Ali James started his journey in his hometown of Brisbane, playing backyard b2b sets with his mates whilst learning production on the side. It was when Azyr first dropped his edit of ‘Carnival’
at one of Teletech’s Australian shows, the track went viral and Ali’s has since been positioned to become one of Australia’s next breakout techno artists.
His music is hard and fast but always incorporating elements of euphoria. His audience is Gen Z, the millennial ravers that love the harder techno sound, mixed in with melodies and vocals. Musically he has been inspired by some of the earlier years of hardstyle, EDM, R&B as well as metal, all elements which he incorporates into his current sound.
It was his release on Azyr’s Speed Limit label in May 2025, that kick started his career, Bassline Pumpin’ charted in Beatport’s Top 5 and still remains as one of Ali’s biggest most successful tracks to date. This ignited a chain of huge releases on a selection of some of the best-known techno imprints including ELEKTRA, Revised Records, HEKATE and Revive, fellow Australian Restricted’s label. His latest release ‘Love U Baby’ was his debut on Teletech in early September, the track went viral across socials, and is proving to maybe be one of his biggest releases yet.
International support came in fast for his productions from Nico Moreno, Restricted, I Hate Models and Sara Landry – who asked him to tour with her whilst in Australia in December 2025,
and they’re about to release a brand-new collab single ‘Energy’ on the 18th September back on HEKATE, which they made together in the studio in Melbourne.
After selling out his All Night Long tour in October 2025, the rise has been fast for Ali, off the back of his releases and the tour with Sara, he has his first European and Asia tours this year, a slot at Beyond The Valley Festival, and will be making his European and UK debut later this year, as he plays for Teletech in Cardiff, Glasgow, Belfast and Manchester in November.
Ali confirms that the dance scene in Australia is hotter than ever, and a region that is delivering the next generation of talented and hungry artists.
Nice to connect with you Ali, can you take us back to the first set you ever played in Brisbane?
The first set I ever played was actually in a living room to about 50 of my friends – we’d been DJing at pre drinks and one of our friends said they’d rather pay to watch us perform than go to the actual festival, so we decided to throw our first rave in my mates living room and that’s where our event The Garage Sesh was born.
How did you go from playing backyard sets with your mates, to landing your first show in Australia?
It was incredibly difficult to get any bookings in the beginning without much of a name and with a lot of local competition, so we just kept throwing our own events to give ourselves & other local aspiring DJ’s a platform to showcase their talent – fast forward to today, and The Garage Sesh is one of if not the premier hard techno event in Brisbane. My first real gig was a boiler room style rave we threw in a local warehouse – I’ll never forget the rush that came from 300 people losing it to a track I’d made only a few days before.
How do you think the dance music scene in Australia is developing in comparison to Europe?
Australia has always been a bit slow to catch on to trends compared to Europe, but with the rise of hard techno over the last few years, the Aussie scene is definitely growing and I don’t see any signs of it slowing down. It’s tough being so far away from all the action, but there is a lot of undiscovered talent here & hopefully the more the scene grows – the more Aussie artists you’ll see on the global scene.
Tell us about your collab track ‘Energy’ with Sara Landry? It’s a massive release for you, as is also one of her album tracks.
Making Energy with Sara is one of my craziest career milestones so far, I met her at Teletech Melbourne in 2024 as a fan – so to be in the studio with her only a year later still blows my mind. She’s an incredible artist and human being, and someone I’ve looked up to since I started this journey.
Ahead of your first big UK tour this November, can you tell us what you are most excited about?
I played a few shows in the UK on my last run over there, and I absolutely love the crowds – the energy is seriously unmatched. I’m super excited about the whole tour to be honest, I just can’t wait to be back there playing to people who love this music as much as I do.
Finally, Can you offer advice on what to do if there is a DJ out there, playing a lot of sets at home, and what they need to do to take their career to the next level?
The obvious ones are to nail the basics of DJing and production (there’s plenty of YouTube tutorials and guides online), and to get involved in your local scene and network as much as you can. I also believe social media is key, in such a saturated market you need to be constantly visible, Instagram and TikTok are where I’ve seen the most growth and opportunity come from. If you can show that you’ve built an audience organically, that will open up so many more doors with promoters and opportunities to work with other artists. You can have the greatest product in the world, but if nobody knows about it then it doesn’t matter. Don’t overthink it, just post those clips of you doing transitions or teasing your new track – you never know who might see it.
