If you’re a gigging musician it’s safe to say that – alongside enduring some questionable burgers and availing yourself of some eye-raising toilet facilities – that you’ve most likely suffered behind some shocking PA systems too.
Yes, while the fantasy is always to peel off a solo as clear and cutting as hot knife through butter, the reality is too often like parping under the duvet. The solution is, of course, to cut out the grubby middleman and take matters into your own hands and – inspired by systems where their smart makers got it just right – DJ and producer Floating Points, has done just that.
Now every Floating Points gig is a sonic treat, delivered via his own DJ sound system that he’s named The Sunflower and which will be accompanying him at every festival he’ll be playing this summer.
The artist – real name Samuel Shepherd – worked with designer fig. G – aka Carlos Figueroa – to create the system. The Sunflower is inspired by the Aztec speakers which he first encountered at classic Leeds venue, Cosmic Slop, plus the output of SBS Slammer, a New York sound system ran by Craig ‘Shorty’ Bernabeu, and Shepherd has been regularly updating fans on Instagram on the progress of his unique designs.
And it looks as if The Sunflower is nearing completion as Shepherd has confirmed to Apple Music’s Tim Sweeney at the Beats In Space podcast that he’ll be playing out with his new creation for his upcoming 2025 summer gigs.
“Whenever I DJ, I have to psych myself up a little bit,” Shepherd explained. “I’ve spent so much time in all these different clubs. Eventually, I was like, ‘I need to build a sound of my own that has the power that I want. I need to build the room I want to play in.’”
“The system [at Cosmic Slop] is run by this guy Tom Smith, who I call Cosmic Tom. He got deep with it and did all the carpentry himself with some help from old-school New York guys who built Paradise Garage and those mythological systems.
“Tom’s system is the best in the UK, hands-down. The midrange is beautiful. The feeling you get in that space is fantastic.”
And it’s not just his system that Shepherd has been building. His festival plans involved using haystacks and panels to even better envelope the captive audience at his smaller stage appearances.
“I want people to go in there and be like, ‘Wow, music sounds beautiful in here, and I’m having a 10 percent better time than if it wasn’t as good,’” he said..
You can check out all of Floating Points’ upcoming 2025 gigs and get tickets via Ninja Tune here.
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