Layla Benitez is the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs 2022 Future Star winner

“I'm unbelievably honoured, it's a dream come true!” says Layla Benitez when we inform her that she’s been awarded the Future Star award this year. “Thank you so much to DJ Mag for all your continuous support.” It’s been a jam-packed year for the New York-raised DJ/producer. “It’s been a complete whirlwind,” she confirms. “I've had three releases so far, had my first international summer tour with 43 dates in 15 countries, and it's still not over! There’s still so much more to come.”

The above stat doesn’t really do justice to the stylish DJ’s spell in Ibiza over the summer months, where she seemed to be absolutely everywhere. “It was absolutely insane!” she smiles. “It was by far the busiest I've ever been, and it was quite an adjustment. Now that I've found my rhythm, I feel pretty invincible.” Layla played at DC-10 for Circoloco, at Hï Ibiza for Damian Lazarus’s night in the Club (while Black Coffee was helming the Theatre every Saturday), Ushuaïa Ibiza with CamelPhat and Solardo, Amnesia, and Pacha for Bedouin’s night. It was indeed a whirlwind, a veritable dream come true for someone who first visited Ibiza when she was 13.

Her father John taught her to DJ at 13 on a pair of Pioneer 900s, and took her to Ibiza for the first time. Intrigued with the island, she returned in her late teens and visited all the main clubs, hearing DJs like Ricardo Villalobos and Luciano play extended sets. On the way home she had an epiphany moment where she decided she wanted to be a DJ.

Back in New York she graduated from photography school while DJing casually for friends at local parties. DJing professionally came after a pal asked her to fill in as the warm-up DJ when the scheduled spinner dropped out, and she left an impression on assorted promoters who happened to be in the crowd. She started getting gigs in NYC, and then places like Mykonos, Ibiza, Turkey and Miami. Meanwhile, she caught the production bug from hanging out at her friend’s studio in New Jersey. She spent more time producing in New York when Covid essentially cancelled all her gigs, and when some clubs re-opened in late 2020, Layla was booked to play in Miami. While she was there, clubs shut again in New York, so she decided to stay on for a few weeks.

She met one of the Space Miami owners who offered her a residency on the basis she moved to the Florida city. A week later, she moved to Miami. Her Space residency acted as a springboard to launch herself internationally, and she started getting her productions accepted by some of the cooler labels in the scene. Layla’s ‘Fizzy Pop’ release on Lee Burridge’s All Day I Dream was a languid, deep houser — perfect for warm-ups and early doors sets. ‘Carpo’ on Hurry Up Slowly was a tracky, dreamy delight, and ‘Fides’ for Crosstown Rebels pivoted around a low-slung groove, deep burrowing b-line and pretty little synth fills.

Yet these releases don’t fully do justice to the expansive variation of her sound, expressed earlier this year in her DJ set at DJ Mag’s Miami pool party, at Get Lost later during Miami Music Week, and then at festivals like Coachella, Creamfields in the UK, Coccorico in Italy, SXM festival in St Maarten, and plenty of others.

“I would describe my sound as indie-dance,” says Layla. “Because it's a newer genre, the definition is more broad. Some of it sounds more house, some more melodic techno, some more tech-focused but all staying true to this dark disco meets ’80s techno vibe.”

Indie-dance has changed definitions since the turn of the 1990s, when it was a catch-all term for so-called ‘baggy Madchester’ bands like the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, and seems to fit Layla’s dark disco voyage through various 4/4 styles, seen through a slightly hazy psychedelic prism.

Layla chose to record her Future Star live-stream in the Garden at Hï Ibiza, which you can watch on DJ Mag's YouTube now. “Recording the stream was an amazing experience, and the perfect ending to my season in Ibiza,” she tells DJ Mag. It feels like her journey has only just begun.