From: France

DJ style: “Electro-house, hardstyle, bass.”

Best known for: “Breaking borders between DJing, anime and videos games with 8bit-style tunes and millions of views of animation videos.”

Fave tune of 2022: “Cartoon 'I’m Not Alright’.”

Rising star DJ/producer of 2022: “Chenda.”

French producer Naeleck pushed his own boundaries again in 2022. He's worked on lots of new music, done two official anime remixes for Sony Music Japan and dropped a music video for his ‘Final Boss’ single "that took months to make”. Known primarily as a producer of dark electro, he also wowed crowds with his cover of 'Creep' with Haley Reinhart. "I'd been working on this track for a few months and Haley’s voice is amazing, so I was really excited to drop this one live. The original is a classic so people sang along to it and it really felt amazing."

He has also veered into hardstyle, experimenting with tougher beats and more maximal synths on top of his already broad output, which has ranged from bass to electro. Up next are some more of his signature “8bit-sounding electro-house tracks, a synthwave Christmas-ish follow up of my track 'All My Heroes' and a bunch of hardstyle tracks under the new NLCK side project.”

What’s the best DJ set you’ve seen this year?

“Eptic at Tomorrowland.”
 

Name one great festival you played for the first time this year...

“Spring Bass.”
 

What’s the longest DJ set you’ve ever played?

“12 hours at a bush party in Australia, I was the only DJ and played from 8pm to almost 8am in the morning.”
 

What’s one piece of studio hardware you wish you owned?

“A Minimoog Voyager.”
 

What’s the last tune you bought?

“VALORANT & Grabbitz ’Die For You' (Zedd Remix).”
 

What’s the next big sound?

“I guess a lot of people would say future rave but I think hardstyle is getting bigger than ever in the last few months and will keep growing.”