Deadmau5 has finally released “The Veldt,” the first official single to come out of his SoundCloud sessions where fans were able to watch its creation via live stream. The track has a well-documented history that began with a simple revolving loop instrumental and ended with miraculously finding the ideal vocal on Twitter. Chris James’ vocal aids Deadmau5 with creating one of his most soothing productions to date. “The Veldt” is the first track off Deadmau5′s upcoming EP of the same name, which will include the Cypress Hill-assisted “Failbait.” You can purchase the title track now on Beatport, and the full EP will be released on June 25th.
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We enjoyed reading your captions for Avicii so much last week, we’ve decided to make our caption contests a recurring piece of content on DA. This week’s photo comes from Deadmau5′s Philly stop on his Meowington Hax Tour — and as you can see here, he clearly has something to say about one of his partners in crime, SOFI. But we really want to know your most creative captions for what’s going on in Joel’s head in the picture above. We’re letting you vote on the options and we’re letting anyone submit, so get creative! The list is embedded below. This week the winner gets a shoutout from us on Twitter!
Joel Zimmerman AKA Deadmau5 was one of the first electronic artists to hit it big in the mainstream, but is now the poster boy for going against the grain. While most DJs spent Miami Music Week busy with non-stop with shows, Deadmau5 spent his time at ‘mau5hax,’ a day-long interactive studio session. While touring, for most artists, is heating up, Deadmau5 seems more comfortable than ever with his unofficial hiatus from the cube. While most producers follow the preview-and-release formula for their productions, Deadmau5 spontaneously uploads new tracks to SoundCloud (usually in the middle of the night) with no thought or desire to cash in.
The last time he posted a series of tracks to SoundCloud, only one made it to an official preview – “The Veldt.” Deadmau5 shows no signs of stopping as he has posted two new songs this week: “Rlyehs Lament,” is a simple and peaceful loop, the other, “Fn Pig,” is the complete opposite and contains the buildups and crashes that we love so much. Listen to his latest pieces of work below the jump.
Update: We can barely keep up with Deadmau5… He’s already uploaded another preview for “Closer Rev.2″ to his SoundCloud. Check it below.
As the number of music festivals increases exponentially, Canada seems to be slowly joining in on the party. The Escapade Music Festival will be taking place June 30th to July 1st in Ottawa, but Toronto is getting The Veld on August 4th – 5th. Names have been released at a steady pace throughout the past week, with the lineup so far including Deadmau5, Avicii, Steve Angello, Bassnectar, Knife Party, Steve Aoki, Gareth Emery, Tommy Trash, Chris Lake, Cosmic Gate, Savoy, Nicky Romero, Ben Gold, Mord Fustang, Michael Woods, Aly & Fly, Swanky Tunes, and Cazzette. Although the festival’s name sounds a lot like Deadmau5′s most recent release, “The Veldt,” we’re told it’s just a coincidence. Tickets are on sale April 26th at 10AM, with tickets ranging from $69 – $129 for 2-day GA and $199 – $299 for VIP. Just another festival in the already gigantic summer circuit.
Several times over the past month, Deadmau5 has invited fans into his new studio to ask questions, meet his cat, and most of all, witness the production of “The Veldt.” Despite clocking in at over eight minutes long, the instrumental was simply a revolving loop. That was before Joel Zimmerman met Chris James and decided that he had found the vocal for his track — all thanks to Twitter.
Deadmau5 instantly fell in love, and within minutes, called James to tell him he would like to release it as is. The beat is light, uplifting, and absent of any heavy crashes or drops — and Deadmau5 has appropriately dubbed it ‘veldstep.’ While we know “The Veldt” has been in the works for over a month, Deadmau5 calls the radio edit of the track a “rush job,” and we can tell you that The Veldt EP will be coming June 25th, including the aforementioned track and “Failbait,” which features Cyprus Hill.
While most people were hating on Avicii or Tiesto for becoming too commercial, Deadmau5 was sitting around just being a h8tr. Well it looks like Joel has joined in on the commercial craze, as he (or someone else wearing the classic mau5head) promotes the new wireless Sonos system in the spot you see above. The video has him waking up in his new Toronto apartment with his carbon fibre mau5 head and turning on Spotify through his iPhone app before making some breakfast with Meowingtons (that’s his cat, if you didn’t know). Surprisingly the commercial does not feature any Deadmau5 music, but seeing where these DJs live is always kind of fun. On next week’s episode of DA Cribs…
Before you get too depressed that Miami Music Week and Ultra are over, here is the next six-day event to look forward to – Memorial Day Weekend Vegas. Las Vegas has evolved into an American Mecca for EDM, playing host to some of the biggest events headlined by marquee DJs and no other resort does it bigger than Wynn Las Vegas. Encore Beach Club and Surrender Nightclub, the stunning, award-winning indoor/outdoor entertainment complex at the Encore, has just announced its official lineup for Memorial Day Weekend, which happens to coincide with its two-year anniversary. Spanning from Wednesday, May 23rd to Monday, May 28th, managing partner Sean Christie has assembled an impressive lineup from their list of over 30 resident DJs. Check after the break for the detail and stay tuned for our in-depth Guide to MDW Vegas.
Writing about Avicii as a DJ is impossible without also writing about Avicii as a producer. This isn’t the case for every EDM artist – Kaskade, for example, spins with a considerably harder sound than his own productions might indicate, and creates bootlegs galore. For Avicii, however, a DJ gig isn’t an opportunity to showcase his mixing skills, but rather a chance to see a crowd react to his hard work in the studio.
We don’t think it’s unfair to say that Avicii the DJ relies a little too much on Avicii the producer – playing his own hits back-to-back, interspersed with a few bootlegs crafted by other artists, just wasn’t sufficient for an Ultra headlining gig. Don’t get us wrong: we had a great time in the massive crowd during his headlining set, and even ran over to Bayfront Park from Masquerade Motel to catch it. We just think that, given how much Avicii tours and DJs, we can reasonably expect more than ten straight minutes of “Levels.” Read on for our full take on the set, as well as a certain special appearance.
With his recent home renovation complete, Deadmau5 now has a new studio with even better live-streaming capabilities (he’s been a fan of Ustream for a while). He has been working on a new song call “The Veldt” (based on a short story of the same name), and invited fans to Tweet at him with suggestions about the production. Although he did have a characteristic mini-meltdown when people tried to correct the tones and mixing of the song, he was serious when he said he wanted fan input.
A vocalist named Chris James tweeted vocals he had recorded over the track and Deadmau5 immediately fell in love. He called Chris up, and within minutes it was decided that he would be the vocalist on his new song. The preview is watermarked and the levels are supposedly not accurate, but this song really brings us back to the older days of Deadmau5 — and we’re digging it. No word yet on the release, date but after all theseclips, it is nice to see something almost finalized. The entire situation has us thinking that mau5hax has the potential to be a game-changing event at this year’s Miami Music Week. What do you think?
Deadmau5 might not be headlining Ultra Music Festival this year, but that doesn’t mean he won’t get his time to shine on Saturday night. On the 24th, the infamous DJ and producer will play poolside at the Fontainebleau alongside Feed Me, Moguai, Steve Duda, and a new artist called The Frederik. This event is in addition to his ‘mau5hax‘ production-inclined outing with Beatport, and will probably be more along the lines of a standard Deadmau5 show. What we don’t know at this point is whether the show will be “unplugged” or if he’ll have Professional Griefers in tow — or a new production altogether. (We’re told the production at this venue on New Year’s was top notch, so consider our expectations high.) One thing is for sure though: making plans for Saturday just got a little bit more difficult — so make sure to check out our event guide to see all your options!
