We recently connected with Joel Hills and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Joel, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The overall focus of my production work in electronic music has been one of unification and opening minds. When I first got into the electronic music scene it was through underground raves. The most beautiful thing about the rave scene was the fact that all were welcome that came with an open mind, kind heart, a desire to dance and a want to enjoy amazing music with other similar souls! As electronic music went more mainstream, the different major subgenres became more isolated. Bass music headbangers didn’t like house heads, house heads wouldn’t be caught dead at the bass stages. People started prejudging events and songs based on genre and this went against the inclusive that the rave scene was founded on. I have focused on blending all these subgenres into brand new ones so that it may open a few minds into other subgenres. Im doing what I can to return electronic music to its rave roots of inclusion, peace, love, unity and respect.

Joel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into the rave music scene in the early 2000’s. I absolutely fell in love with the music and wanted to figure out a way to be part of it. I did that through DJing Back on the East Coast and made a pretty big name for myself as a DJ. However, it came to a point that I had to choose between my day job profession or DJing. At that time producers were blowing up in the electronic music scene and without any background in music theory/production and decided to focus on my profession, at that time I wasn’t focused on my passions.
upon deciding that I had had my fill of the Washington DC area and everything that had to do with it once I left that area, I decided that I was going to go all in with all of my time on making music and I would do that for two years before moving back into DJing as well. I changed the moniker I used to align with my production focus even though this meant starting from scratch as far as being known. At 18 months of making music, I’ve passed over 100k streams on Spotify and keep growing daily. One of my last songs Letting Go has almost 35k streams itself in a month and a half. I’m at the point now where I’ve been providing my production and mastering abilities to other producers and my focus in 2025 is to move my time to 50% in the studio 50% back out and DJing. There is nothing greater than creating a vibe or soundtrack to others core memories!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

so the song I really released recently named “Letting Go” I brought my now ex fiancé into the studio to get her input on a track I was making. A year prior while she was dealing with retribution from an employer at that time, We ended up having to stay with some of her family, which offered us a place to stay. Turns out that was a poor decision as they did everything in their power to try to ruin our lives, including making us homeless at the time. A year later, I started making “Letting Go” with input from my now ex. I wanted the song to be a force for everyone that was trying to let go of something, someone, an experience, an addiction, negative thoughts and anything else that can be holding them back from their highest timeline. Which in turn became a bittersweet blessing as I had to “let go” of my fiancée at the time as she had become toxic to my life…… Every song I release has a part of me in it and I make them for myself, however, I’m happy and grateful that others have identified with or enjoyed them as well.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think that there’s two real answers for that. The first being when you actually get to perform or play your music for others. You get to create a vibe or a soundtrack for others to make memories too, hopefully some really great core memories. The greatest form of flattery I believe an artist can receive is if someone in the future hears one of your songs and it brings up an amazing time they had with others. you’ll never know that it happens, but I think that should be our ultimate goal as artists.
The other answering is just the journey, every bit of it. Every little evolution in my abilities and sound, Every person that reaches out and says they enjoyed a track. Every other artist I’ve been blessed to work with, just all of it. Creating art that is authentic to your soul is the most gratifying and purpose driven thing Ive done in my life!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.agentofkaosaok.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aok_agentofkaos
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AgentOfKaosAOK
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/AgentOfKaosAOK
• Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/pDtTTmdRdkYqZP8n7
• Other: Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/2AruQ6rIRbQjUEmcpeWDMm?si=JoUHpqfxSUqYFAc6nC1AHA

Image Credits

Joel Hills
Jennifer Houtman