Ahead of his headline appearance at Éalú le Grá, taking place over the June Bank Holiday weekend in Galway, 909originals’ Emer O’Connor had the chance to chat with one of the island of Ireland’s internationally acclaimed ambassadors of electronic music.
This consummate professional DJ, producer, and record label owner hails from bonnie Belfast. Welcome to 909originals, Rory Hamilton—better known to all as Hammer.
Thanks for having me, it’s good to see you again, Emer. Check out my new studio – it’s still a bit upside down but getting there [points his phone at the treasure trove behind him]. And I had a lot of good news today: I just finished mastering my new EP and I just got an India toured booked for November so I’m pretty buzzing about that. It’s been a good day.
Ah brilliant, well done! There’s a fair bit of Irish talent heading to India this winter – I know Belfast heavy-hitter Stevie Garrett, aka Fractious, has been over at least twice playing sold-out gigs, and Ibiza-based Irish electronic weapon Cici. It seems like there’s a real appetite for the Celts and our musical prowess?
So it seems, and I love it there. I actually met Cici when I was in Goa – I hung out with her when I did that tour.
Cici is lovely, isn’t she?
She’s funny – we had a f**kin wild time!
Now Rory, you’ve been based in Glasgow for most of your tenure but you enjoy coming home when you can, playing all the hotspots north and south. How did you get on with Bubble Love, aka Ross From Friends, last Friday at the Ulster Sports Club?
Yeah, it was great. I try to do three nights a year there because I love going home – to see my family, do nights, see people. I love doing parties in the Ulster Sports Club. I normally do ones for my label, Remmah [Remmah is Hammer backwards], but this time I thought I’d shake things up and book a slightly more established act.
It was really fun. I’ve booked him about three times now – I’ve had him play live in Glasgow twice, and it was sold out. So yeah, great crowd in there. I love small clubs, so it’s perfect for me.
Upcoming on the June Bank Holiday is the most vibrant, highly imaginative, and high-spirited petite-boutique festival of the year—Éalú le Grá—where you’re headlining. Are you all set to escape to Galway for the craic that weekend?
Yes! I’m lucky to know so many people from Galway now. When they asked me to play, I was like, “Happy days!” I played for this crew at a Burning Man, After-Burn style party in London, and it was mental. That was my first introduction to their vibe – and they’re lovely. Then they invited me to Éalú, and it’s a massive honour. I’ve been playing in Galway so much and love the place, and I have loads of friends there now. I’m so excited – I’m going for two nights, so I’m going all in!
Obviously, I’ve never played the festival before, but just looking at the lineup and all, it definitely aligns with what I’m into—loads of grassroots artists, very arts-based, very creative, and a cool crew. They put a lot of work into production and get their hands dirty, you know? At that Burning Man party at The Cause, literally everyone was raving and then just started working– started derigging. I was like, “Oh, I’ll help!” Everyone was running about, a bit spaced out, doing a full derig—it was really cool. So yeah, I’m buzzing to come to Éalú.
They’ve also asked me to play Burning Man on the Celtic Chaos stage. Now I’ve got my wee baby girl Bobbi – named after my dad, Bobby – so I’m not sure how long I can get away for, but I think I’ll be playing it, yeah.
I know you’ve got Electric ties with Galway going back years, you literally only played there a few weeks ago?
Yes, I’m good friends with Paul Belton. I actually played for his wedding on the Aran Islands. I was supposed to be staying for one night and ended up missing the boat and stayed with the wedding party for three days! He had a big Funktion One system. So yeah, I’ve got loads of pals in Galway… I did a back-to-back with Paul only about three or four weeks ago in Electric and that was class.
What kind of vibe will you be hoping to bring to Éalú? Will it be more techno or disco based?
If you look at the lineup, people like John Daly, Itchy Rich are playing more cool disco stuff. I never really plan, I’ll make a few playlists and I’ve got a load of new music, a load of new demos and new mastered unreleased stuff coming out in the next month, so I’ll have that prepped. I’ll just play it by ear and see what the vibe’s like.
I reckon it’ll be pretty trippy. You know, the headline slot, I can do what I want. So yeah, judging by the Burning Man one, I’ll probably go pretty heavy, but I never plan.
