From burning CDs at age nine to touring Europe: Introducing DJ Oppidan

Recently graduated from dBs Institute, Izzy Fielding AKA DJ Oppidan is already represented by a management agency and has been touring all over Europe throughout autumn.

“I’m really fucking tired,” she laughs down the phone. ” I played in Poland a couple of weeks ago, I’ve played in Austria recently. I’ve been kind of darting around the UK as well. I’ve just been making music and playing a lot,” she tells Bristol24/7.

Izzy moved to Bristol, from North London, to study music production and sound engineering at dBs.

Deciding between Leeds and Bristol, it seemed Bristol was the obvious choice. “I was looking for an excuse to move to Bristol, because all my friends lived here,” she says.

One of the rising names on the UK Garage scene, her UKG bootleg of Adam F’s DnB classic Circles has garnered the attention of Disclosure and Conducta.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci0b18LL0W5/

“I started making music when I was 12, I started dabbling with Logic [software]. But I was burning CDs, of me singing and playing the guitar, when I was about nine and selling them at school”, Izzy explains.

Since then, she hasn’t looked back. Her unique production style, blending 2-step with 4×4 NUKG and bass influences got the attention of Sammy Virji whose management team got in touch with Izzy and offered to also represent her.

“Sammy saw my name through my music and then my soon-to-be manager got in contact with me. She has all the people that I admired when I was younger, so I just sort of went with it and then over time, we’ve developed quite a good relationship.”

It’s no surprise that Izzy’s music is being touted across several different labels: “I have a couple of tracks that are released on Kiwi records. And then a release on Night Bass, which is an American label.

“I’ve had like a couple of other labels that want to get involved with me but I’m not really like entirely sure if I’m going to go there yet. But other than that, most of my stuff is self released so I can kind of just pick and choose what I want and when it goes out.”

Izzy has been DJ’ing across Europe and UK sinced graduating from dBs

As well as touring and releasing music, Izzy also runs garage, jungle and 140 nights with Anais Jan (who we spoke to for our first dBs feature).

“We do one a year because we’re pretty busy but we do it in like September/October time,” Izzy tells us. “The last one did alright, we didn’t make much money from it. I think freshers seem quite confused by it.

“I think there’s not as much of a push for the dance side of things for freshers because of Covid. I’ve noticed that I see loads of freshers in places like Pryzm now. So it wasn’t very busy which was a bit of a shame.”

Izzy records and produces most of her tracks in a separate space in town which, when she’s not performing live, she spends most of her time doing.

“If I’m not sleeping or spending time with my girlfriend, then I’m here.”

The hard work is clearly paying off and Oppidan is certainly one to keep your eyes on.

All photos: courtesy of Izzy Fielding

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