RB Exclusive Interview: Rezz – “Now That I Know What Passion Feels Like I Can’t Even Imagine My Life Otherwise”

By now you can probably tell that I am a huge fan of Rezz. She has impressed beyond belief with her releases on Mau5trap and OWLSA of Serenity and her Insurrection EP, respectively. Her name grows with each passing month as she adds more an more cities to her touring schedule and as more and more people are introduced to her hypnotically rapturous sound. Just a couple of months ago this producer was not even on the radar of many, but now I am finding that she is a familiar name with a good chunk of friends and readers.

To demonstrate just how quickly this rising star is being branded into listeners brains around the world, take the fact that she was booked for TomorrowWorld 2015 on one of the most traffic heavy stages at the festival, Mythical Frames. Given, the Mythical Frames stage was shut down on Sunday due to unforeseen circumstances, Rezz was then moved to YourEDM’s All Your Bass Are Belong to Us stage in the heart of the festival grounds. I would actually say that this move benefited Rezz for now she shared a stage with names like Party Favor, Destructo, Flux Pavilion, and Excision, aka masters of bass.

With many huge festivals coming up for the 20-year-old producer including Something Wicked in Houston, HARD Day of the Dead in Pamona, and Holy Ship!, Rezz has got a year ahead of her that is sure to further her career in ways unimaginable. Relentless Beats had the opportunity to chat it up with Rezz on Sunday after her TomorrowWorld debut where we discussed her humble beginnings, meeting Skrillex and Deadmau5, what’s going on with the Bitstrip and black baseball hat branding, and how she feels about the comparisons to Gesaffelstein. Check out the interview below!

Did you play a lot of local shows before you started playing nationally?

Yeah, I wouldn’t say a lot, but definitely a few. It’s pretty crazy to go from barely even consistently playing local shows to being thrown into this environment, but it’s fucking awesome nonetheless. Seriously though, once I got with my management and booking agency, they got me with AM Only and then the booking agency’s just like, “Here you go Rezz, fucking play at every festival on planet earth!”

When I first got the press release on you I couldn’t stop listening to your music, and I saw your name on the line up here and said I have to go to TomorrowWorld! What’s it like to play a festival of this magnitude?

That’s brilliant. It’s freaking crazy. Honestly, to be completely honest, I expected it to be even bigger than it is, but I think its because all the advertisements make it out to be like absolutely ginormous, which it is ginormous, don’t even get me wrong, but still part of me expected it to be even bigger. It is the most massive festival I’ve ever seen, but still it’s just crazy, walking up to the mainstage and seeing the stage. It’s honestly insane. Everything about it, I haven’t seen something like this before.

Did you go to a lot of festivals before you started playing them?

Oh yeah, I was no different than anyone in this crowd. No different.

What was your favorite festival as an attendee?

HARD Day of the Dead in LA.

And you’re playing that this year, pretty big deal.

Yeah, it’s pretty good. That was the most inspiring festival for me, let’s put it that way. Surely, after I went to that festival, I went home and started producing immediately. It was literally after that.

Had you done anything prior?

No. No music producing prior, but I was DJing here and there, like I’m talking once a-fucking every three months. But then what happened was I pretty much quit DJing, because for some reason I didn’t see any point doing this if I’m not producing my own music. This is losing novelty, this is losing purpose. Then I started producing music and I was like, I want to play my music live. Hearing it live on systems like that is very interesting to me. It not only makes me realize what goes off and what doesn’t go off, it makes me hear flaws in my own music as well. I pick up on flaws I didn’t notice before. And now it has me thinking in a whole new way. It’s really interesting.

Did you play entirely your own original music today?

Pretty much like 96 percent. I say 96 percent because I think I played two Deadmau5 songs, the one part that was like “sometimes things get complicated”, that part. Then I also included another one of his leads, I have to include that in my sets, not in every one but in a lot. Aside from that I played I think like one other tune that wasn’t mine, but everything else was mine.

Did you play any original music for the first time just now?

Yeah! There was one song that I just played for the first time ever in history, like I literally just finished it 3 days ago and like I knew I was going to play it. As soon as I finished it I knew I was going to play it at TomorrowWorld, and hearing it live was really sick because I think it was one of my best sounding songs on that system in my personal opinion. The bass was just really heavy and like as soon as I played it I was like, “alright, sick. That worked out for me.” I love testing it out though, its so interesting to hear something you made in your room, which I should add, I have the most minimalistic set up ever. I’m talking headphones and pretty much my computer because I barely even use my studio monitors. So to hear something you made so minimally on such a massive sound system, it’s really fucked up.

You got signed with Deadmau5 right off the bat with “Serenity”, then got Skrillex to release Insurrection on OWSLA, how is it going into Day of the Dead playing with both of these guys who’ve done so much for you?

