You might think that DJing in a straight-dominated arena like Hard House could be a lonely place for a Queer DJ, but Glasgow’s Hannah Laing is here to prove you wrong.

Celebrating her tenth year in the industry, she started out financing herself with a career as a dental nurse. ‘I would do five months DJing in Ibiza,’ she says, ‘then come back and be a dental nurse all winter.’ But with residencies in Ibiza, beginning to produce her own material and getting support from DJs like Patrick Topping, Hannah is now playing gigs of over 10,000 ravers.

As well as recently launching her own label, Doof, today sees Hannah launching her Into The Doof EP. Six absolute bangers that give you that Hard House energy include the beast of a track that is ‘I Need It More.’ Believe us when we the BPM is high. We love a vocal and Into The Doof is full of them with the beautiful ‘Stay‘ and also ‘Poppin‘ which is like a full-on rave version of Amanda Lepore’s ‘My Hair Looks Fierce.’ You hear it too, right?

Hannah’s euphoric production gives a nod to early Prodigy and the 90s rave her parents raised her on. But as Hannah herself says, ‘I’ve put a modern spin on it. I worked with some totally different [artists] to try and be one step ahead.’ Loverboy caught up with her to discuss the myth of an ‘overnight success’, playing the Scottish Queer clubs and her big gay following.

Hannah, people are saying you’re an overnight success but you’ve been at it for over ten years. I hate the term ‘overnight success’. It’s never accurate.
Never. I started DJing eleven years ago, just doing local gigs. A short time after I went to spend a season in Ibiza, wanting to just get a bar job and see other DJs. But I ended up blagging myself a residency for three years, playing 4-5 times a week for eight hours and I really feel that’s how I learned to DJ. Thrown in at the deep end.
Then I felt producing would be the only way to move forward because there were so many DJs. But learning to produce was an absolute ballache. Haha…It’s a totally different thing.
I’ve been producing lots over these last two years and things have blown up. I signed a track with Patrick Topping through his label Trick and then he let me open the Trick stage at Creamfields in 2022. That was the first time I had played to ten thousand people and from that I got so many bookings.

One thing I love about your story is that you are so open about being a dental nurse for the first years of your career. It feels totally taboo for creatives to discuss their day job.
Yeah, I would do five months in Ibiza then come back and be a dental nurse all winter. I was in the dental practice Monday to Friday, in the studio in the evenings writing and then full-on touring every weekend. When I look back now it was so difficult and I was so tired. I thought things would calm down but it’s just got busier!
But being a dental nurse was important to me because I wanted to be financially stable. If I hadn’t had that income I would have felt stressed which would have prevented me from being creative. Writing music would not have been possible without the day job.

Were you ever reluctant about revealing that?
No, I was posting videos on Monday morning of being asleep in the dentist’s chair. I think people appreciated the realness of me doing a filmed interview for BBC Radio 1 while I was sitting in my scrubs on my lunch break. But I was working full time, that’s what had to happen and I was really happy to share that.

One track that really blew up for you was your remix of ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ and that was before Saltburn!
It’s so mad how that worked out. I just loved the tune when I was younger so I made an edit for my sets. Then Fisher DMed me, asking for the track. I was like ‘Oh my God.’ He started playing it, then loads of DJs started playing it and next I got an offer to release it. People think I remixed it because of Saltburn and to be honest it’s helped a lot because there was such a resurgence in streams when the film came out.

Loving the sound of your new EP. ‘Bouncing Ball’ has this feeling of old school Prodigy to me.
My Mum and Dad had me when they were seventeen years old and that was in 1994 so they were peak time 90s ravers. They are why I am into music. My influence is from Hard House and I feel like you can hear that in all my production. Obviously I’ve put a modern spin on it but there’s some Hardcore elements, some Hard House elements. I love playing ‘Bouncing Ball’ because it just goes off on the dancefloor.

It makes me think of clubs that were mythical to me like The Hacienda or Cream.
100%. I still watch old news clips from back then and can only imagine of being able to experience that freedom, before mobile phones in the club. On Friday I played Fabric in London and they have a ‘No Phones’ policy. Fucking hell, the energy was incredible. Anywhere with a ‘No Phone’ policy now, I’m there!

I also really loved ‘Poppin’ on your news EP.
Thanks. I was actually working with a writer/vocalist called Bandit. My management wanted to put me in the studio with different kinds of vocalists, not only Dance vocalists. Bandit was way off from what I was doing so I thought it would be cool to get her in the studio. I just gave her a concept of being out and being on it. She immediately started writing and singing. Her vocal is so catchy and just fits so well. She also sang the vocal on ‘I Need It More.’ I love working with her.

I know one song you and I both love is ‘Silence’ by Delerium featuring Sarah McLachlan. Did you have this track in mind when wanting to work with other types of writers?
Haha…that is a fucking classic. Playing that track in a set is always an absolute moment. I just feel that if you are trying to make music or looking for a Dance vocal, a lot of them can sound the same. After ‘Good Love’ had been so successful for me, I felt a lot of people were making that sound, so I worked with someone totally different to try and be one step ahead.

I love a bit of Hard House but was thinking I never really go to the big shows. I think in my mind they are really straight events with little diversity. Is that true?
It’s funny you say that because yeah, there are loads of straight people but I’m gay and now I’ve got my big lesbian following! So I would definitely say gays are there but yeah for sure it’s straight dominant.

Has that ever made things lonely for you?
No, personally not for me. I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve never had a bad experience.

It’s great talking to you because I can hear that for you it’s all about the music. I love that.
Absolutely that’s what it’s all about and what it should be about, regardless of your background. I don’t care if people know I’m gay or not. It’s not something I’m going to make known for the sake of it. I’m not shouting, ‘I’m gay.’ But I feel that most of my fans already know. When I was with my ex, my relationship was public, that’s probably how people know. I don’t shout about it, but I don’t hide it.

Did you start out playing smaller gay clubs?
When I was first coming up I used to play most of the clubs in Scotland. A lot of them were gay bars and gay clubs. To be honest there’s a different energy in the gay bars and clubs. Everyone is well up for it and so nice and friendly. I always loved playing the Queer scene.

I’ve seen you namecheck Meg Ward before who I love. Are there other LGBT DJs that you’re friends with?
Yeah, Meg is a really good friend of mine. Jaguar from BBC R1 is a good friend too. She’s big in the LGBTQ scene and has her own brand, UTOPIA, that really champions LGBTQ artists. She and I have a great relationship. She really helped me come up by putting me on Radio 1 and stuff. But most female DJs I know are gay.

Talking about Jaguar’s UTOPIA. You’ve started your own label Doof too, putting out new artists.
I’ve just started the label but I’ve had six releases so far. The label is open to anybody but every release has been by a very small artist. If the tune is working in my sets, that’s what matters to me. Now these artists are really getting the recognition they deserve. It feels good to be able to do that for other people because there are people that have done that for me, Patrick Topping for example.

Finally we are named after the biggest-selling single of 2001 so always ask what is your favourite Mariah Carey song?
There are too many. You know the one that I want to say and which you’re probably going to shout at me for is ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You.’ Have I heard her David Morales remixes? No and I don’t know why not because I fucking love David Morales. My Mum & Dad are massive fans of him. I cannot imagine what he would do with ‘Dreamlover’, I’m intrigued to listen to it…

Into The Doof EP is out now.
Main Image: Bex Day