3LAU Talks About His Name, Mashups and What's Next In iEDM Exclusive I

They always say that you should never meet your favorite artists because it’ll change your opinion of them. After having the opportunity to sit down and interview with Justin aka 3LAU during Imagine Festival, that was most certainly not the case. If anything I respect and like him even more now than I did before. Literally moments before he threw down an epic set, I had the chance and pleasure to chat with Justin.

iEDM: Do you hate it when people call you ‘three- LAU’
Justin: I actually don’t hate it too much I was begging for it ya know? It is what it is.

iEDM: I feel like that would make me crazy
Justin: Over time, I feel like that’ll change. I’ll give it another 5 years, we’ll see if people still get it wrong.

iEDM: So what made you think to use the 3 instead of just a regular B?
Justin: Well the 3 stands for- it comes from my necklace- and it means mind, body, heart. So that’s kind of the deeper meaning to it. But I also thought when I was starting to DJ that it would make me more unique instead of just Blau. There’s a lot of things called Blau, it means blue in German.

iEDM: So you always talk about taking forever to finish songs, do you ever actually feel like a song Is finished? Do you ever go back and wish you could change it?
Justin: There are times I go back and I’m like damn, and then there are other times where I don’t think it’s finished and then I release it and I’m like, it was fine. It goes back and forth. There is one song that I still think I could have made better. It was my song with Emma Hewit called Alive Again.

iEDM: But I love that song!
Justin: Oh Thank you. Yeah, that one took a really long time and I was kind of rushed to finish it. There’s still some parts that I think I could have made better. But other than that, usually I’m like oh It’s not done, it’s not done! And then I release it and I’m like yeah, it was fine.

iEDM: You started by doing mashups. A lot of artists who do mashups have a harder time making it and can’t really become mainstream. What do you think made you stand out?
Justin: Yeah, I think it’s really interesting I use the idea of a mashup in everything that I do whether it’s with my style of production or it’s in my DJ sets, so I’ve kind of taken that as the spark for my career. But that’s definitely not my entire career

Justin: Starting with mashups was great because it got my name out there really quickly. Back when I started 5 years ago, mashups were still really hot. So that was how a lot of people found out about me through that. And then when I came out with my original stuff they already knew who I was so it made it a lot easier to get my original stuff out there.

Justin: Now when I release a mashup its really really fun because its once in a while. I haven’t really made anything new for the public in a while. I usually though, all the mashups that I do make, I put in my live sets. So it’s kind of just changed from being released on the internet to being exclusively for my live sets. But I do think it’s really difficult to be a mashup artist nowadays because it’s a different time and everyone’s doing it now. Whereas when I started, there weren’t as many people trying to be DJ’s.

iEDM: So you just did the Ariana Grande song "Into You." I love her so I was super excited about that one.
Justin: Awesome, Yes, It’s probably actually my favorite thing I’ve ever worked on, I’ll be honest. it just all kind of fit perfectly. Production wise it’s definitely the most advanced for me anything I’ve ever made thus far. From a scientific perspective, it sounds incredible. I always hated my own stuff and then I had that and I was like this is finally the first thing I’m truly proud of.

iEDM: Did Ariana know you did it?
Justin: Yes, she approved it within 24 hours; she loved it that much. We had to get her approval to make it official.

iEDM: Do you think that was your most successful track. That one literally just dropped and everyone was instantly all about it.
Justin: That was last week. It was kind of crazy cause like I play it live and everyone knows it already and its only been like 8-9 days. Even though it’s a remix, I think it could be my biggest song ever to date if it keeps going.

iEDM: So what’s next for you?
Justin: A lot of new music, a lot. I have to finish it all and it makes it really difficult to finish while I’m traveling but when I get home I’m going to finish all my other work and all the business stuff. So Tuesday Wednesday Thursday I’m gonna lock myself in and focus on getting the next music done.
Justin: And of course the Blau Haus World tour. We’re at the beginning of the U.S part of blau haus world tour.

iEDM: Yeah I’m gonna see you again this weekend at Ezoo again I can’t wait.
Justin: Yeah, we just finished Asia, umm next year potentially doing Europe and Australia. It’s just really exciting, I’ve done world tours before but it’s never been under the Blau Haus concept. We’ve got almost 40 total show and tickets are selling like crazy.

Justin: So for all the people reading this, make sure you get your tickets soon because they’re selling like crazy! We’re already in the thousands for shows that are like 2 months away.

iEDM: Is there an album in the works?
Justin: There’s an EP in the works, we’ll see when it’s done.Ya never know *haha* it’ll come out eventually.

iEDM: So for the song "Is it love," you guys donated every dollar...
Justin: Yes, we’re still waiting for all the money to come in, but when it does we’ve raised about 70,000 – 80,000 so it’s really awesome.

iEDM: What made you decide to do that?
Justin: My whole life I’ve wanted to do a record label for charity so it’s been a long process it’s still building we’re still in the beginning stages of the label and the development. I think after we get the first donation in its gonna change a lot

iEDM: So then every song you release off of that, on the label…
Justin: There’s always a delay on when the money comes in so we’ve been kind of sitting tight until we can be like hey fans, look at all the money we raised. So you can see it physically. We don’t have an exact of what it is yet but we do know that is around 70-80 thousand.

After his set, when he dropped the Pokémon theme song I remembered I forgot to ask him about Pokémon Go. Lucky for me Stacie, who represents 3LAU, covered that one for me, he’s team mystic to all those wondering. After such a great time with him in the interview, as a team instinct myself, I won’t hold that against him.