Mt Eden are a dubstep and EDM production duo from New Zealand, composed ofJesse Cooper and Harley Rayner. Mt Eden's most well-known songs are their original "Sierra Leone", and their respective remixes of Delerium's "Silence" as well as Lisa Miskovsky's "Still Alive". Mt Eden started gaining popularity when their remix of Freshlyground's "I'd Like", titled "Sierra Leone", went viral on YouTube in 2009. They currently have 146 million combined video views and over 258 thousand subscribers on their YouTube channel, as well as more than 291.663 "likes" on their Facebook page.
History
Background and beginnings
Jesse Cooper started making mixtapes under the moniker "Jay Fresh" on the weekends. In the beginning Cooper mostly made hip hop mixes with his friends, one of which was Harley Rayner, the son of former Split Enz keyboardist Eddie Rayner. In 2008, Cooper decided to make dubstep music after he heard Electronic musicians Benga and Skream, at the New Zealand music festivalsPhat09 and Splore, saying that he had his "mind blown" by the young genre. He also started making drum and bass music around the same time, which was inspired by the Front Left Speaker Crew and Joe Hockley. One of the first songs Mt Eden made public was "Sierra Leone", a remix of Freshlyground's "I'd Like", which he uploaded and posted on his Myspace page, however the song gained major recognition after a fan posted the track on YouTube. In 2008, Cooper's girlfriend's little brother suggested he make a YouTube page for himself to post music on. He called the page "MtEdenDnB08" because he lived in Mt Eden. That was when Cooper decided to release music under the pseudonym "Mt Eden Dubstep", later changing his name to simply "Mt Eden" in 2010, when Cooper recruited Rayner. Mt Eden released their first extended playMEDS for digital download on 7 December 2010. It has gotten mostly positive reviews by customers on iTunes. On 16 February 2013 Mt Eden announced upcoming releases in a post on their Facebook page, writing: " Our Sierra Leone Remix package is coming in April. The first single off No Mans Land is "Airwalker", to be released late April/early May, with the full Walking on Air EP out in late May. No Mans Land LP will in June." The EP Sierra Leone was released on 30 April 2013, with a completely re-made version of their original "Sierra Leone" and three remixes of the same song by Ta-ku, AraabMuzik and Tommie Sunshine with Live City. The duo's Walking on Air EP was released in June 2013, featuring seven songs, by Ultra Records Label.
