Under 500 Spotlight & Interview: Oceanz -

Today we are shining a spotlight on Oceanz! Hailing from the Midwest by way of Lincoln Nebraska, Oceanz is a project by Derek Jameson who is dropping some seriously wonky bass music. I first heard of Oceanz a few months ago by way of his dot.hack track and was immediately impressed by his high-fidelity 808 smothered in your face sound. The song wastes absolutely no time going into a hard-hitting trap drop that will have you throwing elbows all across your living room. It then goes on to blend hard-trap and free-form bass in staggeringly creative ways. Derek says the song was a revelation of sorts for him bringing in a new style that accompanying tracks like Trap Daddy and Scorpion have followed. Oceanz last track to drop is a great slowed down, sauced out remix of Saint Jhn’s track Who Do You Blame. Oceanz has a whopping 64 tracks on his Soundcloud along with a gaaang of FIRE bass tracks so make sure you hit follow and check them all out. Our interview goes over a wide range of topics from his musical journey, to finding sobriety, creativity under quarantine, and the future. I am positive we will be hearing much more from Derek’s project Oceanz, so check out my favorite tracks and the interview below!

How did your electronic music journey begin? Do you remember the first show you attended? When did you begin producing?

First of all, thank you for taking the time to highlight up and coming producers! Very cool work. Growing up in Lincoln/Omaha, Nebraska, I’ve been making music since I was a little kid, singing in choirs, then learning traditional music, guitar, piano, etc (shoutout mom for paying for those lessons!). The first electronic music I heard was from my dad. He introduced me to Moby & RJD2 in the 90s. I remember being hypnotized by those CDs; they sounded so “psychedelic”, if you will. Hearing music that was a hybrid of human and computer performance for the first time was unreal. My dad got me a copy of Garageband when I was 14 or so, and I spent almost every day on that program. I moved to Chicago in my early 20’s after I dropped out of college, minoring in Music. There I was just looking for the music scene everywhere, mostly with bands. I was making a lot of hip hop beats at the time for rappers, and a mutual friend heard my beats and encouraged me to start producing Electronic music. I didn’t know exactly what he was talking about, but he showed me some music like Pretty Lights, and all of a sudden it clicked. In Chicago, I made music under some different monikers/groups and really got the gist of what the whole festival/bass culture was about. I started really touring and playing lots of shows/festivals, and I’ve been chasing that dragon ever since haha! After feeling a little boxed in making music with others, as well as some big life changes, I decided to take a break and moved back to Lincoln for a while. Here I found my home again and decided to start OCEANZ, and it’s been amazing and freeing ever since. My first electronic show was Lollapalooza in 2007, I believe. I heard Pretty Lights off in the distance, and I remember thinking “what in the fuck is that??” Funny how it all came around full circle several years later.

We first came across you by way of your dot.hack song which is super fresh. The song blends trap and freeform space bass with great results. Can you talk about the process of making that track? It was a bit more experimental with a different sound than some of your productions before it. Are you a big fan of both genres?

Yes! dot.hack was a bit of a revelation for me. I think every producer gets “stuck” in their ideas after a while of creating. I was (and still am, in a way) very into the saw tooth, analog basslines and such, but I knew it was time to let my mind go, once again, and not have to “be” anything except what I felt in the moment. For dot.hack, I remember coming up with that blippy top sound in Operator and thinking that was super cool, and it felt very performance-based, but also glitchy. It wasn’t until I put that 808 into a sampler, and started playing around with it that the track really came together. It’s subtle to hear, but the 808 really whips around, reverses, and truly moves. I felt like I had gone back to my roots a bit with the Hip Hop/Trap I first started producing and knew this was a side of me I needed to continue exploring. I have SO many tracks on the hard drive I need to release that is a lot more trap/freeform/space bass infused. I get excited just thinking about it! I am a huge fan of trap, freeform, and space bass. To me, that’s the perfect blend. I’m not a fan of boxing into any genre, and I think the more you blend styles, the more original everything becomes.

What DAW do you use to produce? Do you have a certain goto format when you sit down and create? Any tips for beginners wanting to sit down and learn a DAW?

I am a full-on Ableton geek for sure! I started truly making Electronic in Logic, but many years ago a friend showed me Ableton and I’ve been hooked ever since. The only format I give myself nowadays is to start my sessions with all the pieces of the pie separated out in groups. You got your drums, drop sounds, melody, fx, etc, and I just apply whatever I’m making to any of those categories, purely just for separation of audio and cleanliness of the session. But after that, all bets are off. The only thing I pretty much “always” do is put my drums in a drum rack (and generally make a drum beat first), but every track I purposefully try to do and make new things I’ve never done before, to keep it fresh. I use a lot of stock Ableton (Operator is bae), but also very into Serum, Reaktor and the FabFilter plug-ins for mixing. I do have a bunch of analog synths that I sample from all the time. Those take longer to work with, but they’re really fun and give you such a wonderful, rich sound, that I think I’ll always go to those synths in one way or another. My tips for beginners would be to definitely find a friend/mentor who’s familiar with your DAW and either hope they’re kind enough to let you hang around and watch or even pay them for lessons. I currently teach Ableton lessons and it’s something I feel good about, because everyone needs a teacher, but unfortunately I don’t have the time to just sit down with everyone I know who wants to learn Ableton. So the exchange is very appreciated and this way I get to help the next generation of music makers and they (hopefully) get a lot of knowledge out of it.

