American producer Daniel Sampson aka Cendryma has carved out a less than conventional path on this way to being one of his country’s rising talents. From his early beginnings as trance producer under the Tecnosine and Sam Cydan monikers, the Oregon resident eventually grew tired of the genre’s constraints. Some downtime during the global pandemic gave Daniel time to pursue other creative avenues, eventually landing on progressive house and his current alias Cendryma, a project which he states ‘truly embodies my evolving sound and creative vision.’ Now, just over a year into his journey as Cendryma, Daniel has made measurable strides, compiling well-received projects for Deep Down Music, Pattern, PURRFECTION, UV and his own Cydana Sounds imprint. With 2025 already yielding an emotive take on ‘A Galaxy Above’ by Chris Sterio and Stan Seba, Cendryma continues on his explorative path, making his roku debut with ‘Fusion’, alongside remixes from Yonsh and Chriss V & Olart.
Progressive Astronaut caught up with Cendryma to learn more about the release of 'Fusion', growing up in the United States, DJing and much more. Enjoy!
Hi Daniel, thanks for talking to us today. How has the start of the year been for you?
Hey there! Things are amazing! I’ve been hard at work on a ton of music, both originals and remixes and Q2 of 2025 is already starting to fill up with releases. I’ve already seen my first release of the year reach the Top 20 on Beatport’s Top 100 singles chart, and have picked up some amazing support. Can’t wait to get “Fusion / Asset Control” out there! The guys over at roku have been amazing to work with.
Let’s look back on 2024, what gig of yours stood out the most and why?
I have to admit to not having had any gigs thus far, but hopefully soon!
Now let’s look at tracks, what is a track or tracks which came out last year that impressed you the most and why?
A song that stood out in particular that I couldn’t stop playing in my podcast series is Mike Rish - Cloudbreaker. The sound design and energy in a track that’s only 120bpm impresses me a lot. Another one was Tonaco - Avalon. That song inspired me so much that it changed the entire trajectory of my production style and probably contributed to the success of my releases on UV’s sub label Pattern.
What is a song/track you’ve never stopped listening to since childhood? And why has it stuck with you this long?
It’s hard to name a single tune, so I’d go with Afro Celt Sound System’s first five albums back in the late 90s/early 00s. They were world and Celtic music with an Electronic Dance twist and I still listen to them to this day.
How did growing up in the USA affect your music taste and direction into becoming a DJ and producer?
Funnily enough, the first music I remember having the greatest impression on me was not Dance music. In fact, it was more in the vein of music from the 60s and 70s. Artists like James Taylor, Simon & Garfunkel, John Denver etc. We would listen to tapes and vinyl of artists like them. I didn’t even know what Electronic music was until my older sister lent me her iPod at one point and she had quite a lot of unique Trip Hop and Electronica like Massive Attack and I Monster. True four on the floor Dance music became my guiding light with the game SSX 3 which I would play for hours at my best friend’s house. Junkie XL was on the soundtrack in addition to other Trance-ier sounds and beats. By the time I was in middle school, Eurodance was a big thing for me until discovering Electronic Body Music artist VNV Nation. His albums “Futureperfect” and “Matter + Form” were big inspirations and by 2007 I had taken my first steps into production.
Who from the United States inspired you the most early on and why were they inspirational for you?
The artist that solidified my resolve to be a Trance music artist was a guy named Sean Tyas, from New York, now based in Switzerland. I had first heard his tune “One More Night Out” on the Armin van Buuren compilation “A State of Trance 2007.” I listened to almost everything he made and as many sets/podcasts/radio show episodes he had hosted as I could. I was lucky enough to become friends with him in 2010 and he told me at one point that, and I remember this to this day, “you’ve really put in your work to earn it.” To hear those words from someone I considered in another league was super inspirational.
Living in Oregon is interesting for a progressive house producer and DJ. Do you get to perform much in your home state? And if so where and how are the events and or club nights there?
Unfortunately Oregon is a bit of a Progressive House wasteland, so I haven’t performed here. There are some well known clubs in the Portland area, but I went to Trance events there back in college.
