Some conversations take their time. This one has quietly been in the works for a couple of years. Andy – better known behind the decks as Andizz – and I first spoke about doing this interview not long after Fleckies launched in 2024. Life moved, questions were drafted towards the end of last year, and the answers arrived a few months later. Reading them felt like peeling back another layer of someone I thought I already knew. That is the strange beauty of conversations like this. Even when you have shared dancefloors, road trips and long chats about music, there is always more beneath the surface.
Andy’s story begins in what he describes as a “bog standard” Midlands upbringing. Nothing particularly dramatic, nothing especially unusual. Just the familiar rhythm of growing up in a town where music finds its way in through small, unexpected moments. For him, one of those moments came through family. When he was around ten or eleven, he would visit his cousin’s flat where her turntables and vinyl records filled the room. Hard house, trance, techno, and occasionally faster, harsher sounds like gabba spun through the speakers. “It opened my eyes a bit,” he says. “I hadn’t really seen anything like that before.”
Another moment came years later when he first heard The Prodigy’s Warriors Dance on the radio as a teenager. “I remember thinking what the fuck is this” he laughs. Something about it clicked immediately. From that point on, music stopped being background noise and started becoming something he actively chased.
DJing itself started in the most unpolished way possible. Andy and his friend Elliot decided to split the cost of some second-hand Pioneer decks they found online. When the equipment arrived, the excitement quickly turned into confusion. “We just stared at them for months,” he admits. “They didn’t come with instructions and we had no idea what we were doing.”
Eventually they connected the decks to a laptop and downloaded Traktor. At the time Andy was deep into drum and bass, so their early sessions were built around that sound. Beat matching was another story entirely. “I thought I knew what I was doing,” he says, “but I definitely didn’t.” It took a handful of YouTube tutorials before things started to fall into place.
Those early experiments slowly grew into something bigger. Practice sessions turned into informal parties, then into small events. For a long time it remained something playful rather than purposeful. But somewhere along the line, the idea of doing anything else started to feel strange. “I couldn’t imagine a future without music in it,” he says. “Being surrounded by music and DJing is everything.” He pauses for a second before laughing. “It sounds cringe, but it really does feel like the music chose me.”
Production entered the picture while Andy was at university. Like many producers starting out, his education came through late-night YouTube tutorials and a lot of trial and error. Over time he realised how many different routes there are into learning production – lessons, collaborations, and simply spending time around other people who know more than you do. Lockdown gave him the space to focus more seriously on developing those skills. Still, production remains something fluid. As his tastes evolve, older tracks often stop representing the sound he wants to play today. Yet one moment keeps pulling him back into the studio.
“When you play your own track in a set and people react well to it,” he says, “that’s a whole different kind of feeling.” It is nerve-wracking but rewarding – hearing something that once existed only on a laptop suddenly filling a dancefloor.
Around the same time Andy was developing his sound, another idea was forming alongside his friend Jake. They had both tasted what it was like to run their own events and began noticing more of their friends leaning towards house music, they decided to head in that direction too. Midnight Mass was born from that instinct.
In the early days a group of around eight people helped run the events. Over time that circle naturally narrowed until it became mainly Andy and Jake steering the brand forward. Midnight Mass slowly carved out its own space in the local Northamptonshire underground scene, known for energetic crowds and a sense of shared ownership between the DJs and the people on the floor. A few years ago things shifted again when Jake moved to Australia. Suddenly Andy found himself running the brand largely on his own. The first solo event he handled – at Basing House in Shoreditch – came with more than a few nerves. Running an event brand alone means managing everything from bookings to promotion to the logistics of the night itself. It is demanding work. But it also forced him to grow in ways he did not expect.
“I used to stress so much during events that I wouldn’t even enjoy them,” he says. Learning to handle everything himself has changed that. It has pushed him to be more present and more confident in his own decisions, even while recognising how valuable it is to have someone to bounce ideas off.
The journey has already taken Midnight Mass further than Andy originally imagined. Over Christmas he brought the brand to Australia while visiting Jake, running a busy event there under the Midnight Mass banner. Seeing the name travel that far provided a rare moment of perspective.
“When you’re in the middle of building something, it can feel like you’re not moving forward,” he says. “Australia gave me the moment to appreciate how far we’ve come and what we have actually created.”
Community remains the thread tying everything together. Andy believes the strength of any local scene comes down to people supporting each other – showing up to events, backing their friends and building spaces where music can thrive. That ethos carries through his advice for anyone starting out. “Just be sound,” he says simply. Be kind to people. Leave your ego at the door. Support the events happening around you.
Now another chapter is approaching. This April Andy will move to Manchester, drawn by the city’s long-standing reputation as one of the UK’s most vibrant music hubs. The move offers a new landscape of venues, collaborators and ideas. “It’s a whole new playground,” he says.
The plan is to keep building Midnight Mass while pushing further into production. His sound leans heavily on UK garage influences, but he is keen to experiment across genres rather than confine himself to one lane. The immediate goal is refreshingly straightforward. “Finish tracks,” he laughs. “And hopefully get them signed.”
Speaking to Andy for this feature reminded me exactly why Fleckies exists. Even when someone becomes a friend, even when you have shared a few chaotic nights and conversations along the way, there is always more to understand about how they arrived where they are. This interview was meant to happen years ago, but I am pretty sure it landed at the right time after all.
Manchester is about to gain someone with serious passion for the craft… and I cannot wait to see where his journey takes him next.
Listen and follow Andizz:
https://linktr.ee/andizz
https://linktr.ee/MidnightMassuk
