Sound Advice: Denis Sulta

Join Denis Sulta on Sound Advice, the weekly interview series covering artists’ journeys and their creative process. In this episode, we discuss the Scottish DJ/producer’s new era of creativity and collaboration, as well as learn more about his record label Silvers, forthcoming album and more.

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Welcome to Sound Advice, the series spotlighting artists’ creative process and their SoundCloud journey. We’ll get the inside knowledge straight from the source on how musicians, producers and creatives are leaning into everything SoundCloud offers to elevate their sound, get heard and catapult their careers. Sound Advice is now available in audio format on the SoundCloud Stories profile.

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Our guest on this week’s Sound Advice is Scottish DJ/producer Denis Sulta, who’s always shown a flair for the dramatic and a taste for records that mix euphoria, melancholy and a touch of cheeky glam. Following his breakout 2015 releases on Glasgow-based record labels Numbers and Dixon Avenue Basement Jams, Sulta has gone onto have a storied career: playing on the world’s biggest dance stages, running his Sulta Selects label and holding multiple Ibiza residencies, including several where he’s played back-to-back with Solomun. 

Nonetheless, Denis Sulta is preparing for a renaissance of sorts these days. On a personal note, he recently married the actress Saoirse Monica Jackson, in a ceremony fit for a knight. Music-wise, he just reworked his first big hit into “It’s Only Real 2025,” with some help from TEED, and is also launching a new label, called Silvers. With his latest label venture, he’s preparing to release an eclectic crop of new artists and collaborations, and shares how he uses SoundCloud to collect demos and directly connect with artists he’d like to partner with.

We called Denis Sulta up to talk about the evolution of his music, the recent SoundCloud rollout of his ‘All The Things I Wished I’d Said’ series and what he’s excited about right now. Along the way, he reflects on his approach to DJing, the thrill of collaboration and the importance of teamwork, as well as drops some key advice for DJs at the start of their musical journey.  

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LISTEN TO THE AUDIO EPISODE OF SOUND ADVICE FEATURING DENIS SULTA

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LISTEN TO ‘ALL THE THINGS I WISH I’D SAID’ BY DENIS SULTA ON SOUNDCLOUD

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Things We Talked About In This Episode of Sound Advice

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Reflecting on a Decade of Denis Sulta, and Remixing “It’s Only Real”

• In 2026, Denis Sulta is embarking on a new stage of his career — but he’s also been celebrating the anniversary of a major milestone. In 2015, the Scottish DJ/producer broke through with his track “It’s Only Real,” which dropped on Glasgow record label Numbers. The track launched him into the UK dance music scene and became a staple of his career. Here, Denis Sulta reflects on the track’s influence on him over the last decade, and why, in 2025, he decided to celebrate the track’s 10-year anniversary by remixing it as “It’s Only Real 2025.” 
• The process of remixing the track ignited a new creative spark for him, too. Going into more detail, he explains how trying to remix the track solo led him down a new path; where he sought out collaboration, in order to make the remix the best it could be. That path, as he tells it, led him to TEED, whose “incredible, raw creativity” has been an inspiration for Denis Sulta. 
• Here, he discusses how he got to see his original track from a different perspective, and how the process of collaborating with TEED opened him up to new ways of thinking and working. You can find out more about TEED’s story and sound on his own episode of Sound Advice here.

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How Denis Sulta Learned to Collaborate and Be a Team Player

• A key lesson from the collaboration process with TEED was Denis Sulta’s acceptance of a long-held but sometimes sidelined dream: that although he comes from an underground dance music scene, where much emphasis is placed on the individual artist being the sole creator, he always wanted to collaborate with others, and make more commercial music that can reach wider audiences. 
• An inspiration for following that path in 2026 came from his wife, the actor Saorise Monica Jackson. Having watched her work on a film set — and seeing the large crew of artists, technical staff and behind the scenes players all working towards a larger project together — he realized that some of his all-time favorite records were made in much the same way, with multiple writers and producers supporting the lead artist. 
• This moment of recognition lit a fire under him. As he puts it, “Only seeing your ideas from one perspective,” your own, “can sometimes be the wrong way” to go about creating work. As a team, “you’re doing what’s best for the work, not for you.”

