Canadian producer and DJ IDHS has been making waves in the EDM community with hit tracks such as Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright (IDHS Bootleg),” Mac Miller’s “Jump (IDHS Bootleg),” and Kreayshawn’s “Gucci Gucci (IDHS Bootleg).” He was featured on Tape B’s Drip Tapes Volume 3, where they collaborated on a flip version of Rick Ross and Drake’s “Aston Martin Music.” This past weekend at Coachella, Tape B also dropped a second collaboration in the works with IDHS.
IDHS will be performing at his first international festival, Sound Haven, this August 1-4 in Whitwell, Tennessee. As he prepares for his upcoming performance at Sound Haven, we had the opportunity to catch up with IDHS to talk about his musical evolution, creative process and future endeavors.
Moon Lvnding (ML): All right, so to start, can you tell me a little bit about yourself, how long you’ve been making music and what inspired you to pursue music?
IDHS: “I’ve always been involved in music in some capacity. Like, I played in punk and metal bands, which really didn’t go anywhere. I really got interested in production around 2017-2018. I was actually at a techno festival when I decided I wanted to produce bass music. It just seemed natural after turning so many hobbies into professions and absolutely hating it. I was like, all right, let’s try this… I bought this $10 plugin, and I was like, I want to make my money back. It was an eight bit plugin. So I put an ad on a freelance website, and I was like, I’ll do eight bit music. And then I got paid back for the plugin and like, okay, let’s… let’s keep doing this. So I started doing freelance audio production off websites like Fiverr.”
ML: And then how did you come up with your name? IDHS?
IDHS: “I never wanted to take DJing or music seriously because every time I turn a hobby into a profession I end up hating it. I always used to DJ under ‘TBA, anonymous, special guest’ something stupid. Every year I go to Movement festival in Detroit and throw after parties. In 2018, we ended up throwing a really big [afters] two nights in a row. People kept coming up to me and asking ‘what’s your SoundCloud’ over and over again, I would say ‘I don’t have SoundCloud.’ By the end of the weekend I was like, ok… ‘I Don’t Have SoundCloud’ is my new DJ name. That took up too much room on flyers so it got abbreviated to IDHS. Now it’s this long running inside joke that IDHS stands for anything you can think of ‘I Don’t Have Serotonin’ ‘Illinois Department of Homeland Security’ etc etc., but it does kinda mostly stand for ‘I Don’t Have Serotonin.'”
ML: How would you describe your sound, and can you elaborate on how you developed your sound?
IDHS: “I don’t like when people say I have a sound because I’m trying not to sound a certain way. And the way I’ve developed my sound is by just testing things randomly. I remember specifically watching a production stream, and I can’t remember who it was, but they were talking about producers who know what they’re doing versus producers who come across things by happy accidents. So I would definitely describe my production technique as happy accidents. Pretty much twisting knobs, resampling and trying things until my ear just hears something that I like.”
ML: So I have heard some of your collaborations, like with Tape B’s Drip Tapes Volume Three, the Rick Ross flip. What does your process look like when you’re working with these other artists as opposed to when you’re working on a track alone?
IDHS: “That’s actually changed for me over the past couple of years. Originally, I would dip into a folder of music that I wasn’t finished, and I would send that to an artist and try and collaborate on that. But the problem with that, it was always projects that were dead on my end creatively. So whatever they did with that, if they didn’t finish it and they sent it back, I would still have no idea what to do with it. So the way I change that is I either I take something I know I can finish and send it to another artist, or I make them send me something and then I treat it like I’m remixing it instead of trying to finish a track with Tape B. The first one we did was a tune he sent me that was in progress. And then the second one we did was one that I sent him.”
ML: I know you have your first international festival coming up, Sound Haven. Do you have any surprises or special elements planned for your set?
IDHS: “So as soon as I got the booking confirmed, I started working on music that I’m not gonna play until Sound Haven. So there’s going to be quite a bit of new stuff in my set.”
ML: What has been your most memorable moment of your career so far?
IDHS: “The first time I played out officially as IDHS and there was three people there. That’s the most memorable part, because I really had to sit back and think, ‘Why am I doing this? If this is going to be the outcome for a long period of time, am I going to be able to handle that?’ And so playing to an empty room with just, like, security and bartenders, it’s definitely the most memorable thing. Other than that, I’ve had some pretty cool shows in Buffalo and Halifax and in Denver recently. I played at a rave outside of Denver, like an hour into the mountains, and people were snowboarding and there was food trucks and there was a camper van with a sound system built into it. And that was really fun.”
ML: Do you have any other upcoming shows or releases that you’re working on that you want to share?
IDHS: “I have a remix coming out on deep, dark and dangerous on the 19th [of April] and probably a couple of things I can’t talk about yet. And then I’ll actually be playing at event during Movement at the end of May. And so Movement was the techno festival that I came up with IDHS, and now I get to play at a show during Movement. So that’s pretty cool to me. I’m going back to Colorado later this summer and playing at one of my favorite festivals in Ontario called Stacks on the Beach.”
ML: At Moon Lvnding, we always try to practice gratitude. What is something that you’re grateful for right now, whether in your personal life or your career?
IDHS: “The fans. It’s a huge drive to have a positive reaction to your music. Especially recently, like, flow dancers, flow artists. Like, when they’ll post videos of them dancing to my music, I’m like, this is so cool. And my family’s support, and my dog’s giving me that serotonin boost that I need all the time.”
For more information on IDHS, his upcoming music and shows, check out his the links below.
