Who the hell is DJ Bl3nd?

Mixmag was pretty scared in the run-up to calling DJ BL3ND. As if his permanently attached and blood-soaked Chuckie doll-on-crystal-meth mask wasn't unnerving enough, what about his music? If you thought maximalist Rusko brostep was as riotous as dance could sound, think again: DJ BL3ND's screw-faced, saw-toothed productions are so hyperactive and laser-lacquered they should come not only with health warnings, but a crate or 10 of energy drink to help get you in a suitably heightened state of mental queasiness before you dive in.

And then there are the eye-popping social media figures that reportedly had the management teams of BL3ND and fellow pin-up Diplo brawling at a recent conference when the latter accused the former of cyber manipulation. Though you may not have heard of him, this new Stateside sensation has over 200 million YouTube views, 3 million Facebook fans and 20 million music downloads, all without having played outside America. Intimidating stuff – but we called him anyway.

And suddenly, the illusion was gone. Speaking softly down the phone, BL3ND won't reveal his real name, age or where he's originally from (around 21 and Mexico judging by his voice) but admits to being in the studio in his current home town of Los Angeles. So why the secrecy, why create this character?

"I didn't," he says. "DJ Bl3ND is a character that came about by itself through my fans, the BL3NDERS. We're one family. The BL3ND Nation."

Hmmm. Perhaps what he really means is that around 2009, narked off at not getting anywhere despite handing out plenty of demos, he filmed himself playing at home, going mental in a mask.

"When I was learning how to DJ I looked at YouTube tutorials," he says, recalling a time when he first started out playing "Mexican music and hip hop" at family parties. "But they were all boring, all the same, so when I was confident enough to put out my own mixes, I did it in a different style."

Five months after posting the clip it had racked up a million hits. Like every video since, including the music videos he's branched out into, it then went fully viral, reaching the homes of millions of bored youths (or as BL3ND puts it "people who like to rage and party hard, even babies and really young kids") across the world. He finally had the big break he wanted.

"My style is very wild – DJ BL3ND is very wild when he's on stage and he has no rules, that's why he looks the way he does," he deadpans. "He's a very crazy guy." Footage online from recent shows like Electric Zoo or Spring Awakenings backs him up – they tend to be largely luminous, riotous affairs that see BL3ND head-banging, shooting water pistols into the crowd and generally going bonkers as he crushes electro into dubstep into EDM. Soon the famous "crazy girls" from the videos will tour with him, breathing fire and generally adding to the chaos.

"My goals right now are to make more music," he says. "At first I was focusing on high energy all the time, but I have realised that I'm not just going for that any more. Now I'm going with the flow, so if it comes out funky [in the studio] that's what I'll go with."

Batten down the hatches, because DJ BL3ND now wants to play outside his home nation. "All I am waiting for is my Visa, then I'll be raging it up around the UK with all my UK BL3NDERs. I can't wait to bring you the new music I have stacked up in my studio," he says. And though the very thought might make you want to run screaming, just remember this: every aspiring DJ can learn from BL3ND when it comes to carving out a career in 2013.