Yeah, bring us on a journey! Now I want to go back to basics a bit with you. I believe you first got into techno and clubbing at age 14, circa 2001 maybe? As Galway is made up of tribes, where did you find your tribe in Belfast? Which clubs did you frequent?
So when I was really young, I had this crew, and we went to trance clubs.
I think we all started with trance when we first got going in the scene.
Trance, yeah. Then I started going to Shine when I was 15/16 and that got me really into hard techno. I bought my first set of decks around that age. I was mad into the likes of Speedy J and D.A.V.E. The Drummer. I think a lot of people in Belfast and Ireland love that really heavy techno.
I do love D.A.V.E. The Drummer myself, haha.
Yeah, everyone I meet from Ireland loves him. He’s almost like a cult hero in Ireland, but he’s not even from Ireland. He’s just a guy who’s a legend and he’s quite niche. I was going to Shine week in, week out, literally every weekend for nearly four years until I left school, then I went to uni. So Shine was where I cut my teeth.
I know you were mad into The Advent, Dave Clarke, and Ben Sims—but who were your favourite local DJs back then?
Phil Kieran, hands down. Also Alan Simms and Dermot – the Shine residents were my favourites by far.
Did you never go to any underground clubs?
Well, in Belfast, the only other club I went to, when I was about 16, was The Network. But that was quite a scary club – full of UDA guys and all. It went on ’til 10 in the morning. I’d come home to my mum and she’d be like, “Where were you?” and I’m like, “Staying at a friend’s house…”
Haha.
Yeah, then going to school the next day! I’m trying to remember what age I was when Twitch started the night in Lavery’s. That was probably the only other club I could go to. There weren’t that many options. I was just a Shine head until Twitch came along. That was pretty cool—they were playing loads of minimal.
There was Stiff Kitten as well, right? I went there to see Ben Klock. That was kind of an offshoot of Shine?
Yeah, that was when I was in uni. I went to art school in Glasgow. I’d come home and go to Stiff Kitten. I think they ran at the same time for a while, but it was basically Shine.
So you moved to Glasgow to study Visual Communications straight from school, around 2005. Was this just a cover so you could play rugby—or do you still love art? Do you do any creative work in the visual arts now?
Yes, I played for Ireland Schools, but I now do loads of artwork and design — I do all my own design and visuals. I love making short videos and editing stuff. I do all my own merchandise which I find quite fun.
So basically, my studio is in SWG3 which is a creative arts centre essentially, but with a music venue. Next door to me is a framer, next door to him is a screen printer, so we kind of do wee projects, and he does all my merch — we work together on it. I do some prints as well. I do lots of art stuff and I’d like to do more, but when I finally made the decision to stop doing graphic design and DJ professionally, that’s when my music career really started kicking off — because I could really focus on music.
I find it very difficult to focus in general, so trying to do two things full time, I had to make a decision, and it was obviously going to be music. I was a graphic designer, I worked on the Commonwealth Games and stuff in Glasgow — lots of fun stuff. I recently designed a whisky bottle, so I still keep up a bit with design.
In fact, when you speak about artwork, I’m actually starting to work with kids — community work, freelancing, sound projects for people from different backgrounds. One young kid, she was a carer for her mum. She’s eleven and she is amazing.
So I’m trying to build this community studio in Glasgow, in SWG3, to nurture this talent — give them access to design equipment and professional music equipment, so they can hone the skills they have that they might not be able to otherwise.
Ahhh wicked! Are you getting backing by the council there or where are you getting your seed money from?
I’m basically working on this right now, but I’m sure we can get funding — I just need to work out how I can make it sustainable without funding. It’s going to be a multifunctional studio — photographers could rent it out, but then I could use it to teach kids, other people could come in and do workshops, people could rent it as a space.
You should have a word with Joaquin “Joe” Claussell of New York — he set up a similar community space in Brooklyn called Sacred Rhythm Music and Cosmic Arts. He’s super sound, I’m sure he’d be happy to chat.
Oh really, ok.
It’s fantastic that you’re driving this project to give back to your local community there. Do you think having your own child has inspired you to do such work?
It’s kind of from a want of trying to diversify from DJing, and then this opportunity came along — because SWG3 already does community work, but it’s mostly street art. Then Laura, the lady who runs the community outreach, said, “We’d love to do some sound projects — we’ve got a load of recording equipment.”