*laughs* Oh, honestly, sometimes I sit there and think about it and I’m literally pretty much supported by these two people and I can’t wrap that around my head. I’ve met them both and they were both extremely nice to me. It’s surreal, but it comes to a point where you almost get used to seeing crazy things. Like the first time I met Skrillex I was half-shaking, but then after I met him, cause if you asked me even a week prior who my dream person to meet in this world, I would have told you Skrillex. So I met him, right, and I did meet him, all of the sudden it was like wow… I just met the one person I’ve wanted to meet my whole life basically, and now it’s like, no one will ever give me that feeling again. Then when I met Deadmau5 it was so chill, I was like, “hey, whatsup.” It was nothing. You know what I mean, you almost get used to it. You get used to being baffled by people’s existence, then you realize it’s actually a very interesting feeling, you fully let it sink in that these people are literally just people and it sinks in more after you get a second to hang with them. I hung out with Skrillex again when I played in San Diego because I opened for him and just as I was about to dip and go to my hotel I’m like, “bye guys.” Innocent little me. Skrillex is like, “Rezz, what are you doing? Come back on the bus, we’re all gonna go out.” Or something like that. And I’m just like, okay. I’m starting to be more chill with it now, I’m just more comfortable seeing people I’ve idolized like that, you know?

I feel similarly, we just started doing the interviews and the first time meeting people is a little nerve racking, it feels like a big deal, but in reality it’s like, “oh, cool.”

You literally get used to it, you kind of just realize, okay, they are humans. Noetheless, it’s still pretty crazy to think, when you step outside the box, it’s pretty fucked up. My sister can’t wrap her head around it, she’s one year older than me and not like me at all personality wise or anything, but the point is we’ve just both been into Skrillex and she’s very aware of how big he is and how big Deadmau5 is, and when I first told her about this, she saw me in Skrillex’s Snapchat, and she like “what the f-“ She just can’t wrap her head around it, she thinks it’s absolutely crazy. The first time I met him, she said I needed to show her pictures because she couldn’t believe it even happened.

Pics or it didn’t happen.

Yeah, literally though *laughs*

So what’s with the Bitstrips Facebook identity?

A long time ago before Rezz or anything existed, my one friend told me to check out this Bitstrips app, like whatever, I was like sure okay I’ll check it out. What happened was I made a character on it, and it frickin’ looked identical to me, like literally identical! Take off the glasses and everything, and I was like, wow, this character looks exactly like me. I was kind of obsessed with it for a bit, then left it alone, then this one random day I posted a picture of it on my Rezz page, like after Rezz was created and stuff. Then Jon [manager], was like what’s that character, it looks identical to you, what is that, we should use that type of thing. So since he said that I’ve made it a thing to make all my social media, my Facebook, my Twitter, that avatar. Don’t even know if that’s gonna be like a for sure, like a permanent thing or not, we don’t really know.

Especially now that I’m rocking this hat look and this [refers to her t-shirt]. Every set, every set I’m always wearing a hat and this. In a sense it almost clashes with the cartoon, but I want everything to do with the hypnotics. I want a lot to do with the branding of Rezz, like the hypnotic symbol, and everything to do with the hypnotic vibes, I want Rezz to be so associated with that. I haven’t seen any artist do that yet which is completely crazy because, especially in a setting like this where everybody, let’s be honest, is fucked up, you can really get into their head, you can capture them, and even if they don’t dig the sound by itself, I think once we get all the visuals set up and the whole fucking Rezz as a package, the hypnotics and everything, people will be curious just to see the show, period. Nevermind the “oh she makes sick beats”, it’s a cool idea. I’m obsessed with the thought of being hypnotized by music, so I want to try and really push that. Some of my tracks I think do that very well, others are just kind of like whatever.

Did you see the T-Rezz sign in the audience?

Yes, it’s amazing!

I was going to actually ask about the hat too. Is that your answer to the Mau5 Head?

Honestly, I had this one interview one day and we were on our way there and just about to meet up with Jon, and my hair was just looking like a disgrace that day, so I was like honestly, I’m just going to put this hat on. And I always notice, it’s kind of strange, I always notice that when guys wear hats, it’s kinda weird, like I know I’m not a guy, but when guys wear hats I always found it attractive. I don’t know why, but I just did. If I ever see a guy just wearing like a plain baseball cap, I always think its kind of hot. So I put this hat on, I put my hair through with my ponytail, and all the sudden I’m like, WOW! When I’m DJing on stage I never have to touch my hair. It’s just in my hat. My hair’s really long and when it’s down I’m constantly trying to get it out of my face, so I realized its just a comfortable thing that I’m definitely going to do probably for a long time. I don’t really see myself not, for even just comfort reasons.

I feel like at a certain point you’re going to play so many shows with it on that you’re going to have to do it. People are going to expect it.

That’s the thing. I’ve noticed people connecting with the little stuff like that. I don’t know man, it’s crazy.

You’ve got the Marilyn Manson remix, “This is the New Shit”. Did you grow up listening to hard rock and heavy metal?

I actually did. I listened to a lot of heavy stuff growing up. Like some bands, it’s kind of strange because these bands that I’m about to name don’t particularly inspire me today, but that whole vibe of the sort of bands and stuff, I was all about it. I used to be into My Chemical Romance, Bring Me The Horizon, and Marilyn Manson of course, but I wasn’t like crazy into him. I had a phase where I was like, oh this guy’s cool. I remember when I was making that remix, and over the top of the song I heard in my head the vocal of This is the New Shit and I knew I had to get that acapella right now and it fit over the track exactly as I thought. It came together really quick.

