Brett Callwood
Deadcrow will WAIT4U: Budding bass music producer Deadcrow started making mashups with his friend when he was 10 using Virtual DJ.
“It was kind of in that same time period that I started playing around with FL Studio on my dad’s laptop, as I was interested in writing songs instead of just making mashups. At the time I was also still playing drums, which I started doing at 3 years old, and ended up quitting at 15 because writing songs was really what I wanted to do. This was also when I started producing more seriously. At 16 (in 2012) I started the Deadcrow project, and also started going to Herman Brood Academie, which is almost like a Dutch version of Icon Collective. After graduating there at 19 years old I pretty much stuck all my time into my music, which started getting actually serious when I was about 24. That’s when I got picked up by my manager Jonathan, and started playing a lot more shows.“
He describes his sound today as dark, aggressive, fun, cinematic, streamlined and loud.
“Honestly I find it hard to describe as I enjoy making a lot of different genres and have a lot of different influences,” Deadcrow says. “But I think that lately I’ve been leaning a lot more into the cinematic side of things when I make anything that isn’t a drop. I’ve been making use of a lot more orchestral instruments and guitars and stuff. A lot of it being inspired by Hans Zimmer, Mick Gordon, and the original The Fast & The Furious soundtrack. I just love creating a vibe and a story, immersing myself and the listener into a different space for the duration of the song. But, at the same time I also love making really ignorant stuff that is solely made to play out at the clubs and festivals. My sound is just a bit of everything honestly, but with my own spices sprinkled onto it.”
His latest release is “WAIT4U.”
“If I’m not mistaken I think we got started on the project in the winter of 2022, and had it done in the spring the same year,” Deadcrow says. “It started with me writing the melody in the build, sending that off to Ace Aura for him to start working on the intro and the 1st and 2nd drops, and him sending that back to me to work on both the drops more. At the same time we had also sent off a version to Roniit for her to write vocals to, which came out great. When we had everything together I got to finalize the project and add the last drop. I feel like this song has a really good balance between both Ace Aura’s and my own sound, as well as the genres that are included in it. It’s out now on Monstercat.”
Deadcrow says that electronic music is currently in an interesting place.
“A lot of the really popular stuff right now, namely the 4×4 stuff, is very stripped down and sounds like people are going back to basics,” he says. “I think that people are really enjoying stuff that is simple and well put together.. To me that proves that a good song doesn’t need all of the bells and whistles. It needs a good motif and something that people can latch onto, and that doesn’t have to be complicated at all. What I’ve personally been enjoying the most to just listen to in terms of electronic music, is a lot of lo-fi house, IDM, jungle… pretty much the stuff that I always find in my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify. Somehow all the music that’s in there is like the polar opposite of what I like to make and play out, which I really enjoy as it allows me to pull inspiration from other genres.”
Looking ahead, Deadcrow has plenty planned for the rest of the year.
“Currently I’m on tour with Mersiv for 10 dates on his Out of Bounds tour after which I’ll be making my debut in Las Vegas, and will also be joining Ravenscoon on his Periphery tour in Nashville, Minneapolis and DC, as well as a show with Rossy in Tempe, AZ (and maybe another one in literally my favorite city…) as part of her Heavens Door tour,” he says. “I’ll also be making my second appearance at DEF for their show with Deathpact in December, along with my first Deadbeats show which will be in Chicago the same weekend. So, needless to say I’m pretty excited for what touring I have left this year. And as far as music goes I have 1 single locked in, and might add another one to close out the year. I’m considering finally releasing a song that people have been asking for for ages. Hint: it’s pretty BOMBastic. But aside from all of the above I think I’ll be taking it pretty easy on my days off, since I just moved to the States from The Netherlands and am going through kind of a transitional period. Even though I was already pretty used to being in the States because I have family here and was already playing shows, it still is a big change in my life. Since I’ve moved I’ve barely made any music because I haven’t had a proper workspace, so my main goal is to slowly get that together after I get back from the tour with Mersiv. All in all I can definitely say that the rest of my year will be pretty exciting, and I feel like my move to the States will be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
Deadcrow will WAIT4U: Deadcrow’s “WAIT4U” with Ace Aura featuring Riniit is out now.
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