Dillon Hart Francis (born October 5, 1987), also known by the stage name DJ Hanzel, is an American electronic music producer and DJ.

Early life

Francis was born in Los AngelesAhmed, Insanul (March 13, 2012
Who Is Dillon Francis?
Complex. Retrieved on March 31, 2013. to an American father and a Serbian-Croatian mother. Francis has stated that his father, Robert Drew Francis, is an "alternative medicines doctor." He has made a recurring Internet joke about being unable to find his father. Francis has stated that he was very sheltered growing up, claiming that he did not know any swear words until he was 15. He also claims he could not watch TV unless he watched at least two hours of ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

'' a day.

Career

2010–2012

Francis first rose to fame after gaining the attention of American producer

Diplo Thomas Wesley Pentz (born November 10, 1978), known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is the co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer, a member of the supergroup LSD with ...

and eventually collaborating on the song "Que Que", with featured Latin-pop artist Maluca. His song "Masta Blasta", originally a 130 BPM house track, was edited after inspiration from

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

musician Munchi and eventually ended up as the

moombahton Moombahton (, ) is an electronic dance music genre, derived from house music and reggaeton, that was created by American DJ and producer Dave Nada in Washington, D.C., in 2009. Nada coined the name as a portmanteau of "Moombah" (a track by Sur ...

track. In 2010, Francis released his ''Swashbuckler'' EP on Play Me Records. In 2012, he also released two singles "I.D.G.A.F.O.S." and "Bootleg Fireworks (Burning Up)". He has released works on multiple labels including

Dim Mak Records Dim Mak Records is an independent, Los Angeles-based record label, events company, and lifestyle brand founded by Steve Aoki in 1996. The label has released music under the genres of punk, indie rock, hardcore, hip hop, and electronic dance ...

Mad Decent Mad Decent is an American record label founded by Diplo. The label has helped introduce Brazilian baile funk and Angolan kuduro to clubs around the world. Recently, it has popularized moombahton, a genre of electronic dance music created by D ...

and

Owsla Owsla (stylized in all caps) is an American record label and creative collective. It was founded by Skrillex, Tim Smith, Kathryn Frazier, and Clayton Blaha in 2011. Skrillex announced the label on August 17, 2011. The label's first release was ...

. In February 2012, Francis became the first

artist to achieve the number-one spot atop the

Beatport Beatport is an American electronic music-oriented online music store owned by LiveStyle. The company is based in Denver, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Beatport is oriented primarily towards DJs, selling full songs as well as resources that can be used ...

releases chart with the release of his

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

'' Something, Something, Awesome.'' In late 2012, he embarked on his ''Wet & Reckless'' tour across North America, as well as supporting the English electronic-music trio

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...

on their ''

Welcome Reality ''Welcome Reality'' is the debut album by British dubstep group Nero. A concept album, it was released first in Ireland on 12 August 2011 and the rest of the world on 15 August 2011 except Australia and New Zealand where it was released on 19 Au ...

'' tour and English musician

Flux Pavilion Joshua Steele (born 15 January 1989) better known by his stage name Flux Pavilion, is an English EDM producer, DJ, singer-songwriter and label owner who has been performing since 2008. Flux Pavilion has headlined three US tours, two UK tours, ...

on his Standing on a Hill tour.

2013

In 2013, he announced a headlining ''Wurld Turr'' across the US and Canada, as well as confirming that his debut album would be released in 2013 before later experiencing various delays. He was announced as one of MTV Clubland's Artists to watch in 2013, alongside acts such as Kill the Noise and

Otto Knows Otto Jettman, better known by his stage name Otto Knows, (born 6 May 1989) is a Swedish DJ, record producer and remixer who has had a number of hits in Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands and has collaborated with artists including Britney Spears, ...

. Francis was labeled by

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

as an "artist to watch" as of September 9, 2013. Francis performed at music festivals including

Camp Bisco The Disco Biscuits are an American jam band from Philadelphia. The band consists of Allen Aucoin (drums), Marc "Brownie" Brownstein (bass guitar, vocals), Jon "The Barber" Gutwillig (guitar, vocals), and Aron Magner (keyboards, synths, voca ...

