User:LivinAWestLife/Draft:Au5

Austin Collins, known professionally as Au5 (/eɪ,ju,faɪv/) is an American electronic dance music producer, DJ, instrumentalist and remixer from New Jersey. Collins started producing music under the name Au5 in 2008. His music spans various genres and styles among electronic music, such as dubstep, trance, electro house, progressive house, complextro, and drum and bass. Collins has released three albums independently, as well as numerous EPs, singles and remixes for record labels such as Monstercat, Armada Music, NoCopyRightSounds, and Simplify Recordings. His song "Snowblind", released through Monstercat, was featured on the compilation Monstercat 019 - Endeavour and has since gathered over 10 million views on YouTube.

Collins had been involved in music from his childhood, as a bassist in a number of amateur bands. His first two albums as Au5, Minimality and Anchus Definy, mainly featured trance elements. In 2012, Collins won the Seven Lions Official Remix contest on Beatport, with his remix of "Days to Come", which was released on Skrillex's OWSLA label. Collins joined Monstercat in 2013 with the track "Sweet", which was followed by his extended play (EP) Blossom. Collins has collaborated with Danyka Nadeau, a vocalist, in a number of tracks, including "Follow You", "Crossroad", and "Inside", all released through Monstercat.

Collins made no releases on Monstercat between 2016 and 2017. During this period, he released the EP Freefall through Gravitas Recordings, as well as the singles Lush and Closer through NoCopyRightSounds. Collins returned to Monstercat in 2018 with his song The Journey. He later released a collaboration with Nytrix, Only In A Dream. Collins has since released official remixes of tracks from recognized artists, such as BT, Celldweller, Illenium, and Seven Lions.

Early Life
Collins has been involved with music at an early age. He received weekly classical piano training until the age of 12. He started using Easy Beat, a simple multi-track MIDI sequencer, when he was 8 years old, and when he was 11, he learned the Digital Audio Interface (DAW) program GarageBand. Collins was involved in numerous bands, primarily serving as a bassist.

2009-2012: Minimality and Anchus Definy
Collins released his debut album, Minimality, independently on September 28 of 2010. The album spans 10 tracks, mostly composed instrumentally in the genre of trance. This was followed by his second album, Anchus Definy, which, according to Collins, was "a fusion of dubstep and techno", and included "various styles of trance-infused bass music". The album was released on June 30, 2011. Incorporation of dubstep elements continued through his first extended play, Iconoclast, which was released on May 14, 2012 through Atom Recordings.

In 2012, Collins, in a collaboration with I.Y.F.F.E, won an offical remix contest of Seven Lions' track "Days to Come" on the extended play of the same name, which was released on Skrillex's OWSLA label. Au5 also collaborated with BT on the single "Partysaurus Overflow" for Walt Disney Records/Pixar, and was also featured with Matt Hales on BT's single "Surrounded", which made it to #2 on Beatport's dubstep chart. Alongside Bada and Fractal, Au5 contributed to the track "City Life" from BT's album A Song Across Wires, released on August 16, 2013, by Armada Music.

2013-2015: Monstercat
"Sweet" (A collaboration with Auratic and I.Y.F.F.E), a complextro song, was Collins's debut release on Monstercat on February 11, 2013. He later released "Halcyon", a drumstep track along with Fractal. Au5's first solo release on Monstercat was his Blossom EP, featuring the melodic dubstep track "Blossom" and the drum and bass track "Moonland." A 4-track EP was later released on Monstercat with Fractal on December 2, 2013, titled Secret Weapon EP, with 3 of the tracks uploaded to the Monstercat YouTube channel.

"Follow You", a progressive house song featuring vocals from Danyka Nadeau, was released through Monstercat in March 2014, and a remix EP was released on July the same Year, featuring remixes from Rootkit, Virtual Riot, Fractal, Ducked Ape, Volant, Rhythmics, and a VIP mix. Collins later released "Snowblind", featuring vocals from Tasha Baxter, a dubstep song with melodic and trance elements. It has since become Au5's most popular song, reaching #1 on Beatport and amassing over 8 million views on YouTube. A free self-released remix EP was later released. He closed out his 2014 tracks with the commercial house song "Crossroad" featuring Danyka Nadeau.

2015 saw Collins release Tracks of increasing variety. "Dream Of Love", a glitch hop collaboration with Heavy J featuring vocals from Kenny Raye, was released on Simplify Recordings in May. Au5 later released 3 singles under Monstercat: "Inside", an electro house track with vocals from Danyka Nadeau; "Atlantis", a dubstep song; and "Guardians" a progressive house song featuring Fiora. He later released a 2-track EP with Fractal entitled "Ison / Pavonine" on the compilation Monstercat 025 - Threshold, which would be his last release for some time. Collins stated that he and Monstercat began to deviate in terms of their music, but they were on good terms.

It was announced on February 10, 2015 that Collins would be joining Infected Mushroom on their 2015 US Tour.

2016-2017: Freefall and other projects
Collins released an extended play, titled "Freefall", on Gravitas Recordings in 2016. He began releasing with NoCopyrightSounds during late 2017, with “Lush”, a collaboration with Last Heroes. He followed this release with “Closer”. Collins released his first sample pack "Elements", following this with "Freefall" based off songs from the extended play. "Goo Lagoon" was released on Gravitas Recordings as part of their "Mirrors" compilation on November 2017.

2018: Return to Monstercat
Collins released a ten-track extended play titled "The Recency Effect" with British producer Mr. Bill, featuring five original tracks and a remix of each by artists on the label Upscale.

After a 3-year break on releasing on the label, Collins released "The Journey", featuring singer Trove, on Monstercat through the Instinct channel. Collins has stated that he will be working on a collaboration with Seven Lions, after remixing his song "Ocean". Collins would go on to join Seven Lions in his "Journey II" Tour, along with MitiS and Jason Ross.

On October 2018, Collins released his remix of Celldweller's "Eon", which would be featured on the remix compilation of "Live Upon A Blackstar". It contained metal influences, with Collins stating "this remix is probably one of the heaviest and darkest things I've made yet". He will be releasing a collaboration with Nytrix, "Only In A Dream", on Monstercat.

Musical Style
Collins has been known to employ trance influences in his dubstep tracks and elsewhere. His tracks are generally characterised by a strong basslines and atmospheric pads. Au5 has produced dubstep, drumstep, drum and bass, electro house, progressive house, trance, ambient as well as orchestral, frequently combining elements of each. He has collaborated with Fractal and I.Y.F.F.E multiple times.

Au5 cites Fractal, Xilent, BT, Mr. Bill and Isqa as musical inspirations.

Personal Life
Collins currently lives in Denver, Colorado.