Arius
Arius
Arius is a DJ duo that specializes in finger drumming. The recently married duo, Matt Vinh Nguyen and Tessa Lizz, have been performing together for the past few years over parts of Asia and the United States.[13]
They are known for their dirty and grimy bass style with elements of Electro, Trap, Dubstep, and Drum n Bass.
Career
Nguyen commonly known as Dumbo started performing live with the Poreotics dance group, the champions of the 5th season of America’s Best Dance Crew.
Dumbo’s interest in music production grew, he decided to take a break from Poreotics and work on becoming a full-time DJ. [13]
He then encouraged his wife to try her hand at it but before she got involved in performing, she was a cocktail waitress at Marquee and Daylight in Las Vegas, serving the big time DJ’s.
Finger drumming came naturally to Lizz and since then, they have released several originals and remixes, as well as produced many that are expected to be released soon.[13]
ARIUS was created through the duo's love for music back in 2013 when they decided to pursue their dream, working to create something original and unique to bring to the scene.[13]
They are known for their dirty and grimy bass style with element of Electro, Trap, Dubstep, and Drum n Bass.
These bass heads like to jokingly describe their sounds:
“robots fucking but all the while staying groovy.”
Today, ARIUS have shared the stage with many well respected DJs such as Ferry Corsten, Vinai, Dyro, DJ Stellar, etc. [4]
They once said:
“our goal as a pair from day one has been originality.
We want to be different.
Anyone can download a hot festival playlist to DJ but not anybody can go on stage and bring what we bring as ARIUS.”
Personal
Dumbo and Lizz met four and a half years ago at the magical EDC festival in Las Vegas.
A relationship that started in the crowd has pushed them up on stage in front of thousands of people.
Finger drumming is a rare skill in the EDM community and having someone like Lizz on the drumming kit and Dumbo alongside busting out some sick dance moves, provides a new experience for fans, rather than just having a DJ spin records.
Putting Lizz on the drum machine was actually Dumbo’s idea:
“It was originally our vision, to begin with.
As a performer, you don’t need two people on the decks.
It’s so normal for a guy to finger drum, so I pushed her to learn how because I wanted to focus more on the production side,” [13]
After being on the set for about eight months, Tessa spent every day learning new things and improving on her techniques.
She learnt how to make her own music and play it back on the finger drumming set using a device called Maschine by Traktor.
They both have big plans for the upcoming year and are currently working on booking festivals, playing at club events and looking to find an audience where they can drop their brand new music for fans who will love it the most– true bass heads.[13]
A dubstep mastermind, Excision, even shared one of Tessa's famous finger drumming video remixing his most popular songs, “X Up ft Messinian", Tessa responded saying that she was so happy that she started crying.[4]