New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Couzens was born March 1999 in South West London into a family totally hooked on good music. This made the task of DJing even more natural to him…
Whilst always embracing his parents' collection of disco, which spun around his head like the genre's very own ball, from soul, to rap, to indie, to 80s/90s and more, Couzens enjoyed a vast array of good vibrations in his family home growing up. A varied palette is not a confused one, as some suggest, on the contrary, it's said by promoters that its Couzens' exposure itself to this amass of genres, that has led him to become the artist that he is today.
Not yet a teenager, Owen began experimenting with his parents' collection. His apparatus? Virtual DJ. He remembers playing Skream's '8 bit baby' and 'Wibbler' back when he was a dubstep artist.
Little did he know that Skream's rise to the top of the underground dance industry would be harmonious with Owen's growth into 'Couzens' and subsequent global accolades.
Hitting adulthood was not just a blessing for Couzens' thirst for his first legal pint, but also introduced him to club culture. Stumbling into Elephant and Castle's own 'Corsica Studios' for a Studio Barnhus event - a label based in Stockholm run by Kornél Kovács,
Petter Nordkvist and Axel Boman, who were all performing a mind-blowing b2b2b - Couzens took to house music like white on rice. He had witnessed Disclosure,
Hannah Wants, Duke Dumont, DJ EZ and Redlight, but this was a different gravy…
His first piece of hardware was the Pioneer DDJ-SB2. He used this to finally release his first mixtapes on Soundcloud under his own brand 'Settings Music,' which ended up being the talk of the school, with offers flooding in to play at parties and smaller gigs. The same Soundcloud profile surpassed 50k streams and he knew he was onto a winner…
With each and every gig, grew an ever-evolving budding artist, and it wasn't long until Haines Roberts Global Events came knocking on Couzen's doors at the house party. He landed a slot at their 90s Rave 2019 UK Tour for the Bristol leg at Basement 45. Couzens sums up this experience as the 'big turning point' given the hundreds of ravers who showed to hear him slam room 2 out the park (or basement!) with his astounding opening set that led to cutting of the music in room 2 and
Lloyd Haines grabbing him to play in room 1 instead - a pretty surreal moment that cemented him as one to watch in the City.
He then went on to play at Otkert Club in Budapest, Hungary for Haines House at Budafest: It was here that Couzens showcased his extensive record knowledge, playing everything from minimal grooves to warm up, through to 90s classics and disco flavours, uniting the British and Hungarian ravers under one 'house.'
Couzens lists his influences of today as Carl Cox and Skream. He warms to their playing style and ability to break, what often feels like, the chains of a hometown in London. They've proven it can be done. The ambition becomes a vision; becomes a goal.
Predicated on a forward-thinking, I'll-play-what-they-want perspective, which has total disregard for egos so abundant in the scene of today, Couzens has surpassed expectation with his professionalism, creativity in the studio, and vision in the DJ booth, that he got an invite to Croatia's Hideout Festival 2020- a renowned festival on a postcard-worthy-island - for a set with
Lloyd Haines on Pro-ject's own stage, at which Richy Ahmed was meant to headline but due to Covid this was not meant to be for summer 2020.
