It’s 10pm Sunday night at Coachella, the line outside the Yuma Tent is thousands deep, inside you can barely breathe. While neon clad throngs of EDM die-hards are reliving memories of their early 20s at Swedish House Mafia, today’s generation of rave kids are queuing up to see dance music’s newest ascendant star, UK house DJ, Michael Bibi.
His name might not be familiar, but his face sure seems to be. Strolling across the Polo Fields, fans bob up every thirty seconds or so, requesting a selfie with his signature UK bowl hair cut. He gamely obliges. It’s a level of fandom few underground DJs enjoy, but he seems at ease, smiling and chatting with his fans as he takes in the festival for the first time. He’s happy to sneak through fences and jump into abandoned buggies, all with a mischievous smile.
Though headlining a Coachella stage, spinning B2B with Damian Lazarus at Framework’s Art of the Wild After-party and a forthcoming summer residency at Ibiza’s coveted DC10 may smack of overnight success story, Bibi’s been in the game for almost two decades. A son of musical parents, he was putting together mixtapes as a pre-teen, and DJing and producing from his teenage years. From throwing parties, to running his own Solid Groove label, producing tracks and DJing, Bibi’s seen every aspect of the electronic music industry. After all that time on the grind, it’s little wonder he seems to be enjoying every minute of the recent, hard earned acclaim.
The month prior, Bibi was rolling deep at Space Miami, his signature house groove, extending deep into the morning hours to a packed terrace that was clearly staying for the duration. It’s a sight that’s playing out now across the US and globally. He remarked as we walked that, “America gets me, the crowds are full of energy.” As his agent shows him the line outside Yuma stage on his phone, he smiles, picks up his gear and heads out into the night.
Photographed by Jonny Rios
