“It’s been hectic but fulfilling – which is kind of what this whole year’s felt like,” admits Laurence Guy from an NYC hotel room, beaming from his ongoing tour of North America. One of the UK’s finest house music exports, Guy is currently eight cities into a twelve-date sprint across the continent. Yet from Canada to Texas, California to NYC, it seems that no matter where he goes, Guy is always amongst friends.
“I played at a fan’s house in San Diego,” he recalls with a smile. “And sometimes I’ll go play at a dive bar alongside the main set. You get to meet people that are really interested in the music and make a direct connection.”
The power of those connections is something that seems to surprise even Guy; from the very first night of the tour, he says, there have been many small gestures from fans letting him know that even his earliest releases still resonate. “Someone passed me a note saying one track had helped get them through a certain time in their life. It’s just amazing to be on the other side of the world and have someone who is so connected to music that was released back in 2017 – which almost feels like another lifetime to me.”
2017 was Guy’s breakout year. With the release of his highly acclaimed debut album, Saw You for the First Time, he staked out his own chilled-out, sample-heavy spot in the UK house scene. Since then, rather than digging in, he’s sprawled outward; tweaking the musical recipe, exploring new sounds, and says he brings “a hundred different influences” with him into the studio.
“I’ve always wanted to get to the point where the influences could be worn on my sleeve without me thinking about it,” he says of his expansive production style. “All of the things that happen in my life, and all the stuff I’m listening to just naturally bleed out into the music. It’s not intentional.”
By the time he got to his second full-length album, 2023’s vocal-driven Living Like There’s No Tomorrow, But Killing Yourself in The Process, Guy was pulling in everything from trap and spoken word to sit alongside drum ‘n’ bass, solo piano works, and some straight-up house beats. With track titles like Don’t Live in Oblivion, It’s Cold Down There and Pissing in The Personal Growth Room, the album was a sharply introspective look at the need to find balance in an industry – and a society – that all too frequently pushes people to burnout.
“I’ve been writing music since I was like 13 years old; it’s very much like an extension of myself,” Guy reflects. “So, if I’m not feeling fun for a year then the music inevitably isn’t that fun, and, if I’m feeling good, then I want to make good feeling music. The last album I released was probably my favourite thing that I’ve done, but it was more serious and conceptual.”
In need of a palette cleanse, Guy swung his attention back to the dance floor. This year has seen him drop a series of off-the-cuff bangers, starting with a late-night writing session that would become one of this year’s club favourites, Hey Baby. “Just after the America tour last year I was staying at my mum’s and seeing off the jet lag for a couple of days,” Guy remembers. “I couldn’t sleep, and in the middle of the night I was like, ‘I need to make a beat.’”
Powered by rousing horns and a disco pulse, the tune — which just last week received a remix from Austrian DJ, salute — is a 180-degree pivot from the delicate, detailed production of his last album. Guy says he initially felt unsure about the track. “It was so much more tongue-in-cheek than anything I’d made in the previous year, but I sent it to my manager and he loved it. So, then I was like ‘Okay, let’s just make some fun stuff for a while.’”
While Guy’s musical influences may always be shifting, his production process has a tried and true methodology. “It always starts with the sample,” he says. “I’ll chop that up, and then I’ll chop up another one, and then just start layering. That part is always the same, but what gets funnelled through is different. So, I could put an indie track or a jazz track through that same process and they will sound different.”
Guy takes a singular delight in finding which tracks to chop. A lifelong crate digger, Guy says that, while he’ll occasionally turn to online catalogues like Tracklib, vinyl is his preferred source material whenever starting a new track. “It’s definitely still my favourite way,” he emphasises. “If [record stores] have listening stations then I can just spend the whole day going through stuff. But oftentimes, I’ll look in different sections, find a record – maybe something with cool artwork – and see who played on it and what instruments are listed.
“You might find a record by someone you don’t know,” Guy continues. “But then you look on the back and it’s got Patrice Rushen on keys and Stanley Cowell on piano – so that’s going to be sick. You get to know different labels, different players. And then sometimes you just get a feeling of like, ‘This is going to be good’. It’s just instinctual.”
He’s quick to acknowledge that clearing a sample can be tough work. Some material serves only as a “springboard for the tune” and will eventually have to be dropped from the track entirely. Nevertheless, for Guy, the act of finding, buying, and spinning vinyl is not only a huge part of his creative process – it’s key to how he forms an emotional bond with his own work.