, Electric Daisy Carnival,

Coachella Coachella may refer to: * Coachella, California * Coachella Canal, in California * Coachella (festival), an annual music and arts festival in California * "Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind", a 2017 song by Lana del Rey See also

* Coachell ...

TomorrowWorld TomorrowWorld was an electronic music festival, held in the Atlanta metropolitan area within the town of Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia. Held from 2013 to 2015, the festival was a spinoff of the Belgian festival Tomorrowland. The festival was ...

Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. '' ...

and

Electric Zoo Electric Zoo is an annual electronic music festival held over Labor Day weekend in New York City on Randall's Island. The festival represents all genres of electronic music, bringing top international DJs and live acts from multiple countries to ...

. Francis also created the comedy production duo Meowski666 alongside Kill the Noise. In October 2013, he was announced as number 73 in the

DJ Mag Top 100 ''DJ Magazine'' (also known as ''DJ Mag'') is a British monthly magazine dedicated to electronic dance music and DJs. Founded in 1991, the magazine is adapted for distribution in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Lat ...

poll.

2014

In 2014, his major label debut album, ''Money Sucks, Friends Rule'', landed on Rolling Stone's "Top Electronic Albums of 2014" list and featured collaborators such as Twista, Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco, Major Lazer, and more. His single " Get Low" with

DJ Snake William Sami Étienne Grigahcine (born 13 June 1986), known by his stage name DJ Snake, is an Algerian French music producer and DJ, first achieving international recognition in 2013 by releasing an instrumentation-oriented single called " Turn D ...

was released on February 11, 2014. On March 22, 2014, Francis announced via his official

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account that his debut album, entitled '' Money Sucks, Friends Rule'', would be released on October 28, 2014, on

and

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. In August, Dillon released his second single off of the album, which was a collaboration with Sultan + Ned Shepard featuring

The Chain Gang of 1974 Kamtin Mohager () is an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and graphic designer born in San Jose, California. Raised in Hawaii, and later Colorado, Mohager began pursuing punk rock music in his teenage years. Later inspired b ...

. Beginning in February 2014, Francis embarked on the Friends Rule Tour supporting his debut album. Dates for the tour were booked through January 16, 2015, in 18 different cities across the United States.

2015–2016

On January 1, 2015, Francis revealed to Australian radio station

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

that he was working on a sketch show pilot for

. Francis stated that the show was set to go into production in January 2015. On June 28, 2015, Francis announced his EP ''

This Mixtape Is Fire ''This Mixtape Is Fire'' (stylized as ''This Mixtape is Fire.'' or ''This MIxtape is Fire.'') is the fourth EP by American DJ and record producer Dillon Francis. It was released on August 14, 2015. Critical reception The EP received overall pos ...

'', which would mark a return to his

roots. The EP features collaborations from

Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead sing ...

Calvin Harris Adam Richard Wiles (born 17 January 1984), known professionally as Calvin Harris, is a Scottish DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter who has released six studio albums. His debut studio album, ''I Created Disco'', was released in June ...

Chromeo Chromeo is a Canadian electro-funk duo from Montreal, formed in 2002 by musicians David "Dave 1" Macklovitch and Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel. Their sound draws from blue-eyed soul, dance music, rock, synth-pop, disco and funk. , the band has rele ...

Bro Safari Nicholas Weiller, better known by his stage name Bro Safari, also known as Knick, is an American moombahton, trap music (EDM), trap, and dubstep producer. Biography Weiller was born in Rome, Italy, into a family with three brothers and one sist ...

, and

Kygo Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll (born 11 September 1991), known professionally as Kygo (), is a Norwegian DJ and music producer. He garnered international attention with his December 2013 remix of the track "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran and his December 201 ...

with James Hersey, along with a remix of "I Can't Take It" from his album '' Money Sucks, Friends Rule'' by Party Favor. He released the first track from the EP, "Bruk Bruk (I Need Your Lovin')" the same day. ''This Mixtape Is Fire'' peaked at number one on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Top Dance/Electronic Albums Top Dance/Electronic Albums, Dance/Electronic Albums (formerly Top Electronic Albums) is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine which ranks the top-selling electronic music albums in the United States based on sales compiled by ...

chart. In 2016, he released three new singles: "Need You" in collaboration with Nghtmre, "Candy" in collaboration with GTA and Snappy Jit, and "Anywhere" with vocals by

Will Heard William James Heard (born 26 April 1991)Will Heard , Biography ...

