London-born DJ, producer and label owner Max Dean is one of the buzziest and busiest artists to emerge out of UK house music’s new wave. With two UK Top 40 hits, a Coachella debut, his own NEXUP label, and a run of dates at Amnesia during the club’s 50th anniversary year, it’s safe to say 2026 is shaping up to be monumental for the rising star.
DJ Mag Ibiza met up with him on the White Isle to talk family, chart success, and why making it big on the island has always been the goal.
We’re sitting with Max Dean in the air-conditioned studio at the Six Senses Ibiza hotel on a hot Saturday afternoon in June. The breakthrough UK house artist is enjoying a rare minute of downtime between one run of gigs and the next.
His diary is busier than ever, and in recent weeks he’s played at Sónar in Barcelona — a NEXUP takeover at Tibidabo Park — Metamorfosi alongside Joseph Capriati and Jamie Jones, had a run of shows in Malta, then back to Amnesia Ibiza.
It's a bucket list of international gigs any respectable DJ would be happy about, but right now, there’s a 26-year-old is taking it all in his stride.
East London frames his origin story rather well. Max grew up there, started making music at 13 after a neighbour — who happened to own a label — heard him practising the drums and other instruments from his bedroom.
On went a free demo version of FL Studio, a favour that proved beneficial to both parties involved. “He was like, ‘Right, I need to get him on a laptop and a pair of headphones.
He’s not keeping me up late at night!’” Max laughs. “He knew what he was doing.”.
By 17 he was heading out onto London’s dancefloors and picking up his first DJ gigs. “Once I first started tapping into actually controlling a crowd, that’s when I really started falling in love with it,” he says.
Soon he had regular slots at 93 Feet East on Brick Lane, learning the craft from the grassroots circuit — how to read a floor “that isn’t with you yet”, how to bring it, how to know when to hold back.
Max’s early releases set him up for his future productions: Hottrax, Eastenderz, Positiva, labels across different corners of the house spectrum. “When you’re young, you definitely haven’t found your sound,” he says.
His sound is built around house, but there are clearly hip-hop and rap influences in there. He doesn’t put it down to just one thing. “I listen to absolutely everything.
My mum and dad influenced my ear growing up,” he says. “If I heard a genre and thought, ‘I want to sample that’, I’d go after it.”.
When we shift the conversation to Ibiza, Max recalls the first time he ever came to the island. His parents brought him here when he’d just finished his exams — 16 years old, a family holiday with friends, and they snuck him into Bora Bora beach club through the beach entrance.
Ten years on from that moment he’s here at Amnesia for its 50th anniversary year — headlining his own NEXUP parties; the first was back in May with the next one coming on 5th October — and playing Metamorfosi on Thursdays alongside Capriati, Richie Hawtin, Ben Klock and more.
He also played the 50th anniversary opening party of Amnesia. “I’m kind of speechless, really,” he says. “Perfect timing to bring my brand in such an iconic year, such an iconic club, especially at this early stage of my career.
It feels surreal, considering NEXUP is only three years old.”.
Considering the pace of it all, Max comes across very grounded. “It’s all happening very fast, very organically. We’ve never done anything erratically, never done anything where we feel like we’re going above or beyond our means.” He pauses.
Ibiza has been a fixed point since that first night at Bora Bora. “The main goal for me was always Ibiza, to be able to crack this, because of how it made me feel and how it inspired me as a DJ.
So, to be doing what we’re doing now, already on the island at 26 years old, I am very, very happy.” He continues, “Ibiza is the main hub, it’s multicultural, different ethnicities, all coming together for the love of dance music.
When I felt that for the first time — that's what I’ve always been chasing.”.
Family runs through everything Max Dean does. His brother Joss is 19, already touring heavily, and held down his Warehouse Project slot in front of thousands with the kind of ease that had Max watching from the side of the decks like a proud older brother.
His cousin Luke is 23 — and is a fixture on every NEXUP bill. Their parents’ influence is everywhere in this story.
Which moves our conversation nicely on to the B3B session at Warehouse Project — where Joss and Luke joined Max in the booth — a moment that captures the family spirit best.
There’s no other feeling than watching your little bro and your little cousin playing in front of thousands of people, all just having a laugh on the decks, whispering jokes in each other’s ears.
Looking over your shoulder, seeing mum and dad there. There’s no feeling like it.”.
It's like a family business, we suggest. “If your surname’s Dean, you can sign to the label,” he says with a laugh.
That label is DX3N Records (pronounced Dean) — the Dean family label. “We abbreviated it with the X and the three because there’s three of us doing what we’re doing,” Max says.
The musical foundation traces back to how they grew up. “My mum’s side of the family all played instruments. My dad listened to everything. Whenever we drove to school, he’d be trying to tell me, ‘Who’s this singing on the radio?’ Just constantly learning about all kinds of music.”.
Asking about the family becoming a creative partnership, the conversation falls back to the music. “Me and Luke, ever since we started making music together, we’ve always found that even though we’re in our own lanes, when we come together, we create something really special.
Rather than just a family thing, this label feels like a tight musical synergy.” And who’s the boss? He grins. “Luke Dean’s the big boss. I’m a good cop, he’s the bad cop.
In 2025, ‘Can’t Decide’ — a collaboration with Locky and Luke — hit No. 16 in the UK Singles Chart. Nobody was more surprised than the people who made it. “It was definitely a shock to see how fast it grew,” Max says.
Max had been there before — a record blowing up and the pressure that comes with it. “I’ve had a few tunes before ‘Can’t Decide’ that did well. From seeing a record fly, I used to get in my own head — ‘Oh, I need something to follow this up’.
And when I tried to force something, nothing ever came. So, I learned from ‘Can’t Decide’. We just made that record because we love deep house. I never feel pressured to follow something up.”.
Alongside the music, Max has been building something else. NEXUP started as a label three years ago and has grown into something much bigger — events, a community, a platform for artists coming up alongside him.
This year’s Miami Music Week showcase at Factory Town sold 5,000 tickets. A year earlier the same event drew 100 at Floyd, the smallest stage at Space Miami. “To see that drastic change in how many tickets we could sell showed how far the brand is coming,” he says.
The idea of NEXUP came from his own experience trying to break through, as we soon find out. “As I started to venture out of the London circle, coming to Ibiza, networking with promoters and brands — I found it was quite hard to get your foot in the door properly.
So I wanted to create something true to me. A brand where if you’re sending me your music, you’re never going to feel like an alien. I’m going to open the doors wide open.
You’re going to feel instantly part of the family.”.
Max talks about the crew coming up around him, all working the same way. Josh Baker with his You&Me Thursdays at Amnesia, Eliza Rose, Locky, Hannah Laing, Jazzy, the Appetite crew — who were booking Max before NEXUP had any profile at all.
If we’re winning, you’re winning. That’s especially us and the Appetite crew. They started booking me before NEXUP was big and I always said I’d return the favour when the time is right.”.
We finish with a few probing quickfire questions. Who’s the best DJ in the family.
And has anyone ever given each other ‘the look’ across the decks? “I reckon Luke’s thought that about me a few times. When you’re into the fifth, sixth hour of a back-to-back at the afters and you try a curveball and no one’s dancing — I’ll mix this one out for you.
Want more? Read DJ Mag Ibiza’s cover interview with HUGEL here.
Mick Wilson is DJ Mag’s Tech and Ibiza Editor. Follow him on X @DJMagTech.
Fontes
Informação baseada em material público de DJ Mag, reescrito pela redação ULTRA NOTÍCIAS.
