DEVON AUSMAN

Summer of 2023 was a time for discovering that the dance music scene in Denver is full of surprises. At a show at Beacon in early July, Discognition dropped a curious track–a remix of Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Possess Your Heart.” I’m an elder millennial, so naturally my formative years were spent under the spell of voices like Ben Gibbard’s. The effect of hearing that song in that place at that specific time was to give me a sense that my journey through music had begun to come full-circle. And so, after Chad’s set, I mined him for information.

“All I can say,” he teased, “is keep an eye on Hausman.” 

Keeping an eye on Devon Ausman—the producer and DJ known as Hausman—isn’t difficult to do. This tastemaker has been having a remarkable run of success. 2023 featured the release of his EP, “Meant to Be,” for which each track was named after a street where he’d lived. He’s released with labels like Monstercat, Anjunabeats, and Armada, and is a core artist on the Enhanced Recordings roster who compiled 2023’s Best of Progressive yearmix. 

That Death Cab remix? Nothing less than Ausman’s first release under his deep house alias dwelyr, which he launched in September. The moniker’s origins are a fascinating glimpse into the way he’s able to infuse multiple contexts into one cohesive artistic identity. The literal meaning of Ausman’s first name is “deep valley dweller,” which refers to the terrain of what is now known as Cornwall and Devon in the UK. The Celts who collectively inhabited the semi-legendary King Arthur’s stomping grounds were called the Dumnonii, the root of which means “deep”–which is why Hausman terms it “a perfect alias” for the project.

Back on track: Ausman has turned his own resources–namely, an encyclopedic production knowledge, a knack for community-building, and an instinct for infusing emotion into a dance track–into a burgeoning music career that’s receiving global recognition. Last week, he upped the ante with the launch of Clubhaus Records, an imprint that’s intentionally unique. I’ve had the good fortune of being able to get to know him a bit through our mutual involvement with the Sky Terrace production collective, and he was kind enough to sit down with me and tell me how the process of building a brand develops with time, patience, and passion. Read on:

I’ve known you for a few months as a resident of Sky Terrace, but you have a lot going on musically. You produce, you run a Twitch channel, and now you’re launching Clubhaus. It seems like music is your day job, so how did you get there?

So I do music and have done that since the pandemic hit. Before that, I pretty much worked food service for my main moneymaking job my whole life. And then obviously when the pandemic hit and everything closed, I lost my job. I ended up having to fend for myself and figure out how to monetize my passion. There were a lot of different avenues. I tried Patreon and Twitch, which I still do. And then I started building up my own website with the services that I offer. All of these things were really, really slow going at first. It took a lot of time to build them up. I'd say probably about a year ago was when I started to break even with everything, so I'm finally starting to get to the point where I can start saving a little bit of money. 

You really have to maximize all of the different revenue streams, and it's a lot of work. But after having done music for so long, I don't think I could ever go back to doing anything else just because I enjoy it so much and it's what I've always wanted to do.

One thing I wanted to ask about—and I always ask people because the stories are so interesting–it looks like you have some music education, but how did you get started making electronic music?

I started out on piano as a kid, and then in middle school and high school, I started playing percussion with a band. That's where I realized that music is what I wanted to do with my life in some way, although I didn't know what that looked like. I envisioned being a performer, I guess. Marimba was actually one of my main instruments, so I was considering being a solo marimba player. And then the summer before my senior year I went to two different summer camps. One of them was a marimba festival where it was all about marimba performance. People would fly to California from all over the world and just play marimba.


Marimba camp?

Yeah. But before that one, I went to this camp called Sonic Arts Camp in Oberlin, Ohio. That camp was all about production, which I didn't have any sort of experience with. I didn't really think about the fact that music needed to be produced–all of this technical stuff. It was a whole new world that opened up to me. I went to that camp first, and then I ended up going to the marimba camp. And during marimba camp, I was in my room most of the time just messing around with a DAW and coming up with ideas, and just kind of wishing I wasn't at the camp. As cool of an experience as it was, I realized that it wasn't what I wanted to do with my life. I had figured out what I wanted to do. And then I auditioned at Berklee and managed to get in, I think because of marimba. No one plays marimba, so I think that helped. Then, I majored in EPD–Electronic Production and Design. So the “nerdy stuff,” all about mixing and the technical side of music.

