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The butterfly effect is perhaps the most poetic concept in chaos theory: the idea that one small change, even seemingly insignificant, can profoundly shape the future.<\/p>\n
In the 1960s, mathematician and meteorologist Edward Norton Lorenz coined the term, which stems from how a tornado\u2019s exact time of formation and path can be influenced by minor disturbances, such as a distant butterfly flapping its wings weeks earlier. If James Hype<\/a> was the oncoming storm, a pair of DJ decks\u2014a 15th birthday gift from his parents\u2014were the butterfly.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere would I be if I didn\u2019t get the decks I wanted?\u201d Hype asked rhetorically in an interview with EDM.com<\/a><\/em>. \u201cAll of my mates used to skate. I wasn\u2019t very good, but I wasn\u2019t bad.<\/p>\n \u201cI made skateboarding videos. I got a digital video camera for $100, a really low-level one. I loved the skate videos because they had really cool music. Sometimes drum & bass or hip-hop. Cutting the video with the music was the most exciting thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n The decks weren\u2019t a subtle nod from Hype\u2019s parents to abandon academia for music. This wasn\u2019t a viral Fisher-Price baby DJ deck moment. More likely, they were a thoughtful gift from supportive parents.<\/p>\n Hype was clever, studying at a high school that required testing for entry. Everyone in his graduating class left their small town for university\u2014except for him.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t excited by academic stuff. It felt like a waste of time,\u201d Hype said. \u201cMusic was the one thing I had, so I dove headfirst into that. I\u2019d go to the nightclubs in Liverpool when I wasn\u2019t playing just to be in the scene. Eventually, I made friends in the scene, and the music took over everything.\u201d<\/p>\n It took time for Hype\u2019s parents to comprehend his decision. He worked primarily as a DJ for a decade before taking off as a producer.\u00a0He committed full-bore to music production in 2017, releasing numerous remixes and his first official single.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t the path planned for him, but it was a living.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mom didn\u2019t think it was a real job,\u201d Hype said. \u201cShe definitely thought, \u2018Oh, maybe he\u2019ll do this for a year and find a proper job one day.\u2019 I got to a point where I was making alright money and moved way from home.\u201d<\/p>\n Communicating crowded dancefloors to people who weren\u2019t there is tough. Translating a booming Internet presence to parents raised without computers is nearly impossible. Hype\u2019s 2017 single \u201cMore Than Friends, \u201dwhich received one Platinum and two Gold certifications, was common ground for understanding.<\/p>\n \n View the original article<\/a> to see embedded media.<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t understand what I did, but they knew I was surviving,\u201d Hype said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until 2017 that I made my first successful record and got a gold disk that goes on the wall, and it went on the wall in my mom and dad\u2019s house, that they understood.\u201d<\/p>\n This career retrospective came at a serendipitous time. Hype was one week removed from performing at BBC Radio 1\u2019s \u201cBig Weekend\u201d in Liverpool when he sat down with us. The opportunity was a milestone achievement for Hype, one he never expected despite his wealth of accomplishments. It transported him to simpler times. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was a teenager, I used to skip school, take the bus over to Liverpool,\u201d Hype recalled. \u201cIt was so cool. They had record shops and all these inspirational things that we didn\u2019t have in the town I grew up in. Liverpool was always magic to me. Liverpool is the source of so much of my musical inspiration. All the clubs in Liverpool used to play house music.\u201d<\/p>\n Hype seemed lost in the memories, as if he were revisiting them for the first time. A young James Edward Lee Marsland, on the 25-minute drive between Merseyside and Liverpool, was turning the radio dial between 97 and 99 FM.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the station I listened to growing up, driving my first car,\u201d Hype reflected. \u201cI knew all the presenters. I was obsessed with Radio 1\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing \u2018BBC Radio 1, Big Weekend\u2019 at the top of the stage and then me below. I thought, \u2018Wow. I never thought I\u2019d do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Hype cherishes the experience, but he doesn\u2019t have much time to savor it. The Liverpool performance was early in a wild six-day sprint: EDC Las Vegas, London, Ibiza, Manchester, Liverpool, London (again), Philadelphia, Atlantic City, the Hamptons, Miami, Cleveland, Puerto Rico, and home. <\/p>\n His work rate had him down to the wire preparing for his 16-week SYNC residency in Ibiza, which he\u2019s currently on, with additional shows planned for other cities. The new show blends Hype\u2019s music with real-time visuals synchronized to his button cues. He promises not only a unique experience, but one championing his passion for non-pre-recorded sets, one of the electronic music community’s most contentious flashpoints.<\/p>\n \u201cI was watching a YouTube video about these guys who designed physical game shows. They\u2019d make the stands with the buzzer and stuff,\u201d Hype explained. \u201cI thought, \u2018What if we used this technology and me hitting the buttons into something everyone in the room can see?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Hype has become one of the most prominent voices advocating for live physical DJing, perfect flaws and all. He believes the booming online popularity of electronic music has helped combat the bloat of pre-recorded sets.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the golden era of pre-record might be behind us,\u201d Hype said. \u201cIf you go back to 2018, when there were loads of big EDM shows but there wasn\u2019t so much online.”<\/p>\n \u201cI think everyone is conscious now of not doing anything crazy because the cameras will see us and it\u2019ll end up on the Internet.\u201d <\/p>\n Hype\u2019s accomplishments read like movie end credits. But success doesn\u2019t spark joy at a one-to-one ratio. That\u2019s a hypothesis that Hype has reinforced over time.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been a few periods in my life where I\u2019ve achieved the thing I always wanted. I got there and I realized I was already over it. I wanted the next thing,\u201d Hype said. \u201cSometimes, I\u2019ll achieve something today that I wanted four years ago. I get it today and think, \u2018Meh.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Hype\u2019s diminishing emotional returns validate a classic sentiment: appreciating the simple things. He echoed a feeling recently shared by fellow producer Elderbrook<\/a>, campaigning for journey over destination.<\/p>\n \u201cWe constantly chase things we want because we feel like when we get them, we\u2019re going to feel fulfilled and happy,\u201d Hype said. \u201cIf you\u2019re counting on that, you might get to the thing you want and realize it won\u2019t fulfill you.”<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to find the happiness and fulfillment in what you\u2019re doing every day,” he adds. “You need to find happiness and fulfillment in going to the studio and making 10 records that are shit. That\u2019s the grind you have to go through every single day to get to the one that\u2019ll enter the charts or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n Hype\u2019s career is the culmination of countless little moments: the first turn of an EQ knob, a short drive to Liverpool or the tedium of producing his tenth record that day. It\u2019s good that he finds joy in the little things\u2014after all, small flutters set his storm in motion.<\/p>\n Instagram:<\/strong> instagram.com\/jameshype<\/a>Follow James Hype:<\/h2>\n
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