COVER MIX ARTIST OF THE MONTH:
Like many of his Canadian counterparts, Derek Silvester was pro- ducing hip hop before falling in love with dance music. “I ended up working abroad and meeting a lot of people from all over the world. I was DJ’ing parties for the staff, and the only thing that worked was the electronic stuff, so I fell in love with it from there” says the 28 year old DJ/producer from his home in Halifax. The artist known professionally as Dezza has seen his music played out on some of the world’s biggest radio shows in the past month, includ- ing Tiesto’s Clublife, Armin’s ASOT, Sander’s Identity, and Above & Beyond’s Group Therapy radio. With a stacked release schedule and a sound that fi ts perfectly into today’s festival culture, we decided to grab a guest mix and interview from the East coast native before he blows up this summer.
After his electronic experience abroad, Dezza’s studio output quickly turned from gritty hip hop beats into big room progressive house productions that immediately caught the attention of the world’s best DJ’s. “The fi rst dance track I ever made was called Believe, and Tiesto played that on Clublife … so I was like ‘ok this is kind of a no-brainer’, and that was in ’07 or ’08. I remember a couple years before that he was making those big crazy [Tiesto in concert] DVD’s in the arenas, and then he was playing my stuff, so it just went up from there”.
Having your tunes played out by the world’s biggest DJ’s is an accomplishment within itself, but Dezza had his sights set on an offi cial release as he refi ned his sound for the top labels. “I was doing some more progressive stuff, and I made a tune called Hefty in 2011. Spinnin’ picked that one up and I signed with them, and I’ve been working with them since. At that point I just sent them a demo, which is quite tough since they’re one of the biggest labels around. One of the A&R’s there liked my stuff, so they wanted an exclusive deal and we’ve been working together since”.
When we inquire how his sound has changed since then, and what he’s working on right now, Dezza shows that he refuses to sit within the boundaries of a genre, saying: “I try not to limit myself. I have an electro track out right now, my next two releases are more pro- gressive, and then the one after that is pretty main room … every chance I get, I’m making music. It’s all I do”.
Before we wrapped up our chat, Dezza wanted to express his opinion on Canada’s booming dance music scene, and was quick to shout out some Canadian colleages. “It’s amazing, there are so many good Canadian producers out there right now that are killing it. At fi rst it’s was sort of just Deadmau5 and Adam K and Sultan and Ned … but now there’s the younger generation like Paris & Simo and Project 46 and Dzeko & Torres, all those guys are killing it right now”.
Already sitting comfortably within the upper echelon of producers in our country, Dezza’s next goal is to start playing festival dates in Canada and abroad. Even if you don’t catch Dezza on a festival stage this year, you will most defi nitely be hearing his tunes played out like a soundtrack to your summer. Dezza has curated an exclusive 60 minute essential selection for the magazine, including his favourite music and some of his upcoming productions. Click on the podcast logo to listen now, and don’t forget to subscribe to the DJ Mag Canada podcast on iTunes.
www.djmag.ca 045
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