Ephixa

James Leusink (born April 13, 1990), better known by his alias Ephixa (sometimes stylised as ephixa), is a Canadian electronic music producer who lives in Ontario, Canada.

He is best known for his viral "Charlie Sheen Bi-Winning" dubstep remix, remixes of music from the Legend of Zelda franchise as well as various other remixes and original electronic music.

Leusink was born on April 13, 1990.

His interest in music started when he was 8 years old, playing the keyboard without prior lessons.

He got his first guitar several years later, began taking lessons, and joined various bands.

Leusink's work in electronic music began while he was developing video games in his spare time, desired to create a soundtrack for his various games.

Originally influenced by hardstyle artists such as Alphaverb, Showtek, and Evil Activities, Leusink has used the digital audio workstation FL Studio to produce his music.

On April 10, 2010, Leusink released his second EP, Zelda Step.

The project featured remixes of "Lost Woods", "Song of Storms" and "Gerudo Valley" from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, as well as a remix of "Dragon Roost Island" from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

The album received mixed to positive reviews, with Jade Royal of Sputnikmusic giving the EP a 3.5 out of 5 rating, stating "It's a thin line that Ephixa treads with 'Zelda Step', but one that ultimately pleases more than disdains".

Elton Jones of Complex later placed Leusink's remix of "Lost Woods" as the best remix of a video game theme song, finalising his review of the song with "The Legend of Zelda Lost Woods theme mixed with dubstep sounds incredible."

Leusink peaked at #11 on Billboard's Next Big Sound chart in November 2011.

Ephixa is also known for the first ever single released by Canadian record label Monstercat, "Dubstep Killed Rock 'n' Roll".

On March 2, 2011, Leusink released "Charlie Sheen Bi-Winning Dubstep", a remix featuring footage of Charlie Sheen from an interview originally broadcast on American TV series 20/20.

Within two days of its release, the remix had been viewed over 700,000 times and received over 7,500 likes on YouTube, becoming one of the site's most popular and viral videos at the time.

On September 19, 2011, Leusink released his dubstep remix of the song "Sanctuary", originally by English trance producer Gareth Emery.

The remix was included in an extended play based on the original song, titled Sanctuary (The Remixes).

When reviewing the extended play, a writer for DJ Mag commented on Leusink's remix, stating that he had gone for a "twitchy, spasmodic bit of dubstep-ery, which is ok, of the type".

In the week of November 5, 2011, Leusink entered and peaked at number 11 on Billboard's Next Big Sound chart.

On August 3, 2012, Leusink released "Awesome To The Max", which the Your EDM staff described as "heavy but laid back, and a gift for fans of dubstep and Monstercat alike".

On August 25, Leusink collaborated with American producer Varien and Canadian duo Project 46 to release "The Anthem".

The collaboration was released alongside an animated music video to celebrate Monstercat's one year anniversary.

Both "Awesome To The Max" and "The Anthem" appeared on Monstercat's ninth compilation album, Monstercat 009 – Reunion.

Both songs were later featured on Monstercat's Best of 2012 compilation album.

In November 2012, Leusink left Monstercat, continuing to release music independently.

On November 16, he released "Fuck The System", a mashup of himself, Deadmau5, TVDS, and Showtek.

The song was released to promote "Fuck the 9to5 jobs".

On January 17, 2013, Leusink released "Unraveled Reality", which Steve Jacobs of EDM Sauce wrote that the track "offers a bit of a soothing feel along with some big drum sounds".

In 2013, Leusink went on hiatus.

During a Reddit AMA, The Monstercat staff were questioned about what happened to Leusink, which they answered:"Ephixa, as an artist, took some time off to focus on other projects and his personal life. However, word on the street is that he is back at producing and we are looking forward to hearing his new work."

On June 30, 2014, a year after he released "Unraveled Reality" and almost two years after he released "The Anthem", Leusink independently released "Catfish".

EDMTunes' James Brannigan noted the song for its minimalist trance progression, later writing that as soon as "the drop hits, Ephixa brings back the sound he used to win all of our hearts with as he did in his dubstep remix of 'Song of Storms'".

The collaboration was previously featured in Leusink's 2014 mini-mix Wip Rip Reel under the working title "Old Dennis".

At the time, Leusink stated that the track would "most likely never" be finished.

On February 5, 2015, Leusink released his remix of American electronic producer Dex Arson's song "Machina" as part of the latter's extended play Welcome to War.

Writing for EDMTunes, James Brannigan noted the remix for its diversity and described it as "bearing a resemblance to Excision’s style".

Matthew Meadow of Your EDM wrote that Luesink had transformed the original song into a "genre-hopping, deep and rumbling tune bound to blow your speakers", later stating that the synths used were "wonderfully bubbly and sinister at the same time, allowing for an extremely diverse and layered track, just the kind of thing I live for".

On July 4, 2016, nearly 4 years after his last release on Monstercat, Leusink collaborated with Stephen Walking to release "Matches" as part of Monstercat's 5 Year Anniversary, featuring Aaron Richards as vocals.

The song was later voted by fans to be featured as part of Monstercat's Best of 2016 compilation album.

On February 2, 2017, Leusink collaborated with Laura Brehm to release "Losing You" on Monstercat.