You just released a chilled out remix to a Sant Jhn track and before that a few tracks every month or so. What inspires you, how do you stay inspired? Have you been able to be creative/inspired during the lockdown?

Yes, I do believe that Saint Jhn remix was my last release (big ups to Saint Jhn, btw, he’s my #1 in the rap game at the moment), and I’ve been trying to keep the releases steady. I run a label with my friends, it is hard to balance my own releases as well as trying to help other artists get out there. It’s a bit of a tight rope act, but I try to do 1 release every month and not over-saturate myself. I have way more music on my computer than I could ever properly release in a lifetime, but I think that’s how it should be. What inspires me, as cheesy as it sounds, is the love of music. That’s something you can’t buy. When I was younger, I had so many ideas about fame and money that I believe hindered my artistic mindset. But about 3 years ago I decided to get my priorities in order and become completely sober from drugs and alcohol. I don’t judge what others do, but when music became more about the party and not about the music, I knew I had taken a very wrong turn. When I first got sober, I even quit music in my head for a few months, because I knew health and happiness were more important than any ego-driven desire. Music truly saved me when I sought out a power higher than myself. I can channel my spirit into music now more than ever, and it’s more of a means of therapy and self-love that I can give back rather than a drive for fame. This pandemic has been a trying time, but I’m trying to look at it as a gift of reflection. I’ve produced about 30 songs while in quarantine, which is a decent workload. I think the tip I can give to struggling musicians during this time is to take this time as a gift as I said before. Don’t get lazy, use this as a meditation that’s free from the distractions of playing music live and social life in order to produce a lot of content you will be able to use later. Everything has good and bad, just shift the poles in your mind to the positive (as hard as it can be) and turn this time into something you won’t regret.

You’re cofounder of the label Black Magick, can you talk about this label and any future releases?

Black Magik is a label/production company I started with my friend Caleb (aka Darkwood). We both had the idea separately to start labels, and we infused our ideas and it came out as Black Magik. We starting throwing shows as well and it’s only been growing, and now have a staff of 5 guys who help run the team. We currently have 9 artists with us, and we’re always expanding! Some labels have a very strict style they’re going for, and I appreciate that. But we’re trying to highlight a lot of subgenres of the electronic world, but still keeping a collective headspace. We want our artists to do their thing. This is a vehicle to help out hard-working, talented up and comers in the scene as well as put a spotlight on the midwest, which has, in a large sense, gone very unnoticed as far as the music community is concerned. There’s so much talent out here, and we want to make it known. We have so many amazing upcoming releases on the back-burner that I can’t even begin! We do take submissions if anyone’s interested at blackmagikpresents.com!

What producers are pushing the boundaries at the moment/inspire you the most?

Almost too many to count! But the main, bigger producers that I think are really pushing the boundaries are EPROM, G-Jones, Chee, Shades, Alix Perez, Troyboi, Zeke Beats, LSDream, um.., Pleasure, and pretty much anything on Wakaan, Deadbeats, Wormhole and so many others. Spicy Bois have been doing a lot of really cool stuff as well! I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to open up for/hang with some of those dudes I mentioned and it always inspires me to take things further. Humble brag! I actually got the opportunity to chat/hang with EPROM a couple of times during some shows and he’s always been so humble and nice. When you meet someone that talented and they have that grace and intelligence about them, it really gives you hope. Can’t say enough good things about that dude!

Any fellow upcoming producers we should know about?

Yes absolutely! All of our artists producing on Black Magik are fire! Million Dollar Hippys, Odinson, Zarkilor, Noiz-E-Boi, Darkwood, Trvpsquad to name a few! Also, Sioux Sound Collective homies are making amazing stuff (out of Sioux City, IA). Some others that come to mind in the midwest are Badman, Nxbel Price, Medicine Place, String Theory, and the Colorblind Music Label. I know I’m forgetting a lot, but there’s so much talent out there right now with a lot of promise!

Any upcoming collabs you are excited about/future releases you can speak of?

In a few weeks, I’m gonna release an old-style “single” with an A/B side. So really it’s a two-track EP, but it’s got a conceptual idea to it. Also, I have a single with Colorblind Music out of IA that should be coming out soon. One thing I’m really excited about is my side-project Grim Ether. I got really inspired by my girlfriend’s love of flow art, and we started throwing these monthly Flowdowns. I wanted to make music that sifted into that genre. It’s more downtempo, chill, world/trap/flow music with pretty melodies and the first two songs I released are up on Soundcloud, but I have been diving even deeper into the world with trap elements. This new stuff I have for up-coming release is really trippy, grimy, and beautiful. I’m super excited about that! OCEANZ will always be my main baby, and I’m so excited to take this music thing to unknown places and hopefully share it with as many people as possible!