Artist Biography

As a change on the music frontier becomes more evident, like clockwork, a new breed of musician creates nostalgic impressions with his take on electronica. Influences Include, breaks, trance, house, progressive, electro and electro-rock. Degreezero, a.k.a. Derek Lefholz, was born in a small town to a rock and roll father and a professional mother. Often finding himself immersed in his fathers rigorous rehearsal live show routine, Derek became captivated by the creativity in making music. Trying his hand, Lefholz began experimenting with a variety of musical instruments including: the sax, guitar and drums. His high school years proved to be a time for athletics, as the primary focus became football. After accomplishing the feat of a 2A High School Football State Championship, Derek migrated to Columbia, Missouri to pursue a degree in Business Marketing, at the University of Missouri.

During the summer of his junior year, he enrolled in the music engineering and production program at the Recording Workshop in Chillicothe, Ohio. Upon his return to Columbia, Derek was quickly hired as first engineer with Crazy Music Sound & Light. Working as both a live and studio engineer Lefholz gained invaluable insight into both sides of the sound engineering spectrum. “To have the opportunity to work in both the live and studio realm was very beneficial...this was around the same time I became involved with electronic music production.” Graduating in 2001, with a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration and a newfound passion for electronic music, Derek began spinning vinyl from the UK-further developing his talents as a mix engineer and producer. “Words cannot describe the flurry of emotions I feel every time I produce or for that matter hear any music electronic in nature.” Throughout the last eight years he has recorded a number of mix sets from many of electronic music’s subgenres including: “Together”, “The Hardcore”, “Access” and “Watakie Mix”. Currently, DegreeZero has two EP releases entitled, "Beneath The Surface" and "Ob-Session", both available on popular digital distribution sites. A dance single is slated for early '08 and will be available on dance specific digital music sites, such as Juno.com, dancerecords.com, etc. “As a producer and a musician I am continuously growing and learning, developing new approaches to old ideas, DegreeZero is a constant evolution of art and sound.”

Artist Mission