Secret Recipe, the incredible DJ, producer and founder of Wormhole Music, is crafting up some absolute madness with his newest EP titled Mind Overload! The four track EP, the second release of the year from the Oakland-based producer,  is filled with heavy hitters certain to be crowd pleasers. From the deep opening track Don’t you Know to the heavy banger Hopeless Machine, Benjamin Hannus (the man behind the Secret Recipe project) has formulated a perfect representation of his incredible production and sound design. Secret Recipe is truly the artist to look out for in the upcoming year as he continues to formulate insane music, mixes, livestream and potential future live events! In fact, to celebrate the release of the EP, Wormhole is presenting a Secret Recipe EP Release Party tomorrow night at 6 PM EST on the Wormholelive twitch!

“Mind Overload is my first EP in over two years, and the release represents a huge progression in my skills as well as a distinct vision for my project. To me, this EP embodies the mental chaos I have so often experienced throughout my years in the music industry; a feelling that has become ever more prevalent while navigating this pandemic and quarantined lifestyle. In that regard, Hopeless Machine symbolizes the self-perpetuating and often self-destructive cycles that I’ve come to find inextricably intertwined with the music industry.”

1) You have clearly done an incredible job balancing your work at Wormhole with your work for the Secret Recipe project. Do you have any advice for producers and/or label management looking to better balance their busy schedules?

Honestly, at this point, my biggest piece of advice would be to take care of yourself. My second piece of advice would have to be this:

If you want balance in your life, you probably shouldn’t simultaneously pursue careers in event promotion, label management, and a solo music career. There were times over the past several years where I was releasing free singles every Tuesday on the label while hosting a very popular weekly party every Wednesday ON TOP of one-off weekend events and EP releases, and this was all while touring and traveling constantly and playing sometimes upwards of 40-50 shows a year, PLUS driving for Lyft and Doordash when I needed to do some side work to make ends meet. I’m proud of all I’ve accomplished, and I’ve had some great times along the way, but all of it has often come with huge sacrifices to my interpersonal relationships and especially to my mental and physical health. 

Over the years, I’ve met a lot of people that have told me they were inspired by wha I do, and that feels awesome. However, I’m finally getting to a point in my life where I’m realizing how important it is to stop and smell the roses. I’m not trying to discourage anyone for diving head first into following their dreams and passions. It can be extremely rewarding, and working in the electronic music industry can be a whole lot of fun. But if there was one thing I would want people to learn and take away from my mistakes, it would be that you gotta check in with yourself about how you’re really feeling or this lifestyle will catch up with you fast. 

2) What are your plans within your two jobs for the year of 2021?

Well, between events, the label, and my own music, it’s more like three jobs. As far as plans go, following this release I have a collab EP with Xotix on the way real soon, a full length LP I’m working on wrapping up, and a whole bunch of collabs and singles that’ll be out in the next few months as well. We also have a bunch of exciting label releases on the way that I can’t spill the beans on quite yet. As far as events go, it’s still unfortunately impossible to plan any IRL events with all the uncertainty of the pandemic, especially where we live in California. That being said, we will continue hosting our weekly Wormhole Wednesday Livestreams, and we plan to add some additional programming to our Twitch Channel as well.