Agents Rejected ACRAZE; Now He’s One Of The World’s Biggest Artists

Florida's ACRAZE (aka Charlie Duncker) was an underground bass DJ/producer when he enjoyed an accidental crossover hit with his big room house remix of Cherish's crunk&B anthem Do It To It. Now the American is the hottest property in EDM. But it was all because he skipped his morning coffee ritual in lockdown – something once unimaginable. "Coffee drives me," Duncker jokes. "If I don't have coffee, sometimes I have bad days."

"Charlie", as he prefers to be called, is chilling in Cancún, Mexico, amid an epic international tour. Resembling a backpacker with topknot, goatee and bohemian jewellery, he chats over Zoom from a darkened hotel suite – his manager and personal photographer in the background. Into "adventures", Duncker and entourage were earlier relishing their beachy surrounds, nearly forgetting an exclusive Australian interview with The Music. The star laughs, "We were just running back from the boat to come do this!" He cheekily flaunts a giant piña colada.

The 26-year-old prodigy is stunned how that bouncy break-out – officially released last August as Do It To It (featuring Cherish) via Los Angeles' powerhouse EDM label Thrive Music – became one of 2021's biggest dance records, accelerating his career momentum. Do It To It has been streamed on Spotify over 300 million times. In Australia, it reached #6 on the ARIA Singles Chart and remains in the Top 20 after 18 weeks. "It feels good," Duncker enthuses. "I guess the goal as a DJ/producer is always to have a song that travels the world – 'cause, I mean, that's how you get to see the rest of the world. If the music does good there, then you have a better chance of playing shows there… But having the success on this kind of song is just mindblowing. We all as DJs want a song like this to happen. So, for it to happen to me, I'm grateful, you know?" 

Duncker was supposed to visit Australia this month with the Dutch superstar DJ Tiësto. Nevertheless, the East Coast tour was postponed to 2023 due to COVID-19 restrictions – and Duncker has other commitments. "But we're gonna come back to Australia soon," he assures. "So I'm really excited about that." (Rumours suggest next summer.)

ACRAZE's bio touts him as "a true visionary". In fact, little is known of his come-up. Yet it was surprisingly grassroots, even mundane. Born to a Honduran mother and German/Italian father, he spent his formative years in New York, before relocating to Orlando, Florida at around eight. Duncker's teen preoccupation was sport. In his final year of high school, he switched to music. 

"I was like, 'I really wanna be a DJ.' I quit football. My dad was so pissed. He was so mad, 'cause I was doing so well in football. I was like, 'I'm not playing football anymore, Dad – I'm gonna get into DJing.' He was like, 'You've lost your mind. You can't do that. You gotta find a real career.' I was so adamant about being a DJ. I wanted to be in music." Duncker played his graduation – buddies dubbing him 'DJ Caution' after some hazard tape they uncovered at the venue. He subsequently decided that the handle was "super-corny", abandoning it for ACRAZE.

Duncker gravitated to the bass scene, his initial style variously described as dubstep, trap or Jersey club. Indeed, he debuted with the banger Pull Up on 4B's MACA Music in 2017. However, as COVID-19 struck, Duncker experimented with house – the genre traditionally "massive" in O-Town. His reinvention was organic. 

"I've always loved house music," he affirms. "Especially when I was first making music, I was making everything. I was making dubstep records one day or a pop/hip hop record one day, and then I would go to house… I was just fluctuating between all of them. But, during quarantine, I was just in my bedroom, just making bass music and it just didn't feel right. When I started making house stuff, I found myself getting out of my chair and dancing in my room alone. I felt like I was just alive during a time that I was alone.

"I still love the bass stuff, though. I just don't play it anymore. I'm just trying to move into the house stuff – 'cause I do feel like house is definitely making a comeback. I feel like it had a little time where it was dead. All the hard bass music was actually thriving at one point before the pandemic. Then, during the pandemic, I saw house was starting to make a comeback. So I was like, 'Oh, maybe I can do my own twist on it.'"

Duncker DJed his inaugural house set on the 2021 New Year's Eve, supporting France's Tchami at the local Celine Orlando club. That February, Duncker aired a remake of Lipps Inc.'s disco classic Funkytown (he's unfamiliar with the cover by Australia's Pseudo Echo). 

For his most pivotal outing, Duncker tapped into 2000s R&B nostalgia. In 2006, the Atlantan R&B girl group Cherish had released the popular Do It To It, featuring the YoungBloodZ rapper Sean P, as the lead single from their debut album Unappreciated. A sleepy Duncker heard the tune as background music on social media. "I was in my room one day, and I was on my phone, just going through Instagram in the morning," he begins. "I didn't even have my coffee. I shouldn't be on Instagram before I have coffee! But, that day, I just happened to be in bed, on Instagram – and this was pretty early, it was probably around 9:30am – and I heard someone playing [Cherish's Do It To It] in their car or something like that. It so happens that my phone was dying, 'cause I forgot to charge it – and it was starting to glitch while the song was playing. So it started singing, 'Bounce wit it, drop wit it, bounce wit it…' It just kept going – and then it died. I was just like, 'Man, this would sound kind of crazy on a song.'" Still uncaffeinated, Duncker booted up his computer, cutting a revamp in an hour. 

