Watermelon & Dick – The Festival Album is an immersive electronic festival experience created by independent Aotearoa producer DEHUSSLAR MUSIC. Rather than following one genre, the album takes listeners on a journey though the atmosphere, energy and diversity of an electronic music festival, moving between different sounds, stages and emotional moments.
Born in the dirt of Auckland’s festival scene, DeHusslar traded the crowd for the studio following a 2024 epiphany at Splore — teaching himself to engineer a high-contrast blend of explicit festival anthems and raw mental health melodies. Operating completely outside the traditional label system, the 18-track powerhouse tears through House, Afrobeat, heavy Bass Anthems, Dubstep, Trap, and high-energy 170BPM Drum and Bass.
Taking the sonic landscape to the absolute highest tier, the entire project was masterfully mixed by legendary New Zealand musician and engineer Tiki Taane, giving the heavy production a world-class, stadium scale.
"I never wanted to be boxed into one sound. Across 18 tracks, this album takes you through an entire festival experience—from house, dubstep, and bass anthems to trap and DnB—while still delivering deeply personal tracks like 'Feel the Weight of the World' and 'Good Enough,'" says DeHusslar. "At its core, it’s designed to be a fun escape from reality, giving you that exact same release you get standing in the middle of a massive festival. Having a legend like Tiki Taane mix the entire project took that vision to a massive stadium level, making every single bass drop hit like a heavyweight punch."
The anonymous masked force of Aotearoa electronic music is not tapping the brakes. Following a relentless four-month run of independent drops that saw him crash the Aotearoa Hot 20 Singles Chart three times – including two undeniable Top 10 debuts – the balaclava-clad producer now officially reveals his monstrous debut.
Rooted in the real-world environmental tensions of Māngere, South Auckland—where sirens, flashing lights, and circling helicopters inform the raw energy of the production—the album is anchored by the emotional focus track ‘UNBREAKABLE’. It builds directly on the chart-climbing momentum of three heavy-hitting singles: the explosive bass anthem ‘II VII V DUB’, the relentless DnB weapon ‘MOUTH TO MOUTH’, and the melodic trap/bass standout ‘FEEL THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD’.
Refusing to let the industry system dictate his narrative, DeHusslar conceals his identity behind a signature balaclava, deliberately stripping away personal ego to focus on shared human resilience and pure joy.
"Some people put on a mask every day just to survive. I wear a balaclava to represent those people—the struggle doesn't have a face, race, or colour," explains DeHusslar. "DeHusslar Music is an escape from reality just like a music festival. Watermelon & Dick is a fun saying; it makes people smile and laugh."
Engineered strictly for front-left festival lifers and massive mainstage speaker systems, WATERMELON & DICK – THE FESTIVAL ALBUM is available now on all major streaming platforms and Bandcamp.