I think it’s the nerdy stuff that really makes or breaks a track, though. You can have an incredible artistic idea, but cutting corners with the mixdown makes a track unplayable. Or- you can be a DJ and have a really good sense of selection, but then really poor transitions can ruin a floor. Speaking of which–some artists would describe themselves as a DJ first, or a producer first. Do you identify as either or?

Definitely a producer first. I started with production eight years ago, and I didn't start DJing until maybe five years ago. I didn't really do it too often. I just wanted to mess around with a controller, so I didn't start DJing professionally and regularly until the pandemic hit and I started DJing on Twitch. And that was a great way for me to practice my skills. At this point now, I play shows about once a month, but I'm definitely still a producer first. I'm very much kind of a hermit in that sense, where I just sit at home and produce almost 24/7. DJing is great! It's a lot of fun and it's definitely something I want to do regularly. But it’s not something that I could see overtaking the production side of things.

I think it takes a lot of energy, not just physically, but also socially. As a performer, you have to be “on.” So, I wanted to ask you about this, actually. You’ve done several reels where you discuss, maybe, kind of, being—

An introvert in a scene where networking is so necessary?

Yes! Thank you. Exactly.

It's something I really had to accept. And once I accepted it, I started being able to push my own boundaries. But honestly, almost my entire time at Berklee, I was very, very introverted. Very shy. I wouldn’t push myself out of my comfort zone when it came to trying to make connections. And I think that’s a reason why I don't think I got as much out of Berklee as I could have, because you get a lot of knowledge there, but at the end of the day, it's all about the connections that you make. I didn't utilize that area as much as I should have. But I came to realize that it is still possible to network despite being an introvert. You just have to do it in other ways. I try to do as much of it online as I can, because it’s a lot easier for me. And of course, over the pandemic, that made it really easy. I was spending a lot of time on Twitch, a lot of time in Discord–and all of my time in my house.

Since moving to Denver, I've started to figure out how to do it a lot better. It takes practice. You have to just keep doing it until you figure out what works for you. But the other element is something that Beth, my fiancée, told me that really resonated with me. “It takes two people to make an interaction awkward.” So it's not necessarily your fault if you're having a conversation with someone and you're not sure what to say next. It's the other person too. If they're not pushing the conversation forward, then you shouldn't feel bad about your own communication skills.  So, I still try to push my own boundaries when I can, but at the same time, I'm not going to push them too far to the point where I start to feel anxious and uncomfortable. It works for some people. And some people can go to a club and talk to 20 different people and make a genuine connection with them. And if you can do that, great, go do it. But if you can't do that, don’t feel bad about it.

I’ve definitely had experiences where I’d like to get to know people better, and the club environment really isn’t the place. And I’ll be honest with you–I think it’s exhausting being “on.” So that’s pretty key advice. I’m finding that advice–or shared knowledge, anyway, if we’re going to expand that–is a huge part of what you’re doing right. What would you tell someone who had, maybe, some music they made that they wanted to share, but had no idea where to go with that?

One of the wisest things I’ve read was on a Reddit thread. Someone said, “Okay, I made my first track. What do you guys think I should do? Should I send this out to a label?” And the top reply was, “No, don't send it anywhere. Maybe show your friends, but make a hundred more tracks, however long that takes you. And then once you've done that, then send a track to a label.” You don't want to start too early. It takes a long time to hone these skills and find your sound. There's a lot that goes into it other than just making the track, sending it out and finding success. It just doesn't work that way. But if you've put in the time and you've got the practice down, send it to some friends, and see if they agree. 

Try to find someone who is more ingrained in the scene than you might be and get their opinion on it, because it's all relative. When I started out six years ago, I thought everything I was making was bangers. And then looking back on it, it's not good! So you need a reference point from someone who's in the scene and knows what a good quality track sounds like. I think joining some Discord servers for your favorite record labels or artists is a great starting point, because usually they have a big community of producers in there, and there's usually a channel where you can submit your track just for feedback from literally anyone in the Discord. There might even be label A&Rs active in there. You might be able to communicate with them directly, but you might be able to just send it to the demo inbox and hopefully get a response. I think Discord is a really great tool, and it's something that I think is really underutilized and undervalued.

And so for you, a friend of mine posted this - it’s been a marathon rather than a sprint.

