EDDIE

EDDIE is on a mission to bring electro-house and progressive back to the forefront of dance music. He came of age at the peak of EDM. Artists like Deadmau5, Knife Party, and Porter Robinson were his entryway into electronic music. Their influence is clear in his mix of grungy thumping electro and blissful heartfelt progressive.  It’s all about giving people something familiar he says about his music. “It's got an aesthetic feel. People really enjoy nostalgia. I think it's really an important part of music.” His Monstercat debut, "Waiting," pulls that thread. The thick chords, uplifting vocals, and driving beat call to mind early Deadmau5. It’s bright, fun, and heartfelt. He may have first realized where his tastes lie in dance music at an all-ages Melbourne music festival as a teenager, but his roots run deeper. He recalls his dad picking him up from school with AC/DC blasting from the speakers. “AC/DC brings a lot of energy. It’s very simple riff simple drum work. Something about them really drives you up. You get really pumped up. So I think a lot of the energy in my music definitely kind of correlates with that because I love bringing that energy to my darker electro stuff.” EDDIE isn’t certain when he transformed from a teenager messing about with mashups and Fruity Loops to career musician. Yet, he knows that he appreciated the journey. “You start to release stuff. Then your friends start saying, ‘Yeah, that's actually, that's actually good. It's not trash anymore.’ And then I just had a vision for a set sort of sound that I wanted. A vision for a brand that I wanted. And you put all that together, you work towards a goal that you might think is possible. And bam, suddenly it happened.” The key to his breezy and unaffected persona is knowing dance music is supposed to be fun and uplifting. EDDIE has mastered living in the moment. He doesn’t put pressure on himself to reinvent the wheel every time he sits down to write he says, “I feel like when I when I sit down to write music, I don't have that added pressure, where I feel a lot of producers are like, I need to make something that no one's ever heard before. And then they freak out and then write something for like two months, right? I'm writing at the moment because I feel inspired.” Sometimes that inspiration takes him on a detour. While EDDIE is steadfastly dedicated to electro and progressive, he’s had several high-profile collaborations with the likes of Rezz and ATLiens. His discography plays like a good DJ set. It’s got hills, valleys, and these incredible curveballs that give you the bass face. He insists that he doesn’t want to confuse his audience, yet he never wants to shy away from the chance to experiment either. “If you go through my discography 95% of it will be electro and progressive, right? And then that 5% will just be me when I experiment. Because it's music at the end of the day. I have an outlet and I just make stuff. I've had the opportunity to work with some really cool artists. And at the end of the day, [if] we make something that might not be progressive or might not be electro and I still think it's really cool, and they really like it, it ends up coming out. And I've been blessed that the fans still really enjoy it.” He’s always kept himself open to opportunity. It’s how he ended up collaborating with legendary Australian producer, Dirty South on "Just A Riff."  Their friendship started when EDDIE realized that they were neighbors and share the same Serbian-Australian heritage. EDDIE value’s the professional lessons he’s learned from hanging with an industry vet, and also some of the practical advantages as well. “He's got a really nice studio [so I get] to learn how all his hardware works. Because I don't get to play with hardware much. I don't have any of that stuff. So it's been really fun to mess around with his equipment with him.” For someone who went from raver to working with notable figures in dance, the significance of these moments are palpable he says, “That's one of those things where you have to take a step back a little bit just to be like, you know, you might not be where you want to end up yet. You're still going on the journey. But take a step back to realize you've done some cool stuff. And I've managed to Yeah, work on deadmu5' label release stuff there. And I managed to get noticed by some pretty big names that I used to really, really look up to. So it's been a great journey so far. It's still climbing. So, I'm happy with that.” In the end, everything about music is about having fun for EDDIE. “I'm not actually trying to be overly unique. I'm not a producer that aims for that as much. I just aim to make something I love a lot. “