The butterfly effect is perhaps the most poetic concept in chaos theory: the idea that one small change, even seemingly insignificant, can profoundly shape the future.
In the 1960s, mathematician and meteorologist Edward Norton Lorenz coined the term, which stems from how a tornado’s exact time of formation and path can be influenced by minor disturbances, such as a distant butterfly flapping its wings weeks earlier. If James Hype was the oncoming storm, a pair of DJ decks—a 15th birthday gift from his parents—were the butterfly.
“Where would I be if I didn’t get the decks I wanted?” Hype asked rhetorically in an interview with EDM.com. “All of my mates used to skate. I wasn’t very good, but I wasn’t bad.
“I made skateboarding videos. I got a digital video camera for $100, a really low-level one. I loved the skate videos because they had really cool music. Sometimes drum & bass or hip-hop. Cutting the video with the music was the most exciting thing for me.”
The decks weren’t a subtle nod from Hype’s parents to abandon academia for music. This wasn’t a viral Fisher-Price baby DJ deck moment. More likely, they were a thoughtful gift from supportive parents.
Hype was clever, studying at a high school that required testing for entry. Everyone in his graduating class left their small town for university—except for him.
“I wasn’t excited by academic stuff. It felt like a waste of time,” Hype said. “Music was the one thing I had, so I dove headfirst into that. I’d go to the nightclubs in Liverpool when I wasn’t playing just to be in the scene. Eventually, I made friends in the scene, and the music took over everything.”
It took time for Hype’s parents to comprehend his decision. He worked primarily as a DJ for a decade before taking off as a producer. He committed full-bore to music production in 2017, releasing numerous remixes and his first official single.
It wasn’t the path planned for him, but it was a living.
“My mom didn’t think it was a real job,” Hype said. “She definitely thought, ‘Oh, maybe he’ll do this for a year and find a proper job one day.’ I got to a point where I was making alright money and moved way from home.”
Communicating crowded dancefloors to people who weren’t there is tough. Translating a booming Internet presence to parents raised without computers is nearly impossible. Hype’s 2017 single “More Than Friends, ”which received one Platinum and two Gold certifications, was common ground for understanding.
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“They didn’t understand what I did, but they knew I was surviving,” Hype said. “It wasn’t until 2017 that I made my first successful record and got a gold disk that goes on the wall, and it went on the wall in my mom and dad’s house, that they understood.”
This career retrospective came at a serendipitous time. Hype was one week removed from performing at BBC Radio 1’s “Big Weekend” in Liverpool when he sat down with us. The opportunity was a milestone achievement for Hype, one he never expected despite his wealth of accomplishments. It transported him to simpler times.
“When I was a teenager, I used to skip school, take the bus over to Liverpool,” Hype recalled. “It was so cool. They had record shops and all these inspirational things that we didn’t have in the town I grew up in. Liverpool was always magic to me. Liverpool is the source of so much of my musical inspiration. All the clubs in Liverpool used to play house music.”
Hype seemed lost in the memories, as if he were revisiting them for the first time. A young James Edward Lee Marsland, on the 25-minute drive between Merseyside and Liverpool, was turning the radio dial between 97 and 99 FM.
“That’s the station I listened to growing up, driving my first car,” Hype reflected. “I knew all the presenters. I was obsessed with Radio 1…
“Seeing ‘BBC Radio 1, Big Weekend’ at the top of the stage and then me below. I thought, ‘Wow. I never thought I’d do that.”
Hype cherishes the experience, but he doesn’t have much time to savor it. The Liverpool performance was early in a wild six-day sprint: EDC Las Vegas, London, Ibiza, Manchester, Liverpool, London (again), Philadelphia, Atlantic City, the Hamptons, Miami, Cleveland, Puerto Rico, and home.
His work rate had him down to the wire preparing for his 16-week SYNC residency in Ibiza, which he’s currently on, with additional shows planned for other cities. The new show blends Hype’s music with real-time visuals synchronized to his button cues. He promises not only a unique experience, but one championing his passion for non-pre-recorded sets, one of the electronic music community’s most contentious flashpoints.
“I was watching a YouTube video about these guys who designed physical game shows. They’d make the stands with the buzzer and stuff,” Hype explained. “I thought, ‘What if we used this technology and me hitting the buttons into something everyone in the room can see?’”
Hype has become one of the most prominent voices advocating for live physical DJing, perfect flaws and all. He believes the booming online popularity of electronic music has helped combat the bloat of pre-recorded sets.
“I think the golden era of pre-record might be behind us,” Hype said. “If you go back to 2018, when there were loads of big EDM shows but there wasn’t so much online.”
“I think everyone is conscious now of not doing anything crazy because the cameras will see us and it’ll end up on the Internet.”
Hype’s accomplishments read like movie end credits. But success doesn’t spark joy at a one-to-one ratio. That’s a hypothesis that Hype has reinforced over time.
“There have been a few periods in my life where I’ve achieved the thing I always wanted. I got there and I realized I was already over it. I wanted the next thing,” Hype said. “Sometimes, I’ll achieve something today that I wanted four years ago. I get it today and think, ‘Meh.’”
Hype’s diminishing emotional returns validate a classic sentiment: appreciating the simple things. He echoed a feeling recently shared by fellow producer Elderbrook, campaigning for journey over destination.
“We constantly chase things we want because we feel like when we get them, we’re going to feel fulfilled and happy,” Hype said. “If you’re counting on that, you might get to the thing you want and realize it won’t fulfill you.”
“You have to find the happiness and fulfillment in what you’re doing every day,” he adds. “You need to find happiness and fulfillment in going to the studio and making 10 records that are shit. That’s the grind you have to go through every single day to get to the one that’ll enter the charts or whatever.”
Hype’s career is the culmination of countless little moments: the first turn of an EQ knob, a short drive to Liverpool or the tedium of producing his tenth record that day. It’s good that he finds joy in the little things—after all, small flutters set his storm in motion.
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