DJ and electronic music producer from Maryland, Niel Degas is influenced by artists such as Calvin Harris, Zedd, Daft Punk and Purple Disco Machine. Niel Degas is releasing 4 remixes of his latest hit. Two of these remixes are collaborations, one with Austin Leeds and another with Ricardo Geldres. The artist also wanted to reshape his track to give it new forms with two remixes Vip Minimal and Vip Bigroom. With this occasion he had a chat with him:
1. What inspired you to produce the “Don’t Need You” Remixes EP?
Well the original itself is good in its own right, but felt like there could be room for improvement and thought it would be fun to get a few different takes on the original plus Scarlett’s vocals are just fire.
2. How would you describe your remixes, why did you feel creating these?
All 4 remixes included in the package are so different from each other, which so awesome. Like Ricardo’s
has that big epic Progressive house vibe which is pretty much the reason I picked him to hit one of the remixes. Austin’s has that melodic house vibe which fits perfectly with the vocals, and both I feel are pretty mainstream. I love both.
As for my 2 personal takes just wanted to play around with my original more poppy track and experiment with turning such a light-hearted song into something a little darker grimy and powerful by playing with conflicting emotions. I would say my Minimal take hits the dark and grimy on the head, can totally hear in one of those underground seedy night clubs you know after-hours clubs. As for my Bigroom take again wanted to keep with the little more dark vibes, but this time swap the grime for powerful and epic.
3. We know that most of your tracks are below the EDM genre, can you tell us why have you entered this genre? What do you like most about it?
You know I just love the togetherness that EDM and all the subgenres bring and how it transcends nation’s cultures. Like you can go to a festival and see people from all walks of life, various ages, religions, from different parts of the world, all having fun and enjoying themselves just as much as you are. It’s so accepting which is amazing.
4. Can you tell us why you decided to pursue music and what inspires you?
Music has always been a huge part of my life and I have always been doing something within the music realm like early years I was making hip-hop beats for my buddies to freestyle over and Drum and Bass just playing around and even did the band thing for a bit in emo and metal bands, guess much of my love for music stems from my grandparents being radio DJ’s to my parents owning Jazz night clubs. And I love how if you are feeling upset/sad/lonely/angry you can turn on your favorite song it can bring you up, or down if that’s what you want, or if you are in a great mood it can elevate it, or get you ready for that party and such.
So it felt natural to walk this path.
5. What has been the most difficult moment of producing or launching this new release?
Deadlines…..as you can’t always put creativity on a deadline hah.
6. Who are your biggest influences and idols, and why?
I would say one of my biggest would be Calvin Harris, mainly because not only does he do stuff in the EDM world but also pops his head into the dance-pop realm from time to time which is very similar to my role. Tiesto would be up there too, feel like pretty much everything he touches is pretty fire, even after all these years in the game and is still pretty relevant. Hardwell would be another as I like how he always experiments which is also a bit of my roll.
As for newer artists I really like Jax Jones, Joel Cory and James Hype. (now I feel like I am name dropping lol) and I could totally keep going because I pull a lot from pretty much everywhere.
7. How would you describe your style as a DJ/producer? What makes your music different? And your signature sound?
To answer that I would say flowing or evolving I am heavily influenced by everything even sometimes pulling from music outside of the EDM genres and love to experiment and keep things fresh
8. What’s next for Niel Degas?
What’s next for me……Well, I plan to release one more song this year as a little bonus track “Back to the Acid” kind of an homage to the old-school acid house with a new school house twist. Then at the beginning of the year going hard in the paint to say. Kicking off with a single called “Only Chance” which is a funk/dance-pop track which will lead up to both my official EP consisting of an Electro house track “Sahara”, and “My Best” which is more of a Euro dance track, also a melodic house track which I am finishing up now and maybe one other song. As well as dropping a track in collaboration with myself and one of the remixers from this project Ricardo Geldres titled “LA Nights” which is a fire Progressive house track people who have listened to it have compared it to Swedish House Mafia. Both of which will be dropping in late winter/early spring. With talks of doing more joint stuff and possible joint/collaboration EP as well this year.