By Angelo De Guzman
When Sam Huybrecht started teaching himself music production through YouTube, success seemed to have a clear, straightforward path: make the music, build a career, and get there.
Fourteen years later, Pegassi reached many places his teenage self imagined. In 2026, the Belgian producer delivered a BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix and premiered his audiovisual show at Tomorrowland. His upcoming Melbourne and Sydney headline shows sold more than 13,000 tickets across both dates. Sweet Nothing, his label and event series, has reached London and Berlin, with an Amsterdam edition set for ADE in October.
The teenage version of Huybrecht would be thrilled by all of this. Adult life might have been the bigger shock.
“Younger me would be thrilled that we actually followed through on what we promised each other. But the weight of adult life might have scared him. Back then, I thought making it as a musician meant smooth sailing from there on out. In many ways, it does.”
The smooth sailing came with considerably more responsibility than his younger self expected.
“But it also brings a lot with it: managing your private life, family, friends, a household, pets, your own accountancy, constant travelling, and trying to stay relevant as an artist with less and less time in the studio. That’s a lot for a kid who thought the hard part was just getting here. Luckily, the adult me has it under control.”
His debut EP, Ascension, arrives right in the middle of that life. Released through Sweet Nothing, its four tracks combine music tested across two years of live sets with sounds and experiences drawn straight from home.
The Hard Part Was Getting Here
Pegassi’s breakthrough accelerated with “Yoyoyo” in 2023, followed by records including “Spectral Bells” and “227kg”. Huybrecht had already spent years making music around what he thought people wanted from him. The habit eventually disappeared, and the instinct he once second-guessed now brings thousands of people into rooms.
“It is so much easier. It feels like I’m moving on autopilot now, I am really happy about how natural it feels.”
That instinct moves freely across Ascension. The title track spent more than two years in Pegassi’s live sets, shaped around hard dance, UK garage-inspired percussion and a robotic vocal. “Forest Walk” borrows bird sounds from the woodland surrounding his Belgian studio, while “Twinflame” traces the period when his girlfriend moved in and the idea of two people finding each other. Home has quietly found its way onto a Pegassi record.
“Honestly, I feel much more comfortable with who I am these days, and everything I’ve experienced recently has helped me become more confident.”
“Circles” places Huybrecht behind the microphone, marking the second time his voice has appeared on a Pegassi record. Handing those lyrics to another vocalist would have created a distance. “Nobody can really speak for me,” he explains. “At the end of the day, I know my own thoughts, feelings, and experiences better than anyone else, so it had to be me.”
For someone who spent years producing around other people’s expectations, getting the last word on his debut EP feels appropriate.
More Sam Inside Pegassi
A typical Pegassi weekend can swing from Tomorrowland or Awakenings then back home to his girlfriend, lifelong friends, and studio. Those two worlds look radically different from the outside, but for him, the transition is seamless.
“I’ve got to say, neither of them feels strange to me. I’ve always been Sam, and for as long as I can remember, I’ve also been Pegassi. The difference now is that I’m able to be both on the level I’ve always wanted to be. I’m navigating smoothly between the two, and they both feel like a natural part of who I am.”
Pegassi existed before the festival crowds, international flights and sold-out headline dates. The audience got bigger. Sam remained part of the deal. That continuity now reaches beyond his own records, with Sweet Nothing expanding through events in London, Berlin and Amsterdam.
Success has also created one particularly inconvenient problem for a producer: less time to produce. Touring, Sweet Nothing and ordinary life all compete for hours in the same week. The better the music performs, the more things appear between Huybrecht and making more of it.
What He Takes With Him
Ascension arrives after 14 years of work and during one of Pegassi’s busiest periods. Bigger stages, headline dates and his own growing platform gave Huybrecht plenty to maintain. His non-negotiable is considerably less glamorous.
“Definitely sleep. I’ve learned that no matter how ambitious you are or how much you want to keep moving forward, you’re not really yourself when you’re running on empty.”
Electronic music culture has spent decades romanticizing sleeplessness. Airports become social content, weekends dissolve into Mondays, and exhaustion is easily mistaken for momentum from behind the DJ booth. Huybrecht spent enough time inside that cycle to realize that prioritized rest is essential for self-preservation.
At 16, Huybrecht was trying to make Pegassi his life. Fourteen years later, he has the stages, audience and freedom he once worked towards. Keeping Sam intact might be the more interesting part of the ascent.
