"The Veldt" is a song by Canadian electronic music producer
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 produce ...
, featuring vocals by Chris James. The song ranked number 48 on
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
's list of the 50 best songs of 2012.
Background and composition
"The Veldt" was inspired by the 1950 short story of the same name by
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery fictio ...
. The song was initially created during a 22-hour live streaming session in March 2012. The following day, Zimmerman (Deadmau5) found Chris James, who created his own vocal rendition of the song, via
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 ...
. Zimmerman was impressed with James' vocals, particularly with the lyrical references to the Ray Bradbury story, and confirmed that the official release of the song would include James' vocals. The song's production was captured on a live streaming session via his official website.
"The Veldt" is a
progressive house
Progressive house is a subgenre of house music. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of American and European house music of the late 1980s.Gerard, Morgan; ...
song with a tempo of 128
beats per minute
Beat, beats or beating may refer to:
Common uses
* Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area
** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols
** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men
* Battery ...
Ultra Records
Ultra Records is an American record label formed in New York City in 1995 by former PolyGram and Virgin Records executive Patrick Moxey. As of December 23, 2012, Ultra entered a global partnership with Sony Music, giving its artists access to ...
uploaded the eight minute-plus version of the song onto their
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
channels, with the radio edit being uploaded onto Ultra Records' channel on May 7, 2012. Both versions of the song were released the following day.
''The Veldt EP'' was released on June 24, 2012, and includes the eleven minute-plus original mix of the song, remixes by
Freeform Five
Freeform Five is an English electronic group led by DJ, producer, and songwriter Anu Pillai.
Biography
It was his remix of Isolee’s "Beau Mot Plage" in 1999 that alerted many to this group.
The Freeform Five DJ mix albums ''Bisous Bis ...
and Tommy Trash and an original song called "Failbait" featuring Cypress Hill. The original mix of "The Veldt" features a tribal drum intro.
The song was included on the album ''
Album Title Goes Here
''Album Title Goes Here'' (stylized as ''> album title goes here album title goes here <'' at
'' released late September 2012, in an again slightly differently mixed eight-minute version. The tribal drum intro of the original mix has been left out in this version. The track "Failbait" from ''The Veldt EP'' was included on the album as well.
The song was also used during rallies for
Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...
's campaign to become the Canadian Liberal Party Leader, and eventually
Prime Minister of Canada
The prime minister of Canada (french: premier ministre du Canada, link=no) is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the confidence of a majority the elected House of Commons; as su ...
.
The title of the song served as inspiration for the name of
VELD
Veld ( or ), also spelled veldt, is a type of wide open rural landscape in :Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrub, especially in the countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Bot ...
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
that inaugurated in 2012 a few months after the song's release.
Music video
An official music video was posted to Zimmerman's official YouTube page on June 25, 2012. It was produced by Qudos Animations.
As with the song, the video is based on the short story " The Veldt" by
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery fictio ...
. It shows two children entering "The Nursery", and running through a savannah landscape with lions and vultures eating bloody dead remains. They stop, and the boy begins to climb up a small mountain. He then suddenly finds his sister standing on the edge of a precipice. He then approaches her and, after pushing her off the edge, jumps off. They slide down the ledge and meet at the ground. The video ends with the two children holding hands as a lion walks off in the distance, leaving behind broken glasses and a trail of blood, presumably of their parents. The video is dedicated to Bradbury, who died weeks before the video was published. The video's art style, which makes heavy use of dark silhouettes and puppet-like animation, bears a strong resemblance to the independent video game ''
Limbo
In Catholic theology, Limbo (Latin '' limbus'', edge or boundary, referring to the edge of Hell) is the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. Medieval theologians of Western Euro ...