Duncker's Do It To It quickly proved a fave with super-DJs – among them his hero Chris Lake. Zedd mashed-up Do It To It and the Squid Game theme to intro his set at EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival) in Las Vegas, the footage achieving viral status. "I love it," Duncker raves of Zedd's effort. "I thought it was so clever." Today the two are friends. As significant, Do It To It would be a TikTok smash. 

Previously a struggling DJ, Duncker has since had opportunities he could only dream of – including a deal with the mega United Talent Agency (UTA) and, latterly, a prestigious residency at Vegas' Hakkasan Nightclub and Pepsi commercial sync. "These are all goals that me and my team have always wanted – me and my manager have always talked about signing with agencies," Duncker says. "I remember being back at home two years ago and we were trying to find an agent. Nobody wanted to pick us up. I remember showing a few agents Do It To It and they weren't even bothered by it."

Duncker relates his encountering Steve Gordon, UTA's Global Head of Electronic Music, again at Celine Orlando. "I kind of shook his hand and I was like, 'Hey, I'm ACRAZE.' He was just like, 'Yeah, nice to meet you.'" Duncker's colleague, the US-based French DJ Dombresky, then dropped Do It To It. "[Gordon] got up out of his chair and was just like, 'Whose song is this?' He came over and talked to me – he said, 'Yeah, we're gonna talk.'" Two days later, Duncker had his agent.

In retrospect, Duncker admits, "It's one of those stories" – albeit one with a valuable lesson. "I tell people, like, 'If you're not making music, networking is the best thing for you,' because I feel like it's 60/40 networking and then music is 40 – 'cause there is that stigma where, it's not about what you know, it's about who you know," he reasons. "So, getting in music, it's always good to go out and network with people, because you never know who you could meet – that could be a possible opportunity. If I wasn't there the same night that Steve was, I would have probably never had an agent."

A brand unto himself, Duncker continues to promote Do It To It. He's just shared a carnivalesque video, depicting him DJing, partying and jetsetting. Duncker is also rolling out remixes – so far issuing festive takes by Tiësto and Andrew Rayel. There's been speculation about a pop version with a guest rapper or singer. "Me and my team are still trying to figure it out, to see if that could be a thing. It's definitely possible, but I just don't know if it's the right move yet. But we're still exploring a lot of things – especially working with bigger artists." The DJ believes that "bigger artists" are increasingly keen to do something in the house "lane" and he welcomes being able to "help start a movement".

Duncker might be busy touring, but he's allowing time for the studio. "Actually, I was just in LA for seven days and we did sessions every single day – like eight to 10 hours a day," Duncker reveals. The gameplan is to focus on singles, prioritising originals over reworks. "I don't see myself making an album anytime soon, but it is definitely something I wanna do in the future."

Curiously, Duncker has linked with Cherish – the group thrilled at their serendipitous revival. "You know what's crazy is I was just in a studio session with them a few days ago," he spills. "So we're trying to work on music together, yeah. It was a very full circle moment – like they were so happy to see me, I was so happy to see them." As to what they were collaborating on? It's "top secret", the DJ quips.

In contrast to popdom, dance music is cross-generational – Tiësto notably dominating the mainstream years on from his emergence as a trance DJ in the '90s. But house pioneers often lament that newcomers are unaware of the music's roots – salient as it is a Black form and EDM festivals have been scrutinised over their poor diversity. Mind, Duncker, who speaks earnestly about "the culture", has "studied" the music. "I think it's very important," he emphasises. "It's good to know the culture behind what you're making, because it's history. If you know the history behind a lot of stuff, I think it brings more life to what you're doing – like you're doing it for a purpose now, not just you. You're pushing a culture."

Above all, Duncker regards himself as a positive force in EDM now that COVID-19 has peaked – new variants aside. The DJ felt jaded by the prevailing doom, isolation and social malaise. But, even as he commends partying as catharsis, Duncker's outlook is fatalistic. "After being in a pandemic for so long, I was ready to get on the dancefloor. I didn't care if I was gonna get sick or not – 'cause, you stay in the house for so long, I'm used to getting out, enjoying myself. So I was ready to party – and I see that in everyone's eyes now."

Duncker is living in the present. "I always say, when people come to my sets, 'Put your phone away, just dance and enjoy the music,'" he extols. "That's the hour that I really stress for people: just forget about what's happening and dance – because you never know [where] life may take you. You could die tomorrow. So you just gotta enjoy your life in that moment and create memories with your friends and family… – 'cause the world is crazy right now. So you just gotta take good things out of the bad."