In the aisles of IKEA, amid potted plants and fluffy towels, Demi Riquísimo had reached breaking point. It was November 2021, and he was helping his girlfriend move into a new flat in Walthamstow. “It was one of the times that I was most sad and scared,” says the DJ. His career felt far from within his control. Certain tracks had garnered some popularity, but he thought that he’d be further ahead by now. Making a name for himself was much harder than he’d hoped.
All the anxiety that had been bubbling throughout the Covid lockdown erupted under the white lights of the warehouse. “I just had a full-blown mental breakdown,” he says. But just over two years later, Riquísimo performed at Drumsheds — the event venue that replaced that very same IKEA that housed his crisis. He describes the experience as “amazing”, repeating: “I loved it. I loved it.” His grin is audible down the phone.
Thirty-eight-year-old Riquísimo is a DJ and producer, known for his energetic blend of house and disco — especially on a little track called ‘Rocking You Internally’. He’s spent the last two weeks straight in his east London-based studio, but this weekend he’s jetting off to Amsterdam and Ibiza for shows, an abnormal routine he quite enjoys. Amongst the excitement and adrenaline, gigs generate a certain nostalgia for the artist. “I used to spend a lot of time manifesting moments like this,” he says wistfully. “The pinnacle point is when you’ve got that ‘click’ and you can basically play any track and [the crowd] is going to enjoy it. When you get in that special space, that’s what it’s all about.”
Although both have shaped Riquísimo’s career, that embodied thrill of performing contrasts sharply with the strategy behind his success. After well over a decade of making music, he has learnt to take a measured approach. “In my early twenties I wanted it all now,” he admits. “It just doesn’t work like that. I’m a lot more persistent and patient now.” His tactics involve writing down lessons learnt over years in the industry, which the DJ describes as “basically a PDF of all the mistakes I’ve made”. The list includes what he wants to release, where he wants to perform sets and who he does and doesn’t want to play with.
“Actually, you do have to figure out: what are you trying to achieve? Not in a really boring, cringe way,” Riquísimo’s reflects. “Do you want to have a hit that goes really big and then you have to chase that? Do you want to be in the scene for ten, twenty years?” For the artist, intentionality is the name of the game. “You need to know what you want from it,” he says. “Five years later, you can see if you’re on track, or you could see if maybe your goals have changed.”
In such a crowded field, Riquísimo strives to make himself easy to book through this meticulous method. And it’s working. Opportunities picked up in 2022, culminating in playing back-to-back with DJ Tennis at Amsterdam Dance Event festival. Meanwhile, a highlight from 2025 was appearing at Glastonbury. “I would never [have] dreamt to do anything like that,” he says. “Something about that weekend is so special.”
As he talks, it becomes apparent that being in the spotlight isn’t Riquísimo’s driving motivation. The musician eagerly speaks about his early fascination with music — never losing his quiet self-assurance, or his clipped Ts. He learnt the piano at school but quickly became fixated on the electronic sounds of his Yamaha keyboard. “That was the start,” he says. Later, at university, he would walk an hour each way to the record shop. “I just needed to hear something new and something fresh,” he recalls. “I can’t really explain it. I just had this absolute desire inside of me to have that.”
Despite his penchant for planning and PDFs, Riquísimo will abandon his to-do list of current projects to focus on something new. “That’s the only thing that really excites me at all, really.” Novelty also comes in the form of working with other musicians, something he hadn’t experimented with until making ‘All I Need’ with Michelle Manetti. As well as being his most successful collaboration, it’s also his most memorable. “You never forget your first,” he jokes. “I would have never made that track by myself, and I don’t think she would have made that track by herself. Everything just glued together really nicely.” His upcoming November EP will feature one solo track as well as The Trip, Michelle Manetti and Hammer.
“I’ve got in a space where I’m very happy,” the producer says. He’s achieved what he believes to be the ultimate goal in music: feeling in control of his career and releases — in part thanks to launching his own label, Semi Delicious. “I’m not trying to change the world with what I do,” he says. “I don’t want to have a Top 10 hit. I’m trying to just stay relevant in my scene, collab with artists I admire. Honestly, I just want to carry on doing this the way I am.”
- WriterLara Iqbal Gilling
