Have you heard of Marshmello? Not the food, but the electronic DJ and music producer?
He is known around the world as the faceless DJ who has managed to keep his actual identity relatively private—an impressive feat this day in age! While he isn’t the first music artist to mask his identity, he enhances the faceless DJ trend that was first started by Deadmau5 and Daft Punk.
The beauty of wearing this sort of disguise is that it allows every day looking DJ to take on an internationally recognized identity!
So who is Marshmello and what does he look like? Let’s go beneath the white mask and unveil what this electronic DJ superstar is really all about!
Where the interest all began
Back in 2015, Katie Couric was giving an interview to Skrillex, as Forbes explains. Katie happened to see the caller ID, which read “Chris”. Skrillex instinctively answered the phone and introduced the voice as Marshmello. Needless to say, this put fans into an absolute spin, who were determined to discover if Marshmello’s real name was actually Chris and what this mysterious DJ actually looked like. They naturally dug all through the internet and social media to discover that Marshmello was indeed a man named Chris Comstock.
Who is Chris Comstock
Chris Comstock is a 28-year-old from Philadelphia who has many alias names, including Dotcom and Marshmello. He is a stereotypical east coast looking man, who is the average height of 5’11 and has brown hair and brown eyes. His career all started when he took to SoundCloud to drop his first song called Wavez. It was there that he gained the support from the DJ industry, where people like Skrillex came in to support the budding musician. He did his first performances at EDM music festivals and by 2016 had signed to the Joytime Collective label. Through them, his albums reached the top 5 spots on the Billboard charts, and clubs around the world started jamming out to his hypnotic tracks. But when his identity was mysteriously leaked on live television, his lawyers and managers were quick to erase any links between Chris Comstock and Marshmello online! But that wasn’t the first time that Marshmello’s identity was revealed! Over recent years his real identity has been caught on Instagram stories and Facebook images. But Chris Comstock also has a great sense of humor! After the mistake in unveiling his identity, he took to his Twitter account to egg his fans on, joking that his name is short for Christmas.
The strategy behind the identity
Marshmello became a sensation through brilliant marketing strategies. His manager has admitted in numerous interviews that they had a strategy all along to keep the Marshmello brand about the actual music rather than the person. Creating an obsession within his fans around his real identity led to his albums going platinum and quickly becoming the world’s highest-paid DJ! Meaning that Marshmello earns more than $150,000 per gig….that’s a high hourly rate! And the mystery man is in such high demand that his managers literally can not keep up with requests! His strategy also involved branching out through a range of collaborations, like with Selena Gomez in the hit single called Wolves. Teaming up with pop sensations like that only elevated the intrigue to unmask Marshmello!
Can’t stay hidden forever
The internet is ruthless and obsessive fans don’t ever give up. So Marshmello has a very challenging time now staying anonymous. For example, dotting girlfriends always want to show off their handsome boyfriends. And much was the case of Kesley Calemine, who posted a picture of her and Chris together on Valentine’s Day. According to EDM, fans went absolutely nuts for the gorgeous couple! While many people may not have recognized the boy hugging Kelsey immediately, she did tag Dotcom’s account, which just happens to be Marshmello’s other pseudonym.
But Marshmello gets the last laugh now
While many fans may think they have the upper hand with knowing who Marshmello’s real identity is, he has proved the mask still provides a mystery, which he easily proved at the 2018 iHeart Radio Music Awards. What everyone thought was Chris under the Marshmello mask during an award acceptance speech, the mask was taken off at the end to reveal popstar sweetheart Shawn Mendes! Teen Vogue explains that this switch-up was a great reminder that Chris is not the brand of Marshmello, it is the faceless mask and the award-winning music! And while some fans did not appreciate the prank, Chris and his manager took to Twitter to have some more fun and prodding fans even more about the switch-up between Shawn Mendes and Chris, which inevitably led to more theories on who the actual identity of Shawn Mendes was!
Fun facts about the man behind the mask
While there is still so much that is unknown about Chris, there are a few fun pieces of information that we can share that will provide the mystery man with a bit more of an identity.
- First of all, he is a huge gamer, especially when it comes to Fortnite! He loves Fortnite so much that he even created a concert inside the game for other gamers to attend. Talk about a great marketing strategy there!
- But more so than being engulfed in video games, Chris also enjoys having a go with social media and morphing his face on Snapchat—yes, he often shows his real face on there!
- In addition, Chris has very identifiable tattoos on his hand. This was actually one of the main clues that led to the unveiling of Dotcom and Marshmello being the same person! While the tattoos are often covered up, sometimes they do become visible to the bare eye, or the odd fan with eagle eye vision.
- And for those wanting to learn more about who he is, look no further than his little sister! He truly embraces the big brother persona and is her number one fan!
- He truly does enjoy having a private life, which is why it is really rare to ever get Chris to commit to an interview. He likes to be prepared when he is in public and in control, hence the longing to always wear his Marshmello mask!
- An East Coast Philly man for the first part of his life, Chris has transitioned into that West Coast LA lifestyle and his chill persona is certainly the right fit for the vibes of the beach state.
- And as expected from his persistence of remaining unknown, Chris is not in this for the fame. He is extremely humble and grateful to his fans and holds his loyal friends dearly to him.
- His favorite hobby besides gaming? Cooking! This international DJ has started his own cooking show on YouTube, where while in the persona of Marshmello, ventures into the kitchen to test out new recipes. Who knew there was such a domestic side to this mystery man.
So in short, yes, the world now knows what Marshmello looks like. Whether or not the on-air reveal was planned or not, Chris has continued to keep fans on edge by reminding them they can never be too sure who is underneath the Marshmello mask!
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