Many of us die-hard EDM fans have the fleeting dream of going from a festival-goer to world-famous headlining DJ. Isabelle Rezazadeh was one of those thousands of festival-goers in 2013 attending Hard Day of the Dead in Los Angeles, California. Over the next six years, Isabelle took inspiration from that very weekend of music and launched herself into the circle of world-renowned EDM DJs. You may know her better as REZZ.
She caught the attention of important players in the EDM world early on in her music production career. In 2015 Skrillex noticed her work and reached out to her, which ultimately led to the releasing of her first EP titled “Insurrection” that same year. This three-track EP was released on NestHQ, a subsidiary label of OWSLA, the thriving music label that was originally founded by Skrillex himself. 2015 proved to be a critical year for REZZ as she also released music on the mau5trap label which was discovered by another legendary heavy hitter in the EDM realm, deadmau5. She kicked off the 2016 year by dropping the four-track EP The Silence Is Deafening under the label and quickly started gaining traction among Electronic Music fans.
I attended my first REZZ show in June of 2016 when she was only 21 years old. This show was a part of REZZURECTION, which was her first tour following signing with mau5trap. To be honest, I hadn’t listened to a single track of hers before attending this show and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. She was playing at Shady Park in Tempe, AZ, a smaller outdoors venue that has a maximum capacity of roughly 600 people. While she did not sell out this tour stop, she did have an impressive crowd show up to dance their asses off in the summertime heat of Arizona. There was no mistaking when REZZ came on to the stage as she rocked her signature LED light glasses. She took us on a fucking ride that night with her set! She hit us with some space vibes, deep and heavy bass, and insane visuals to match. REZZ had blasted us through her set and I was left wanting another whole hour at the end of the night.
I remember walking out of that show with my friends trying to verbalize what we had just experienced! Was it Dubstep? Nah, she had a more dynamic sound that came with her hard-hitting bass. So then was it Bass Music? Nah, that was way too general for her sound. We cycled through any possible genre we could remotely classify her under and we simply couldn’t manage to agree on one! What we did agree on was the fact that REZZ had taken us to another planet for a few hours.
She quickly made a name for herself through the course of the 2016 calendar year. In 2017 she returned to Arizona and was one of the more notable names on a stacked lineup for Goldrush Festival in Chandler. At that time half of my friends were going crazy with me over her being announced and the other half was hitting me with the response of, “Who is REZZ?” She absolutely KILLED her set and I remember looking around at the entire crowd exploding with weird and exciting energy! By the end of that hour, everyone knew who REZZ was. Her Goldrush appearance was in November of 2017 and she made a turnaround return to the valley where she flexed her new fan base HARD. In February of 2018, she headlined a show at The Van Buren with EPROM as her featured support. REZZ struck absolute gold with this gig. This was a brand new venue that held a capacity of 1800 people and she sold out two weeks ahead of the show. I distinctly remember the mania that ensued in the weeks before this show as people searched endlessly for the coveted tickets! In less than a two-year span, REZZ had grown her Arizona fan base from not being able to sell out a 600 person venue to creating mass chaos when she maxed an 1800 person venue weeks in advance. It was impressive, to say the least.
REZZ has always valued her fans and shows this in many different ways. While I can’t exactly pinpoint the origin of the name, her faithful fans refer to themselves as “Rezzbians” and lovingly call her “Space Mom”. How could you not call her Space Mom when she routinely takes her fans off to another world, universe, or dimension. She interacts with her Rezzbians via socials regularly and keeps them included in her creation process. In an industry where fame, money, and power can end up destroying a gifted creator, REZZ has grown into an incredible artist and Space Mom alike.
She continued her explosive growth well into 2019. With a slew of notable performances at festivals and venues worldwide, REZZ has shown no signs of slowing down. In March of 2019, she had another headlining show in Phoenix, but this time she had to be booked at a much larger event space! The Rawhide Event Center can accommodate roughly 6,000 guests which is the scale that REZZ is routinely playing gigs at. In November of 2019 REZZ was one of the three headliners for Dusk Music Festival in Tucson, Arizona. Absolutely nobody was asking who she was this time around and instead they were planning their trips down to Tucson for the weekend festival specifically to see Space Mom and her weird-Techno-Bass music!
*Updated July 2020* It was no sfmfstaffise when Relentless Beats announced AREZZONA, an event stylized entirely around REZZ herself, that was originally scheduled for March of 2020. This show was slated to shake valley Rezzbians and visitors alike at the Rawhide Event Center. A rescheduled date has yet to be announced but honestly, her faithful Rezzbians are going to pack the place regardless! Considering she spent much of 2019 partnering with a list of incredible artists I’m sure the support is going to reflect the powerhouse that is REZZ.
Isabelle Rezazadeh completely dominated this past decade transforming herself from one of the millions of festival-goers into a world-renowned artist that is constantly sticking true to herself. Her explosive growth in Arizona seems to be a reliable metric and she continues to push higher and higher. There really is no limit for what REZZ can accomplish over this next decade as she has proven herself to be relatively limitless. If REZZ is a new name to you, it’s time to check her out because her evolving Techno-Bass sound isn’t going anywhere!
