Cyril

Before Cyril burst onto the Australian dance music scene, there wasn’t a club around that would play remixes or dance music versions of songs by the likes of <a href="spotify:artist:15jHZ1EZwmm2QDjKctvqJQ">Suzi Quatro</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3TOqt5oJwL9BE2NG9MEwDa">Disturbed</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7ohlPA8dRBtCf92zaZCaaB">Crowded House</a>, or <a href="spotify:artist:2urZrEdsq72kx0UzfYN8Yv">Spandau Ballet</a> in the same set. Such is his talent for feel-good, unfussy house reinterpretations that he has made things change.

Cyril Riley was born and raised in New South Wales, in the rural town of Lake Cargelligo. Exposed primarily to country and folk music, from <a href="spotify:artist:4BclNkZtAUq1YrYNzye3N7">Garth Brooks</a> to <a href="spotify:artist:70cRZdQywnSFp9pnc2WTCE">Simon & Garfunkel</a>, Riley studied piano, guitar, and drums before starting to DJ in his teens. After a period of kicking substance abuse in his early adulthood and working on a farm, he studied business at Charles Darwin University in the city of Darwin, eventually moving there full-time with his family.

In the early 2020s, Cyril began releasing his own unique covers and deep house remixes of familiar favorites, inspired by youthful radio memories and the tastes and whims of dance crowds in the Northern Territories. He built a small studio to record homemade videos for his songs, smiling for the camera in a swiveling producer’s chair, wearing a bucket hat and sipping cheekily from a goblet. Those clips earned him social media virality, and his first proper single -- a cover of <a href="spotify:artist:15jHZ1EZwmm2QDjKctvqJQ">Suzi Quatro</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2Pawr6MMX9VBIQ9oUHg7jc">Chris Norman</a>'s 1979 hit “Stumblin’ In” -- earned him considerable success in 2023. The song peaked at number 15 on the Australian charts and was eventually certified double-platinum in his home country; it also reached the Top Ten throughout Europe, particularly in Germany, where the Bayern Munich football team used it for their own video.

More unexpected takes on decidedly non-dance songs followed: Cyril remixed <a href="spotify:artist:3TOqt5oJwL9BE2NG9MEwDa">Disturbed</a>'s unlikely hit cover of <a href="spotify:artist:70cRZdQywnSFp9pnc2WTCE">Simon & Garfunkel</a>'s “The Sound of Silence” and turned it into an even more unlikely hit on Billboard’s dance chart. His 2024 EPs From Down Under and To the World featured those tracks and other left-field takes on acts from <a href="spotify:artist:7ohlPA8dRBtCf92zaZCaaB">Crowded House</a> (“Fall at Your Feet”) and <a href="spotify:artist:3fsCWTIuWIRvEGS7gerSJX">Jennifer Rush</a> (“The Power of Love”) to <a href="spotify:artist:3mIj9lX2MWuHmhNCA7LSCW">the 1975</a> (“Somebody Else”), <a href="spotify:artist:2urZrEdsq72kx0UzfYN8Yv">Spandau Ballet</a> (“True”), and even an electronic remix of <a href="spotify:artist:35U9lQaRWSQISxQAB94Meo">America</a>'s “A Horse with No Name”). ~ Mike Duquette, Rovi