The first bunch of people were 70–90-year-olds, some of them had different things going on in their life — every aspect of life was in that room. So we were just doing sound recording, getting out into the street and taking photos for a collage. And I thought to myself, “This is so rewarding,” you know? It’s really fun.
We’ve now done three of those projects with younger groups and different groups. So it’s organically building. It’s very fulfilling — and although DJing is very satisfying, this is a different feeling.
Of course it is. When you look at how much you’ve grown over the last twenty years — back when you were running your own gigs in Glasgow, you had of course the blog going with the lads, Feel My Bicep. How did that actually work — you being based in Glasgow and Matt and Andy in London — a kind of dual-city throuple?
Matt was actually in Dubai at the time. We just set it up and did the posting, making sure the posts were going out, and then we started making tunes. I was part of Bicep in the early days — we DJed together — but then they were producing and I wasn’t really at that stage.
They had some releases, and there were more and more gigs coming in. Sometimes we’d do gigs together, and it was just getting very convoluted. Then management got involved. So that’s when we decided: I’d be Feel My Bicep, and they’d be Bicep.
You had your own things on the go up north — the Thunder Disco Club nights in the infamous Sub Club, the world’s longest running club. You were going great guns there — do you remember those days?
Yeah, we were doing monthly Sundays and Fridays. Subby was amazing. I was only 25, so it made life a lot easier to do so much. Back then in Glasgow there was a huge crew — everyone partied so hard, out Thursday through to Sunday — and the nights were class in there. We were playing everything from disco to banging techno, just everything really eclectic.
I’m still best mates with Jupe, the guy I ran the night with — he was even with me last night. We were chatting about doing this new studio project. So there was such a cool community.
I’m much older now — there’s not the same kind of stronghold in Glasgow anymore, everyone’s got their own sh*t going on — but in our early twenties it was amazing.
That thing you were saying about Bicep and the rugby…
Yeah, I played rugby for Ireland Schools, Ireland U20s, and Ulster U20s. But I had so many head injuries.
Then I finished uni. I was given an opportunity. I was playing Premier League rugby in Scotland. Then I was thinking maybe I could go for it, play for Ireland from here.
Then Sub Club offered us this residency, and I was like, “I can’t turn down a Sub Club residency.” So clearly, I knew where my heart lay.
That was also around the time the Bicep thing was kicking off. I thought “well I’ll play rugby and do this and that”, but it was just too much.
Yeah, you were spreading yourself a bit thin. So what would you say was the catalyst that took you from a residency in the raving capital of Scotland to becoming a successful internationally touring DJ? In the last decade, you’ve played Panorama Bar, Fabric, Glastonbury…
I suppose it was when I released Dahlia. Every weekend, I’d go down to London, stay with Matt, and make tunes in the Bicep studio. When we made Dahlia, that was my first super successful release.
Then the Commonwealth Games contract ended, and I said, “Right, I’m quitting design, I’m going to start making more music.” And I was getting gigs from Dahlia.
Then we put out Canna on Loft Records — which was run by a few Irish lads like David Magnier. When Canna came out, it was quite big. Then I had the Optimo release… and it all just started to go crazy.
So, it just snowballed from there?
Well, it’s always been a hard slog, trying to survive — even more so now than back then — but it all started falling into place. When I look back at the amount of gigs I was playing, I’m like, “Wow”. I was doing nine a month or something.
Do you remember your first time playing abroad in a non-English-speaking country?
There were a few that were pretty epic. I played Garden Festival — which is now Love International — with Bicep, but to be honest, I can barely remember it. It’s so long ago.
I remember some random Polish cities that I got booked for, but they were a bit scary because you were just arriving at this weird city at night, thinking, “wow I’m on my own here, this is odd.”
Did you actually fly solo? You didn’t bring a posse?
Well, to be fair, my wife did come with me a lot in the early days – she’d pick the good ones, and rightly so. But now we’ve got a kid, there’s no chance. She came on my first ever India tour with me and we just had the best time. We fell in love with that place, fell in love with New Delhi and had the best tour ever. It was so much fun.
But now, when I do those tours, I’m on my own. I’m going to America on Friday for ten days and I’ll be on my own – but you meet up with people and all.
Of course, we need to highlight your work with AVA — the critically acclaimed electronic festival from your hometown of Belfast. The fearless Sarah McBriar is the founder and creative director… and also Matt’s sister. Yas like to keep it tight!