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Denis Sulta’s New Record Label, Silvers, Marks a New Era in His Work 

• Here, Denis Sulta talks about moving between the underground dance music scene and working in a more commercial, collaborative style, and how that process has informed the sound of his latest work. His upcoming single, “I Used To Be,” is “a love letter to the old Sulta sound,” he says, but framed for his new era.
• A major part of Denis Sulta’s 2026 is his brand new record label, Silvers. After running Sulta Selects and its sub-label, Silver Service, which released underground dance tracks by artists such as Dan Shake, Cromby and Sulta himself, the launch of Silvers marks a leveling up. With a new aesthetic, he sees the label as having “a more concise, confident framing,” and with a broader palette of sounds. 
• Here, he shouts out some of the artists that are due to drop tracks on Silvers. The label, he says, is an outlet to “push a more contemporary sound that’s not all about my personal identity” as an artist.

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From Glasgow to Ibiza, Denis Sulta on Working with Solomun and Refining His DJ Etiquette

• Denis Sulta’s early identity as an artist is rooted in the Glasgow club scene. Coming up on record labels like Numbers and Dixon Avenue Basement Jams, mentored by the staff and DJs surrounding the record shop Rubadub, Denis Sulta was thrown in at the deep end of a committed and knowledgeable electronic music ecosystem. Nowadays, having struck out on his own and toured the world, how does he tap into those roots?
• For him, the story is told in how his DJing has evolved over the last decade. Having gone from underground Scottish clubs to playing in Ibiza, he’s learned that “there’s always been an essence of compromise” in his DJing, in the sense that he’s “always trying to anticipate what people might want to hear from him.” 
• Over time, he’s gone from playing a broad selection of musical crowd pleasers to realizing that he can focus on a particular sound, and do it well. That’s one of the big lessons of his time with Solomun, the legendary tech house artist, who he collaborated with on a track in late 2025.
• Here, Denis Sulta talks about the nights he’s played back-to-back with Solomun in Ibiza, and what he’s learned from those experiences. What sticks out most is the need to have proper etiquette in the DJ booth when you’re working with someone else, and even if you don’t play the exact same style of music, to “go into that setting trying to match and support that sound.”
• By showing respect and care to your DJ collaborator, Denis Sulta explains the importance of working towards “what's best for the night and the audience” — otherwise, he says candidly, “you might not get asked back again.” Here, Denis Sulta goes into more detail about that etiquette, but the key takeaway is this: “Make the other person feel comfortable, so that they can make good choices and so that you feed off those choices.”

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How SoundCloud Helped Shape a Cathartic Music Project and Deepen Fan Connections

• A recent project of Denis Sulta’s is ‘All The Things That I Wished I’d Said,’ a 7-track release that he uploaded, track by track, to his SoundCloud page. The project started out as a series of heartfelt yet seemingly unconnected tracks, which he started making during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. 
• This was a time in Denis Sulta’s life when he was feeling emotional and apprehensive about releasing new music, and was wondering about what the next steps of his music career could be. But slowly, he came to the realization that the tracks being full of emotion was a benefit, not a hindrance; and he used that emotion to present the tracks as a SoundCloud series. 
• Now, “I believe that my job is to take ideas and energies, work through them and share the best versions of them with everyone,” he says sagely. By uploading the tracks to SoundCloud as ‘All The Things That I Wished I’d Said,’ he saw that he’d turned these “diary entry” tracks “from a monologue into a dialogue" with his fans. Through fan feedback in track comments and direct messages, he says how the tracks touched people, and the process moved him to create more authentic music. 
• “SoundCloud is the perfect platform for projects like this,” he says, opening up about how being able to freely upload his music and see real-time feedback was an energizing experience. Here, he goes into more detail about how he likes to use SoundCloud in his day-to-day as an artist; from speaking with other artists, getting demo submissions, reading fan comments and digging for new music for his DJ sets. 
• Where he was once nervous to read track comments, now he’s come to hugely appreciate the engagement. “Most people are lovely and supportive,” he says. “And I want to make that appreciation reciprocal and have a connection with my fans.”

