12th Planet is not a household name … yet.
DJ/producer John Dadzie — who uses the spacey alias for his music — has been working quietly in the background since 2006, helping make dubstep a massively popular subgenre of electronic music on these shores.
Now, the “American dubstep king” is embarking on his first headlining tour, hoping people will come to understand why he choose his moniker.
“I started doing research on the planet. Its actual name is Nibiru, and it comes into our solar system once every 3,600 years, and when it comes, it sends the poles off axis and causes catastrophes. The last time it flew by, it caused the Great Flood,” Dadzie said. “That’s what I feel like: a once-in-a-lifetime artist — a once-in-a- 3,600-years artist that comes to Earth and messes everything up.”
His
summer certainly set him off in the right trajectory, opening for
collaborator (and recent Grammy winner) Skrillex, who quickly became one of the world’s biggest
artists.
“My favorite
thing was being a part of this piece of electronic music history,”
Dadzie said. “Those memories and friendships will last a very long
time.”
It was surreal
for him, watching tens of thousands show up for a dubstep concert, when
just years before, only mere handfuls would.
“I
thought success in dubstep was more than 50 people at the show.
Anything else was icing on the cake,” he said. “It’s cool that people
are into the music now. It’s different than where it was before, but I
guess that comes with everything.”
While
most American dubstep artists are preoccupied with harder, more
aggressive sounds, 12th Planet focuses on being the life of the party.
“I like to play ... I wouldn’t say ‘poppy,’ but a little more musical than chain-saw rah-rah-rah. I
love all that stuff, but I like to play it a little more across the
board,” Dadzie said. “I’ve taken on this party persona in my sets.”
The
current tour plays with the idea of celebrating the end of the world —
his freshly released EP is titled “The End Is Near!” — but Dadzie isn’t
sure what will happen … just that something will.
“I
don’t know if there is going to be this crazy apocalypse, but I
definitely think we are coming to either a new paradigm shift or a new
way to view the world,” he said. “Maybe it’s the end of me being a
bedroom artist and becoming a major artist … I hope.”
Photo by Jose Govea