My first release was in December of 2016, on Intricate Records. That was a really cool first release to have because I was a huge fan of both the label and of PROFF, whose label it was at the time. Then I released in 2017 on Adrenalin Room, which was Neel’s label–he’s half of Elevven, who are Anjuna artists now. It was really slow-going at first. When the pandemic hit, I really started grinding and started building up a repertoire. And then after a year, that's when things started to really pick up. The community on Twitch and Discord, and I started to release on bigger and bigger labels. I started to curate a fan base I just didn’t really have before. 

2023 was a big year for you. My own introduction to your work was your deep moniker dwelyr and that Death Cab For Cutie remix. You had the “Meant to Be” EP, a handful of releases, and the Best of Progressive 2023 mix for Enhanced. And now, the first month into 2024, you launch Clubhaus. So can you walk me through the process? How long ago did you decide to do this and why start a record label?

Launching a record label has been a dream of mine ever since I started getting into music and producing. I've always loved the idea of curating a sound. It's one of the reasons why I loved Group Therapy so much back in the day when I first discovered it. I loved how Above and Beyond would curate records from all over the trance and progressive spaces and create this journey for the listener. And so that's what I've always wanted to do, is to curate my own sound on a platform. I think starting a record label is the best way to do that. 

I think another big reason why I wanted to do this is because there are a lot of artists–myself included–that are frustrated with how record labels are run these days. There are some good ones, but there are a lot of bad ones, meaning ones that don't promote artists equally. Or, as an artist, you might not get the information you need when they ask. Often these labels will prioritize sales and money over good music. There's a lot of stuff that ends up getting in the way of the reason why all of us should be here, which is the music. 

That's my biggest mission statement with Clubhaus. I want to put the music first, a hundred percent of the time. I'm not going into it to try to make money. It’s a passion project, at least for now. If it eventually turns into something that can make money? Great! But it's not going to turn into something where money is the number one priority. I've got all these other revenue streams, and that is what keeps me going. Clubhaus is what I’m using that revenue stream to create.

Let me take a brief detour. I want to hear about the process, but to hear you describe curating a sound–can you describe the Clubhaus sound?

Obviously there’s a lot of influence from my own personal sound. There's a lot of that sort of dark, gritty, sound, but then it’s also paired with atmospheric breakdowns and an emotional build throughout a track. 

What I've been telling people is that the sound of Clubhaus is a robust groove that'll get you dancing and is very club friendly, but it’s also something that has a lot of musicality behind it. So really unique chord progressions, unique melodies and melodic sounds. Cool sound design. What I really want are things that are weird, things that aren't what you would find on a basic trance or progressive house label. Things that are pushing the boundaries and doing something that a lot of labels would normally shy away from because it's not marketable. So yeah, I think the main things are grooviness, danceability, and uniqueness.

Okay, so speaking of a personal sound, Do you have a favorite track that you've ever produced where somebody, if an alien came down to earth and wanted to know why he should spare you in the invasion, like–one that is the essential Hausman sound?

If we're talking about the best example of the Hausman sound, I think the first release on Clubhaus, the one that just came out on Friday, “Break,” is a really good example of that. It's got the weird, funky chords. It's got a really robust groove both in the bassline, but also in the percussion. There's a lot of really unique organic percussion sounds going on. There's a really unique melodic element in the drop with some funky sound design that you wouldn't expect to hear in a progressive house track. It's almost inspired by bass house and dubstep in a way. So that’s kind of the perfect example of the sound that I would want to go for if I had total free reign over what kind of music I make. But there’s the trance side, there's the house side, sort of the progressive side–there's a lot of different avenues that I go in, but I think combining all of them together is where Clubhaus is going to sit.

So let’s talk the process of starting a record label, and challenges–I remember during our last Sky Terrace meeting, you mentioning finding a distributor, for example. Can you talk about that?

The service that I'm using is Proton. They're the distributors and they kind of function as a label themselves. Technically, all of the labels that release with them are sub-labels in a way. But they ship the tracks out for you. You upload your tracks and the cover art and the description of them and everything. You get to decide the splits between the artists and the label. It's super user-friendly, really easy to figure out, and they've been really responsive as well. So I honestly can't recommend them enough. They've just made the whole process so much easier than I was expecting it to be. 