. The music video of his single "Not Butter" won the

Berlin Music Video Awards The Berlin Music Video Awards (BMVA) is a festival and networking event for filmmakers, directors, artists, musicians, and music video fans held annually in Berlin, Germany. The four-day event consists of music video marathons, live performances, ...

in 2016, while its director, Brandon Dermer, took the 2nd place for the "Best Director" category.

2017

On April 5, 2017, Francis released another single " Say Less" in a collaboration with rapper G-Eazy. A few days after the release, Francis made it official through a live stream that he had parted ways with

mutually and was looking forward to release music as an independent artist. He has also revealed to his fans that he will be releasing an album as an independent artist and also stated that he would return to his

roots. Francis has created different personalities or alter egos, including "Emo Preston". Francis performed as "Emo Preston" at Emo Nite in Los Angeles in 2017.

2018

In 2018, Dillon returned to his moombahton roots with the release of the Spanish-language studio album, ''WUT WUT''. The album went on to earn Francis a Latin American Music Award nomination and Latin Grammy nomination respectively for the song, "Sexo" with Residente and iLe. On February 21, he released the single "We The Funk" in a collaboration with Fuego. On April 13, he released the single "Sexo" in a collaboration with

Residente René Pérez Joglar (born February 23, 1978), known professionally as Residente (often stylized as Resīdɛntə), is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as one of the founders of the alternative rap band Calle 13. ...

and

iLe Ile may refer to: * iLe, a Puerto Rican singer * Ile District (disambiguation), multiple places * Ilé-Ifẹ̀, an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria * Interlingue (ISO 639:ile), a planned language * Isoleucine, an amino acid * Anothe ...

. "Sexo" was nominated for Best Short Form Music Video at the

Latin Grammys The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...

and the

Latin American Music Awards The Latin American Music Awards (Latin AMAs) is an annual American music awards show produced by the MRC Live and Alternative. It is the Spanish-language counterpart of the American Music Awards (AMAs). As with AMAs, the Latin AMAs are determine ...

for Favorite Video. On May 9, he released the single "BaBaBa (Vete Pa'Ya)" in a collaboration with Young Ash. On July 12, he released the single "Never Let You Go" featuring

De La Ghetto Rafael Castillo Torres, known professionally as De La Ghetto, is an American rapper, singer and songwriter, originally part of the duo Arcángel & De La Ghetto. His name is a reference to a 1990 episode of ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air''. Earl ...

. In August, he remixed

Martin Solveig Martin Laurent Picandet (; born 22 September 1976), better known by his stage name Martin Solveig (), is a French DJ, singer, songwriter and record producer. He hosts a weekly radio show called ''C'est La Vie'' on radio stations worldwide, incl ...

's single "My Love". He also was one of the headliners for

Hard Hard may refer to: * Hardness, resistance of physical materials to deformation or fracture * Hard water, water with high mineral content Arts and entertainment * ''Hard'' (TV series), a French TV series * Hard (band), a Hungarian hard rock supe ...

Summer Music Festival in August 2018. On September 12, he released the single "White Boi" featuring Lao Ra. ''

Wut Wut ''Wut Wut'' is the second studio album by American DJ and electronic music producer Dillon Francis, released on September 28, 2018 through IDGAFOS. The album contains Spanish-language songs and collaborations with Latin singers. It was made avail ...

'' is Francis' second studio album, released through IDGAFOS on September 28, 2018. He also appeared in the first season of '' Taskmaster US'' alongside

Lisa Lampanelli Lisa Lampanelli (born Lisa Marie Lampugnale; July 19, 1961) is an American former stand-up comedian, actress and insult comic. Early life and journalism career Lampanelli was born in Trumbull, Connecticut, to a middle-class family. Three of her ...