Yeah, family friends like…
Actually, did you go to Matthew’s big day? He got married recently, right?
Yeah, I was the best man — it was amazing. His wedding was like a work of art.
Yes, I saw a photo on Sarah’s Insta — wowzers!
Yeah, and the lasers at the end… it was epic. The soundsystem too.
Who DJed?
I didn’t DJ, but I had to give a speech in front of 250 people — that was an experience. Sarah’s a legend though.
She is indeed. I know you’ve headlined for AVA loads over the years, but did you go to the very first one in 2015?
Yeah, I played the first six AVAs in a row — I even did my first Boiler Room there.
I remember your smoking Boiler Room set from 2016. I rewatched it recently and sure enough, there I was dancing away with the H&W yellow cranes in the background, lol What do you remember about that day?
Well, I don’t think I’ve ever been as nervous, I didn’t sleep for like three days, I was so nervous. My mum and dad were all there. It was very gratifying.
I think I spotted you giving your mum a hug and a kiss mid-set.
Ahhh yeah.
It was a fairly stripped-down event for the first few AVAs but then they seriously upped the ante with your set in 2019? There’s a video of you playing this mesmerisingly trippy track on Facebook, I know it well, what is the name of it, it’s bugging me…
Panoptic on FMB014.
That’s it exactly. Then in 2021 you closed out the main stage of AVA with Glue from Chroma 002, what made you choose Bicep’s iconic track, did you in fact have a hand in the making of it?
No no, I just really enjoy mixing it, I love mixing that tune and I knew it would go off. I’m not precious with my own tracks at all and I just thought, well Bicep weren’t playing that year, and they’re my best friends, and maybe it’s so well known, people think it’s obvious but I just think…
No I was there, it was fantastic, it worked so well. Looking at your own Discogs, it took you a while to go from DJ to producer, it looks like your earliest credit is the 2014 collaboration with Bicep called I Believe. What held you back from getting stuck into the studio for so long?
Yes, it was Day 3 and I Believe, Day 3 actually did pretty well. I’ve always been making tunes but I’m not very good at focussing on stuff, it took me so long to learn design and it took me a long time to learn how to produce.
It took me a long time to become what I would consider decent at making tunes. It wasn’t out of choice — this was back before the days I was tech savvy, I wasn’t really YouTube savvy.
This was before the days of, well we didn’t have Wi-Fi in my flat at uni, so it wasn’t like you could just jump on YouTube and learn stuff, so it just took me ages, you know. I actually just learnt from collaborating with people, meeting up, doing jams.
I love my hardware equipment, so it took me ages to be able to afford to buy stuff. It was just an organic build, just the same as AVA went, and that’s the way it should be because they’ve earned their reputation to be epically huge, worldwide.
Absolutely. You’ve had a solid number of releases since your white label Hammer Hits divine disco dazzler Love Somebody. You must have gained in confidence with your productions since 2018. What’s next on the horizon, you mentioned at the start you’ve a load of releases in the pipeline?
Very funny you should say that because I literally just decided what Hammer Hits White Label #3 would be today.
Ahhh brilliant.
It’s two edits, because I was looking at my old emails — three years ago I emailed my distributor with some ideas and thought, “these aren’t good enough.” It takes me that long to put stuff out, so I’ve got a Take Ur Heart disco edit coming out.
Also, it’s Remmah’s 20th release. It took me six months of work to decide on a track for that. Normally a release would come every six weeks, but with mine they come every six months.
Quality over quantity.
I’ll definitely be playing that at Éalú le Grá festival — it’s called U Didn’t Know.
Now our avid readers at 909originals do know with this world exclusive…
Yeah, Daithí [Éalú le Grá organiser] told me that it’s a very small, lovely festival, but very environmentally conscious — like one of the stages is battery powered and solar powered, which is so cool. All of that mindset is really attractive to me. So yeah, my only plan is to play that 20th Remmah release at the festival, and I’ll drop that disco edit too!
You did some epic electro work on your Fonda album on Remmah in 2021 whose heartwarming back story is as interesting as the name. I believe you made it to release a 10-minute track each day for 10 days in aid of a mental health charity. What drove you to do that — was it the pandemic effect?
Yes, that’s right, and that’s how Italo Hits was born too. The first one was in lockdown, and I did live workouts on Instagram Live. I made my own adverts for it, all cheesy 80s Italo style — it was a really fun outlet for me during lockdown and we raised about £3,000 to £4,000 for Mind Mental Health charity.
