Jesse Cooper, known under the pseudonym Mt Eden (and formerly Mt Eden Dubstep), is a New Zealand

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

artist based in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

. Popular tracks include "Sierra Leone"a remix of

Freshlyground Freshlyground is an Afro-fusion pop band formed in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2002. Freshlyground is best known for writing, performing and playing the instrumentals of the afrofusion and soca single "''Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)''" a ...

's "I'd Like" and remixes of

Delerium Delerium is a Canadian new-age ambient electronic musical duo that formed in 1987, originally as a side project of the influential industrial music act Front Line Assembly. Throughout the band's history, their musical style has encompassed a ...

's "Silence" as well as

Lisa Miskovsky Lisa Miskovsky (born 9 March 1975) is a Swedish pop and rock singer. Career Miskovsky placed herself on the Swedish rock music charts with her debut album ''Lisa Miskovsky'' and single "Driving One of Your Cars", with Swedish releases in 2001. ...

's "Still Alive". Mt Eden began gaining popularity following the 2009 release of Sierra Leone, which went

viral The word ''Viral'' means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). It may also refer to: Viral behavior, or virality Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example: * Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spre ...

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. Mt Eden currently has 146 million combined video views and over 261 thousand subscribers on the act's YouTube channel, as well as more than 291 663 "likes" on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

History

Background and beginnings

Jesse Cooper started making

mixtape In the modern music industry, a mixtape is a musical project, typically with looser constraints than that of an album or extended play. Unlike the traditional album or extended play, mixtapes are labeled as laid-back projects that allow artists mo ...

s under the

moniker A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

"Jay Fresh" on the weekends. In the beginning Cooper mostly made

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

mixes with his friends, one of which was Harley Rayner, the son of former

Split Enz Split Enz were a New Zealand band formed in 1972. Regarded as the first New Zealand band to gain significant recognition outside of Australasia, they were initially noted for their progressive rock, progressive/art rock sound, flamboyant visua ...

keyboardist

Eddie Rayner Anthony Edward Charles Rayner (born 19 November 1952) is a New Zealand musician who spent ten years as a keyboardist in the band Split Enz. He has also played in the groups Orb, Space Waltz, Crowded House, the Makers, The Angels in 1986-1987 ...

. In 2008, Cooper decided to make

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...

music after he heard Electronic musicians Benga and

Skream Oliver Dene Jones (born 1 June 1986), known professionally as Skream, is an English electronic music producer based in Croydon. Skream has released records on several British record labels, such as Tempa, Tectonic, and Big Apple Records, and ...

, at the New Zealand music festivals Phat09 and Splore, saying that he had his "mind blown" by the young genre. He also started making

drum and bass Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...

music around the same time, which was inspired by the Front Left Speaker Crew and Joe Hockley. One of the first songs Mt Eden made public was "Sierra Leone", a remix of

's "I'd Like",
/ref> which he uploaded and posted on his

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

page, however the song gained major recognition after a fan posted the track on

. In 2008, Cooper's girlfriend's little brother suggested he make a YouTube page for himself to post music on. He called the page "MtEdenDnB08" because he lived in

Mt Eden Mount Eden is a suburb in Auckland, New Zealand whose name honours George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland. It is south of the Central Business District (CBD). Mt Eden Road winds its way around the side of Mount Eden Domain and continues to weave ...

. That was when Cooper decided to release music under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

"Mt Eden Dubstep", later changing his name to simply "Mt Eden" in 2010, when Cooper recruited Rayner. Mt Eden released their first

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

(EP) ''MEDS'' for digital download on 7 December 2010. It has got mostly positive reviews by customers on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

. On 16 February 2013, Mt Eden announced upcoming releases in a post on their

page, writing: " ..Our Sierra Leone Remix package (Sierra Leone Reinvented + Remixes, Sierra Leone music video) is coming in April. The first single off ''No Mans Land'' is "Airwalker", to be released late April/early May, with the full ''Walking on Air'' EP out in late May. ''No Mans Land'' LP will ropin June." The EP ''Sierra Leone (feat.

) emixes' was released on 30 April 2013, with a completely re-made version of their original "Sierra Leone" and three remixes of the same song by Ta-ku,

AraabMuzik Abraham Orellana (born June 16, 1989), better known as his stage name AraabMuzik ( ; stylized as araabMUZIK), is an American record producer and DJ. He made a name for himself by performing beats and instrumentals live and in real time on a Ak ...

and

Tommie Sunshine Tommie Sunshine (born Thomas Lorello; March 26, 1971) is a record producer, remixer, DJ and songwriter of electronic music from Chicago currently living in Brooklyn, New York. He is known for creating dance remixes to popular rock and alternativ ...

with Live City. The duo's ''Walking on Air'' EP was released in June 2013, featuring seven songs, by Ultra Records Label.

References

External links

* *
Mt Eden on SoundCloud
{{Authority control New Zealand dub musical groups New Zealand electronic music groups Remixers New Zealand record producers New Zealand musical duos Musical groups established in 2008 2008 establishments in New Zealand Dubstep musicians Year of birth missing (living people) Living people