Joe: At that time there was a lot of people-like you would have a collective and you would repost songs and that’s how you would gain recognition.
Andrew: Looking at spotify and Soundcloud, in both situations, we were very lucky. With spotify, the first thing we put on there ended up doing really well and getting on viral charts. So that was a really good segway to continue working on there.
With soundcloud, we were lucky enough to be able to create these collectives with other artists and team up to repost music for eachother.
What advice would you give to artists/producers getting in the game now, on how to share their music or where to post it, what would you suggest?
Joe: Still use soundcloud. What we did was we had a couple throwaways that were just like geting good numbers and that would help us grow.
Andrew: It has become more difficult to get a hit on soundcloud. That may just be my personal opinion or what I have personally seen more recently. So now everyone who is starting careers that are blowing up now are definitely using Spotify. I think of an artist like Lauv for example who blew up on Spotify, he probably has a lot less followers on soundcloud but he is so big on Spotify so he is able to tour with like Ed Sheeran and do stuff like that you know?
You have been touring a bit now, what has touring done to motivate you and in what ways has it been inspiring you?
Joe: Well that’s how you do it. If you really want to grind, you have to tour. Personally I love travelling so for me, it’s like “SICK that’s where im going next!” But if you want to actually build fans and connect with people then that’s how you build it up. We have been able to play the coasts of north America and move inward, so we have been able to expand from being exposed to more people from shows which motivates us.
Any new sounds, artists or types of EDM rising from your experience on tour?
Andrew: K?d and REZZ for example, I am very inspired by how they have been able to cultivate and create a culture.
Would you ever do the niche thing like a helmet like Deadmau5 or the goggles that REZZ has?
Joe: We thought about it, but it’s not really us. Maybe like a side project like later on. But for what we are doing, it’s not really us, like which is about just us as people and what we do day-to-day and how that translates into music.
Andrew: Yeah, like for a pretty long time, we’ve always been on the same page as to what we want like Loud Luxury to be and its not like about this fantasy world or cartoon characters that some others are – which is still really dope and creative, but ours was never meant to be that sort of world. It was always just meant to be something that other people connect to-
Joe: the world we create is our world.
Andrew: It’s just us
Joe: Like what we are and what we experience, because that’s all we do.
Andrew: And that’s what makes it more comfortable because we are just being ourselves.
Any underground Canadian artists we should watch out for this year?
Andrew: I definitely want to shout out Robotaki, he’s a Toronto/Montreal dude
Joe: Always loved his music
Andrew: And also Love thy brother, who has been around for a while from Montreal. I really admire him because, he doesn’t chase trends, he just makes music that he really likes. There is not pressure to be around someone like that, its so relaxed, and there is no pressure to be like “ Do people care about what I am doing?” It’s really just like, I’ve never been around people where the way that they make music is just so honest and just in themselves. Because everyone obviously says, I make this for myself and I make this because I love it. But we are all fickle beings in terms of caring what other people think. But those are two artists specifically at least in my mind, you know, that just make music that’s just really them.
Have you guys always felt comfortable without having that thought of “what are people thinking of this?”
Joe: No, for the first two years we were feeling that. 100%. But now that we have a sound, now, we can either continue with that or rather, expand from that comfortably.
Andrew: Anyone who tells you that they have never experienced that are either lying or they are way too young or something.
Joe: The first two years were not that great there was a lot trial and error.
Andrew: Once you know your sound it is way easier to figure it out because you just ask yourself: “ Does this make sense with what I am trying to do?” Because before, you try to make absolutely anything and take any opportunity that comes your way, because you are still discovering. But once you know that a specific thing is what you want to do. Then it becomes a question of, “this could be the dopest thing in the world. But is this what I need?”
How do you know if a sound is a good fit for you guys?
Joe: You just know. Sometimes we get sent stuff and it’s just the elements in it like the top line like the melody or the beat, no matter how it’s recorded or no matter what the lyrics are, you could listen to it for like 15 seconds and you can immediately tell yes or no.
Andrew: Instinct is like a muscle, it just needs to be worked out, you know? When you see and experience the mistakes that you and other people make and you see trends rise and fall, that’s where this knowing comes from.
How involved are you in the writing process?
Joe: We are involved 100%
Do you like to leave the lyrics or melody to the vocalist or do you guys like to write lyrics as well as the instrumentals?
Joe: Not every time. Like for example, for “Body” we already had a very strong top line all it needed was a few things so we recognized that it is really good and we didn’t want to touch that.
Andrew: We got into electronic music, less about the dope club tracks, but more just about the people who are writing like actual songs with it. Because I think when you can write a good song with it, it is a very cool genre to explore. So like me, personally, earlier in my life I was listening to Calvin and Aviici or even more recent like Disclosure who are really making songs, rather than the coolest club track you just party to.
What do you commonly start with, instrumentals first or lyrics?
Andrew: Doesn’t really matter.
Joe: What ever peeks my interest first. Sometimes it could be like a guitar piece or anything and we take it from there.
Do you guys play any instruments?
Joe: Yep. I play guitar and bass, also a little bit of piano.
Andrew: Piano, and drums for a while.
Joe: It does help to know how to play these instruments.
Andrew: I think the two instruments, -which I learned completely unintentionally- piano and drums really help for understanding production because everything in the software is laid out like that. So if you were someone who is just starting out, I would recommend those two.
Joe: For me it’s guitar as well. I mean, you don’t need to know anything, like Deadmau5 but it will take a lot more time for trial and error.
Andrew: Exactly.
Can we talk about AFTR:HRS and your track “Fill me in” and working with Tiesto? How did that come about?
Andrew: We were drinking with him at Labour of Love in 2016. And he made Joe do a Scorpion Shot.
Joe: He totally put me on the spot.
Andrew: It’s actually pretty hard
Joe: Yeah there was a whole green room full of people watching me and I was like, this is the first time I meet this guy, I can’t mess this up. So then I did it, and perfectly, and everyone was like WOAHH so that’s how it all started.
Andrew: We just called him to go out, out of the blue and we just started talking. It was our first time meeting him and we found out, that around the same time that he was launching a label called AFTR:HRS. That was around the time we were really figuring out our own sound. To be honest it was our manager who was like “you have this track “Fill me in”, I promise you, I think Tiesto is going to love this, it will be a great fit for his label.” So, we connected and they sent over the track and he was like I need this right now.
