It's crazy how the world works sometimes. For as many bootleg remixes that get tweeted to us (@DoAndroidsDance on Twitter, nudge) and emailed to us, it's rare that one of these remixes is actually released officially. Hell, we've premiered remixes that were dope but definitely hadn't been done officially, and while we might say something like "damn, the label should really try and grab this producer up," that's normally not the case. For those who have checked the remix EP for Skrillex's Recess tracks "Ease My Mind" and "Ragga Bomb," however, this is exactly what happened.
As The FADER reported, Skrillex actually snapped up the Jai Wolf remix after getting a tweet that told him to check it out. It seems like Skrillex was blown away pretty immediately and signed it to OWSLA for the EP. What's even weirder is that Jai Wolf was formerly known as No Pets Allowed, and for some reason I hadn't put two-and-two together before catching up with him to get his side of this awesome story.
I’ve been seeing your name pop up lately, but had to reach out when it was reported that your remix of Skrillex’s “Ease My Mind” was signed after he heard it based on a Twitter reference. We’ve seen, posted, and been tweeted a number of remixes; did you ever honestly think that this remix would’ve been so well-received that it’d get picked up by OWSLA officially?
Not at all. I made the remix in my parents' basement initially with the intention of putting it out as a free track. What had happened was I met Stephen from Fightclvb through my friend Sam (Prince Fox) at a studio session. After exchanging contact info and liking the track, he kindly forwarded to Skrillex's inbox. He liked it so much, he gave me a shout on Twitter. This was back in May and before I had even released the track. At that point, I still didn't think OWSLA would seriously consider it. We just took it to the homies at ThisSongIsSick and had them premiere it in June.
We know that Skrillex has probably seen and avoided numerous remixes of Recess album tracks; did you ever speak with him directly? Did he ever say what it was about your remix that stood out?
Apart from his initial two-word tweet: "SIQ REMIX," I never really inquired as to why he liked the track. I had the chance to meet up with him in October, but besides thanking him for playing it in his sets and for giving it the official stamp for OWSLA, I didn't want to talk about myself too much. He was the nicest dude and the guys at OWSLA were incredibly friendly. All I can say is that I'm humbled by the support they've given to this track.
You’ve also recently netted a number of big remixes, including one of Alesso’s “Heroes’ and another for Odesza. Are all of these dropping by some wild divine intervention?
It's all about HypeM. The amount of label people lingering the charts is crazy. "Ease My Mind" hit #1 in June as did my "Dollhouse" remix. That led to Odesza hitting me up on Twitter 'cause they were charting as well. The Odesza remix hit #1 which led to Alesso's people contacting me. And just this week, the Alesso remix hit #1. One door just leads to another. I think I just got really lucky this summer by opening the right doors.
You’ve been grinding for a minute, but you can’t front, your time is probably now, right? What do you have lined up, whether it be remix work or your own original material?
We have a bunch of remixes waiting to be released that I'm incredibly excited for—sadly I can't speak too much about them. I'm also excited to release some original content. I've been saving it for the right time, and it looks like that time might finally be here.
