Gavin Herlihy’s discography is a who’s who of iconic underground house and labels of the 2000s. While next-big-thing DJs come and go, the enigmatic Irishman has adeptly surfed through dance music’s fashionable trends since 2006, never caught in ships that sink or carried away with floating hype. All the while he’s played some of the world’s most renowned clubs and festivals, notching up sets at hallowed clubs such as Fabric or Panorama Bar along the way.

An incredibly prolific producer, Gavin already has two atomic EP’s slated for 2014. The first, the Put It Down EP for Matt Tolfrey’s Leftroom featuring remixes by Grain and Ford Foster, whilst the second, the Rough Beat EP for Alex Arnout’s Dogmatik imprint features Chicago House master Foremost Poets.

As comfortable writing sublime deep house as he is at crafting no-nonsense future techno, in the last two years alone Gavin has released on esteemed labels Leftroom, Sunday Best and Culprit. Crosstown Rebels single Witching Hour scored a Beatport Deep House Top Ten closely followed by another Leftroom bomb ‘Get Loose’, which became a Miami WMC and worldwide house anthem. His remix of Romanthony’s ‘Let Me Show You Love’ was played on Pete Tong’s Radio 1 show and supported by DJs like Damian Lazarus, Mosca, Droog and Paul Woolford; similarly a remix of Matt Tolfrey’s ‘Turn You Out’ alongside collaborator Laura Jones was championed by house and techno’s elite. Meanwhile, releases on burgeoning labels Overall and Lo*kee added to an enviable discography that also includes previous outings on big labels such as Cocoon, Cadenza and Buzzin Fly.

Now based in the UK’s capital of house music, Leeds, Herlihy (pronounced Herl-i-hee) is an established feature on the global DJ circuit. He earned his place thanks to a two year stint learning his trade as an up-and-coming producer in Berlin at the end of the 2000s. As a DJ he cites artists like Laurent Garnier or Francois K as big early influences for their abilities to cross genres within long marathon sets, a feature he emulates in his own performances.

His roots in dance music lie much deeper than DJ’ing alone. He was responsible for introducing artists like Loco Dice, Luciano and Ricardo Villalobos to the UK and beyond during a seven year stint as a music journalist. His teenage years were spent lost in the experimental rock of bands like Sonic Youth, Rage Against The Machine and Fugazi before uncovering electronic music during a rebellious festival pilgrimage to England aged 14. During this pivotal trip he remembers in particular hearing early drum ’n’ bass on a north London pirate radio station. “It sounded like the future being beamed down the radio waves,” he says. “And I’ve been chasing it ever since.”