Soundtrack To My Life: Murkage Dave

Born and raised in East London’s Leytonstone, DJ/promoter-turned-singer Murkage Dave has been a student of the game from his early days of listening to Deja Vu and Rinse FM. His love of garage transitioned into him DJing during his teens and then turning this passion into a career, when he began putting on parties in Manchester during his time at university.

From running club events, Dave then leveled up and formed a collective—Murkage Kartel—with the likes of Madam X coming through the ranks and going on to do big things in the industry. However, he soon became disillusioned with the Manchester music scene, pushing him to move back to London, in order to take things back to to the roots. In London, Dave was back in the thick of things and eventually landed a residency at the infamous (and now closed) East London venue, Visions. The heat he garnered from DJing at the place to be put him on the radar of The Streets’ frontman, Mike Skinner, and the two soon linked up for their night, Tonga, promoting events across the world with their collective wealth of music knowledge.

But throughout his time of promoting and DJing club events, Murkage always felt that creating his own music was his true calling, and Dave recently made this a reality with the release of his debut solo album, Murkage Dave Changed My Life. Complex caught up with the Manchester scene legend, shortly after his headline show at Sebright Arms, to get the soundtrack to his life: from DJ selections to inspirations for the booth.