental and “goosebumpsy”. He's scaled back on DJing, hiding in his old bedroom and labouring for ten hours every day. Robinson isn't rushing it. He doesn't even have a label, preferring to hold out for a major or independent that shares his “vision”. “I've put my whole heart and soul into this thing.”

DJing and producing are no longer symbiotic for him, Robinson moving away from club bangers with Language (a crossover hit, regardless). “A lot of music that I'm writing is meant to be more emotional and sentimental. Part of that whole thing strategically is that I will be starting a new show next year which won't be so much a conventional DJ set. It'll be a lot more personal and emotional – and I think a lot more unique. It's something that I've been wanting to do ever since I started.” Mind, Robinson is “not promising to quit DJing” entirely. “I still really do love DJing.”