Danny Avila

Hard hitting techno has long been married to dark nightclubs. Basslines snake through underground bunkers, and kick drums thump through warehouse party spots. But what if this underground sound could light up the world’s biggest arenas? Enter – Mainstage Techno.

Danny Avila’s latest interpretation on techno takes the white-knuckled strength of the best techno records – the kick, the bass, the hardness – and reimagines them for massive crowds. It’s the sound of the underground music he grew up performing, yet bolder. Think: state of the art techno and its deep-in-the-club sonics, but tailor made for thumping across the main stage.

“Since I started performing and showing my new sound – and after introducing the Mainstage Techno music label, the feedback was insane,” he says. I still get 10-15 demos a day for the label and so on. It feels so good that people seem to love the sound as much as I do.”

Avila dreamed up the sound at the end of 2020, while deep in the throes of the lockdown. “I wanted to make a bridge between the underground techno world and make things easier for the audience,” he explains. Rather than having songs running forever, Mainstage Techno is instant. In doing so, the sound expertly throws back to Avila’s breakthrough era in Ibiza, merging his earlier years with his massive, global commercial success.

Avila’s passion for DJing and producing has been deep, ever since the beginning. Growing up in Marbella, Spain, he was a true obsessive. “Every time I saw a DJ play – at a restaurant or on YouTube or the TV – it would be the one thing that got my attention immediately. When you like a sport – skateboarding or whatever – you automatically do it. For me, this was DJing” he says.

Major success and big achievements came early. He was DJing at 12 and producing by 13. A year later, he moved to Madrid where he secured club bookings, long before being old enough to legally be inside. Not long after, superstar DJ and iconic global performer Tiësto asked Avila to perform alongside him at the legendary Pacha club in Ibiza. From here, it was go.

“Ibiza was a good starting point – and it’s also how I managed to get into the American crowd,” he says. “I did my first shows over there in 2013/14. Pacha, New York, was one of the stand-outs. I would do three/four hour sets and close the club until seven/eight in the morning.”

Roll call for Avila’s achievements runs like this: hundreds of millions of streams across a plethora of genres. Three compilations – for Ministry of Sound, Space Ibiza and DJ Mag. A mentee of Tiësto, before later mentoring the next crop of DJs and producers as the official ambassador and judge for one of the biggest DJ contests in Europe. Countless records. See also: he was the youngest artist to ever make the cover mount CD for DJ Mag UK, and the youngest artist to take on a residency in Las Vegas. He’s also been a DJ Mag Top 100 DJ for the last 7 years.

But having started his career playing house and tech house in Ibiza, Avila felt that after twelve years in the industry, he needed to switch things up. The plan: to return to the merry-making of his earlier Ibiza years, with the knowledge of more than a decade performing to crowds across the world. Techno – done his way. “I’ve seen a lot of different trends, different genres and different sounds grow and disappear,” he says. “So I took all of that knowledge into this project.”

Avila grew up playing tech house, techno and house. So arriving at the Mainstage Techno concept felt entirely natural. He’s maintaining the high-octane energy on stage that he’s long been known for, and merging that energy with a completely different sonic approach. One that’s dark and edgy, and, crucially, built for main stages. In a way, it’s a throwback to some iconic sets he’s played throughout the years. It’s all about bringing back the tech house sound of the parties. “Even when I had my commercial career, I was playing a lot of tech house sets in clubs, for streaming, etc. And at every single private party I was throwing, I played 6-8 hour tech sets haha.”

Premiered in 2021 at Tomorrowland's renowned Around The World festival, Mainstage Techno brings Avila’s underground roots together with massive presence. It’s music made to be played on huge stages with massive crowds. “’It’s all about the visuals too,” explains Avila. “Whatever I’m playing has to fit with the visuals – they might be really dark at one point, really ravey, but by the end of the show it’s different colours. It’s important for the music to connect and be an experience for the crowd. I want them to feel more than the music.”

Leading with the single “Sagrada Familia”, which is named after the iconic, perpetually unfinished cathedral in Barcelona, Mainstage Techno also links firmly with Avila’s Spanish roots. “I wanted something that stood for something. Something that comes from my country,” he says. In fact, with the link to place, the track is a cover-all-bases introduction to the Mainstage Techno sound. “It’s very heavy drops with brass sounds and big kicks and bass lines and melodies on the breaks. I wanted to do this on the first single so people could understand the sound. Last year I was making so much music, and this was one of the records I had to release.”

Following up from “Sagrada Familia” is the second single “Azteca”, which featured support from acts like Adam Beyer, Marco Carola, Richie Hawtin, Umek, Joris Voorn, Paco Osuna, Söhn Summit.

Taking the immersive idea of the senses – feeling the bass in your chest, seeing the visuals light up the screen – Mainstage Techno aims to reach far beyond performing music. It’s also a label – of which “Sagrada Familia” is the first single – and a movement. One Avila hopes to extend. “I want it to be a platform for producers to release their music. I want it to be a community. A clothing line. I don’t want it to just be a sound – I want there to be many more things around it.”

So, welcome to the beginning – for Mainstage Techno and for Danny Avila’s next progressive era. More than anything, it’s going to be a journey – one taking Avila back to his DJing roots and the tracks he loves, with all of the knowledge gained from performing to hundreds of thousands of crowds. It’s going to be exciting – and an experience. “I gave 100% when I was younger,” he says. “But I’m at a more serious step in my career where I know more about what I’m doing.”