Many university students complete their studies without a career plan but Halifax DJ Ryan Hemsworth has been working on his since junior high, long before he was a go-to source for DJ sets that marry top-notch sample curating with expert mixing and, most importantly, a wealth of emotional nuance. "I've been making stuff for a really long time," he says, holding the recorder close to his mouth to pick up his softly spoken voice in a bustling Toronto cafe. "I've been doing music since junior high, so in that sense, it feels like I slowly built up to it, I guess."
Slowly, that is, until February 2012, when Hemsworth released a swirling, melancholy remix of Grimes' "Genesis," after which he found himself suddenly the subject of much buzz and exposure. A series of captivating one-off remixes surrounded the release of two original EPs, Kitsch Genius and Last Words, and earned him a spot on tour opening for Daedelus for the remainder of March and April.
All this, and he only graduated from university last spring. Forced to choose a "real" vocation, Hemsworth was studying journalism — he interviewed Girl Talk for his blog and made a music magazine as a school assignment — but music was always his focus. "Most nights I'd be working on music instead of homework. Even in class, I was sometimes working on tracks on my laptop. I was trying to balance it for four years."
Now that he's free, he's working on a debut full-length of "headphone music" set to drop this summer when his tour has wrapped up. "It's nice that it's happening now," he acknowledges, "because I didn't really have to take on a full-time job or anything; it just kind of overlapped." And though it's his commitment to his craft that has wrought his success, Hemsworth is loath to take all the credit. "I feel super lucky."
Slowly, that is, until February 2012, when Hemsworth released a swirling, melancholy remix of Grimes' "Genesis," after which he found himself suddenly the subject of much buzz and exposure. A series of captivating one-off remixes surrounded the release of two original EPs, Kitsch Genius and Last Words, and earned him a spot on tour opening for Daedelus for the remainder of March and April.
All this, and he only graduated from university last spring. Forced to choose a "real" vocation, Hemsworth was studying journalism — he interviewed Girl Talk for his blog and made a music magazine as a school assignment — but music was always his focus. "Most nights I'd be working on music instead of homework. Even in class, I was sometimes working on tracks on my laptop. I was trying to balance it for four years."
Now that he's free, he's working on a debut full-length of "headphone music" set to drop this summer when his tour has wrapped up. "It's nice that it's happening now," he acknowledges, "because I didn't really have to take on a full-time job or anything; it just kind of overlapped." And though it's his commitment to his craft that has wrought his success, Hemsworth is loath to take all the credit. "I feel super lucky."