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Sharing Career Advice, From Good Mental Health to a Strong Work Ethic

• When Denis Sulta broke through in 2015, fame came to him quickly: what lessons and advice can he share with younger artists today, who may just be starting out on the same journey? For Denis Sulta, the most important thing is to fully commit to the music scene while keeping on top of your physical and mental wellbeing. He shouts out some artists he knows who are great examples of this, including Ascending artist Josh Baker, and how the best path to breaking into the scene is by actually working in the scene. 
• Denis Sulta used to work in night clubs — behind the bar, in the cloak room and more — and having a core appreciation for how nightlife operates means that you bring a humility and realness to your journey that others may not have. That spirit of community is vital to success: dance music is not a solo endeavour.
• Recently, Denis Sulta took part in a songwriting camp. It’s a process that many dance artists are getting more involved in, as traditional music industry circles continue to tap into dance production and songwriting talent. So what was his biggest lesson from that experience? As Denis reflects, when you’re heading into a collaborative studio session, it’s wise to prepare something that you love first and foremost, not what you think someone else will love. You have to love your work first in order for a good rapport to build. 
• In that same breath, though, you also need to be prepared to scrap that preparation if someone doesn’t like it, and not take it to heart. The most important thing is making your collaborators feel comfortable — that’s how you get the best out of them and of the session time. 

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What’s Up Next For Denis Sulta?

• In 2026, Denis Sulta is listening to and loving the new generation of electronic artists who are experimenting with different sounds and throwing caution to the wind. He loves Porter Robinson, Jane Remover, 2hollis and Ninajirachi, especially the latter’s debut 2025 solo album, ‘I Love My Computer.’ 
• He’s drawing from that big, fun energy for his forthcoming album, ‘Self Centered,’ which he teases as tapping into an “indie dance sound,” and working again with TEED. He’s also looking forward to some major gigs he has coming up, including with Skream and Armand Van Helden. You can find out more about Denis Sulta’s upcoming tour dates here.

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Links and Extras

Follow Denis Sulta’s journey on SoundCloud.
Press play on Denis Sulta’s breakthrough 2015 track, “It’s Only Real.”
Follow TEED, who worked on “It’s Only Real 2025,” and appeared on Sound Advice here.
Hit play on Denis Sulta’s 2025 release, ‘All The Things I Wished I’d Said.’ 
Follow Numbers and Dixon Avenue Basement Jams on SoundCloud, who released Denis Sulta’s early tracks.
Explore some of Denis Sulta’s current favorite artists, including Porter Robinson, Jane Remover, 2hollis, Josh Baker and Ninajirachi, to name a few.
Listen to the Festival House Bangers playlist on SoundCloud.
Never miss an episode and follow the official Sound Advice playlist on SoundCloud.

Getting The Most Out of SoundCloud‍

Learn more about using DMs to connect with fellow artists and potential collaborators.
Learn more about how to make a custom playlist on SoundCloud.
Learn more about unlimited uploads, available with an Artist Pro subscription.
Learn more unlocking access to unlimited distribution, available with Artist Pro.
Learn more about getting heard with SoundCloud’s updated algorithm, available to Artist and Artist Pro subscribers.

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_{CREDITS Host: Vivian Host, Executive Producer: Mike Spinella, Producer: KC Orcutt, Audio Engineer: David “DibS” Shackney, Coordinator: Trevor McGee, Editorial Associate: Lauren Martin}