Minnesota

Christian Bauhofer at first glance comes off as the unassuming dude yawning next to you in class, a kind of lumberjack-nerd fusion in his glasses and scruffy facial hair. However, wait until the sun goes down and add a couple drinks and a whole lot of bass — and quiet, smiley Christian assumes his party-crushing alter-ego: Minnesota. “My goal is to make bass-heavy dubstep/glitch-hop music that'll get you dancing, but is not the same old, three-note transformer-step ... I try to focus more on the melodic side of dubstep, and hopefully, make quality songwriting a more relevant factor in the genre.” Bauhofer says. In the past two years his producing has taken off, with both originals and remixes gaining great popularity on sites like Soundcloud.com. In Minnesota productions, big influences show through from songwriters Bauhofer looks up to — artists such as Mimosa, Martyparty, and Modeselektor. His first EP “Panda Snatching Tycoon” was released to great acclaim in January 2011 on Tycho Records, featuring three original tracks: “Push It,” “Purple Daze,” and “Twisted.” Minnesota tracks are heard in dubstep/glitch sets all over the world, including those from Bassnectar, PANTyRaid, Mimosa, MartyParty, LowRiderz, and Tokimonsta,to name a few. His latest and greatest remix of “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas & the Papas has been getting tons of play — most notably by dubstep trailblazer Bassnectar a.k.a. Lorin Ashton, on his current U.S. tour. “Quickly becoming a staple in my sets,” Ashton said about Minneosta track “Push It,” “Perfect for when I need a track that is epic and churning but also melodically hype." One of the best things about Bauhofer is his incredible diversity in both his production and DJ sets. Any promoter can be assured that a bill featuring the name Minnesota on it will be pleasing to any crowd. He has opened for a wide range of acts, from Flying Lotus to Ghostland Observatory, Rusko to Benny Benassi, RJD2 to Excision, and many more. The future looks bright for Bauhofer, so much so that he is taking a break from UC Santa Cruz this spring to focus strictly on music. With multiple EPs coming out on MalLabel and Simplify records in the next few months, this might be Bauhofer’s smartest move yet. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.