Denver-based DJ and producer Maddy O’Neal is something of a beacon, a light both familiar and distant shining gloriously against the night sky, warmly inviting you to follow it to safety. Her music — funky and heartfelt at times, dirty and all-encompassing at others — feels like intertwining your fingers with those of a new friend and taking off running through the city streets, laughing with abandon as you are guided deeper into the unknown. In this sense, O’Neal and what she creates represent a distinct sense of courage, a willingness to trust the light found within your chest and bring it to the surface so that you may navigate any darkness you find yourself lost within. For this and many other reasons, O’Neal has become one of Denver’s most beloved and sought-after EDM artists, and her star is only continuing to rise. She’ll prove this yet again on Friday, August 30th, as she opens for REZZ at Red Rocks, one of the season’s biggest shows.
303 Magazine recently sat down with O’Neal to discuss the show, her early interest in music, embracing potential, the importance of community and much more.
Born and raised in St. Louis, O’Neal grew up in a home filled with music. She described her dad as a “very psychedelic rock guy in the 70s” who “played in bands since before [she] was born,” traveling the country in a “gutted-out Wonderbread van” that he used as a tour bus. As a result of this, O’Neal believes that she and her brother grew up with “music in [their] blood.” They had a communal “music den” in the home she grew up in, a room filled with “drums and a bunch of other crazy instruments” that also held the family record player, on which her dad would play old blues and Grateful Dead records. O’Neal and her family would gather in this room for “family music time,” which she said are some of her fondest memories from growing up. These experiences ultimately influenced her brother to “start a bunch of indie bands in St. Louis.”
Despite her upbringing and because of her brother and father’s dedication to pursuing music professionally, O’Neal always thought a music career was “their thing” and that by the time she moved to Boulder in 2008 to attend the University of Colorado, it was “too late” for her to start creating music on her own. However, she started to take note of the EDM scene that was burgeoning in Boulder at the time and became curious, describing it as a feeling of being “cracked wide open.” She realized she didn’t need to be “classically trained on guitar to become a producer,” eventually teaching herself how to sample vinyl and make beats before “diving in” and deciding to “find [her] niche.”
O’Neal elaborated on this feeling of “diving in,” saying that while she initially started producing for fun her sophomore year, she eventually “got the hang of it” and “immersed [herself] in the scene,” making the right connections and “learning how the industry worked.” As she dove deeper, she began to see a future for herself in music and joined a now-defunct group called Krooked Drivers. After spending around four years making music with them and “lightly touring around Colorado,” O’Neal decided to start her solo career and released her first project, Introspect, in 2016. She said it was around this point that she would think to herself, “‘I’m going to go after this because I have put so much time in and if I’m going to start over with a solo project, I’m going to give it everything that I have.'”
O’Neal learned some valuable lessons during this period that she believes can help other young artists who are just starting, the biggest of which is to find community. She said, “I think a big part of my early days was finding and immersing myself in the community. A lot of what helped me was meeting other artists and sharing the experience with them. I met Late Night Radio and Artifacts and Daily Bread. Being able to talk to them and share things that we’ve learned and tips and tricks about the industry, I think, was really important. It can be isolating, just sitting in your house trying to learn crazy shit. Having people to talk to and make it more of a community aspect, I think, is a big thing.“
In the eight or so years since the release of Introspect, O’Neal’s sound has expanded quite a bit, which she attributed to experience coupled with her ever-deepening interest in artistic evolution. She said, “I started out sampling vinyl and going super old school, going to record stores, shopping samples and making beats. Then I taught myself a little music theory and started using synthesizers. The next step was really diving into sound design and figuring out how to get that big sound that I wanted. The further I got into DJing, the more it helped me as a producer as well because it made me think about how I was producing and how that translated live. I think a lot of those steps helped me level up. The last two years have definitely been a big focus on sound design and getting that big sound out of my production.”
One full album (Ricochet, released in 2022) and many singles and remixes later, O’Neal now approaches each of her projects with eyes wide open and can adapt her approach based on the context of what she’s working on. She spoke about the differences between writing full albums and writing singles, saying, “The cool thing about writing albums is I feel like I have more freedom to expand and write some chiller stuff. I definitely lean into the feeling of what I’m writing versus if I’m writing a single and I’m picturing myself playing it at a festival, I’m just like, ‘I need this to knock’ more so than wanting to make someone cry. So it depends on the context.” No matter the project, O’Neal wants whatever she makes “to feel intelligent and make people feel something.”
