Madeaux's dark and brazen bass-house is making an Impact

What was growing up in Miami like?

It was fun – hot as hell – but I didn’t really know anything about nightlife when I was living there. It was pretty wholesome growing up there. I was active, did a lot of wakeboarding and I swam competitively for a long time, 15 years. I traveled around a lot for swim meets. I was innocent and quiet, didn’t really do much outside of what I was supposed to be doing outside of school.

Who were your biggest inspirations in the beginning?

The guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Frusciante, started a project that was half electronic, half rock and that was the only road map I knew of early on. That song ‘Murder’ especially, it showed me that someone was doing it. It’s hard to go into something with completely no concept of how it should sound, the right music, how it could work. His music helped me segue into electronic music.

In the beginning, I also listened to a lot of Deadmau5. He had so many albums, and they were all so different. Some were more techno, more electro, some trance, breaks… he was really inspiring. I randomly got a chance to work with him, as a 19 year old. It was during the same time when he got into some beef with Ultra Music Festival, and decided he wouldn’t play there anymore. He decided to hold a seminar instead of play the festival, and let people submit music to work together in Miami.

I have no idea how, but somehow I was selected to be part of the session. I was in the studio with Steve Duda, Kill The Noise, Feed Me and all these guys. I got to see hands-on how they made music.

We had two days, six or eight hours a day. But it was very cool, to be able to understand step-by-step. There were terms that they used that don’t mean anything to you when you first start, but as you watch, you see how people work. I learned super fast.