In just two years, mash-up artist Basic Physics has established a huge online following, picked up a record deal, and has performed with Grammy-nominated Skrillex.

Alex Syse had no idea. As a freshman marketing major, he thought about a potential future with Northwestern Mutual. Cargill might have some sweet benefits, too, he thought, as he walked through UW-Eau Claire’s Internship Mania, collecting business cards from the suited-up employers, shaking hands, smiling.

Just a few years later, he’s talking to me from his airport-bound cab on the way home from Philadelphia, fresh off a mini tour as mash-up/electronic artist Basic Physics – the alias that Syse, in just two brief years, has used to establish a gargantuan following in the music blog community; get picked up by a record company; and perform with artists like Chiddy Bang, 5 & A Dime, Big Shaw, and Grammy-nominated Skrillex. On Feb. 9, he’s releasing his second mash-up album.

Quite the stretch from the 9-to-5 corporate gig. Sorry, Cargill.

“When I was a freshman, I never would have imagined I’d be going into music,” says Syse, who graduated with his marketing and entrepreneurship degrees in December. “I got a hold of some music software when I was a sophomore and started sifting through the programs and just posting my music for fun. It was seriously a ‘bedroom DJ’ kind of beginning.”

Similar to Mark Zuckerberg’s dorm room creation of Facebook – with the exception of Syse being in a house off campus – the project took off. “I wanted to target as many music blogs as I could,” he told me. “They have a major fan base – we’re talking, like, tens of thousands of people – so I would send out hundreds of emails every time I had new tracks and hope they got picked up.”

They did – and people noticed. By the summer of 2010, one of Syse’s tracks reached No. 1 on Hype Machine, a website where users can “heart” the tracks posted to boost them up on the site’s front page – sort of like “upvoting” on Redditt. After a few No. 1 spots and a consistent 35,000 listens a day, Syse was discovered by his first manager.

“From there, things started to move really quickly,” he says.

At the end of 2010, Syse performed with Philadelphia-based hip hop duo Chiddy Bang, and, shortly after, released his first album Nightlife in the Northwoods.

“After the release, I was contacted by a music label based out of Chicago that wanted to pick me up,” he says. “We talked logistics, and it seemed like a really good fit. They gave me the tools to start building up a larger fan base.”

Then, Syse released one of his favorite tracks, Ghosts on a G6 – a mash-up of Far East Movement’s Like a G6 and a Deadmau5 track, which reached over 100,000 hits in three days and increased – as if it were even possible – his online popularity. His Facebook page, for the record, has more than 60,000 “likes.”

Touring followed, including a trip to SWSW and more mash-up producing. Which brings us to the countdown of his sophomore album release.

“(Lift Off) will be 16 tracks – nine of them already released, and the rest brand new, including an edit from a pre-existing track,” he says. “I think it’s a really good balance of what I’ve come from and what I sound like now. It’s over an hour, and all the songs are transitioned into each other, so it feels like one single track.”

When choosing what songs to sample, he likes to take what’s popular at the moment and mix it with a lesser known genre, like electronic or dubstep, and create a product that complements all the artists involved. “I like to keep people on their toes when they’re listening.”

Now a UW-Eau Claire alumna, he says he’s fully focused on staying with music. With his songs on the rise, foot in the industry door, and record set to drop, the only direction to go is up.

As the legendary Jay-Z quote goes: I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.

“I’m very happy with where I’m at right now – I never expected to be doing music when I went into college,” he says. “This has gotten to a point where I’m confident and know I’ll be successful in the long run. The connections I’ve made will help me pursue what I want to do in the music industry. I’m having the time of my life.”

Preview the new album, Lift Off:

Lift Off (Album Preview) :: Download in Description :: by Basic Physics