As O’Neal has grown and evolved as an artist, she’s witnessed the larger EDM scene as a whole change along with her, attributing much of this change to the increased reliance on social media that’s occurred over the last 10 or 15 years. She said, “I think the industry as a whole has evolved primarily because of social media and how we have to market ourselves. People are popping up out of nowhere off of a viral video or TikTok or this or that, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s more accessible to anybody, which is awesome, and it can be discovered much easier.”
Though O’Neal described her career as a “slower climb,” she said she feels that she’s “just now getting [her] time” and deservedly so. Since embarking on her solo career, O’Neal’s been touring nearly full-time, saying she now plays around 70 shows a year. As a result, she’s become one of the most visible rising stars in the national EDM community. She’s played some of the biggest festivals in the country, such as Coachella, Lollapalooza, Summer Camp, Electric Forest, Envision, and many, many more. She’s been endorsed by titans of the genre, such as Pretty Lights, and has collaborated with a myriad of artists including CloZee, jackLNDN, Big Gigantic, and so many more. “Now I just pick and choose my moments,” she said. “I’m mature and focused enough to really take on what’s in front of me right now.”
O’Neal attributes a lot of her success to Denver itself, saying that it has grown to become the “bass capital of the country” and that the city has cultivated a dedicated and loving community within its EDM scene as a result. She said, “Denver has attracted this very specific niche of people that are all very like-minded, open-minded people who are seeking a freer lifestyle. It’s very laid back, and people are friendly. I think the size of Denver is also a big factor. It’s just big enough for everything to be happening at once, but also to be able to run into people and have some familiarity.” She specifically mentioned Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom’s SHIFT Thursday events that recur weekly as somewhere to find the Denver EDM community thriving.
While she said it’s not something she actively thinks about, O’Neal has become a fixture in this growing Denver scene, and though she’s never necessarily avoided this fact, she finds herself being confronted with it more than she used to. She said “younger producers” now approach her with a bit more reverence than she’s accustomed to, which points both to her humility but also to how indelible of an example she’s set with her career. O’Neal has proved that a person can be self-taught and pull themselves through a notoriously brutal industry and come out the other side shining.
EDM was once, and largely still is in some respects, quite a boy’s club. “When I started out, there were maybe six female producer/DJs that I was aware of,” O’Neal said. “And I was not able to be friends with them. It was much less accessible.” This isn’t the case anymore, largely due to the success of artists like O’Neal and other female contemporaries. She said, “I think that the coolest part about what I’ve done is feeling like I was part of paving the way for other females and that makes me feel awesome to be connected to a bigger movement than just myself.”
Now, O’Neal finds herself on the cusp of what she described as her “biggest show ever.” This Friday, August 30th, she’ll be opening up for REZZ at Red Rocks. Featuring an all-female lineup, the fourth annual “REZZ Rocks,” as it’s known colloquially, is one the biggest events of the summer, and this year appears to be no different.
This show’s been in the making for some time, as O’Neal has been testing out ideas for her set at festivals throughout the summer, fine-tuning everything until it’s as close to perfect as she can get. Red Rocks means a lot to her. She described it as “the final boss” for so many artists, especially those that are local. She said, “Every time I’ve played there, I’ve cried tears of joy as I walked off stage. It’s a pretty wild feeling. My mom lives here now and I credit Denver and this community for a lot of my success. So whenever I play there, it feels that much cooler knowing that the people who are watching me have been a part of my journey in a big way.”
Besides the Red Rocks show, O’Neal has so much for her on the horizon. She’ll release a new collaboration with Jason Leech and the legendary DJ Paul of Three Six Mafia titled “Run It Back” on September 4th. She’s also putting the finishing touches on her next album, which has yet to be named and will be released sometime in October. In addition to all the new music, she’ll continue appearing at shows and festivals, both local and national, until the end of the year.
Maddy O’Neal is a testament to what can happen when a creative person trusts themselves to harness all the potential they hold within. There is light inside us all, fire burning so hot it can scorch the world if we let it. O’Neal has burned her footsteps into this very plane of existence and shown those who hear her music that they can forge their own path in this life if they allow themselves to. It’s never too late.
Get tickets to the 4th Annual REZZ Rocks here!