Grandtheft

Aaron Waisglass, better known by his stage name Grandtheft, is a Canadian DJ and musician based in Toronto. He is signed to Diplo's record label Mad Decent. He gained recognition as a trap artist, for remixing songs like “Summer“, “Sweet Nothing“ and “[...] Better Have My Money” and having songs charted around the world.

Early life

Grandtheft grew up in Brockville, Ontario, Canada and went to high school at Brockville Collegiate Institute before going to McGill University in Montreal, where he started to learn about DJing and club music. He is classically trained on the piano and started writing music at 11 years old. He also played in bands during high school. He was interested in rap and dance music before he was introduced to the rave culture by an older student in school. He later got himself a sampler and started using it. Grandtheft has DJed since the early 2000s and built a name for himself in Canada as part of the Team Canada DJ's duo. He has been booked to support huge acts (U2, Arcade Fire, The Roots, Raekwon, Black Eyed Peas, Lupe Fiasco, K-OS, Jurassic 5, Metric, Bedouin Soundclash, DJ AM, Kardinal Offishal, Jack Johnson, Wyclef Jean, RJD2, Avicii and The Chainsmokers) and supplied the soundtrack for a long list of high-profile parties for celebrities including one of Paris Hilton's birthday parties. His former duo, Team Canada played major events nationwide including Canada Day on Parliament Hill for a crowd of 100 000+. They were also selected as the Official DJs of The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler.

He uses Ableton as his digital audio workstation and several plugins including Serum and UAD. He also uses instruments like vintage synthesizers such as Roland Jupiter 6, DX7 and moogs.

Career

2015

Grandtheft collaborated with director Timur Musabay, who previously helped film his low-budget music video in 2012, to create a 'stunning virtual reality experience' for the single “Summer In The Winter”.

On 30 October 2015, he released "Quit This City" as a single off his debut EP of the same name, via Mad Decent/Pirates Blend. A music video for the song was also released, featuring pop singer Lowell. It was filmed in Barcelona and directed by John Poliquin.

He collaborated with Sleepy Tom in the future bass single "Hold On".

2016

Grandtheft collaborated with Major Lazer to release "Number One", a remake of Johnny Osbourne's 1985 dancehall classic, as a single. It was premiered at the 2016 Ultra Music Festival in Miami.

2017

He released a single titled "Easy Go", a future bass collaboration with fellow Canadian, Delaney Jane. The official music video was released on 23 January 2017, through Mad Decent's YouTube channel. The video was produced, directed and edited by Tyler Hynes. The song debuted at 46th on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. It is Grandtheft's second song to enter the chart, the first being "Mobbin", a collaboration with Headspin that debuted on the chart at 27th in 2014. The song started to gain airplay on pop radio. Grandtheft and Delaney Jane also supported The Chainsmokers on select dates during their Memories...Do Not Open Tour to promote the song. It featured a remix from Hunter Siegel.

Discography

Extended plays

Singles