Suze Gurusinghe AKA Surusinghe is an experimental producer renowned for her creative, bass-heavy tracks with a percussion influence. The Naarm/Melbournite, currently resides in London – and her unique musical style reflects her wide range of global inspirations.

After realising how little diversity there was in music, she made the decision to provide the representation she wanted to see and reflect Asian influence. Surusinghe hopes to make “fast, high-energy tracks” that resonate with people on the dance floor and establish a connection with the sounds she heard in her childhood home.

Suze made her incredible AVA debut with us at AVA in the Woods as part of All Together Now 2023.

This year she makes her festival debut on Titanic Slipways on Friday 31st May 2024 in a special b2b set with Bitter Babe as part of our 10th birthday celebrations.

What was your approach to this AVA Mix?

To be honest, this mix took me a while to put together! My first attempt was a big, banging “what i thought the Belfast hunnies want to hear” set … but I ended up hating it because I felt like I was trying to hard hahah
My second attempt was a mix inspired by Bicep who put Belfast on the map for me so it was a lot of really big room, euphoric moments but then again.. felt like I was trying too hard.
So I finally just put this mix together without trying to prep and just played songs that came naturally and that felt organic to me. I did it in one take and it came together so much easier.
This is a pretty common occurrence for me. I have all these grand ideas but overthinking does me dirty. It was one of those moments when I realised I just needed to ‘do me’ and it was 20 times easier.

How do you feel about your upcoming debut performance at AVA Festival?

SoooOooOooOoo friggn’ excited! Belfast is one of my favourite cities in the world and AVA is a favourite festival of mine. I came as a punter last year and thought it was such a special place that brought such an amazing crowd. So many incredible artists have made their debut there as well so I really hope I can do the festival justice I should also add I’m extremely excited to get down to Bittles pub for a wee Guinness (or 10 hehe)

What were some of your earliest musical influences?

I grew up listening to a lot of indie rock and goth punk hahaha so nothing we’d see on an AVA line up unfortunately.
But most of my early inspirations in the electronic space were DJs and producers from my home city Naarm (Melbourne). Artists like Andy Garvey, CC Disco, Nite Fleit, Sleep D, Andras and Noise In My Head were all favourites of mine – I’d say my musical style is quite different from them but they were playing the music that soundtracked my early clubbing years and inspired my love for those spaces. I could quite confidently say I wouldn’t be where I was today if it wasn’t for the amazing artists that came out of the Naarm scene at that time.
In terms of artists that influenced my sound – artists such as Objekt, Lurka and Pearson Sound are definitely the first names that come to mind.

After wearing a lot of different hats in this industry, how do you find returning from producer to DJ?

Hmmm I can’t work out if it’s made me more or less cynical haha! It’s definitely helped my understanding on how the scene works and allowed me to be in spaces where I could meet a lot of other artists and learn from them. But to be honest, it’s always been the same driving force for me. I just love sharing music with people. From when I was interning at festivals at 16 to now, it’s always been very evident to me that there isn’t really any other world I could be working in. I’m pretty damn consumed by this beast hah

What advice do you have for aspiring DJs who are looking to break into the industry and make a name for themselves?

Go to the afters hahah, go to club nights. Be a punter and meet people in those spaces. As much as it can be hard work and sometimes very daunting, what I’ve learnt is that like 90% of people who do this for careers are usually just likeminded music nerds and socially awkward people as well. So unless you go out and make connections with other people who care about this, it’ll be super isolating and it’s also how you get booked for shows and put forward for opportunities. Also, run your own parties and play yourself if you’re not getting booked! Just gotta make it happen capp’n

Your set at our stage at All Together Now was one of our highlights of the festival, and the Irish crowd loved it. What was your experience of AVA in the Woods last year, did you enjoy yourself?

I honestly think it was my favourite set of the Summer! There was just something in the air that night. Also being sandwiched between some of my favourite Irish kings/queens to ever do it (Inside Moves + Sally C b2b Spray) meant that it was a guaranteed good night. Also whilst I’m on the topic of Irish royalty, I just wanted to shout out how exceptional the AVA team is. Sarah, Conor, Saoirse, Will, Ciaran, Big Dave, Jayson and their wider team are some of the loveliest festival creators I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with and I’m lucky to call them all friends <3 Oh and that Emmett is pretty cute also NGL

Since then you’ve had a Boiler Room debut and on home turf too, what was that like?

Boiler Room was terrifying lol Definitely not a natural experience in any way but very grateful I was allowed to do it! The crowd were sick and was very nice to have my mum and family there but ye… very, very, very, very, scary. If you watch it back you can see my hands shaking like crazy throughout ha

Which artists alive or dead would you love to collab with?

EMA & Sloucho hehe <3