Saturday Spotlight: Heretixx
Heretixx is an electronic dance music producer born and raised in Los Angeles. In his youth, he was heavily influenced by the West Coast Hip Hop scene, and at the age of 16 he began releasing beat tapes on Soundcloud under a the alias White Chocolate Beatz. These instrumentals quickly became popular among friends and people in the community and soon, people would start sending him samples to flip and make into a new beat.
At the age of 19 he became involved in the EDM scene, and when the newly-formed Heretixx submitted an hour-long DJ mix in a competition for a chance to open up at Life in Color festival, he jumped at the chance and ended up winning the contest with his first ever DJ mix (Lucid Future Vol. 1) and subsequently got to open up for Jauz and Steve Aoki at the festival in front of thousands.
Fast forward to 2020, and Heretixx continued to hone his skills as a producer and put in time in the studio to produce his first EP as Heretixx, "1995", the first of many in a string of quality releases to come. Tap in with our exclusive interview with the multi-talented musician, as we chop it up about his LA upbringing, start in EDM, why he decided to switch lanes from Hip Hop to EDM, and advice to aspiring producers. Right now and only on Hype Off Life 👊🏾
Thanks for coming thru! How has 2021 been treating you?
Thanks for having me! Honestly, 2021 has felt like I got on a rollercoaster and it’s just been going clickety-clack up and up and up. I can barely see the people on the ground anymore, and I have no idea when it’s going to stop, but I don’t think any time soon. That pretty much sums it up so far.
Tell us more about your background and growing up in LA.
I loved growing up in LA. The neighborhood where I grew up is kind of suburban and has a more small-town feel to it. It’s the small town within the big city. I did a lot of the normal things growing up. I played little league and youth soccer, and I remember riding bikes around with all the neighborhood kids playing pranks, talking to girls and getting into trouble. Pretty much like any other town in America.
The only difference is, once we all grew up, a lot of us naturally gravitated towards creative fields like music, art, graphic design and entertainment/film. I think LA just has that unique energy, and kids that grew up here have a natural inclination towards something creative. It’s great because I’m able to work and network with people who I’ve known since childhood, so it makes everything so much easier. That’s one of the best things about it.
Your Spotify plays are currently going up! How have you been able to organically grow your fanbase?
I’ve been focusing a lot on business and networking this year. So, through my network I’ve been introduced to a lot of great people who have been helping me with things like branding, marketing, video, graphic design, and social media. It’s amazing because pretty much everyone I’m working with right now, I’ve been introduced to through someone else. I’ve rarely had to reach out to people cold. So, I have to give my team a lot of credit for the growth I’ve been able to achieve this year. It really takes a village.
if you're always trying to catch up to the game you'll never be ahead of it
So, you started off making Hip Hop beats before moving on to EDM. What drew you to the genre?
I first became interested in EDM back in like 2011-2012 when DeadMau5 was the king and Porter Robinson was just a newcomer on the scene. This was at the age before I was even old enough to go to clubs or festivals yet, so I just found all this music through Spotify and friends playing stuff for me. I loved electro-house and complextro and all that stuff, but it wasn’t really at the forefront of my interests at first. It was more of a secondary thing to Hip Hop for me.
There’s a specific moment though I remember vividly where all of my views on EDM changed: I was sitting around chilling in my friend’s garage and a bunch of us were taking turns playing music off of his computer. I was having a conversation with someone else when one of my friends dropped the Tchami record “You Know You Like it - AlunaGeorge (Tchami Remix).”
As soon as the drop hit, my head swung around so fast I nearly broke my neck. “WHOA!!!” I said. “Who the f*ck is this?” “Tchami?” my friend replied. He didn’t even really know how to say his name correctly. I had never heard a sound like that in all my years. It was so original and fresh. I all of a sudden became obsessed with all of his songs and he instantly became my new favorite artist. That was the moment where my love for EDM began.
How did you become involved in the EDM scene?
That moment I just described was in the spring of my senior year of high school. The following fall, I went off to start my freshman year of college in Philadelphia. During the welcome week/orientation, before classes had even begun, I went to a party on campus and somehow got a hold of the aux cord and started playing some music.
I played that same Tchami record, and instantly one of the guys came over from his conversation all the way across the party. “You know Tchami?” he asked. “Of course,” I replied. “He’s my favorite artist right now.” We instantly hit it off. “You’re the only person I’ve met here so far who’s even heard of Tchami,” he told me. “Put your info in my phone.”