Your bio states that your sound mirrors that of Oregon. The elements, with rain samples, driving basslines, and darker tones reflecting the region's moody winters. Tell us a bit about how that environment affected your creative direction.
Rain in the Pacific Northwest is almost ubiquitous! Generally speaking my music has a darker tone cause of the winters, which can be cold and gloomy most of the time. Colder weather also keeps me indoors a lot more, so I generally find that moodier music comes out of my brain more easily that way.
You produced different styles under a few monikers before settling under Cendryma for progressive house. Give our readers a bit of a musical timeline as to how you arrived to where you are now.
I published my earliest songs on the website and music forum ACIDplanet in 2007. Those first tunes were pretty much extremely experimental Electronica, but by the end of that year into 2008 I had switched to FL Studio and Trance was the big Dance music thing at the time for me, so up until 2019 I was pretty much exclusively making high energy, up-tempo Trance as Tecnosine. When the pandemic hit, I did some hard reevaluations of my music writing direction and ended up switching Tecnosine to Ambient Electronica, which is what I still release under that name to this day. I tried for a few years to still make Trance under the name Sam Cydan, but by the end of 2023, it was clear Progressive House was my main interest, both in DJing and in songwriting. Cendryma debuted in January of 2024, and that’s where I am today.
What are some of your best memories from first going to clubs? Were there specific nights or sets that really made you feel you wanted to pursue electronic music?
My experience as a clubber has been rather limited because of how infrequently I end up going to Portland where the majority of Dance music clubs are located. The two shows that I had been to before the pandemic were quite contrasting in terms of style, but were quite enjoyable. I’d say my mind had been made up to pursue Electronic music well before college when I saw those two shows, so they didn’t have a particular impression on me in that regard.
For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you?
As someone who has been influenced by more than just Electronic music, I’d say my style amalgamates many sources of inspiration, so it was always fairly original stylistically, at least in my opinion. When I was developing the Cendryma sound in late-2023, my main sources of inspiration were Australian duo GMJ & Matter and Dutch maestro Alex O’Rion. My tunes definitely had an Alex O’Rion twist to them, but over the course of 2024 as I started working with labels my music took on a more original approach.
You have a new EP ‘Fusion’ out now via roku, tell us a bit about the release and what sort of vibe you were going for on the two tracks.
“Fusion” was a tune that had echoes of the Alex O’Rion sound I just mentioned while “Asset Control” was a project from late 2023 that had a much different sound than it does now. The original “Asset Control” project file was put in my ‘vault’ of unfinished or shelved tunes and dug out of there later on last year. For sure the influence of Tonaco’s EP on Meanwhile, “Disurbia” played a part in how I approached writing “Fusion,” especially the breakdown structure.
How much play have the tracks gotten in your sets and where do you generally program them?
“Fusion” has seen a bit more road testing in my podcast, “Cendryma - DJ Set” than “Asset Control,” and so far I generally play “Fusion” a lot later in the sets where the energy has picked up a bit.
Let our readers inside your studio for a moment, what is your current setup and what studio tools are featured heavily in your recent productions and more specifically on ‘Fusion’?
My “studio” is my bedroom at the moment, and I don’t use hardware, so I’m all in the box. Generally speaking, my software instrument tools I use most are u-He’s Diva, Repro 1/5, Reveal Sound Spire, and Spectrasonics Omnisphere. When it comes to the delay like effects in “Fusion” and “Asset Control” both, I am a big fan of FL Studio’s built in Delay 3 and its ‘tape delay’ preset is used a ton. I have a Macbook Pro and M-Audio monitors, along with a Native Instruments Komplete Audio 2 interface. Really simple, but at this stage it’s worked well for me.
With this being your roku debut, please tell us why the label was a good home for ‘Fusion’?
I had discovered roku through their release of “Da Luka and Electric Dada - Rubicon,” which had a fantastic set of remixes that had the kind of vibe I thought “Fusion” would match well on the label. Safe to say, it was a good choice!
