Photograph courtesy of Justin Blau
Last May, Washington University student Justin Blau uploaded a couple of dance-music mash-ups. One, on his We Found House EP, blended LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It,” Rihanna’s “We Found Love,” and house music. Now, Blau is playing festivals under his stage name, 3lau (pronounced like Blau), and is the resident DJ at Marquee Nightclub & Dayclub at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. He’s also giving back: All proceeds from his single “Back to New” (3lau.com) are donated to Pencils of Promise (pencilsofpromise.com), a nonprofit that builds schools in developing countries.
You first heard house music in Sweden?
My best friend from Wash. U. is originally from Sweden, and I went out there just to see what Stockholm is like. Everything there is about dance music. It was really life-changing.
And you just started making dance music.
Well, I played classical [piano] a long time ago, and then I morphed into writing my own stuff. I’d taught myself guitar, and I’ve always been a singer.
I’ve also always played the drums. So I used all of those skills to start working in dance music.
When did you realize you had a following?
There was a moment in January when I sold out my first show. I came in, and no one working there really knew who I was—and a thousand kids showed up. That’s when I realized that in very unconventional ways, I’m getting big very fast. It’s an amazing feeling.
