The rise to the top is never an easy ride. Whether it starts in a bedroom, a dorm room, a class room, or something completely random, a dream is always started in the most unexpected places. For New Jersey based producers, The Disco Fries, the dream started exactly that way, in a college dorm. From the dorm room to the forefront of the electronic dance music world, The Disco Fries continue to impress on their way to the top.
With a unique sound, a dedicated fan base, and so much more, 2014 is set to be their biggest year to date. Lucky enough for us, WhiteRaverRafting got to sit down exclusively with The Disco Fries during Miami Music Week less then two weeks ago. Check out the interview below and enjoy learning a little bit more about the next big stars in electronic dance music, The Disco Fries!
WRR: Hi Everyone, this is Daniel Lampert from WhiteRaverRafting.com and today we are sitting down with Disco Fries! Lets start off with the first question, What is it like being down in Miami? How are the vibes and what is it like to be playing down here in front of all of your peers, friends, and fans?
Disco Fries: This is probably our sixth year down here and its pretty amazing honestly. Every year is great, but this probably our best year we have had so far. We have so much going on and the climate for electronic dance music down here is amazing! Everybody is vibing and its just so much fun.
WRR: How have the crowds been reacting to your sets so far?
Disco Fries: The crowds have been reacting really well; they seem to really like the new music, which is a great feeling. It’s really awesome to see some of our older fans come out and continue to support us. We can play those older tracks like “Murika” and “Revelations” and still get that massive reaction out of the crowd.
WRR: So on Tuesday you guys were lucky enough to participate in a Charity Basketball Game, how did that go? Which one of you dropped 50? And did you guys guard each other?
Danny DF: Well actually they decided to split Nick and I up, it was a little upsetting to be perfectly honest. Nick was on the red team and I was on the blue team. The blue team ended up winning, so yeah looks like I got the W.
Nick DF: We didn’t get to guard each other; the truth is we didn’t really get to play much. They kept our playing time to a minimum.
WRR: So this past Thursday, the major announcement was finally released that you guys and several others were going to be apart of the 7x7Up project in joint collaboration with Tiesto. What did this announcement mean to you guys?
Nick DF: It was super exciting, really amazing! If you told us a year ago that Tiesto was going to be announcing us as sponsored 7Up Artists under him, I would have told you, you were out of your mind.
Danny DF: We have known about it for not that long. We knew when we came down here this was coming up, but we knew we also had to keep our mouths shut about it until Thursday. The press event went really well, Tiesto introduced us and said a couple words about us. It was a really incredible experience.
WRR: Lets talk about your newest release, “Philtrum”, on Musical Freedom! What is it like to have the backing and support of the label and of course Tiesto?
Nick DF: You know what it was, we made this record and we had no clue who the hell it was going to go too. It is a little off the wall and when we played it for Tiesto, he was really all about it. Hence the name of the label, he wants stuff that is off the wall and different. That’s why “Epic” was such a hit when it came out and even right now with “Gecko”. Those records were forward thinking and we were super psyched that he was behind it from the moment we showed him.
WRR: You guys have become known for dabbling in different sub-genres of EDM, but the real question is, what goes into the making of an original Disco Fries track?
Danny DF: I mean when we play our tracks we tend to jump around a lot. We stick mostly to the 128 bpm, but we are doing the bouncier stuff, the harder stuff. I mean will go higher to the 140 range and play some trap stuff, then drop down to around 100 and play stuff. We really like all these sounds and want to take elements of all of it and combine it into the sound we already have.
WRR: What inspired you guys to get into music all those years ago and what made you transition into electronic dance music?
Nick DF: Well we both grew up musicians. For me it was like my parents and my grandparents always forcing me to practice and what not. But music wise, it was always classic rock in my house even Motown. We were really always just into it.
We really both came at it from different angles. I grew up really into hip-hop; I was always listening to Dr.Dre. But growing up in the New York/ New Jersey area, we had KTU and all that stuff and by nature I just got into it.
Danny DF: For me I was more into rock kind of stuff, a lot of Radio Head and Kraftwerk, artists that had the electronic sound, but wasn’t considered dance music. Once we got to school together in Boston, we just started getting into stuff and eventually it got dancier. I mean we have always been huge fans of Tiesto too, I remember back in 2004 listening to his album Just Be which had “Adagio For Strings” and “Traffic”, we knew parts of this world, but we didn’t dive into it until college.
WRR: Lets talk about your record label, Lift Off Recordings, a little bit. What is it you want to accomplish with your label?
Nick DF: A lot of it is music we make, but really the idea behind it, is to take up and comer producers and give them the opportunities we had. We want to open doors for these guys and kind of show them a path. We want to get their music out to blogs like yours and kind of show them to the world. It took us years of grinding and meeting people that were higher up that could open those doors. We just really want to help people out and of course finding some very good music along the way!
WRR: With the explosion of electronic dance music over the past year and a half, where do you guys see EDM heading a few years down the road?
Danny DF: It’s hard to say honestly because who would have thought the deep house sound would have hit off so hard in the past few months. It just really depends truthfully because there are so many different sections of it that one could hit off and one could go away for a little bit then all of sudden explode back onto the scene. You got Diplo’s camp going in one direction and even someone like Skrillex is starting to redefine his own sound. I think it’s all about the big DJs championing their sound and taking a bunch of guys with them.
I think for us, it has always been about the music. Something like a melody has always been a really big part of the tracks that we do. That is the kind of thing that is never really going to go away. A track that has a really strong melody, a sing along, that part of it will always stick! We always try to do things that will get peoples attention whether be we swap in and out sounds, but we always want to attract new people to our stuff!
WRR: So what can The Disco Fries fans be expecting from you guys as we make our way deeper into 2014?
Danny DF: Well we just had one come out this past Monday and that one is called “Love Me Right”, it sort of has that progressive electro sound and has that cool old school feel. We have a new track coming out new month through Powerhouse, which is a new Dutch label, and that is a collab we did with Loopers, so yeah we definitely have some more stuff in the works!
WRR: Lets end this interview on a fun note! Can each of you give me a fact that your fans don’t currently know about you?
Nick DF: I have a really hard time throwing away socks. Like the socks I wear have like holes all over them and then I buy new ones, so I have so many mismatched socks.
Danny DF: You know we have made it when on the rider, we have like 3 pizzas, a few t-shirts, and oh yeah a few new pairs of socks. Random, but socks are key!
Share On
jooouli