Grinding Nemo

Nemo’ is Latin for ‘no man’ (or ‘no one’) – and it has been used as a character name by Jules Verne and Charles Dickens, not to mention in that animation about the baby clownfish. Now Sydney is home to a bass music DJ/producer known as NEMØ. The bemused guy behind the moniker, Owen Anderson, quickly dispels any mystery. “Oh, it’s not really that exciting! If you turn my first name upside down, it kind of says ‘Nemo’.”

At just 22, the shy Anderson has made an impact in a short time. NEMØ is already his second EDM project. “I was actually in an electro duo. We started making a bit of a name for ourselves throughout Sydney – [but] then the other guy [Ben Timmins] went off, with uni and work commitments. So he left it and I stuck with it.” That outfit, launched in 2009, was called Detektives. “It wasn’t, like, major big.” Nonetheless, they did pick up a residency at Sydney’s iconic Chinese Laundry. “Originally, we started because [Timmins’] brother was a DJ as well. He went overseas and left all his equipment, so we could just muck around with it on the weekends and stuff. Then it got a bit serious – that was about the end of year 12, I think.” For the curious, Detektives’ SoundCloud is still up.

As a young electronic buff, Anderson was into “the French kinda stuff, like Daft Punk,” but he soon gravitated to Germany’s ‘noisier’ Boys Noize and Canadian electro-punks MSTRKRFT. “Then all these new genres started coming out,” he recalls. Anderson would study Diplo as well as Dillon Francis. Dubstep blew up – as did moombahton. Anderson decided to introduce a distinct vehicle for the hybrid bass era. 

The DJ appreciates bass music’s paradoxical nature as much as its energy. “I just like the way people react to it,” he laughs. “It makes people so angry but happy at the same time! You see these days [that] there’s all the mosh pits going on and stuff. I love seeing people so happy and enjoying it.” Anderson welcomes the fact that the bass scene is ever-changing. “It’s now more of the twerk vibe,” he notes. (Cue Anderson’s “twerkrave” remix of JTFU by Adelaide’s Dirt Cheap.) 

Lately, Anderson has mainly aired remixes – and more are to come. “I’ve got an EP, which is in the final stages now [and] which will hopefully be out by the end of the year.” Anderson has had interest in it from OneLove and Vicious Bitch. “It’s a bit up in the air.”

Anderson clearly has an affinity with America’s dance overground and “would love” to hit the US, joining what has become a huge Aussie invasion. “Most of my followers on SoundCloud are all from America,” he says. So far outside of Oz, he’s just DJed in New Zealand. But, before he emerges as a jetsetting super-DJ, Anderson will headline Perth’s new Yum Cha night at Ambar. What can peepz look forward to? “A lot of bass, a lot of sweat ... good times!”