There has been no shortage of talent popping up in the world of electronic dance music over the past few years with the Canadian duo No Thanks making some serious waves when it comes to the genre of house music.
Emerging onto the scene back in 2019, these two hit the ground running with a steady barrage of infectious house hits and have only continued to gain momentum with each release.
Recently teaming up with Dirty Radio for their summer anthem “Sober” in addition to dropping a boatload of club-ready remixes putting their own spin on the likes of La Roux, Rick James, Sidepiece and Tiësto, we took the time to get to know these promising producers a little better. Check out our chat with No Thanks below!
DJ Life Mag: For those who aren’t familiar with No Thanks, tell us a little about yourself.
No Thanks: We are Giuliano and Dejan, and we live in Vancouver, Canada. The both of us have been producing music for over 10 years now, and started the ‘No Thanks’ alias 3 years ago. The idea behind the project was to say ‘No Thanks’ to the rules and play our style, and make our own energetic twist on house music.
DJ Life Mag: When were you two first introduced to house music?
Dejan: I was first introduced to house music by my older brother when he would pick me up from school and he would be listening to Hardwell, Nicky Romero, W&W and other dance music artists. From then on, I was hooked.
Giuliano: I first heard about Deadmau5 at the Winter Olympics 2010 in Vancouver. I was obsessed with his music and mask, and became a huge fan of EDM because of him.
DJ Life Mag: Musically, what were your first influences? When did you know it was time to start producing?
Giuliano: It again would have to be Deadmau5 as he was the first artist I was listening to! I knew it was time for me to start producing when I knew it was the main way to get known in the scene, if people were playing my songs.
Dejan: Skrillex, Deadmau5, Bingo Players and Hardwell. I was making DJ Mixes back in the day and I wanted to add my own productions to the mix, not just playing other peoples music. Thats when I discovered Ableton and started making my own tracks.
DJ Life Mag: DJing or production – which came first?
No Thanks: DJing came first for the both of us. We were both musically inclined before DJing, though. Giuliano played the drums, and Dejan played piano and weirdly the Baritone Euphonium in Jazz band.
DJ Life Mag: Some of the biggest names in dance music are Canadian like you guys – why do you think that is?
No Thanks: In most places in Canada, it’s either cold or raining most of the year which gives you a lot of time to stay inside and make music!
DJ Life Mag: What gear and programs are you using these days when working on tunes?
No Thanks: Giuliano uses FL Studio and Dejan uses Ableton which makes for an interesting workflow. We send audio stems back and forth to each other, and then mix and master in Ableton. We don’t use any hardware gear, just VST’s in our DAW. For speakers we’re using the Adam T5V and Genelec 8010A.
DJ Life Mag: When you have a rough week or hit a wall creatively, how do you get yourself back on track?
No Thanks: Taking time off is really important. We like to play video games or get outside to fuel some inspiration. We find that forcing yourself to create never ends up working for us, and the creative inspiration will come back naturally over time. Even if it means to take a few days, having one amazing day in the studio is worth it.
DJ Life Mag: You two are always pumping out club-ready remixes of some of the biggest tracks out, what’s your process putting those together? Any personal favorites?
No Thanks: We both used to DJ every single weekend in local clubs in the area, and after playing the same hit songs every single weekend there were a few tracks we wanted to put a spin on ourselves, especially after seeing how receptive the crowds were to the original track. Our personal favorites are our Weeknd & Post Malone ‘One Right Now’ Remix, and ‘In For The Kill’ by La Roux.
DJ Life Mag: Tell us a little about how your track “Sober” with Dirty Radio came together.
No Thanks: Sober was in the making for over 2 years and went through multiple versions before it was finally finished and signed. We’ve been homies with Dirty Radio for some time now and think they are extremely talented, so we knew we had to do a track with them. ‘Sober’ is the result of that!
DJ Life Mag: You guys riding some serious momentum as of late with all these releases, what’s next for No Thanks in 2022 and beyond?
No Thanks: We are touring for the first time this Spring and Summer, hitting multiple festivals and clubs across the US and Canada which we are extremely excited about. The last 2 years really put a hold on the live aspect of our industry, so to finally come back to our first international shows is a real treat! On top of that, we are planning to release an EP, and multiple singles over the summer which we will be talking about soon!
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