#7 Denham Audio
On Cuban sandwiches, Serbian tapas, and eating as the locals do
Described succinctly as “16v hatchback Breakbeat NRG kickin’ it out of your Kenwood system”, Denham Audio’s music has that knack of channelling old school rave and hardcore sonics yet still sounding fresh and energetic. Raised in London, the DJ and producer is now based in Sheffield, where he never left after studying at uni there. Having run the Club Glow label alongside Borai, LMajor and Mani Festo, he broke out of the underground with ‘Make Me’. The sleeper hit saw a boost after the Donna Allen sample was officially cleared, and Denham Audio was signed to Black Butter for a string of singles.
The fruits of that are ‘Love Me Less’ and ‘Wasting Time With You’ (with Triple Point). Elsewhere, he’s been turning in remix after remix – YU QT’s ‘Dream Theme’, collaborating with DJ Fuckoff on ‘Deep Breaths’ for Sports Banger’s Heras label, and with Dusky on the delirious ‘Everything I Do’. Then there’s all his bootlegging and edit work, with his Bandcamp page a goldmine for these, from Addison Groove’s ‘Footcrab’ to Soul II Soul’s ‘Back To Life’.
“I’m trying to be a bit more conscious about moving it forward,” he says of his forthcoming EP Six Days, which is due next month. “You know, not trying to continue doing what's been done, or what I've been doing for the last five years. I’m seeing this EP as the next chapter in Denham Audio, basically.” Currently on tour in Australia, I caught him before he left to find out his thoughts on Sheffield’s best sandwich, the Anthony Bourdain method of selecting places to eat, and being extra with his own cooking.
What’s the food scene in Sheffield like?
It’s amazing for food and drink, there’s so many independent eateries, cafes, restaurants, even breweries in the Peak District nearby. I’ve got a few favourites: there’s a sandwich shop called Caffè Tucci that’s about a ten-minute walk from where I am now, these two Italian brothers that make these amazingly absurd sandwiches. They all boil down to meat, cheese, veg, but it’s a million different combinations. And they’re super friendly, super happy – when they see you they’re like, ‘Hey, how you doing?’, give you samples of stuff to try. Have an amazing pistachio latte too. I love that place.
If you’re looking to be a bit bougie, there’s this place Bench – that’ll be a date night place, or if your family’s coming up to visit. In lockdown it started as a wine bar and I was ordering natural wine from them on a monthly basis – that was my guilty pleasure during lockdown, you know when everyone was making sourdough, I was learning about wine! When lockdown ended they opened the restaurant properly. You roll up, book your slot and don't have to leave or anything, you have your table for the whole night. They tell you about all the wines they’ve got and have a tapas-y menu, and pair some stuff with you. It’s just a really nice experience.
As a touring DJ, have you experienced any great food while travelling?
I’m quite open-minded with food, I like to try new things. Especially when I go to countries I’ve not been to before – I always like to try and eat locally. I went to Serbia last November, and they were like, ‘What d’you wanna do for food, pizza?’ And I was like, I want to try and get like the most authentic thing we can. We had some lamb stew and a whole tapas range of Serbian snacks and stuff. I really like to open my mind to local cuisine, really. I’m a sucker for Korean food, too, fried chicken – actually, any fried chicken, but Korean fried chicken is top tier, barbecue as well.
Have you played in South Korea before?
I was there on holiday but managed to play a show out there, so a bit of both. First night we went to a barbecue place with the promoter and sat there for about six hours cooking meat and drinking beer, just chatting. And that was nice because you’re with the locals, doing it how the locals do. It’s not necessarily the most fancy or inviting-looking place, but it’s the local spot. You feel like you’re part of the culture.
Do you make a hit list of places you want to try before you go away?
I quite like stumbling upon places. If you watch Anthony Bourdain, you know that some of the worst-looking places make the best food. So sometimes I just wait until I’m super hungry and then take a hit. Because I travel quite a lot, I always try and learn stuff that I think gets overlooked in UK history. It’s nice to understand how that country has got to where it is now. In South Korea, they were saying how Spam is a staple food in their culture because of the Korean War. I was watching a cooking show on YouTube where they were making budae-jjigae, which is an army barracks hotpot. It’s like cheap-looking hotdogs, American cheese, Spam, all made into a Korean hotpot thing.
What kind of things do you tend to cook at home?
If I have a go-to it’s like a good, hearty shepherd’s pie or something. Lots of beef, maybe a mix of sweet potato with normal potato, cheese… the full works. Going over the top for simple food is my go-to. Then my favourite sandwich is a Cuban sandwich, so when I went to Miami, I lived on that for a week. To the point where, when I got back I was like, I wanna learn how to make it. Me and my mate made this mojo sauce with orange and garlic, bought this giant pork joint, roasted it overnight and spent all weekend just making sandwiches and listening to tunes. It’s so simple but I think it’s the best sandwich ever.
Do you have anything edible on your rider?
I have fresh fruit, because there was a time where I’d sleep in at the hotel and have to go straight to the airport, and I didn’t have anything to eat. My rider’s not that exciting, to be honest. Sparkling water, just to seem pretentious, and non-alcoholic beers. The more I play, and especially do double weekends, the more I’m like, it’s not worth drinking Friday and having to get somewhere else the next day – you’re just constantly playing catch-up then. I still work, as well. I’ve got a couple of days left at my job, but having to do all that, and then go back to work on Monday, it’s a constant cycle.
Finally, is there one meal you’ve had that’s stuck in your mind?
I went to Marrakech years ago and there was this all-pink restaurant called La Cantine des Gazelles. I had a recommendation to go, and had this lemon thyme chicken tagine and honestly, it was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. And by contrast, the holiday was a bit meh, it was super busy, you just couldn’t escape the crowds. So that was the shining light in the whole thing. Unreal. That’s lived in my head for six, seven years, maybe even longer.
Before you go, here are some Salt Fat Acid House-chosen tracks to add to cart on Bandcamp. Happy listening!