We caught up with Eli Brown at Ultra Music Festival and dove into his new music, the Arcane takeover at Factory Town, and more!
Bristol-bred Eli Brown has been setting dancefloors ablaze with a steady stream of high-octane releases and dynamic performances that continue to raise the bar for modern house and techno. His latest single, “Drip,” featuring Eliza Legzdina, amplifies his signature fusion of heavy-hitting beats and infectious vocals — a sound that’s quickly become synonymous with his label, Arcane.
Fresh off a powerful performance during Miami Music Week, including a standout Arcane takeover at Factory Town, Eli Brown brought that same unmatched energy to RESISTANCE‘s The Cove stage at Ultra Music Festival, where he once again proved why he’s one of the most compelling forces in the scene today. With major performances lined up at festivals like Coachella and EDC Las Vegas, 2025 is shaping up to be a landmark year as he shows no signs of slowing down.
Before he propels further, we caught up with Eli Brown backstage at Ultra Music Festival to chat about his creative process, recent tour experiences, what’s on the horizon, and much more. Keep on reading for our full conversation!
Stream Eli Brown – Drip (feat. Eliza Legzdina) on Spotify:
Thanks so much for chatting with us today. So, you’re back here at Ultra Music Festival. How do you feel right now? And you’re going to take the stage soon, so what’s going through your head?
I’m nervous, as always. I always get nervous before shows. I think it’s important because it shows you care. I don’t have much of a routine before I play big shows. I do it every week, so it’s part and parcel of what I do. But I’ve been working heavily on new music, trying to find the hottest tunes and the newest ideas to play tonight. So I’ve got plenty of music to play.
We’re excited. And what have you noticed here at Ultra and the crowd and the energy that sets it apart from other festivals?
Well, last year was my debut, so I can’t say I can draw on a great deal of influences, actually, because I’ve only been here once, but last year was absolutely insane.
You did a back-to-back, right?
Yeah, I was super impressed by the energy. It was like the middle of the afternoon on Sunday, so you’d expect people to be hanging from the overall week, the Ultra week per se, and all the after-parties. But man, last year’s [set] — it was one of the highlights of the year. So I’ve got big expectations for tonight. I hope they don’t let me down.
I’m sure it’ll be a success. You’ve also been playing Miami Music Week, with a set at Factory Town the other night. We were there for your Arcane stage takeover. Did you have a part in curating the lineup, and how was that process?
Yeah, Arcane‘s my label, so I’m involved in the whole vision of it. Factory Town is one of my favorite venues. I love the sort of warehouse feel, yet it feels part festival, part warehouse. It’s pretty unique in that respect. So to do an event there, we did one last year in the warehouse that was insanely good, and to move to the Park Stage, which is my favorite stage there, personally, was insane. It’s something I would have only dreamt of doing a couple of years ago, so to do that was brilliant. And the lineup we managed to curate I think is arguably one of the best lineups of the week.
It was pretty mind-blowing. Factory Town is like its own festival.
I love it, too. I was tired by the end. [Laughs] The 7am finish did me in.
It’s a long night. So, speaking of long nights, you just wrapped up your All Night Long Tour in cities across Europe, playing primarily your own music. Can you walk us through how you told the story of Eli Brown through all your sets?
I think that’s the beauty of doing an all-night-long show. I have quite a long musical heritage, so I don’t get to showcase that massively in an hour-and-a-half to two-hour set. So, to play six hours, I get to go back to my roots and really represent where I came from—some of my influences, some old classics that are not mine but stuff that’s inspired me, through to more recent [releases] and future forward-thinking music, faster [tracks], and stuff that I’m really excited about that I’ve been making. That sort of broad cross-section is something I enjoyed from the all-night shows.
Touching on your new music, we love your new track, “Drip,” which just came out with Eliza Legzdina. Can you tell us a little bit about the production process behind that?
I like having vocals on my tunes — all of my tunes. I think something I do well is my sort of big-room techno sound that always has some memorable, unique vocals to it, right? I like exploring rap vocals, particularly “Diamonds” being a big example of tracks I’ve done in the past like that, and “gImmE gImmE” more recently. “Drip” is just an extension of that, really.
Eliza Legzdina is a vocalist I’ve been into for a while, and we just hit it off in the studio. It was that easy. I had the backing track ready to go. It was one I had started playing a little bit out, so I knew it kind of worked. She came in, and we did one session. She smashed it out of the park. She did so many verses that I had loads left over that I couldn’t fit in the track. She absolutely smashed it. And I’ve got another tune with her as well called “Step Back,” which is another one I’ll play tonight and will be coming out later this year on Arcane. So, it’s a nice relationship we got.
Going back to your roots, your hometown of Bristol is a melting pot of many diverse sounds. What are your tactics for bringing these underground sounds to the forefront of the music and the scene?
It’s not something I massively consciously do. I make music for me and for my DJ sets predominantly, but the one thing that I learned early on in my production process is when you go out and listen to a DJ, you might be at an event for six hours and hear a multitude of tunes—what do you go home remembering?
Whenever I’m writing a tune, what’s always in the forefront of my mind is what will set this track out from all the other tracks a DJ or myself will play, and what will that memorable hook be? Whether it’s a vocal, a synth sound, or whatever, my music needs something uniquely memorable. So, that’s my process. And hopefully, it’s memorable enough to make it successful and have some crossover success.
So, what’s next for you looking ahead in this year? Are there any exciting releases or projects we can look forward to?
I’ve got loads of music. “Drip” has just come out. The next thing I’ve got to come out is Dom Dolla’s “Dreamin'” remix, which is coming out the week of Coachella. Then another big track called “Wavy” is coming out in May. And show-wise, I’m looking forward to Coachella and EDC Las Vegas. I’ve got some big headline shows in New York I’m really excited about, and more stuff on 92 Thing as well. I’ve got a new capsule collection on 92 Thing that’s dropping, probably around the New York show, so I’m looking forward to that as well.
Lots of exciting things coming up. Well, that’s all we have for you. Thank you again for chatting with us!
Wicked. I appreciate it. Thanks for your time, guys.
