Music
7 things you should know about Baauer
After returning to action alongside A-Trak at the end of 2017, it looks like Baauer is gearing up for a busy 2018. Here's what you need to know about the Harlem Shake DJ and producer.
Be sure to download the free Red Bull TV app and catch the music action on all your devices! Get the app here
When Baauer (real name: Harry Rodrigues) released Harlem Shake, a track he made while studying as an audio engineer in Harlem, for Mad Decent back in 2012 no one expected it to become a worldwide phenomena. But after it track was uploaded to a video of people mimicking the real Harlem Shake dance, the track went interstellar and the sound created by the Philadelphia-born producer became inescapable
Faced with the impossible task of following up one of the most recognisable tracks of the decade, Baauer instead took off around the world experimenting with sound for a Red Bull TV documentary film, and planning a debut album, released in 2016, that would return Baauer to his block-party hip-hop roots.
As Red Bull TV present Baauer: Searching For Sound (check it out in the player above), here's what you need to know about the star of the show.
Baauer has a love-hate relationship with Harlem Shake
After a series of YouTube videos turned the track into a viral sensation, Baauer could only watch as the track he created "was raised by others" and turned into an online meme. He originally told Rolling Stone that it had "became corny and annoying as f***", but he's since come to appreciate the opportunities that the track has given him.
"It's definitely a weird relationship," he told Exclaim! "But overall I can look back on it as a really cool thing. I've accepted it and I appreciate it very much. I mean, the thing it became is definitely bigger than the track itself. There was a time when it felt like it wasn't in my control anymore. It had become something else that wasn't me, which felt a little strange. That was when I wasn't feeling it so much. Now though, I totally look back on it in a positive way."
Baauer Doing at the launch of Red Bull TV film Searching For Sound
© Todd Owyoung / Red Bull Content Pool Photo
He's not quite so forgiving of the trap label
No musician or artist likes to be pigeonholed, however helpful it might be for fans seeking out new music to listen to. But after being labelled as a trap producer by all and sundry a few years ago, Baauer, who bounces across different sounds and genres, was quick to react.
“It’s harmful because it limits everything,” he told Red Bull Music. “At the end of the day, if you sit someone down and ask, can you exactly define trap?, they wouldn't be able to. They’ll name a familiar tempo or a song, then boom! It becomes a genre. Producers don’t give a s**t about that.”
Baauer isn't the first modern-day artist to get hip to Enya
Panda Bear, Gang Gang Dance, M83, Grimes, Nicki Minaj, and many others have all professed a fondness for the mystical, reverb-drenched, new-age pop of Enya, which might come as a surprise to anyone force-fed Orinoco Flow growing up. And Baauer is another young DJ and producer who has stated his ambition to work with the Irish musician.
“I was just listening to a bunch of Enya and she’s probably number one now," he told FACT in 2016. "I always knew the songs [on the radio], but I really gave it a good listen the other night and I was like wow, this is sick. I don’t know, it’s just like the weird spacey, synthy, whatever. [And] Missy Elliott. That’s a goal, always”
Baauer is used to working with big names
Finally released in 2016 on the LuckyMe label after a prolonged period of writing and recording, Baauer's debut album Ae was a reaction to the aftermath of Harlem Shake. Everyone expected trap tracks galore but Baauer turned up with a melting-pot of sounds infused with hip-hop, R&B, dancehall and thundering, subs-destoying bass. He also put his elevated status, post-Harlem Shake, to very good use, calling on Just Blaze, Pusha T and M.I.A to guest on the album, as well as UK grime artist Novelist and producer of glassy techno, Rustie.
Baauer's remixing chops are much in-demand
He's brought his own inimitable style to tracks by dance music contemporaries Flosstradamus, Ryan Hemsworth, Flume and Disclosure, plus establishment stars such as No Doubt, The Prodigy and Gorillaz. But proving he knows his way around all kinds of different music genres, Baauer has also tweaked tracks by melancholy folk-pop duo First Aid Kit and wonky art-pop Brits alt-j.
Baauer has a penchant for odd sounds
In Red Bull TV's Searching For Sound, which you can watch at the top of this story, Baauer collected recordings of falcon fly-pasts and erupting sulphur deposits. But the sound he loved most was that made by an ancient goat bagpipe.
"We found this outside of Dubai in the desert, and it’s a bagpipe that’s made out of a dead goat. Like a goat’s body that’s been preserved. It still has the shape of a goat, which makes it really bizarre. You blow into a tube and it plays like a bagpipe. That’s definitely the first one that comes to mind; it’s the craziest one. My friend played it a little bit and he was really good at it, which was tight."
Baauer has recently joined forces with A-Trak
As well as going on a series of back-to-back tours together, the two DJ/producers released two bouncy, '90s-indebted tracks on Fool's Gold Records at the end of 2017 – Fern Gully and Dumbo Drop. Listen to to the former below.