Members of my own family have had mental health issues, so it means a lot to me. Then Fonda was the second one, so I said I’d do something else and try to rethink the concept. Instead of doing live, I made a ten-minute track and then did the workout live to the track.
So you were doing bicep curls and jumping jacks to your tunes on live broadcast in 80s workout gear — now this I have to see!
It’s all still on my Instagram and YouTube. They’re absolutely cringe — me in the 80s get-up doing aerobics workouts. Ten days, ten tracks, ten minutes — that was the other charity project. Then I mastered all the tracks and released them. A lot of them are dedicated to my dad. Some of his field recordings are in there too.
Your Dad was a musician as well?
He was good at guitar, and he loved my music. We used to listen together and it made him really happy. That means a lot to me.
I’m sure he’d be super proud of you today with the incredible work you’re doing. You’ve been a record label boss of Remmah and Italo Hits, and let’s not forget Hammer Hits over the last 5 years. How did you get on working with Dublin party DJs Boots & Kats? Lovely lads, might I add. They brought out that acid house old school rave vibes track People’s Dance on Remmah and you did a Rinse FM mix with them?
Yeah, they’re class. I met them in Vancouver when I was playing there. Those guys are good — I might reach out and get more demos off them. They’re really lovely guys, great fun, and good DJs. Also, Long Island Sound — we’ve had releases from them and they’re doing live shows now, they’re doing really well.
We’ve got a bunch of new Remmah releases coming over the next few months too. I’ve also got remixes coming out — one for Kate Stein on Eskimo next week, and another due in June for Bawrut on Pet Recordings.
I believe you took some piano lessons in the last few years. Have you integrated your newly developed skills into your productions, or how did you get on there?
Yeah, I just wanted more confidence doing chords. I really got into it, but then when you have a child, those morning piano sessions become impossible. So I’m just jamming away, going back to the way I was working. I find it very hard to change.
You’ve had a fierce spring in your step the last few months, jetting south to Cape Town and Nairobi. What was the craic like south of the equator?
Oh wow, well the club I played in Nairobi was absolutely amazing — lovely people, such a great city, lots of cool music, and the food was great. Cape Town was wild. That club felt like a mini Berghain; you went downstairs, this guy Jed was running it, it was called Modular, and it was just so proper.
The soundsystem was really old school — such a beefy soundsystem, felt like you were stepping into a different world. So both of those cities are amazing.
And you’ve got a jam-packed summer ahead, with New York, Miami, and lovely Lancashire. Are you still loving the jet setting or would you prefer to just stick to Sub Club and gigs in Ireland?
Well no, because when Bobbi was born, I didn’t do gigs for a while and I felt like something was wrong or missing. I’d been so used to travelling every weekend, so it was weird having my weekends and stuff.
I do love being away though, and me and my wife have a really good setup — if she needs to go away, she can, we’re both very independent. I think it’s good for a relationship; you can go away, come back, and be so excited to see each other. So yeah, we keep it pretty healthy, and I love travelling.
The last time I saw you was on Culture Night in Pygmalion last year — you rocked it out, and we were all swigging out of your bottle of tequila, haha! Can you remember any other interesting past escapades on the Mexican worm?
Well last night, me and Jupe, my Thunder Disco pal, sipped away at it, haha, so I don’t have to think very far back.
Is tequila on your rider for Éalú Le Grá?
Definitely, it’s on my rider for everywhere.
If your schedule allows, would you like to hang around for a bit and soak up the atmosphere of this gem of the west?
Yeah, Daithí was like, you need to come, soak up the vibe. I chatted to my wife and she said yeah, go for it — that’s how lucky I am. She said of course, “|stay for an extra night”. I said “ok, I’m in! I might even play on Sunday too, who knows… Then I’ll go home on Monday with my tail between my legs.”
Well, I wish you all the very best with your upcoming releases and hopefully see you the June Bank Holiday at Éalú le Grá.
Lovely chatting to you, Emer.
Words by Emer O’Connor. Find out more about Hammer’s latest releases and tour dates here, and about Éalú le Grá here.
Check out the top tracks that the 909originals team has recently discovered through Musosoup here. To feature your music on 909originals, click here. 🙂
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