“The reason for sampling records is because it ties the music I make to moments in my life,” Guy says thoughtfully. “If I’m listening to my album from last year, I can remember where I bought the sample for each tune. I can remember what I was doing that day and who I was with. Just on a personal level that really feels great to me.”
A thread that runs through Guy’s work is a distinctive focus on emotion, and emotional communication, through music. It’s a key part of why he chooses his sometimes cryptic, sometimes confessional track titles. “Historically, I’ve not been very good at articulating what I felt or how I was doing,” confesses Guy. “When I started making music, that was basically my only way of communicating those things, it was almost like a coping mechanism, and the track titles are a big part of that.”
What ’s remarkable about this approach is that it works so well – where songwriters can rely on lyrics to paint a picture or tell a story, Guy’s largely instrumental discography manages to evoke a strong sense of place and feeling using only beats, melodies, and a scant few words. “They’re my little message to the world which I wouldn’t say to anyone in person,” he says thoughtfully. “It’s not necessarily a healthy way to live your life, but it’s good for the music; it makes it universal for other people.”
To connect his music to fans, Guy takes a solidly DIY approach. Though he recently signed to independent Australian label, Future Classic, he has, since 2019, maintained Accidental Pieces, a platform where he can release music directly whenever he wants.
“Originally it was just so we could do things in an immediate way,” says Guy. “It was there for when there was a gap and I wanted to release something. Now, with Future Classic, I can make something tomorrow and arrange to release it in a month, so that’s really good. But just to have Accidental Pieces as a place where I have full autonomy and can maybe release other people’s music there in the future, that’s the ethos. Basically, the more direct connection you can have, the better.”
That same approach can be seen in Guy’s embrace of the UK’s burgeoning pub rave scene. As the hospitality sector struggled to bounce back after COVID, Guy and fellow DJs such as Disclosure, Nia Archives and Fred Again.. spread out to local UK pubs to put on a series of free gigs. Far from a one-off, Guy’s local favourite, The White Hart in Stoke Newington, has become a regular spot for casual, low-pressure sets — including a recent appearance in June to celebrate the release of Most Perfect People (Are Mostly Not Perfect).
“Those days are always amazing,” he enthuses. “You meet loads of people, you can play new music, and it’s just fun to DJ in a pub, you know? I mean, this is what I love to do. I want to be playing as many nights of the week as possible to as many people, or as few, as want to listen.”
Asked whether we can expect more sets at The White Hart in 2025, his answer is a resounding yes. “100 per cent,” he says. “And hopefully we’ll extend it out to different cities, and even different countries. For instance, I’m doing a small pop-up party in New York tonight for Halloween.”
Guy is swift to point out the ongoing struggles of the live music sector – and the role that individual musicians can play in helping it. “We’re not in a boom time,” he concedes. “A lot of small venues are still closing. Really, [DJs] just need to play smaller venues for lower fees, and play big festivals for big fees, and yes, for free every now and again.
“In my opinion,” he continues. “It’s quite easy for DJs to do that. You can go and play a small club the day after playing a big club. Little things like that keep stuff going, and I think if more people were doing it then we could bounce back quicker.”
As 2024 draws to a close, the next challenge on Guy’s horizon is to eventually bring together his two biggest musical evolutions from the past few years. “The idea is to marry the collaborations with vocalists and the deeper stuff, with the fun ‘not thinking too much about where it’s going to be or who’s going to listen to it’ stuff. Amalgamating those two different processes into a mega album, and then touring it with a live band – that’s the plan.”
Guy’s desire to play with a live group can be traced back to the sessions he undertook when making Living Like There’s No Tomorrow, But Killing Yourself in The Process – some of which were conducted in person, and some remotely due to COVID restrictions. “The online collaborations worked really well, but being in the room is always going to be in my opinion,” Guy says. “It’s going to give it more life. Something mediocre can suddenly become something amazing.
“So, the goal is to DJ and play live with a group,” he continues. “We have me playing keys, we have a drummer, and we have a trumpet player. That’s something I want to build because it’s more exciting to watch and more exciting to be involved in. There’s just more connection.”
Exactly when we’ll hear this new album, Guy can’t say. “I’m always kinda half-making one,” he admits ruefully. “I went to Mallorca for a couple of weeks to write, and that material ended up being more album-oriented. I’m in LA for the next month doing sessions every day — it could just be for singles or it could be for an album.”
One thing Guy is sure of is just how much fun he’s having along the way. “I’ve got my older brother out here with me as well — he’s a bass player — and we’re just hanging out in the sun, writing tunes every day — it’s amazing. I’m in a good phase of making music right now, so I’m going to keep running with that until it stops.”
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