Brett Callwood
Dexter King is Out of This World: Chinese electronic music prodigy Dexter King was introduced to the world of DJing and producing by Jamiroquai and Daft Punk.
“Back in 2001, Jamiroquai’s album A Funk Odyssey came out and completely changed my life,” he says. “Growing up practicing classical piano, I almost became a robot, but Jamiroquai’s music enlightened me and spoke to me like nothing else could. For a 13 year old kid it felt like going into space listening to this whole album. During the same year Discovery by Daft Punk was released as well — it hit me even harder because it just sounded harder, better, faster and stronger than anything I’ve heard, that’s when I started to try and remake their music with Fruity Loops and started this magnificent journey of making dance music. The 4 years of university was my transformation from a kid who loved to show people what he made in the bedroom last night to a professional music producer / DJ. It was the first few festival gigs that got me completely hooked. I could never imagine such a way to share love. As a kid growing up in China, I fought as hard as I could while everyone told me making music is a hobby, not a job. I guess who led me to pursue a path in music was the people who told me not to make music and get a ‘real’ job, because every time I hear something like that it just reminds me of how much I love music and want to carry on.”
When describing his own current sound, King says, “The collision of sounds I’ve loved in the past and sounds I want to fall in love with in the future.”
Regarding the current state of electronic music, King says that people can’t fight what makes them feel good.
“These sounds are slowly making their way into people’s lives and giving them new energy,” he says. “I feel like electronic music is gradually becoming an essential part of people’s lives.”
His latest release is the “Take Me Into Space” single, a collab with DJ duo Dada Life.
“Monstercat told me that I’ve got a chance to make music with Dada Life,” King says. “I got so hyped and made 5 demos as the initial ideas and sent them to Dada Life. They picked one of them which was called ‘In the Dark,’ it’s my favorite one as well because the quarantines made me feel like I’m stuck in darkness, so the sounds in that demo came straight from my heart and I guess they felt it too. With the stems, they took it to another level which blew my mind. They added so much energy and character to the track, then we decided to change ‘In the Dark’ to ‘Take Me Into Space’ and recorded the top line, to turn negativity into positivity. I’ve been playing Dada Life’s music in every single show I’ve played since 2011 since they released ‘Kick Out the Epic MF.’ In this little Chinese DJ’s mind they’re like Tony Stark and Hulk, so this encounter felt unreal to me. The moment I knew they picked one of my demos I flew out of my chair then went back to working on the song immediately. No words can express my respect for them, and this song is a monument in my life.”
Looking ahead, King has plenty planned for 2023.
“Apart from a lot more shows and new music than 2022, I’ll be in a new Chinese music producing reality TV series as one of the music producers in 2023,” he says. “The last series in 2022 was a success, I made so much music with producers and singers I’ve never met before and I can’t wait to be a part of the upcoming one.”
Dexter King is Out of This World: “Take Me Into Space” is out now.
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