Edmond Huszar (born 12 July 1989 in London, Ontario), better known by his stage name OVERWERK or Overwerk, is a Canadian DJ, producer and graphic designer. Active since 2010, his style is often described as electro or complextro, and according to LA Weekly his music combines "dramatic, orchestral passages" with "serrated synths and dive-bombing basslines." Since 2011 he has released three EPs and several singles, designing the album covers himself. His 2014 single "Exist" was given a 10/10 score by Beatsmedia, with Vibe Magazine naming the track one of their "Top 10 Dance Music Releases Of The Week."
OVERWERK is also known for his official remixes of songs such as "Rather Be" by Clean Bandit. "Rather Be" went on to win the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. He has toured Canada, much of Europe, and the United States, opening for artists such as Avicii and headlining festivals such as the 2012 Escapade Music Festival. He won the 2014 New Canadian Music Vista Prize, and his songs have appeared in commercials for brands such as GoPro, Gucci, Lamborghini, Chrysler, Vogue, and Fortune Magazine. He has also created the song Pressure for The Sims 4 videogame.
Early life
Edmond Huszar was born in 1989 in the small city of London, Ontario, where he was raised. He first began learning to play music in elementary school, when he discovered a talent for drums and rhythm. He started making music on his computer one day while bored, mixing music that was popular at his high school.
Around the age of fifteen he became interested in DJing and in the tenth grade, he and a friend rented their own DJ equipment for a school dance. From that point he DJed all his school dances, remixing popular songs into club edits. At one point he had over 200 remixes in high school he'd made on his computer, of songs such as “A Milli” by Lil Wayne. At age 17, he went to a Daft Punk show in Toronto, which he states "changed my life for sure." After learning to DJ he began teaching himself how to produce. In highschool he began selling CDs of his work as a hobby, also designing the album covers.
Music career
Early years (2008-11)
After graduating highschool in 2008, one of Huszar's first professional production projects was for The Girls Can Hear Us, an electro-rap duo based in Ontario. In the summer of 2010 he began releasing original music under the alias Overwerk, or OVERWERK. About his name, he has stated "I had named my graphic portfolio 'overworked' because I’m always working on so many projects." Work was changed to 'werk' in tribute to the techno group Kraftwerk. As in high school, he continued to design the covers for his albums and releases.
OVERWERK self-released a number of remixes in late 2010 and into 2011, including Wolfgang Gartner’s "Space Junk," which EDM Sauce praised as "a huge improvement on the original." By spring of 2011 Overwerk had also released a number of original singles, and he was periodically collaborating with Andy's iLL, a death electro producer he had met on Soundcloud.
First releases, touring (2011-14)
OVERWERK's debut EP, The Nth º, was released for free on Soundcloud and Bandcamp on November 30, 2011, and includes six of his original mixes. Stated iEN Live in a positive review, "the intense commotion of the EP manifests incessantly through the oscillation of unexpected changes in velocity and melody." He toured Canada after the release of his first EP, and he performed at the Escapade Music Festival in July 2012 in Ottawa, headlining with artists such as Avicii, Afrojack, and Zeds Dead.
His sophomore EP, titled After Hours, was released on November 28, 2012, featuring original tracks such as “Signal,” “Last Call," “Relapse," and "Daybreak," the latter of which had already been featured in a popular GoPro commercial. The EP received mixed to positive reviews, and Electro Jams wrote that the EP "uniquely blurs the lines between intense electro and melodic house."
By March 2013 he had released several more remixes, including Chromeo’s “Night By Night." That summer he toured Canada and France, at one point opening for Avicii in Toronto and performing for audiences of over 4,000 people. He also won the Symphonic Distribution 2013 Breakthrough Artist of the Year Award.
OVERWERK released his EP Conquer on November 27, 2013, as a free download. The lead single, "Conquer," had been offered as a free download in October, with three other tracks added for the EP release. New Canadian Music wrote that album includes "four gritty, rumbling bass tracks, four-on-the floor groove machines that are clearly indebted to French house pioneers, Justice."
In January 2014 OVERWERK released an official remix of the track "Rather Be" by UK electronica quartet Clean Bandit. Featuring Jess Glynne and released by Atlantic Records, Vibe described the remix as "a gritty electro spinoff that has been crushing dance floors everywhere." "Rather Be" went on to win the Best Dance Recording category at the 2015 Grammy Awar