Do you have any original collaborations coming up?

No actually, I don’t. I’m kind of a strange person. I’m not much of a collaborator. YET, yet. I mean, I’m going to grow and evolve as a producer and I will be collaborating with people and I will be doing this and that. But at the moment, its really weird, I really just enjoy working by myself. The vision for me is so clear, that I almost just need to work by myself. I know what I need to do and what I want to do and how I want to do it. So I think the only people that I would collaborate with if you’re about to ask me that right now would probably be Gesaffelstein, Deadmau5. Deadmau5 would be my dream collaboration over anyone else, Gesaffelstein even. Actually… that’s a tough one. The thing is I love Gesaffelstein’s melodies a lot because they’re like really creepy and not normal at all, but with Deadmau5 I feel like he’d just be fun to produce with because he’s fucking the reason I started.

How do you feel about the comparisons in sound to Gesaffelstein?

It’s funny that you ask that, I have a really good answer. This is actually a fact, I didn’t know who Gesaffelstein was until people started telling me I sounded like him. So I didn’t start producing music and say he’s my inspiration, I’m gonna produce like him. I made music, released it into Facebook groups and in random forums people started saying, “oh, you sound like Gesaffelstein.” These were the first people saying it, obviously blogs picked it up later, but in the beginning it was just random people saying I kind of sound like Gesaffelstein. I was like, “who is this person they’re comparing me to.” So I searched him up, surely fell in love like immediately, I was like oh my god. When I first heard it, I don’t really see fully how I’m compared to him, but I kind of see it at the same time. And then I just fell in love immediately and now he’s one of my favorite producers of all time. It’s just interesting to know that I did not know who he was when I started producing. And now I can say he’s my inspiration. At the beginning I still had the same vision, but he wasn’t included in that, and then I found out about him a little bit later. Easily he’s one of my favorites. I wish he would come out with more dance-y stuff, but that’s just me, because lately.. did you hear the news?

He’s doing the soundtrack for a film.

Yeah, which is wicked, but it’s not like… you know they put a lot of hype on the album and I was really looking forward to putting a new Gessafelstein banger tune in my sets, right? But there was none. As far as I’m concerned there was no new dance tracks. There are like three older ones, which were kind of dance-y, but the rest were not.

Many producers are going toward blending all sorts of genres, are you going to stay your own style, or are you going to try to adapt to different styles?

From my 20 year old perspective and mindset at the moment, the vision that I see is that my sound now will continue evolving. This is actually what I hope, that a couple of years from now my sound will have evolved so much, including vocalists and everything, that it will still be appreciated by my fans from the beginning, but also attract new audiences too. The reason I make music is because I have a very clear vision and I want to get it out. That’s why I’m starting to become more satisfied as a human, literally. I want to evolve rather than be like, “oh, I’m going to go make future house.” I never sit at the computer an think, “I’m going to make this music today.” I sit at the computer and enter my inner-brain and just go, just do it. Whatever I think sounds cool, that’s that.

Have you attempted vocals at all?

*laughs* I was going to sing on a track once, I was literally contemplating it, but I was like honestly I’m not even going to do this yet. Maybe one day, we’ll see what happens. Anything is possible. If there is something I learned with all of this, it’s that literally anything is possible. Who knows. Watch, next year I’ll be literally singing full on in my tracks.

Rezz: The live set?

I just don’t know what to expect in life any more. It has baffled me so much in the last year, not even just because of this whole music thing. My mindset has changed and I feel like literally anything could happen at any time now.

Any final words for aspiring artists?

I would definitely say to, first of all, you need to frickin’ put a lot of time and effort into it. You need to lock yourself up in your room and do it. I always say this, I don’t think the hardest part is becoming good enough to be successful; I think the hardest part is ignoring all the hate that’s going to come your way. No matter who you are, you’re going to get hate. I was always so friendly in high school, had tons of friends, everybody loved me, but guess what, I still got shit talked here and there for what I was doing. Even if you’re the nicest person in the world, people are going to hate on you and won’t give a second to understand you. With parents too, my dad doubted me the whole frickin’ time, and I do value his opinion so it was difficult at points, but that’s what I have to say. You have to use all your strength to ignore these people, because in the end if you focus on actually becoming great at your skill, shit’s going to go down.

What was your fall back if you didn’t make it?

I would be looking for passion in any way I could. I’d be traveling or doing weird stuff. I would be stepping out of my comfort zone to be doing new things that I’ve never done to potentially find a passion. Now that I know what passion feels like I can’t even imagine my life otherwise. That’s all I have to say.

If you’re looking to make it out to Houston or L.A. later this month to catch Rezz, you can purchase tickets for each festival here:

Something Wicked

HARD Day of the Dead

Stay Connected with Rezz:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialREZZ
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OfficialRezz
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/official-rezz