Eve Alpert.
Canadian producer and DJ Ryan Hemsworth’s last FADER Mix was in 2013, when he was in the throes of a whirlwind lift-off from his low-key life in Ottawa to early SoundCloud-era notoriety.
Described in an article for The FADER as “maybe North America's fastest rising remixer,” Hemsworth had a prolific and incessant approach to musical creation, posting new ideas and cuts online with ease; in his early career he shared twinkly reworkings of Migos and Tinashe, and bright lights EDM-trap.
Since then, he’s translated that early energy into a longstanding career, producing for the likes of Tinashe, Mitski, and Alex G, and releasing multiple solo and collaborative albums. He slowed down in recent years following the birth of his first child but today, he announces a new album Numbskull out October 21 via the storied experimental rock label Topshelf Records. The record is a return to the guitar music that raised him, featuring a delicious mix of his cannily crafted breakbeat dance music and tracks like “Never Learned” — a pop-punk thrasher featuring Tegan and Sara.
Hemsworth’s 2026 FADER Mix reflects his forthcoming album’s stylistic variance, but similarly leans into his rockier roots, weaving wisely between his own remix of a Jimmy Eat World cut, Pittsburgh rockers feeble little horse, Harlem rapper Liim, Playboi Carti, and 90s/early aughts rock poets Life Without Buildings. His eclectic, mash up approach was fun to revisit, he tells The FADER. “I feel like it's been long enough now where some of the stuff that I was doing in [the 2010s with] an anime sample [mashed up with] a Future acapella … those subgenres are in the ‘real music’ world now,” Hemsworth says via a video call from his car. “I was just like, Oh, it'd be so dumb and fun if you put a Vengaboys synth under an Atlanta rap-type track." Sounds perfect to us.
Check out Ryan Hemsworth’s 2026 FADER Mix on SoundCloud, Mixcloud, and YouTube, and review its tracklist below. Plus, read an interview with Hemsworth about Numbskull, the 2013 era, and his return to putting out records.
Ryan Hemsworth’s 2026 FADER Mix tracklist:
Future - "Fresh Air (RH Remix)"
sueter7 - "nada cambia tanto"
Jimmy Eat World - "(RH Remix)"
Kaho Matsui - "sssssmilinggggg"
Jejune - "Grace (Wizard Glick Is Swimming)"
First Day Back - "Upstairs (212)"
Travis Scott x Playboi Carti - "Fein (RH Remix)"
Ryan Hemsworth - "One Step"
yuragi - "I Want You by My Side (Flawboy Remix)"
feeble little horse - "Upside Down"
Liim - "R.I.P Peace x Ichicko Aoba - Utanokehai (RH Edit)"
Ryan Hemsworth - "A Display of Emotion"
22º Halo - "winded"
Life Without Buildings - "The Leanover (RH Remix)"
Kibo - "Zero Fux"
Ryan Hemsworth - "if u wanna cry x Yukmouth - Stuntastic (RH Edit)"
mushpit - "happy back"
tsubi club - "You’re serious, aren’t you"
Hekt - "Anytime Anywhere"
Guinneissik - "Cate and Rooney Said I'll Forever Be a Man and I Tried to WithdrawAll of My Pennies from the Urethra"
Lali Puna - "Nin-com-pop (RH Remix)"
Ryan Hemsworth - "unreleased"
Pinback - "Serg"
Chanel Beads - "JBL in the Fireplace"
The FADER: Your first FADER Mix was in 2013, right when you were coming up. It was right in the peak of the blog era. What do you recall of that time?
Ryan Hemsworth: It was such an interesting time to start playing shows. I had an internet community of friends and then slowly started meeting them in real life through stuff like SXSW and CMJ. It's kind of intense to look back on. Growing up in Halifax, there's a ceiling. Without really having a plan, I was already talking to a lot of people like rappers in the Bay and random DJ friends: I had this weird spiderweb of connections I was making in not really any one genre.
I started playing shows around that time and touring, doing Ableton sets, showing up with a backpack and a shitty controller. There was just so much going on and I was making a mix every month or two and putting out singles and remixes constantly. SoundCloud just blew up. I would finish something and upload it right to SoundCloud. Now that's pretty normal. But at that time, that freedom felt amazing.
You've continued to put out work and play shows, but to a slower degree than maybe at that 2013 period. Was that the primary reason for that?
I was feeling burned out by 2019 from non-stop shows. I was doing DJ nights which wasn't really my intention originally with music. You show up places and you're fed shots of vodka and are expected to play for four hours. Eventually, I was like, Why am I doing this? Around that time I was expecting my first kid and then COVID happened 6 months later. I used that time to slow down and recalibrate. For the first few years of the 2020s I was working on projects and making an album, then I scrapped it, and then I was restarting a little bit and doing soul-searching. It all led me up to working on this album that I have coming out that has gone back fully to guitar, distortion, sampled drum breaks, hybrid sounds.
Does it feel overwhelming to be putting out a solo record after 8 years?
It’s an entirely different internet at this point. I've gotten more confidence again because I joined Gia Marget's band. At those shows I'd like meeting people after and and they're like, "Yo, I didn't realize that was you. I listened to your album in grade 10." Otherwise, if I'm home, I'm home and I'm not really doing shit. It's easy for me to be at home and be like, "Well maybe nobody cares but you know maybe there's like a couple people that do.” And then to run into people in the real world is like, Okay, there’s interest.
You said you don't do mixes that much often. What were you thinking about as you're putting this one together?
It's a funny feeling. If I was making more mixes like this five years ago, it wouldn’t have felt worn out in the same way. Now I feel like, Cool, I can just do what feels natural to me. The connective tissue is always some kind of emotional level between the songs, whether it's an old Jimmy Eat World demo that I put in going into a Playboi Carti song: I just feel like these things exist together in an emotional wavelength.
Hardcore, guitar music was part of your music background. How did you begin to reintegrate that into your music practice on this new album?
In the late 2010s when I was burning out in a way, I was getting so focused on electronic music and specifically what works in a club environment. I was realizing like I didn't really like love thinking in that sort of way that is very BPM and energy focused. I've always had guitar and tried to have live elements in my music. But I think I was just finally like, Oh, also if I like I haven't played shows in a while and I'm not really stressing that side of things, so I can just actually create whatever I want. I don't have to worry about DJing this pop punk sounding song with Tegan and Sara. It just doesn't really matter. I started going to stuff that was big for me in high school, even just listening to Notwist and bands that are able to occupy a few different worlds at the same time. It's been fun to just realize that this stuff is possible and not something that I need. Sometimes maybe I'm OCD or perfectionist and like how I might be making something and making sure that it has to sound as pure and proper as possible, but I realized it's not that deep sometimes.
