Not one to hold back on his opinions, Joel Zimmerman who is popularly known as Deadmau5 was recently interviewed by the team at InTheMix where he admitted to his new moniker, ‘testpilot‘ under which he produced and recently released a smashing minimal techno track, “Sunspot (White Space Conflict)” and opened up as to why he chose to release it. Speaking about the track, the ace producer said that he knew people would figure out that he was behind the track quickly, and quickly they did. He said that he had aimed to do something different with the new project and also conceded that, “I do have aliases and I do put out music in those channels”.
Apart from just boredom or messing around, Joel’s reasoning for putting out the track goes far enough to establish that EDM has grown to be too homogenous. The diversity he consistently aims to instil in himself also clearly correlates with his next statement where he said that, “EDM all sounds the same to me” and added that, “But with techno – minimal techno, or heavy techno, or neo-progressive techno – fuck, it’s all techno! You know what I mean? It’s got a kick every 4/4, so everything in that realm I’m cool with. I was just trying something different”.
This however isn’t the first time Joel has gone on to argue that electronic music has become overtly generic through the years. About a year ago, he and iconic producer/DJ Richie Hawtin had spoken at SXSW in Austin, Texas regarding the same issue and it was there when the two re-introduced the idea that a large part of electronic music stalwarts prefer to stay close to home rather than producing eclectic, forward-thinking music. Interestingly, as we had mentioned in our prior article, Zimmerman’s track, “Sunspot” is also the first release for Hawtin’s label, Plus 8 in over a year and a half.
While not too many artists choose to stray from their comfort zones, it is extremely pleasing to see that Deadmau5 (under any name) will continue to help keep electronic music fresh and constantly evolving. Head over to InTheMix to read up on the entire interview now!
Via: InTheMix
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