This past weekend both Chris Lake and Deadmau5 took the stage at Das Energi Festival outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. I was watching Chris Lake's Instagram story when I saw him re-post a fan's video of his set. The caption reminded me of a story that I forgot over the years. While many dance music fans are best familiar with Chris Lake's more recent productions such as ‘Losing My Mind' and ‘Operator', Chris has been lighting up the house scene for years.
Championing Deadmau5's First Single
Chris has been dropping dancefloor heaters for well over a decade now. In fact, his influence was so great in the mid-2000's that he helped one of the most popular and well-known dance artists in the world get his start. In a 2009 interview Deadmau5 revealed that just before his massive break, he was close to quitting music. Then Pete Tong premiered ‘Faxing Berlin' on BBC Radio 1, and the rest is history.
‘Faxing Berlin' was Deadmau5's first official single. Now, almost 12 years later it stands as a true classic in the world of electronic music. As Deadmau5 was struggling to get his music picked up in 2006, Chris Lake stopped by to cheer him up. Chris believed in Joel's music so much he worked with his management to get the record passed onto Pete Tong. Other house legends such as Nic Fanciulli and James Zabiela also backed up Deadmau5 to Tong, explained the producer was truly on a different level.
Pete took the groups advice and fell in love with Joel's original and tantalizing production style. Now 12 years later we have the privilege of watching both artists play the same main stage on the same night.