Vaughn Oliver

Vaughn Richard Oliver is a Canadian music producer, sound designer, DJ, and mix engineer.^[1] He was also part of the electronic music production and DJ duo Oliver (DJs) with Producer, DJ and songwriter Oliver Goldstein.

Vaughn Oliver
Background information
Birth name	Vaughn Richard Oliver
Also known as	U-Tern
Origin	Vancouver, Canada
Genres	Electronic electro house nu disco electropop
Occupations	DJ record producer songwriter
Years active	2010–present
Labels	Interscope Fool's Gold
Member of	Oliver

Vaughn Richard Oliver (also known as U-Tern), originally from Canada, was a hip-hop and scratch DJ in the 1990s. Vaughn Oliver, upon moving to Vancouver, started DJing in clubs and radio shows, while Goldstein played in bands and made beats in the studio. While living separately by distance, Vaughn and Oliver Goldstein communicated by Skype and produced music by sending each other parts via the internet.^[2][3][4]

Vaughn launched his duo's debut studio album, which titled Full Circle, which featured collaborations with Chromeo, MNDR, Sam Sparro, De La Soul and Yelle, was released via Interscope Records on August 25, 2017,^[5] alongside singles titled "Heart Attack" featuring De La Soul, "Electrify" and "Chemicals".^[6][7] The song "Electrify" has received over 1.8 million streams on Spotify and was included in the official soundtrack of EA Sports' FIFA 17.^[8]

In the years before 2014, Vaughn released the extended plays titled Dirty Talk (2012), Mechanical (2013) and Light Years Away (2014).^[9] In an interview, Vaughn noted his dream collaborations to be Prince, Quincy Jones and Daft Punk.^[10][11]

A remix EP of Mechanical was released, featuring remixes from Tchami, Dillon Francis, Values and Nom De Strip.^[12] Their song "MYB" was featured on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show.^[13] Earlier in 2017, they featured on the Leon Else song "The City Don't Care", which was released via What Are We Doing/Interscope Records.^[14]

On October 23, 2019, Vaughn announced on their official Twitter account that no plans were set for any future albums/tours and that they (Goldstein and he) hadn't worked together on music for over a year, citing professional issues. Vaughn intends to sporadically release under the Oliver name, but states that his focus has been on producing and sound engineering for other artists.^[15]

After 2019, he made the switch to mainly producing for artists including Latto, Kim Petras, Nicki Minaj, Meg Thee Stallion.

In 2021, Vaughn handled the production of Big Energy, a single by Latto. "Big Energy" has gone 2 x platinum and earned Latto her first top 10 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number three in April 2022. “Big Energy” also reached #1 on U.S. Rhythmic chart and #1 on Top 20.

Vaughn also made contributions to 9 Kim Petras songs from the album "Problematique" and 3 songs from the album "Feed the Beast".

Vaughn Oliver has worked with Nicki Minaj, Megan Thee Stallion, Katy Perry,^[16] Latto, Kim Petras, Kylie Minogue, Khalid, Poppy, Slayyyter, Yelle, Remi Wolf, Chromeo, Lu Kala, as a producer and songwriter^[17] and frequent collaborators include Dr. Luke, Tobias Wincorn, Jesse St John, Malibu Babie, LunchMoney Lewis, KBeaZy, Ryland Blackinton, Yung Bae, Nico Stadi, Blake Straus and Chloe Angelides.

Vaughn Oliver^[18] is well established in the producer community through Splice (platform),^[19] where his Power Tools^[20] sample packs have become one of the platform's most downloaded brands.^[21] He has released three main packs with a total of around 3,000 sounds, along with a DECADES series that focuses on the sounds of the '80s and '90s. Vaughn’s Power Tools sample packs^[22] sounds have contributed to the making of many tracks,^[23] including underground releases and chart-topping hits.^[24] Vaughn’s samples can be found in song by with Doja Cat, Dua Lipa, SZA, Justin Timberlake, Kygo, Sabrina Carpenter,^[25] The Weeknd and Adele.