Name: Los Suruba
Members: Álvaro Muñoz, Delmar Dos Santos
Nationality: Spanish
Occupation: DJs, producers
Current release: Los Suruba's 33 Vinyl EP, including remixes by Cristina Lazic and BRYZ, is out via Nazca.

If you enjoyed this Los Suruba interview and would like to stay up to date with the duo and their music and current live dates, visit them on Instagram, Facebook, tiktok, and Soundcloud. 

For a deeper dive, read our earlier Los Suruba interview.



Tinnitus and developing hyperacusis are very real risks for anyone working with sound. Do you take precautions in this regard and if you're suffering from these or similar issues – how do you cope with them?

Delmar: Yes, I’ve suffered from tinnitus since 2007. It appeared suddenly one day, and at first, I didn’t understand what was happening. It felt like the typical ringing you get after a concert with loud music, but it didn’t go away. By that time, I had already been DJing for 10 years and producing music for 7 years, but I knew nothing about tinnitus.

I visited several ear specialists, but they dismissed it, saying it was just a cold. I tried explaining that I was a DJ and that I worked in loud environments, but they didn’t take it seriously. I became desperate and ended up leaving music altogether. At the time, my partner Álvaro and I had a studio in Madrid. Álvaro stayed to manage the studio and our labels, while I left to work on a construction site in the north of Spain, in a small town called Limpias, near Laredo.

I stayed there for almost a year. I worked with earplugs all the time because the ringing was so loud that I sometimes couldn’t even hear my own voice. It was a horrible experience—I lost my hair, gained weight, and fell into a deep depression. One day, out of desperation, I joined an online forum where others were talking about their issues. That’s when I first learned the term tinnitus and realized that’s what I had.

One comment in the forum changed everything for me. Someone described tinnitus as being like the noise of a city: if you don’t pay attention to it, your brain learns to tune it out. That simple perspective gave me so much relief. I started following the advice from the forum and gradually stopped focusing on the ringing. Over time, it became like background noise—it was still there, but I didn’t hear it anymore because I stopped fearing it.

Not long after, Álvaro called me with some incredible news. He told me we had a request to play at Tresor in Berlin, as part of a tour Jeff Mills was doing. We would play in another room alongside the main event, and he asked if I was ready to come back. I said yes. We went to Berlin, where we were supposed to play a two-hour set, but we ended up playing for eight hours. That marked my return to music, and I’ve been active ever since.

[Read our Jeff Mills interview]

Now, I always tell people to take care of their ears as much as possible. Use earplugs when you can. Personally, I can’t always use them in the booth because I feel disconnected from the music, but I try to keep the volume reasonable and avoid using headphones for extended periods, especially when travelling.

I also schedule quiet days where I stay at home in complete silence to let my ears rest.

There are also certain things I avoid, like foods with quinine, which is found in tonic water—it can worsen hearing loss if consumed excessively, but I stay cautious about anything that might impact my hearing.

Alvaro: Yeah, tinnitus and hyperacusis are very real risks for anyone working with sound. Delmar has been dealing with tinnitus for almost 15 years, and seeing him manage that really makes me take the issue seriously.

We try to use most of the times high-quality earplugs to protect our hearing without losing sound quality, and I try to keep the monitor levels at a reasonable volume during our sets. We also make sure to give our ears some time to recover after gigs.

I read some time ago that running is good for the ears because it increases blood circulation throughout the body, including the ears. Not only because I do this, but also because it helps me feel good.

Fortunately, I haven't experienced these issues myself, but knowing they can happen to anyone is definitely a concern. Protecting our hearing is crucial so we can keep doing what we love: making people dance and have a great time.