Artist Spotlight: Exclusive Interview with Candyland

Whether it’s the “Candyland OG Remix” series, the recent “Bring the Rain” EP, or one of their many other popular tracks, it’s almost inevitable that you’ve heard Candyland’s music. The Santa-Barbara duo have been inescapable the past couple of years, carrying a story is like no other.

Ethan and Josie’s, the pairing that make up Candyland, have a diverse catalog of music that chronicles pivotal moments in recent dance music history. Favorites like their remix of “Stay Fly” or more recently “The Secret” featuring Stan SB, show off sounds influenced by the culture of our time.

Last week Candyland (slowly but surely) uploaded the “Bring The Rain” remix EP featuring artist like AFK, HeRobust, and many more. The entire EP is free, giving more reason to love these two young producers.

We caught up with Josie to talk group origins, the future of EDM, and insight to future Candyland plans. Check out the full interview below:

How did you two meet?

When I first started DJing a friend of mine asked me to DJ his friends birthday party, it was my first gig, turned out to be Ethan’s 17th birthday party.

What influenced Candyland to start DJing/Producing?

Being told no haha. There is a city in Santa Barbara called Isla Vista, super big college town and a dream for any up and coming DJ so we just wanted to play there, but crazy politics and we didn’t know anyone so we could never get a show, so we were like, lets make our own music and let the music get us shows.

Your sound is pretty dynamic, what genres are you guys most pumped about right now?

I think we’ve always been into heavy electro house Knife Party style… pretty much anything hard hitting or weird.

“The Secret” is one of my favorite songs, is there a story behind why you chose to donate the proceeds of this track in particular?

We knew we would be doing a benefit show in Boston, so we thought why not make a song to promote the show, as well as raise more money. It worked out :).

How did the OG series idea come about?

It started as a joke. The “Sandstorm” remix was our first trap tune, so we just put OG on it for fun and when I loaded it into SoundCloud I forgot to take it down so it just became a “thing”.

What has been your favorite show to play?

Escapade 2013. We got to play for 2 hours cause one of the headliners canceled and the energy has been unmatched. Such a crazy show.

As far as industry goes, what do you think will be the next mainstream sound?

Who knows… maybe some pop trap hybrid. Someone comes up with something every summer haha so I guess we just have to wait!

What person/group would you want to work with?

Knife Party or Skrillex. It was dope Skrillex put our Kill Paris remix in his video for ‘Wild For The Night’ but it was a huge tease… we’d love to get down with him or the Knife Party guys in the studio.

What’s next for Candyland?

Working on this new EP titled “Fosse”, getting ready to relaunch our label Sweet Shop Records, and got some free stuff in between all that!

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