BT at Amphitheatre Event Facility

Zedd may be one of the younger artists gracing the charts today, but his knowledge and understanding of music theory shows a maturity in his work that far exceeds his years.

Born Anton Zaslavski in Kaiserslautern, Germany, the Ultimate Music Experience talent was lucky enough to be surrounded by music from the day he was born, “Both of my parents are musicians, which meant that I was encouraged to play the piano when I was four years old. I then started recording my first songs at the age of six. I started playing drums at the age of 12 and have since played in a post-hardcore/rock/metal band – I have had a pretty much classical education.” But if you ask him, it’s that education that has been quite beneficial in the studio, “I have only really been producing electronic music for about two years, so I am still a relative newcomer to this type of music. I suppose I have been able to progress my development to a satisfactory level quite quickly because of my musical background. However, I still feel I am just at the beginning and look forward to each new track I produce and to learn more about the processes.”

The year 2009 proved to be an influential one as it was the first time Zedd had heard electronic music, “I was in a rock band back when † came out, and I was so inspired by it that I started making electronic music for fun. I made some songs and people really liked them, so I kept going with it, and here we are today.” Armed with an impressive musicality and background in instrumentation, composition and production, the jump to electronic music was an easy one.

Just a few months after he started working on his production, Zedd won two Beatport remix contests with Armand Van Helden / Strictly Rhythm’s Remix Contest and Fatboy Slim / Skint Remix Contest. The wins caught the eye of Skrillex who signed Zedd to his new OWSLA label. He also grabbed the attention of executives at Interscope who helped release several official remixes for artists like Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, P. Diddy, Swedish House Mafia and Skrillex.

His first original release “The Anthem,” cracked into the Beatport’s electro house Top 20 chart.The following releases “Shave It” and “Slam The Door” dominated Beatport’s overall charts for weeks at a time. In 2011, his remix of Lady Gaga’s “Marry the Night” landed on the deluxe edition of the pop star’s album Born This Way and his remix of “Born This Way” appeared on Born This Way: The Remix, which boosted his number of fans – especially after he was the only opening act for the Asian leg of Lady Gaga’s world stadium tour “The Born This Was Ball.”

In 2012, Zedd signed with Interscope records and released his debut LP Clarity in October. The first single, “Spectrum,” featuring singer/songwriter Matthew Koma, was a hit climbing into the the Top 10 on the iTunes dance chart and holding on to the #1 spot on Beatport overall chart for almost three weeks. The track then soared to #1 on the Billboard Dance Club Song chart and was ultimately named their Dance Club Song of the year as well as iTunes Breakthrough Album of the Year (Dance) for 2012. The stats from the title track are even more impressive. “Clarity” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at 86, peaked at 8, and is Zedd’s most successful song in the US and worldwide. It has sold over 1,200,000 copies and just recently won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording.

Often pegged as an “Artist to Watch,” Zedd’s latest single “Stay the Night” is already #3 on the UK music charts. We will definitely be staying the night when Zedd performs at Ultimate Music Experience on South Padre Island, Texas on March 13-15th. Tickets are now available online, buy your tickets today!

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/47218984″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/25545600″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/78161243″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Paper Diamond is a one of dance music’s buzzing artists creating a unique sound unlike anyone any of his peers. Using a varied tech-friendly workspace, this Ultimate Music Experience talent oozes productions rich in bass driven beats, catchy vocals and melodies.

Hailing from Colorado, Alex Botwin has been a bass mechanic long before his Paper project. As a part of The Pnuma Trio, Botwin played bass for the outfit since their inception in 2004. Fusing classical, jazz, funk, hip hop, and drum and bass, the group’s releases were lauded for their individuality with the media dubbing them “Music of the future.” After the group parted in 2010, Botwin found himself going back to the drawing board, “Basically, I had all this music that I had no outlet for. Pnuma was my dance music project and since I wasn’t having any reason to focus on that, I decided that I needed a new outlet to be able to make whatever else I wanted besides. For a while I was making music as Alex B as well, which is a downtempo project. But I wanted some separation from me personally and my art, and I wanted to freely make dance music if I wanted to–or make whatever type of music I wanted. So that was what led me to start the project.”

That project is of course Paper Diamond. When it came time to release his debut album Levitate, he called an old friend, “I became good friends with Derek Vincent Smith from Pretty Lights. It’s funny, he used to open a lot of Pnuma shows and now he’s obviously massive–huge beyond everyone. As much as people wanna not believe it, he kind of changed everything for livetronica music.” Armed with a vast treasure trove of music that he’d been working on, the two started brainstorming, “Basically, I made all this music, and I hit Derek up and was like, ‘You know, I heard you’re starting a label. We’re homies. I wanna run my new record by you.’ I gave him my new record. We talked about all the songs, and he gave me some ideas. Then I went back, and we ended up putting it out.”

After Levitate was released in 2011, Paper Diamond began gracing more and more lineups and flyers – and not just because of his stellar productions, but for his on stage presence as well. Known for his interactive live sets, versus the conventional DJ setup, Paper Diamond on stage is feast for the senses. His dynamic performance makes every show a unique experience. Gearing up for 2014 “Cold Crush” tour, Botwin gave his fans a scoop of what to expect, I’m using my iPad on stage to control two computers, one has Ableton to play the music, which then sends a MIDI signal to the second computer, where I can control all of the LEDs and live visuals on stage that will capture the nonstop energy of my set. So basically, I get to represent myself in not just a musical manner, but I get to provide an overall visual experience for my fans as well.”

Hard at work in the studio, this year will see the release of new tunes with never-before-heard collaborations with various writers, producers and singers. Having just announced an eight-month residency at Wynn Las Vegas, the producer released his new single “Black Rose.” This sultry downtempo track shows off Paper Diamond’s versatility and we are thrilled we get to see it live at Ultimate Music Experience on South Padre Island, Texas on March 13-15th. Buy your tickets to the celebration today!

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/89148212″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/131961823″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/9874473″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]