We sat down with Marlo ahead of his set at 808 Festival 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 5. During the interview, he spoke about returning to Thailand, a country he has played in for many years, and how the energy of local crowds has remained consistent even as festival formats and venues have grown larger. Marlo also discussed how he approaches performing at large-scale events like 808 Festival, explaining that he pays close attention to crowd response rather than following a fully pre-planned set. He also shared his reasons for launching the V3NOM project, and why separating his harder sound from the Marlo name became necessary as his performances began to include a wider range of styles.

So, when you first played in Thailand which was probably years ago, do you remember how you felt back then cause the scene has definitely changed a lot, but you have the same fan base and new, so I’d like to know what your experience was like.

I don’t remember the first show I ever played in Thailand but one thing that stayed the same since then is the passion of the fans. The people here are really passionate and lovely, and they like to go out and have a good time so you feel that energy regardless of if you’re playing in a small club or a big festival. You know people are always so excited to be there and they just have a lot of fun. I love it. 

So, now that you’re back in Thailand and at 808, can you tell us what excites you about playing in front of this festival crowd in BITEC Bangna?

This is a great venue. I’ve played here before but yeah it’s amazing to be here for 808 in this huge big hall and I can’t wait to see how the crowd reacts. I haven’t had the chance to look at the setup beforehand, so I want to be surprised but I’m really excited as for me it’s very important that the first time the crowd sees me, it’s also the first time I see them as well. 

So, when you prepare a Marlo set for a large crowd like this one at 808 festival, what usually guides the direction of the set? 

In short, the crowd. I don’t completely pre-plan the set. I still very much go with what the crowd’s responding to and also what the DJ’s before me have played. 

When you decided to start Venom, you were obviously influenced by your background from having grown up in Australia but is there anything else that influenced that decision? 

That’s the main thing really. It was getting to a point where I was playing a lot of harder style sets especially in Australia and in Australia, Hardstyle is really popular and of course I like hardstyle with so many of the DJs being my friends and I personally go to hardstyle events as well so I just thought you know I want to separate the hardstyle out of Marlo a little bit and just create a new project where I can play only that. You know if I show up as Marlo playing, you know people kind of expect that sound so I wanted to give something different for the people that prefer the harder style stuff. 

So, now that you’re here in Thailand, and you’re about to go on at 808 festival, is there anything you’d like to say to the fans? 

I can’t wait to see all of you. So let’s rock it like we always do! 

Over the years, Marlo has settled into a way of working that prioritizes instinct over control, especially when it comes to playing live. Rather than locking himself into a fixed plan, he pays attention to how the crowd responds and lets that guide what happens next. That approach is also tied to how he thinks about his music more broadly. Instead of forcing different sounds into one space, he chose to separate them, giving the harder side its own home through V3NOM while keeping Marlo focused on what people expect from that name.

Looking ahead, Marlo seems intent on keeping that balance intact. He wants to stay responsive to the room, to the people in front of him, and to the different scenes he moves through, without letting any one format dictate how he plays or what he releases. That leaves his work open rather than fixed, and keeps the focus on how each moment feels rather than on repeating what has already worked before.