Going viral in finance class: Gusted

It is rare to sit next to a classmate who, unbeknownst to you, has their phone blowing up with notifications from Tik Tok. The adrenaline rush of going viral on social media is what you least expect to occur during a finance class, but for 20-year-old University of Colorado Boulder sophomore Danny Dickmann, this was an experience that altered the course of his music career. 

Dickmann, better known by his project name, Gusted, released and promoted “Jet Plane,” a techno/trance hybrid remix of “Big Jet Plane” by Angus & Julia Stone on Tik Tok and within a few weeks, Dickmann found himself receiving phone calls from music managers, agents and ultimately Polydor Records, a UK based music label that distributes music among the likes of Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar.

The musician mentions that his relationship with music hasn’t been linear as he made “two really bad tracks,” as he puts it, when he was 12 years old after downloading FL Studio. He then turned away from music until he took up DJing in high school. 

“I wanted to make parties more fun for me and my friends. From there, I revisited my vision of music creation,” Dickmann states. For the past year, Dickmann has been honing his craft and vision for his project, Gusted.

“A lot of DJs will try to do what’s common because it works. With my style of dance music, it’s super popular in Europe, the UK and Germany. My mission is to bring a new sound around in Boulder and in the U.S. in general. I want to represent myself with something cool, push a new sound, and have fun with it,” Dickmann adds. He goes on to say that he never originally planned to be an artist, even though he wanted to land somewhere in the music industry, but that “Jet Plane” was him messing around with music production. 

In the summer of 2022, Dickmann dialed in on music production. 

“Through Tik Tok, I started to discover the scenes of dance music. I was looking at what was going on in the UK and Australia and I started to get really excited about what they’re doing over there as opposed to what’s going on over here. That’s not a blow against anything that’s going on over here, I was just leaning that way in my production. That summer I was trying to hone my style – the Gusted project only really started in September,” Dickmann states. 

Around this time, and while scrolling on Tik Tok, Dickmann saw a video of Post Malone suggesting that he should remix “Big Jet Plane,” which led him to notice that the vocals on the Angus & Julia Stone track were floaty and had feeling to them. 

“I took the world that I was in, rave, sped-up music, and combined it with that alternative vocal. From there, I showed it to my friend and he said, ‘I like this, can you send it to me?’ and I was like ‘Oh yeah, it’s not done, but I can give you the private SoundCloud link.’ That was the sign that if my friends were starting to like it, I must be onto something,” Dickmann states. 

That night Dickmann would go on to post a snippet of his “Jet Plane” remix to feel out Tik Tok. He tagged a few influencers that he believed would like it, and one of them did end up liking it. They would repost the audio, and by the next day, Dickmann found himself in class with a viral hit song.

“While I was in class, everyone on Tik Tok was saying ‘Where is the song? Where can I find it?’ and I was kinda freaking out so in class I made an album cover for “Jet Plane” in a finance class and when I got home from class I finished the song and posted it. That was it,” Dickmann adds.

As Gusted, Dickmann released “Jet Plane” on SoundCloud in October of 2022. He would then continue to market the Tik Tok; the built social media traction pushed the track to rank on the Global House Music SoundCloud chart at number one. 

“I had a lot of big label A&Rs reach out to me to sign and officially release it on all platforms,” Dickmann states. Through November, Dickmann would negotiate his contract with Polydor Records and would release “Jet Plane” officially on all platforms on December 8, 2022. He also mentions that he is quite happy to be on Polydor’s roster as they have treated him very well.

It is important to note that the track received official sample clearance from Angus & Julia Stone themselves. When a producer or musician samples a previously released track, they have to receive clearance from the sampled artist to properly release the track; if they do not do this, or if it is denied and still released, it can be subject to legal action by the sampled artist for copyright infringement.

“It was very exciting,” Dickmann adds about the sample being cleared, “It was dope to have my first official song signed by Universal Music Group.” 

Since then, the track recently surpassed 10 million streams on Spotify, garnered support from BBC Radio 1 and was also on an episode of Love Island UK. Although the Gusted project received and still is receiving an outpour of support from the industry and fans alike, Gusted is currently unsigned to any management.

“It was really cool to have my second released track reach this as an independent artist. It was zero to 100 really quick, but I learned a lot being independent,” Dickmann adds. 

Gusted was able to open for Whethan when he stopped through Boulder on March 2. 

For the future of Gusted, he wants to bring some cool rave and trance music around to both Boulder, Colorado and the United States. Trance and techno music has historically thrived in the UK and Europe, namely Berlin, Germany with both its underground clubs and exclusive club, Berghain, and also in France, but has found difficulty surviving in the United States. 

In the U.S., American techno and trance found their roots in Detroit, Michigan in the 1980s in underground Black club scenes. While techno in Germany and the UK at the same time flourished, American techno began to morph into several different genres that drew upon techno such as acid house, trance and more in the 1990s. Ultimately, American techno began to move underground and fell out of popularity with the rise of genres such as House in the 90s. 

Though, Gusted mentions that his track is part of a new wave of electronic music producers bringing back trance to the mainstream; Calvin Harris has released a deeply 90s, old-school trance track with Ellie Goulding titled “Miracle” on March 10. 

One may say that the UK and Europe are ahead of the curve in predicting the next big trend in music as “Jet Plane” has seen the most success in the UK – it is truly a proud moment to see a fellow Buff be a part of this. 

When asked about the future of Gusted, Dickmann adds that there is plenty to come. 

“I’m still working with Polydor and Universal Music and I hope to have more songs come out on the Gusted project soon. I’ve been speaking with managers and agents to bring this to fruition where I can be doing this full time,” Dickmann states.

He mentions that he wants to take a step back with the exponential growth of “Jet Plane” to truly solidify the vision he has for the Gusted project and also so he can make some “sweet dance music,” as he puts it.