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Oliver Rowley, better known as AZYR is perhaps like no other DJ, his rise to the top comes with a unique and humble story of someone who put everything they had into learning a new skill, which turned into a whole new career, changing his life in every way, and being honourably crowned DJ Mag’s ‘Breakthrough Artist’ of 2024.

AZYR pronounced ‘Azire’ was coined from his childhood Xbox gamertag, that was also his nickname, and still is today by all of his friends.

Born in Fleetwood in Blackpool, a city that was also called home for most of his life, he admits that he had no idea what he wanted to do as a career, during his school years he didn't feel passionate about any subjects, yet exceled at Engineering, with top grades in his class. This prompted him to take a degree apprenticeship in Aeronautical Engineering and was fortunate enough to land a placement at Rolls-Royce in Sheffield.

College years also bought nightlife, and he started to get into dance music when he was 17, from club nights in the UK but also a lot of house parties, where many of his mates used to DJ and was the first place he really took an interest their skills behind the decks. Admitting how bad he was when he attempted it for the first time, it became a hobby he wanted to master.

After relocating to Sheffield for Rolls Royce, towards the end of the apprenticeship in 2020, Covid hit the world. Forced to stay home, his engineering future was doomed by the ban on international travel, and after months of uncertainty, he decided to stay busy by learning how to mix, only really for his mate’s house parties, at the time. He used his furlough salary to buy his first piece of equipment, a Pioneer DDJ controller and practised relentlessly, whilst watching every YouTube tutorial online.

A year later and still unable to work, his Dad helped him buy his first set of CDJ’s, this was the turning point for his future. He DJ’d all day long, starting out with house at first, and searching for music online daily, he listened to other mixes, inspired by PartiBoi69’s live streams during lockdown, he and his mates started their own streams broadcast on YouTube. Only 6 months after DJ’ing, he knew he needed to make his own music and started his self-taught journey, learning the basics of production.

After a mix in 2021 for Interzeek UK Series helped get him some local notoriety, and as the end of lockdown was in sight, he held his first ever event in Blackpool called ‘Visionary’. Playing b2b with a local female DJ, it was a free party for only 400 people and was completely sold out. This was the first time he ever played in front of a crowd, “It was the best night ever” – he adds.

Less than a year later, another 2 of his own shows under his belt, he booked Bad Boombox, and got onto Teletech’s radar, after Kander, one of their residents was the first DJ to really support AZYR’s own productions. This ended with him becoming one of the first acts to join Teletech’s agency as a core member of their roster.

His first play for Teletech was not planned, he got asked to step in for Brutalismus3000 at the first edition of their Hardcore event, followed by another last-minute replacement at XXL Warehouse and finally the Boiler Room stage at Teletech’s Festival. These three plays, were pivotal breakthrough moment in his career, landing him an official booking for Boiler Room at Teletech a year later, live streamed to the world, it was a stream that went viral with nearly 3 million views, and the world knew about AZYR.

His first ever release was on MOTZ Berlin in 2021, followed by his track ‘The Bassline Gives Her Ecstasy’ on Nine Times Nine’s Hidden Gems VA Vol.1 in 2023. Releases then followed on Teletech and Reckless, before he started his own label Speed Limit earlier this year, which he launched with a VA.

Speed Limit is inspired by some of the VA releases he loves with undiscovered artists, being dropped with no promo in an old school way. He wanted to get to a point where he was able to support other artists and repay those who gave him the chance when he started out. Musically the label is fast, bouncy and full throttle but with no rules. “I just want everyone to make what they want, and if I like, it we can release it, but it’s all under the hard techno spectrum”.

On a 2022 live stream from Awakenings, 999999999 played 3 of his own tracks, but it was when Nico Moreno heavily supported his remix of Christian Cambas’s track ‘The Outsiders’ on AutekTone Records on a Verknipt live stream, it went viral once again. Verknipt soon after booked him for their ADE show and made AZYR’s international debut in Amsterdam. He has since also sold out a series of All Night Long shows across the UK and Europe including Glasgow, Manchester, Rotterdam, Cologne and Zaandam, before playing for the coveted Awakenings Up Close Festival earlier this year.

What’s to come? Show highlights for 2025 include Glastonbury, Creamfields, Awakenings Festival, Electric Picnic, Time Warp, Pyramid Ibiza, Monegros, KappaFutur Festival, Terminal V, LoveFest Serbia. Rotterdam Rave, plus a US tour in October, and his first tour in Asia before the end of the year.

With support from 999999999, Nico Moreno, Sarah Landry, Amelie Lens, Paula Temple, DYEN, Shlomo, Parfait and legends like An-D, AZYR’s journey into the underground music scene has been nothing but impressive, and most importantly honest.