Sick Boy Lookalike Bringing the Disco Vibes
We’re a week away from Denis Sulta’s biggest show in London yet, as he takes his Sulta Selects series to the mighty printworks next weekend. But what will the Scotsman bring to the Press Halls? Will it be hot air or even hotter heels on the dancefloor?
The white hair, the Scottishness, the pomp he brings to his sets – a lot of the elements of 26-year-old Hector Barbour’s alter ego point to the man from Trainspotting. But while the difficult path that Hector was on may well have led him to the same kind of sorry existence that his on-screen counterpart lived through, it was thanks to Denis Sulta that Hector saw the light.
Hailing from an artistic cocoon, Hector first wanted to become a freestyle skier. It was through dropping out of university and getting a job at a Glaswegian record store that he fell in love with disco. A few years and a move to Berlin later, his sound now has a new depth to it. It ranges from pimped-up disco house on his Sulta Selects Volume 3 to an edgier, underworldly clang on the little taste test we’ve had from his upcoming EP. Aye Spoake Te Sumwuhn & They Listenhd is coming out on Ninja Tune the day before the big Printworks debut.
Why Sulta? As it turns out the name is the epitome of the change in Hector’s mindset which allowed him to become who he is today. A flip of the switch. The young Barbour had been struggling with trying to establish himself in the music business and felt a void around him following his departure from university. Drugs and depression took their toll. When, eventually, he got better, he decided to turn it all around quite literally – and from his then creative moniker Atlus, Sulta was born.
The rambunctious blondie vibing with every single stomp, jump, and fist-pump in the audience in front of him can be a lesson to us all. After all, it was a friend’s simple act of kindness which was the catalyst for Denis’ turnaround. It unlocked not only a creative force which is carrying the Scot to the top of modern house music, but also added a positive entry to the list of musical alter egos exploring the manifestation of the self as a projection for the audience. David Bowie moved to Berlin to retire one of his most famous alter egos but for Hector, Berlin was just the beginning. The thin white duke may have lived off peppers, cocaine and milk for months, but all that Sulta lives off now are good vibes.
