Artist Spotlight
Since his 2016 debut, Portuguese DJ and producer PEACE MAKER! has blossomed tremendously in the electronic dance music scene and continues to captivate listeners with his electrifying bass-house soundscapes and hypnotic tech-house melodies. Of course, growing up in the dance music-loving country of Portugal impacted his phenomenal taste in music. Still, it was his burning innate desire to revolutionize house music as we know it that's led him to where he is now. PEACE MAKER! 's passion for music originated at a young age, and it was the distant memories of listening to top radio hits on long car rides with his parents that spiked his appetite to learn more about the intriguing sonic artform. In middle school, he was fond of heavy metal and rock music legends like Metallica, Slip Knot, and Guns & Roses, which somehow led to his heightened appreciation for early 2010s emerging dance artists like the one and only Skrillex. From that point on, he found himself indulging more in genres like dubstep, drum & bass, and electro house, and that's when that spark ignited in him to aspire to make it in the dance music world someday. Like most millennials, he turned to Limewire and other illegal music download sites to discover new music and eventually became addicted to digging for unfamiliar tracks and the rising artists that would later become some of his favorites of all time. His journey to stardom was beginning, and despite a few inevitable bumps in the road during his upbringing, the goal-driven musician showed no signs of ever slowing down or giving up his dreams. "My friend sold me his guitar when we were 13 or 14 and I was still in that heavy metal and rock phase. I tried to learn how to play it, but it was super hard, and I just didn't have that flame inside of me that I expected. I knew I wanted to pursue something involving melodies, something with power and drive. At the time, there were a few walls in the way for me to pursue music, I just didn't have the tools to learn on my own and my personal and social life was a mess back then." He decided to quit his job as a bellman and dedicate his all solely to making music when the dance music scene was evolving faster than ever before. So he chose to look forward and envision himself making a long-term impact on the scene rather than succumbing to what was popular at the time. Become a Gray Area member for access to exclusive perks! Rather than focus on the Portuguese demographic, his goal was to release music that would ignite and stir up dance music lovers across the globe. He's done exactly that. However, an unforeseen benefit was that his unmatched house sounds are now flourishing tremendously in his beloved home country, and that's what happens when an artist creates music simply for the love of it. "I think bass house and tech house are getting bigger in Portugal, so the parties are getting bigger here," he explains. "I feel even more blown away because I never focused on releasing music to the Portuguese fan-base specifically. I knew they didn't have the most futuristic music taste, and I always look towards the future when it comes to my music. I knew my sound was going to come to Portugal soon enough, but people here were still listening to older genres like big room and progressive house, which I'm not against, they're just booming genres from the past." Before the pandemic hit the world, PEACE MAKER! made his grand debut at ADE's Fraudublanc Bass House Summit and then conquered his first international performance during his New Zealand run. These gigs were monumental moments in his career, and despite an ongoing worldwide pandemic, he managed to excel, garnering 1.5 million Spotify streams on his banger, "Isolation," in the spring of 2020. "In the end, the best thing to come from that trip was the friends that I made, the people that I met, and the overall experience. I made real friends, like people that I still talk to everyday. I never stop thinking about these small things, they're the most important aspects of doing all of this to begin with. The pandemic came right after unfortunately, but with bad things come good things, and somehow "Isolation" became a top-hit in the country I just had this crazy experience in." His latest releases, "Stay" with HROLEX and "Think Of Me," portray his all-encompassing production capabilities in their unique light. Still, both singles radiate with that one-of-a-kind PEACE MAKER! touch fans can't seem to get enough of. Authenticity always tends to lead to success, and PEACE MAKER! flawlessly demonstrates this concept with his forward-facing artistic vision.
