DJLarge

ATTLAS Maps Out Success: Canadian producer ATTLAS grew up playing in bands and orchestras, in jazz clubs and through solo projects.’

“Coming out of university, I was working as an audio engineer, then assisting for a composer in L.A.,” he says. “From there, I very quickly learned production techniques from experienced professionals, which elevated the quality of the solo projects I had been writing, composing, and producing from a young age. While still pursuing composing, I began producing electronic music demos which eventually found their way to deadmau5, who brought me aboard and began releasing my singles and EPs. In 2015, I played my very first set ever in Brooklyn opening for him, and since then my singular musical pursuit has been the ATTLAS project.”

Today, he broadly describes his sound as melodic progressive ambient house.

“I feel it tries to encompass an honest emotional core first and foremost,” he says. “I write almost autobiographically/emotionally, almost as a way of the music being these markers along the course of my personal journey. Be it an instrumental, remix, vocal single, interlude…when I hear the music I have to be transported right back to the emotional/personal state of the composition. As a result, the instrumentation, palette, and melodic choices are often informed by a reflection, looking inwards or backwards. Nostalgia, wonder, the story – that’s the aim.”

ATTLAS feels electronic music is most exciting when artists are using boundaries.

“For a long time when I was really starting to find my feet with releases, I was listening almost exclusively to electronic music and being overly concerned with the trends, sounds, who’s hot, what’s upcoming,” he says. “You can get in your head playing the game of comparing yourself and when you go down that road you end up way too self-critical. Genres can be pretty gate-kept and a lot of the stuff I was really enjoying was at opposite ends of the spectrum. It made it a bit tricky as I tended to just write what I enjoyed, how I felt, and what drove my curiosity. It left me with a lot of music that was too broad to make sense for one project, but still worth the creative effort. I find the most exciting parts about electronic music right now aren’t exclusive to broader themes or trends but rather individual artists I love that are either pushing something forward, or executing familiar topics with renewed beauty. A lot of my listening draws from far outside electronic music, which then informs the way I compose for the electronic space.”

His latest release is “A Game of Fairies.”

“‘A Game of Fairies,’ out now on Monstercat, is a solo instrumental track of mine,” he says. “On first listen it feels like one of those lush warm progressive house classics from the era of Shingo Nakamura, Paul Keeley, deadmau5, Adam K & Soha… it definitely draws from those textures and moods. However it’s definitely imbued with my own sense of production atmospheres and chord structures that draws out peaks and valleys of hope and wistfulness. Thematically, the game of fairies is this to me:  the times I have been emotionally or literally lost along trails, in the dark, confused and not sure where to turn, I have been greeted by fireflies. As dancing lights of hope for either where my soul needs to go or the trail winds towards, the pinpricks of sparkle that guide my way I’ve always known as the games of fairies.”

Looking ahead, ATTLAS is keeping busy.

“Since 2020, I’ve put out 4 albums, remixes, and singles,” he says. “The four albums were large undertakings with a spectrum of work and styles far wider than those I would approach in singles.  2023 is a return to singles – energy, motion, stuff that will get me playing more clubs and releases that are exciting and heartfelt.”

ATTLAS’ “A Game of Fairies” is out now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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