‘TENSION’ By DEROIA Is Dark, Mysterious And Perfect To Dance To
DEROIA is a producer, multi-instrumentalist and DJ hailing from Columbus, Ohio. Heavily active in the local music scene, he has contributed in projects ranging from indie rock to hip hop and electronic. As a result, his personal brand of house music is infused with a rich genre-bending flavor, stretching his output beyond conventional limitations while landing him on label heavyweights such as Rave Up Records and Blanco y Negro Music. With a string of upcoming releases and performances, DEROIA has firmly entrenched himself as someone to watch in 2021 and beyond.
“TENSION” is a dark and deep tech house track signed to Gangsta House Records. With a stripped back minimalistic approach, the punchy synths and climactic bass riff all lead to a meteoric drop juxtaposed with deep and dark vocals. The inspiration for the song came from an all night warehouse party filled with seedy figures.
Fans connect to the dark and mysterious nature of the song and the long build is one of the highlights of the track eventually leading into a meteoric drop. ‘TENSION’ isn’t a chord based song and the vocal hook takes center stage at different points to really help move the track along.
DEROIA’s sound is usually deep, dark and at times maximalist, however, in this track he took a more minimalist approach in terms of the production. He’s always looking for vocal hooks to really grab the listener. He produces, mixes and masters all of his music. The production process feels like sculpting to him, with sound being akin to raw material which you’re always chipping away. His overall stylistic approach trends more toward world building and creating immersive soundscapes that will make you move on the dance floor.
As a producer himself, his production and songwriting process typically go hand in hand. He starts with the chords, then comes the kick and bassline. From there, he typically gets a drum groove going and spends a lot of time making sure that the bass and the drums work and groove well together. With dance music, it’s important to get people moving, even if it’s subconsciously. This is why “groove engineering” is the most important part of the song writing process for him. Once the main groove is established, he looks for the vocal hook, either by talking to a singer friend or looking through sample packs that can be processed to make his own.
DEROIA currently releases all of his music as singles, one a month. However, he hopes to release a full album sometime in the future. He has performed all around the city of Columbus. The Forum is his favorite because he can go there to see all his favorite touring house music artists and it has the best sound in the city. A few of his musical influences are Sonny Fodera, John Summit, Chris Lake, KREAM, Rufus du Sol and Kaskade.
The artist said: “My dream collab would be with Kaskade simply because he’s the person that really got me started on my journey making music so working with him would bring everything full circle. Listening to his music in college evoked a deep feeling inside of me; I was so intrigued I had to know how to do it and that’s how my journey began.”
Social media is an important platform for him as he uses it to let people know when he’s putting out some new music, or show announcements. Being able to reach people you normally wouldn’t is key, especially his who he’s very grateful for.
Listen to ‘TENSION’ by DEROIA on SoundCloud, YouTube and Spotify.