We became friends over the next few weeks and he introduced me to a bunch more Future House artists that I never would have discovered, if not for him. I learned to DJ from this other dude in my freshman dorm hall who just taught me the basics, and later that year we decided to start a DJ duo called “Heretixx.”
We had heard that the Life in Color festival was coming to Philly and they were having a DJ contest where you could submit a 1 hour DJ mix and whoever got the most votes would get to open up at the festival. Our mixing skills were still very raw, but we decided to record a mix and submit it to the contest as Heretixx.
We were so nervous we legit practiced the mix like 3 times before we recorded it. We submitted it, and somehow ended up winning with our first ever mix. We got to open up for Jauz and Steve Aoki at a festival in front of thousands. With that kind of start to my EDM career, there was no way I could ever give it up.
What similarities have you noticed between Hip Hop and EDM?
I’ve noticed that they’ve gone through a similar arc since their creation, from being edgy and underground to more mainstream and commercial. They’ve always been intertwined like that, the difference though is that now EDM is coming back more towards its roots and Hip Hop seems to be straying further from it.
This phenomenon really accelerated my transition into EDM because I sort of fell out of love with modern mainstream Hip Hop and consequently fell more in love with EDM. I’m still hopeful that Hip Hop will come around some day, but until then my respect for the genre will be lower than it was.
2020 found you releasing your first EP, “1995”. Why did you feel last year was the right time to release a project?
Up until late 2019 I had been working on a lot of music but not finishing or releasing much. I decided at the end of 2019 that my goal would be to release an EP in 2020. The pandemic hit in March and suddenly everyone was just sitting at home, myself included. I realized that with nothing really going on, people would be streaming more music than ever before, so it was the perfect time to release an EP.
The pandemic also allowed me to sit down and focus on finishing the EP since there was nothing else to do. I had been DJing every weekend at a local bar before that. I made probably 10-12 songs before narrowing it down to the final 7 and I ended up finishing the EP ahead of schedule.
When did you know music was your gift?
When I was in elementary school I always used to get in trouble for finger-drumming on the desks and disrupting class. Most of the time I didn't even realize I was doing it. It was just an unconscious thing. One day my teacher told my parents that it might be a good idea to enroll me in some drum lessons. I really loved playing the drums and I took lessons all the way through high school.
I got really good, even getting invited to an exclusive performing arts summer program that only the best kids in the country get accepted to. That was when I realized music wasn't just going to be a hobby for me. I needed to turn this into a career somehow.
How do you want people to feel while listening to your music?
I want people to feel the same way I felt when I first heard that Tchami record. I strive to put that WHOA factor into every song I produce. My goal is to knock people off their guard a little bit. Keep them on their toes. When people hear two songs in a row from me, I want them to think "this is the same guy??"
Stand up for what is right. Even if you're standing alone.
What is your best piece of advice for someone wanting to tap into the production field?
You absolutely need to find a good mentor. YouTube videos aren't going to cut it. Their information is too sporadic. You need a holistic understanding of the engineering/recording side of things before you try and jump into production.
I had the opportunity to learn from some of the best engineers in the business during my time at university. I understand not everyone has the opportunity to go to college, but I would urge you to do your best to find someone who is doing it at a high level and try to learn from them.
Maybe get a job as an intern or assistant at a local recording studio. When you do decide to go into production, this foundation will help you develop much quicker. Also learning an instrument helps, but it's not absolutely necessary.
Why do you feel it’s important for artists to develop their own sound, as opposed to going after what’s popular?
Because if you're always trying to catch up to the game you'll never be ahead of it. If you follow the trends you might go viral and blow up quickly, but you won't know what you're doing and you'll fall back off just as quickly.
It's a trend I've seen time and time again with new artists. If you want to have longevity in this industry, you need to take your time and develop your own sound. You can still incorporate new trends into your sound, but just be sure it's YOUR sound at the end of the day. Take your time and strive for the slow burn instead of the five alarm blaze and you will be rewarded in the long run.
Anything else we should know?
You should know that Heretixx is a name you'll be seeing a lot more in the coming years, so think of this as my introduction. I've barely scratched the surface of my potential. I hope, if nothing else, I can inspire others to reach their highest potential and never to settle. And remember:
Stand up for what is right.
Even if you're standing alone.
