No Thanks - Valerie Yoder
“No Thanks” is a fascinating collaboration of electronic producers Giuliano Rascan and Dejan Zoric seeking to bring a refreshing new take to the timeless sound of House.
The Canadian duo concluded their latest tour and celebrated their Colorado debut at “Your Moms House” in Denver Saturday night. “No Thanks” brought down the house with the emotional thrill of new age exploration and creative production. The duo presented an incredible set showing off their artistic journey as a group and their intent to build a colorful future for House. Their late-night set was an all-around great performance. The duo had a natural ease on stage, filling the dance floor with upbeat techno house, heavy trap beats and decisive percussion sounds. “No Thanks” shouted out their newest releases featuring high-energy drops and vocalized melodies Their set pulled from all corners of House inspiration and was an impressive composition of skill and creativity—their colorful lights and artistic visuals matched their vibrant sound design, perfectly.
Their latest tour was a successful highlight for the group, performing in the U.S. for the first time and playing sets at major festival lineups, including EDC and Beyond Wonderland. Beginning as solo artists, Rascan and Zoric combined efforts to create their unique style of House music. The “No Thanks” tour finale exemplified the group’s impressive journey to create a tasteful mix of new wave bass and tech House.
“We wanted to make something that excites us and that we think is fresh,” Giuliano said. “And that’s where our heads are at. We try to break the rules of House music a little bit and genre bend.”
Their innovative project began as a long-distance duo working over the internet during the pandemic, with Dejan living in Edmonton and Giuliano in Vancouver—some 1,200 kilometers apart.
“We were both doing solo projects for like 7 years and the Canadian scene is pretty small and he was making waves and I was little bit too on my own,” Giuliano said. “He had dmed me on twitter saying he was playing a show in Edmonton if I wanted to come and hang out so I got on a plane and flew over there. Both of our projects had become a little stagnant. We both weren’t getting to where we wanted to be and then it was Dejan’s idea to create a new project and that’s how No Thanks came to be.”
Their visions as individual producers were matched perfectly while both artists aspired to take their success to the next level and discovered in each other the perfect outlet to do so.
Said Dejan, “We had both been making music for the same amount of time and we had both reached some kind of success and on cool labels and playing shows, but it wasn’t entirely what we imagined so we started “No Thanks.” We already knew how to make music; we had been making music for years and we already had connections in the industry so “No Thanks” combined our 14 years of experience. The music was good off the get go. We already had visions for the art and the direction, and I think that’s why it picked up steam so quickly.”
“No Thanks” continues to be a fluid back and forth process of testing and sending ideas to one another. Their production is based in their ability to build from their individual skills and complete a dual vision, even at a distance. “We definitely work separate; we send stuff back and forth and 90% of the time we are not together when we are working,” Giuliano said.
“I’m at home in my studio and he’s at home at his studio so I think our creative process is a little different because you don’t know what the other person is going to send back to you,” Dejan said. “He will start something and I’ll send something back to him and it will sound a different way. It’s like a goodie box. It’s like someone is giving you a cool sample to work with and it’s always like, whoa I didn’t expect it to go in that direction. He will send a drop and ask for a breakdown and will have no idea what that breakdown is going to sound like. So there’s always a fun twist.”
“Giuliano is really creative and the best sound designer I have ever met and will come up with really good ideas and I like to finish them and take his idea and wrap it. I typically do all the mixes and masters, so it’s like he cranks out really sick ideas and then I turn them into the full potential of the idea,” he said.
House has powered the electronic scene for decades, filling clubs with popular dance music and has become an international staple within the rave community. House tracks are often structured within a similar format and characterized by a repetitive arrangement of melodic progressions and drum or percussion machine beats. “No Thanks” aims to go beyond those familiar structures.
Said Dejan, “We are in the club so much and have been for so many years, it feels like we can hear the formula to the music that everyone is following, and we are trying to steer clear of that really generic formula. I’d say there are some unique sounds in our music. A lot of people have a lot of loose drums in House but we try to keep it really tight with short claps and really intricate percussion. And also, I feel like we use chords and melodies more. A lot of people are sticking to bass lines with vocals whereas we bring in pianos, chords and melodies and crazy melodic fills.”
Their latest EP release, “The Rumble,” exemplifies the collective’s ongoing vision to incorporate meaningful vocals and original drops. Diverging from the simple club phrases, “No Thanks” is dedicated to bringing the audience more memorable vocals, rhythm and bass.
In “The Rumble,” Dejan said, “the drops are like the songs—tasteful and unique. You know, nothing's random. We don't play songs for no reason. They have to make sense within our whole brand and ecosystem. And I think our last couple of releases are really a good showcase for us. I was telling him when we got to Denver, I was listening to the last EP, that I am really proud of it.”
“Every single song is super unique and there's nothing really like it,” he added. “It has interesting vocals that no one's really done. So I think those are really good. If you look at those last songs we did, there's the high energy, there's the cool vocals, there's the interesting drops. I think it's a really good way to show people what we're about. You can expect more like it.”
“House music brought us across the county”
-“No Thanks”
“The Rumble” EP is featured on Soundcloud and Spotify and can be found here.