By Ryan Hayes
With Journey of a Lifetime serving as their largest headlining tour to date, there is no better time to look back at the story of Zeds Dead — and no better place to do it than Vancouver.
In less than three weeks, on September 26, Zeds Dead will take over Freedom Mobile Arch in a celebration of their sweeping career. The tour is a grand prelude to a hiatus, and the event promises to be a spectacle that encompasses all the twists and turns of their nearly two-decade voyage.
A Big Moment for the Vancouver Scene
Journey of a Lifetime is a monumental capstone to the first phase of Zeds Dead's sonic opera, but it is also a particularly significant event for the Vancouver scene and the future of large-scale, single-day EDM events in the city.
Yes, both Kx5 and Zedd have played the brand-new Freedom Mobile Arch, but this will be Blueprint's first party at the 10,000-capacity venue — and both of those shows drew heavily on large-scale, pre-established tourist attractions. Having watched the sun set over the North Shore mountains while Kx5 played the Arch, I can tell you firsthand that the venue should be used for as many events as possible.
The Arch occupies a unique position in Vancouver's concert landscape, sitting squarely between the city's mid-size rooms and its arenas in both scale and opportunity.
That middle ground matters. A venue of this size gives Vancouver another option for ambitious productions that may not quite justify an arena setting, opening the door to a more diverse range of major electronic events that have historically skipped the city.
For Blueprint and dance music, it creates another canvas, another opportunity. And Zeds Dead feel like the perfect act to help establish it.
But to understand why this particular show matters, it helps to know who is taking the stage.
Building It Their Own Way
While Zeds Dead's sound has evolved dramatically over the course of their career, a devotion to curiosity guided by authenticity has led them every step of the way. From their earliest days as underground Toronto producers experimenting with dubstep, drum & bass and hip-hop to the expansive, cinematic world of their latest releases, Zeds Dead have never been sonically pigeonholed.
Their music has continually evolved — getting heavier, more melodic, more atmospheric and increasingly adventurous — a convergence of opposing ideas. Where others chased trends and fleeting viral attention, Zeds Dead never seemed interested in following the curve; they have always produced whatever excited them. It is that creative spark Journey of a Lifetime celebrates.
Before Zeds Dead, DC and Hooks were making hip-hop together as Mass Productions. But when electronic music captured their attention, they switched things up entirely. "We started Zeds Dead because we started liking electronic music," Hooks explained to Palm Beach New Times in 2013. For them, it was that simple.
Rather than waiting for the scene to make room for their sound, they actively built a community around their creative output. In 2009, they started Bassmentality in Toronto with The Killabits, giving the duo a place to experiment and develop a grassroots connection with the audiences who would later form the core of their fanbase.
The DIY spirit born in Bassmentality never disappeared, even after Zeds Dead stepped into the spotlight; it simply expanded. In 2016, they drew on the same philosophy to launch their label, Deadbeats. Deadbeats was not only about maintaining independence and creative control, but