Freddie Highmore Alfred Thomas Highmore (born 14 February 1992) is an English actor. He is known for his starring roles beginning as a child, in the films '' Finding Neverland'' (2004), '' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' (2005), '' August Rush'' (2007), and ...

Ron Funches Ronald Kyle Funches (born March 12, 1983) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. Born in California, Funches spent his early life in Chicago before relocating to Salem, Oregon, as a teenager. He began his comedy career in Portland, Oregon, at ...

and

Kate Berlant Kate Elizabeth Méndez Berlant (born 1987) is an American comedian, actress, and writer. Her stand-up comedy and improvisational work are often surrealist and absurdist. Early life Kate Elizabeth Méndez Berlant was born in Los Angeles in 1987 ...

. Dillon Francis released a seven-episode comedy series titled ''Like and Subscribe'' in 2018, available exclusively on Funny or Die and Amazon Video. The show follows Skyy Goldwynne (Dillon Francis), Hollywood's biggest manager who locks 4 of his influencer clients in a house with a camera crew. On December 7, 2018, Francis released "LFGD" featuring Chris Melberger as part of Astralwerks' compilation album with livestreamer

Ninja A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enem ...

, ''Ninjawerks Volume 1''.

2019

On January 25, 2019, he released the single "Lost My Mind" in collaboration with

Alison Wonderland Alexandra Margo Sholler (born 27 September 1986), known professionally as Alison Wonderland, is an Australian electronic dance music producer, DJ, and singer. Her debut album, ''Run'', was released on 20 March 2015, which peaked at No. 6 ...

, and embarked on the Lost My Mind Tour in the beginning of the year throughout the United States. In March 2019, Francis released "Change Your Mind", featuring

Lovelytheband Lovelytheband (stylized in all lowercase) is an American indie pop band that formed in 2016 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The band consists of vocalist Mitchy Collins, guitarist Jordan Greenwald, and drummer Sam Price. The band is ...

. Francis also contributed to the soundtrack of '' The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part'' with "

Catchy Song "Catchy Song" is a song by American DJ and producer Dillon Francis, featuring guest vocals from rappers T-Pain and Alaya High (the latter credited on the soundtrack release as her stage name That Girl Lay Lay). The song became the main theme t ...

", featuring rappers T-Pain and That Girl Lay Lay. Following the first film's "

Everything Is Awesome "Everything Is Awesome" (stylized as "Everything Is AWESOME!!!") is a song by Canadian indie pop duo Tegan and Sara, featuring American comedy trio the Lonely Island. As the theme song to the 2014 Warner Bros. Pictures film ''The Lego Movie'', ...

", the song principally features the repeated phrase "This song's gonna get stuck inside your head!" According to songwriter

Jon Lajoie Jonathan Lajoie ( ; born August 21, 1980) is a Canadian comedian, actor, rapper, singer, songwriter, director, record producer, musician and Internet celebrity from Montreal, Quebec. He gained fame mostly from his eponymous YouTube channel, pos ...

, he found "Everything Is Awesome" "extremely catchy" and wanted to outdo the song by "dialing the song up to 11".

2020

On May 8, 2020, he performed at the ''

Fortnite ''Fortnite'' is an online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in three distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: ''Fortnite Battle Royale'', a free-to- ...

Party Royale'' premiere with

Steve Aoki Steven Hiroyuki Aoki (, ; born November 30, 1977), best known as Steve Aoki, is an American DJ, record producer, music programmer, and record executive.

and

Deadmau5 Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), known professionally as Deadmau5 (stylized as deadmau5; pronounced "dead-mouse"), is a Canadian electronic music producer and DJ. He mainly produces progressive house music, though he also produces ...

Discography

* '' Money Sucks, Friends Rule'' (2014) * ''

'' (2018) * '' Happy Machine'' (2021)

Filmography

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, Dillon 1987 births 21st-century American musicians American DJs American people of Croatian descent American people of Serbian descent American house musicians Record producers from California Dubstep musicians Electro house musicians Living people Moombahcore musicians Musicians from Los Angeles Reggaeton record producers Remixers Los Angeles County High School for the Arts alumni 20th-century American musicians Deep house musicians Mad Decent artists Owsla artists Electronic dance music DJs Monstercat artists Stmpd Rcrds artists