2018 has been one long, crazy adventure. I started my year at 5am, in New York, on the dancefloor of the Brooklyn Mirage, watching (read: studying) Dixon. Later that night, half-awake, I opened for Eric Prydz at the amazing Output.
Nearly 365 days later, here we are. A lot of has happened since that moment: I played my first festival, released my second mau5trap EP, and performed in Europe for the first time. It's been surreal to say the least.
The year has not been without its hardships either. I spent much of 2018 fretting over labels and my artistic identity. I’d like to think that’s all part of the process however. I'm glad to say I'm feeling better about both those things now.
One positive thing that did arise from my panic was that I started working with some European labels like Chapter 24 and Parquet. That was a big goal of mine for 2018 and something I'll be doing more of in 2019 as well. I've always wanted to approach my project from a global mindset, and this is just the beginning of that.
Overall, I still feel very much at the beginning of my journey. There’s still so much I want to create and build. And in many ways, I feel as though I’ve only shown the world a small sliver of my larger vision... But hey, all in time.
'Best of 2018'
I thought it'd be fun to highlight some of my favorites from 2018. These are the tracks, DJs, producers, etc that blew me away this year.
Best producer: &ME. He was unstoppable this year. One emotional track after the next; nearly all of them over 8 minutes long.
Best DJ: Damian Lazarus. Caught a 4-hour sunrise set from him at Desert Hearts that will go down in my mind as one of my favorite DJ performances ever. He’s a wizard.
Best track: Mind Against - Cloud Nine. Fell in love with this track immediately. Immaculate synth work. Was a big part of my sets in 2018.
Best album: Jon Hopkins - Singularity. I’ll be studying this album for years to come. Jon has such an insane mastery of sound design and composition. He’s on another level.
Best venue: Printworks. I can’t believe this place exists; absolutely unreal venue.
Bonus: I made a Spotify playlist of my top 10 tracks from 2018. Listen here.
