That\u2019s it for the weekend. Party over. Time to head back to class.<\/p>\n
Or maybe not.<\/p>\n
After years of studying finance, Justin Blau decides that it\u2019s time. Time to walk away from his college degree and turn down a job offer in asset management at BlackRock.<\/p>\n
His plan? To pursue a career in music \u2014 his greatest passion. Not the kind of news likely to bring joy to the average parent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to decide on that path or the DJ path. The DJ path was the choice at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
It looks like he made the right decision. Blau is now 3LAU, a world-renowned DJ and producer who has remixed artists including Adele, Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Ti\u00ebsto \u2014 as well as released his own successful album and started a not-for-profit record label.<\/p>\n
He never abandoned his business roots. But with the help of emerging technologies, he has unleashed his energetic creativity in both worlds: music and finance.<\/p>\n
Entertainment <> business<\/h4>\n
\u201cMy dad had a similar life path in the sense that he originally started in entertainment and then moved into finance. That\u2019s always been a guide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blau\u2019s mother was a successful choreographer and dancer on Broadway. She met his father while working for his entertainment company, which organized corporate events, weddings and parties for high-profile clients in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt runs in the family,\u201d Blau says, listing off his multi-talented family members. Further up the family tree, his grandfather (a recording engineer for Jimi Hendrix), while his brother is a successful magician working with the likes of David Blaine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re kind of a mixed family of entertainment and business. No doctors, no lawyers, nothing like that. Just entertainment and business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Blau grew up around New York, the events and repercussions of 9\/11 prompted his parents to seek a change of scenery. He describes their move from Long Island to Las Vegas just as he entered his teen years as \u201ca very interesting choice\u201d.<\/p>\n
During high school, he loved studying language. His teachers were the first to recommend he explore \u201cnon-mainstream music\u201d, encouraging him to get into reading Pitchfork and indie music blogs. And that\u2019s where he discovered electronic music.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\u201cHere was this music that was really foreign to anything I knew, foreign to what my friends knew, but I just loved electronic music and became obsessed with the potential that technology could have in influencing music in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing music served as an effective stress-reliever: \u201cIt was a necessary escape from reality.\u201d Listening to music and learning all the classics was his hobby of choice. Blau expanded his musical horizons, moving from classic rock to more experimental artists.<\/p>\n
Bands like Pink Floyd and Genesis used electronic elements in their music fifty years ago, and although electronic dance music (EDM) had stormed to the forefront of the European club scene before Blau was even born, technology continued to become an increasingly integral and pervasive part of musical creation by the time he was playing the drums, guitar, and keyboard. \u201cI just latched onto that and fell in love with being able to program sounds with my computer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>