There are two well crafted remixes from Yonsh and Chriss V & Olart as well, how involved in the remixer selection process were you? And why were this trio of artists good choices to re-imagine the EP?
I love both remixes, and roku’s team brought them on board. I’d say the guys did a super nice job, and I’m pleased with the results of their efforts!
How important would say networking is in making it as an artist in 2025? And what role (if any) has it played in your own success?
I’d say networking is a big deal when it comes to artist success. When it came to working with UV and Paul Thomas, I had released a few tracks on the main label Future Sound of Egypt which Paul was label manager of at the time, and he and Fadi of Aly & Fila (who has a solo project called Das Pharaoh) knew of me from those releases. Paul reached out for a remix opportunity when he discovered I was Sam Cydan previously, which was such a blessing in disguise as it helped get me started with labels. Forty Cats also discovered me through a promo I had sent out when I was still independent and that led to the “Pass Through” single on her label PURRFECTION.
Shifting to DJing for a moment, please tell us your approach to DJing and how you go about programming your sets.
When it comes to DJ sets, even those I do just at home, I really don’t do very much pre-planning. I spend a LOT of time just listening to music, both on streaming services and with the files I buy from Beatport. When it comes down to recorded a set, I usually just hit record and end up going with the flow, knowing that I want to build the energy up gradually. I usually know what track I’m going to start with but that’s about it.
What is it about DJing, compared to producing your own music, that makes it interesting for you?
Being able to sort of “listen” to more music than I would if I was simply streaming it on Spotify, SoundCloud or Beatport Streaming. When I do play my own songs in my sets, I often do it to gauge the reaction from the public before the songs are released. Kinda like ‘premieres’ if you will.
Can you tell me a bit about how your work as a DJ has influenced your view of music, your way of listening to tracks and perhaps also, your work as a producer?
I’ve begun lately to see the structure of various songs more easily, both through seeing the waveforms in Traktor and how various tunes tick, and it’s helped me write music that matches other released tracks in terms of energy, songwriting, mixing, and more. Getting that perspective on the music has really helped.
How important is it for you to have gigs to be able to test your own unreleased music?
I’m quite excited to one day actually “road-test” my music! That will be the real test!
Current Top five tracks in your sets?
Mike Rish - Cloudbreaker
GMJ & Matter - Nomadica
Max Graham & Second Sine - Hypercube (GMJ & Matter Remix)
GMJ - Feel Inside
Alex O’Rion - Emergency
If you are not DJing, producing or socializing at clubs, where do we find you? And doing what?
Watching two sports in particular: tennis and football/soccer. I’m a big fan of tennis and I consider it my number one favorite sport. Football has only within the last couple of years become a big interest of mine, especially the English Premier League. As an American watching that from across the pond, I always root for the underdogs unless it’s Liverpool, Wolves, or Tottenham haha
If you could set up an event with a line-up of five artists of your choice, who would you book and what set times would you ascribe to the artists? (Do not include yourself)
Alex O’Rion, GMJ & Matter, Guy J, Analog Jungs, and DJ Ruby. It’d be tough, but I guess I’d put them in this order:
- GMJ & Matter
- Analog Jungs
- DJ Ruby
- Alex O’Rion
- Guy J
If you were not a DJ/Producer what do you think you’d be doing with your life? (Something not music related)
Probably a novelist or video game designer.
What’s something people do not know about you?
I lived in Italy for a year a half while I was in high school.
What TV series have you been enjoying recently and what are some of your all time favourites?
I haven’t watched TV shows that much these days, but one of my favorite shows is The Expanse, both the novel series and the show. My all time favorite TV series has to be The Expanse, but I was a big fan of Doctor Who, Sherlock, and The Walking Dead’s first three seasons.
What can we look forward to from you across the rest of 2025? Any releases or gigs you are looking forward to?
Probably a ton more releases, including an EP on PURRFECTION, something on Roger Martinez’s Higher States and more!
'Fusion' is available now via Higher States: https://tinyurl.com/3shf9ezn
