12th Planet
By: Jeffrey McDermott
On 11-11-11 at 11:11.11pm, that’s twelve ones, 12th planet was at the tail end of his set at a sold out concert at Congress Theater in Chicago. Since it happens every 100 years 12th had everyone light lighters and pull out cell phones. It looked like a sea of stars; the planets must have been aligned because everybody that was in that building witnessed an unbelievable amount of talent and dedication towards music put on a remarkable show by Nadastrom, TwoFresh, 12th Planet and Skrillex. The Mothership Tour blew me away from start to finish and was also the last night for most of these guys to play together and it felt like they put an exclamation point right at the end of the time they shared together. 12th planet was leaving the next day to fly out to Milwaukee. The Mothership was scheduled to go over to Europe and meet back up in the states with 12th Planet on December 8th.
12th planet, whose real name is John Dadzie, on his tour bus and looked like he was beyond exited to be where he is in his career, he has an amazing amount of force he puts into his songs and just life in general. John has a track on Korn’s new album coming out, that he said “The whole thing came about with their management. They have worked with Datsik and Skrillex and like the ideas that came out of those projects. Jonathan Davis is a big electronic fan and told them to reach out to me. I was a big fan of Korn when I was in 7-10 grade, playing in Korn cover bands, so to be in the room physically with them was just unreal and completely flattering. A lot of the bass lines that I come up with are inspired from them when I was younger. We are still friends to this day I still talk to John once a week. “
When they were finished at the Congress an after party set was at The Mid about 4 miles away and I was able to tag along to see what life was like for these guys. This is where I really got to understand how close and passionate everybody on the tour is. 12th Planet played a killer set with Skrillex where they switched up on the deck every other song or so with more energy here than at the Congress. Seeing the chemistry that these guys have together on and off stage was inspiring. They all just live, breathe, and eat making and performing music. John told me “Skrillex is my favorite to collaborate with by far we have great chemistry together and he’s the most talented producer that I’ve ever been friends with so I love working with him. Also Flinch is a production partner of mine that I have been working with for the last 6-7 years whether it is house electro drum and bass or dub step we have been working together for a long time.” when I asked who his favorite artists to work with were. Keep your eye on 12th planet, he defiantly has his hands full with music and touring, which is a good thing because he loves every moment of it.
