Trekking across North America on his Ninja Nation 2017 bus tour, dubstep darling Datsik has some massive tricks in store for his Las Vegas stop at Hard Rock Live on the Strip. We caught up with the Canadian DJ and producer.
What does the Ninja Nation Tour entail, particularly the shogun stage? The shogun is probably my wildest vision yet. I wanted to take all the inspiration I’ve always had as a kid and transform it into something that I was able to tie into the music that I’ve put out recently, called the Sensei EP. It basically looks like a level from Mortal Kombat. It’s a giant dojo-looking thing, and I look like a hybrid of two Mortal Kombat characters. ... It’s all light-up and LED-based and it’s wireless, so I can run around on stage [with] someone at the front controlling all these lights while I’m DJing. It looks pretty cool, and it’s definitely a childhood dream achieved.
You’ve also partnered with PK Sound. It’s going to be super loud and super crisp, and it’s gonna be amazing. Expect some organs to explode.
What musical direction were you aiming for with the Sensei EP? It’s funny, I had four tracks done, and I was like, it’s cool, but I don’t feel like it’s quite there yet. So the last two weeks I ended up writing three new tracks. Musically, I’m kind of known for dubstep, and usually I’ll end up switching it up and throwing a bunch more hip-hop in my EP, but this time I wanted to really see what I was capable of, exploring all things dubstep. This is kind of a throwback to my roots, and I think so far it’s been pretty well-received. Datsik (with Crizzly and Virtual Riot) at Hard Rock Live, February 23.