That being said, it's still a lot of work. Starting a record label is not easy. Leading up to the actual launch was probably about six months of preparation and finding all of the different resources that I would need to use, creating templates for cover art and promo assets, and trying to create spreadsheets to be able to figure out what we have to do for for every single release so that nothing slips through the cracks.

Organization is another thing that I'm really, really emphasizing. I’m making sure that every release is treated exactly the same way, and every artist has everything that they need in a timely manner. In order to achieve that, it required a lot of preparation in the beginning. I think you see a lot of record labels that get started because everyone and their dog is starting a record label, and there's a lot that clearly don't have that type of foundation. They haven't done the work prior to launch to set themselves up for success. So then ultimately things slip as they naturally would when you don't have that solid ground. 

My biggest piece of advice for anyone who's considering starting a record label is: Don't do it yet. Do a bunch of research. Gather some friends that are going to help you, because you can’t do it alone. And then, when you're ready, and you have that foundation, then you can launch.

It took a while, but it's definitely worth it.

So, you’re at the point where you’ve launched. I saw a call for submissions. Are you getting them? What's the goal for 2024 for Clubhaus?

The goal is to do one release a month, and at the moment, I'm currently scheduled up through April. I've got a different artist every month. So the roster is growing, which is really cool to see. I've got a couple tracks of my own that I have on the back burner just in case I need a release, but I've been getting a solid amount of demos and I wasn't necessarily expecting that. 

I've also gotten demos from brand new artists that don't have any tracks out, and they're really good. So I am really excited to work with some of these new artists and help them build up a sound, get their skills up to par, and put their music out into the world, because they’re creating some really, really cool stuff. I really enjoy the A&R process– giving feedback, and seeing a vision through to completion, because not every artist is at the point where they can effectively do that. One of the things that I feel like I pride myself on is the ability to hear what's missing in a track and provide ideas to be able to get it over the line to a point where it's release-ready.

There’s that knowledge-sharing and advice!

Yeah! So, one release a month is the target, build up a solid roster, and ultimately the main goal is just to not let anything slip through the cracks and to get through the year that way. Once I get to the end of the year, I think I'm going to gauge what the success was like and then evaluate 2025. Like, “Okay, do I want to expand at all, or do I want to just keep doing what I'm doing?” We'll see what happens with it.

So, you’ve got artists at a range of production stages submitting to the brand. What about places? Do these submissions come from all over the world?

I've gotten some from people in Europe. I'd say the majority are people in the US, some from the UK. But yeah, my fan base is pretty widespread. Actually. I found it funny. I was looking at the stats for “Break,” and I think the number one city was Melbourne, so it was all from Australia. And then number two city was in Poland. The number three city,  I think, was somewhere in the UK, and then it was New York, and then it was Denver. So yeah, it’s nice. My fan base is kind of all over, so I'm definitely expecting this to kind of be an international thing.

The demo inbox is open, so if anyone reading this has music to send over that they think would be a good fit, I’m all ears. I'm always happy to listen to demos, even if it's not right for the label, and give some feedback. And I can point artists in the direction of a label that might be more willing to take it. Because as a DJ who streams on Twitch all the time and is constantly searching for new music, I'm quite familiar with the label sphere in the scene. I’m usually happy to help get artists to the right spot for them.


“Break” is one of my favorite Hausman releases to date. To me, it’s unexpected - like a grittier, more cinematic Ferry Corsten track. It’s another stellar release from an artist who has already set the bar for technical excellence unquestionably high. But I think the most important takeaway from this interview is the steadiness of purpose and practice that has led its creator through a challenging industry to the point of launching a record label. Clubhaus, like Hausman’s Discord and Twitch communities, and like our production collective, prioritizes collaborative growth and consistency in equal measure–both essential qualities for success. 


If you’re reading this and have a tune to share, send your demo to clubhausrecords@gmail.com. But first, check out Clubhaus Radio, the latest and greatest tunes in the progressive, deep house, and trance scenes, curated by Hausman himself. With guests such as Elevven, MaMan, ANUQRAM, and Vintage & Morelli, each episode - which airs the first of each month - packs a uniquely curated selection of danceable grooves. Check it out—along with Hausman’s music and community—at the links below.

Clubhaus Radio

Hausman - Spotify

Hausman - Instagram

Clubhaus Records - Linktree