Meet Rezz: the Canadian producer making 'eery and grungy' EDM hits

Welcome to Meet the Producers, a CBC Music series that highlights Canadian producers making waves in their respective genres. Some producers are all about technical skills, building tracks line by line, while others act as a guide, curating the general vibe of a record. Meet the Producers explores the work coming from across the spectrum.

Rezz's sinister and hypnotic creations are spellbinding fusions of dark techno and abrasive industrial. The DJ and producer from Niagara Falls, Ont., née Isabelle Rezazadeh, has amassed quite the fanbase over her near decade making music — fans who are rabid for her self-described "eerie, grungy, dungeon sounds" and who call themselves "the cult of Rezz." (They have a devoted X, formerly known as Twitter, account with more than 19,000 followers.) 

With millions of streams and top billing on EDM lineups around the world, Rezz's haunting sonic worlds scratch an itch for many people. She is heavily influenced by horror films and dark subject matter: in an interview with CBC Music, she mentioned Requiem for a Dream and Trainspotting as the kind of films that inspire her. 

"There's something about that darkness and observing it through a movie that creates an esthetic in my mind, which then translates to music," she explained. 

Rezz released her first two EPs,The Silence Is Deafening and Something Is Wrong Here, in 2016. Since then she's had quite the output, dropping new EPs and albums almost every year since, with a new one on the way in March, titled Can You See Me?. Her previous releases have been well recognized by the Juno Awards: Rezz has racked up seven nominations and two wins since 2018. 

With all that expertise under her belt, she recently launched a label called HypnoVizion. Her aim is to help boost the music and careers of up-and-coming artists trying new things: "I feel like there wasn't really a label that was releasing the kind of music that [we are] right now," said Rezz. "Specifically, you know, the mid-tempo style, mixed with more experimental, industrial sounds." 

Rezz has taken notes about career evolution from fellow producer, and Grammy nominee, Porter Robinson. In 2014, he released Worlds, a bold departure from his typical EDM sound of big beats and heavy drops with its mellower, more subtle production style. Some people loved it, others hated it, but it was his artistic integrity that Rezz took to heart: "Making whatever you want to make, even if that means alienating your audience, that's really hard to do, because of course you want your audience to love what you're making."

Following his lead, she released It's Not a Phase in 2023, an EP that seemed out of left field as it leaned more emo and punk than her usual productions. It wasn't universally beloved by her fanbase, but it was true to her. 

"It felt really risky and I was really nervous about it, but in the end, I'm proud that I did that," she said. 

The Rezz sound, dissected 

Rezz has an insular production process, preferring the peace and calmness of working alone, which may be surprising considering she's had dozens of collaborators from Deadmau5 to Alice Glass. When making "Hypnocurrency," one of two hits she has with Deadmau5, Rezz worked alone until the very end, when only final touches were left. 

"[Deadmau5] added an arpeggiated melody and we polished some things up," she said. 

Rezz works mostly from a home studio and tries to not let external factors influence her creative process. When building songs, she doesn't focus on giving the audience "instant gratification" with predictable drops, instead deviating from formulaic production and letting the music take her wherever it wants to go.

She starts by looking through a library of saved sounds: kick drums, snares, anything that excites her. Rezz begins with the drums to determine the general vibe of a track, then she looks to build the rest based on that mood, moving on to synth pads and other instruments. Eventually, she starts hearing potential melodies.  

Her instrumental tracks tend to be very gritty, hard-hitting and ear-splitting industrial productions, which are contrasted by her work with vocalists including Metric's Emily Haines, Dove Cameron and Pvris, where the music still retains its moody edge but with softer, pop-leaning melodies. 

The thing Rezz sees as her greatest strength as a producer is the ability to detach her self-worth from her productivity. She never feels like a day was unsuccessful just because she didn't walk away with a hit. 

"I really put emphasis on the importance of remembering that this is fun," she explained. "I would do this for free forever. I definitely wouldn't tour for free, but making music is genuinely something that I am so obsessed with that it's fine to me whether or not I even get paid."