From huge US radio hits and packs of screaming fans to topping iTunes dance charts and getting covered by some of the most prominent music media outlets in the world; saying Jean Paul Makhlouf, Alex Makhlouf, & Samuel Frisch are living the dream is an understatement.
The NJ trio have dedicated the majority of their lives to their love of music, they understand nothing is permanent in music culture and are open to adaptation, even if, at times, it means changing from an electronic pop-punk band riding Warped Tour to DJs with an entirely new sounds.
Yet, it’s safe to say Cash Cash won’t be making dramatic changes anytime soon given the many pillars of success accomplished between now and then, but for them, focusing on the music they love and being open to change are beliefs just as present and practiced today as they were many years ago – but they’re also belief’s that have payed off big-time.
“Take Me Home feat. Bebe Rexha,” “Surrender,” “Lightning (feat. John Rzeznik),” “Overtime,” Satellites,” are only some of the originals that have gained renowned praise for their super-clean, electro-pop sound, each track conveying is own unique friendly atmosphere that melts the world away from the first second. Specifically, “Take Me Home” has gone platinum, selling over 1,000,000 records as well as hundreds of radio plays from coast to coast. Along with a handful of hit originals, Cash Cash has also produced dozens of remixes, collaborations, and founded their “Royalty Radio” podcast show, all of which came out at various times in-between original releases. Check out some of our all-time favorite Cash Cash tracks below.
Studio releases are one thing but live shows are challenging on another level. Royalty Radio does allow you to get a general feeling of what the CC live experience is like, but Cash Cash has a well-deserved reputation for packing power, pop, diversity, as well as a few mind-blowing surprises all into a single show. The trio is constantly shuffling and bustling on-stage during sets, connecting with one another and the crowd to deliver nights fans never forget.
Set to play the biggest nightclub in the USA, Club La Vela on March 10th, in Panama City Beach, Cash Cash and Club La Vela is a combination you can’t go wrong with.
Ticket Pricing and More Info
Cash Cash are super psyched about 2015 and have huge plans to unleash it in the next coming months. Sam hopped on a call with WRR over the weekend to share his feelings on playing Club La Vela, future release, good times with old friends, and more.
Interview
Spring break is right around the corner. I wanted to ask if you were psyched about playing Club La Vela on March 10th. Are you pumped about it, did you know it is the biggest nightclub in the USA?
Yea! It’s cool to play places like that are some of the biggest places in the states, like as far a nightclubs go. It’s definitely cool. You have to really push yourself to make a room work that’s that big. I love playing all sorts of places, from small little clubs to festivals. It’s all good, and I think it’s amazing we’ve been able to have a really good balance of everything the last couple years. It’s fun switching it up, cause that’s definitely how we’ve developed, trying out how different things work in different settings and everything like that. So it’s fun!
Your friend Mike Gazzo mentioned a story about his college days where you, Jean and Alex went at a show in Baltimore and crashed/partied at his dorm. Mind elaborating on that story?
Ya! It was when we were all getting started, he was showing us his studio setup and everything, and his college house and basement. It was ridiculous. Then, we were out on tour for a while and he started working on Gazzo. We all grew up in Jersey together, so it was wild seeing how he had started on his path [during college], and how we later connected again after a few years of not seeing each other.
Do you two have anything planned for the future?
Not anything planned right now. We are always chilling with him, talking with him, I’m sure we’ll being doing collabs in the future, or throw a tour together or something again.
Ya! That would be awesome, a Cash Cash and Gazzo tour. Both sounds overlap in a lot of unique ways.
Totally.
Do your prefer working with DJs in the New Jersey / New York area versus other areas of the country? Is there a certain element that draws you to that area over others?
Well, it’s definitely cool to work with people you’ve grown up with for sure. Working with someone like Gazzo is awesome because we’ve known him for over 10 years. We love working with people in the NYC area definitely, there’s definitely like an immediate connection just from growing up around here. And it’s cool to work someone that you have that connection with. But we love working with people from all over to man, especially overseas, it’s great to get a whole new perspective on things.
Ya, both sides have something to offer, which is awesome.
Speaking of putting music together, whenever you’re working with Alex and Jean, is there any conflict or dissonance in the creative process when producing together or is the creative process pretty fluid between the group?
It’s usually a pretty good flow. There’s definitely been conflicts and argument between us, but that’s really because we’re so close. So like, no one holds anything back if someone is disagreeing with something. Especially between the two brothers, you know, words will be said and some shit will be thrown across the room, but as far as the creative process goes, we kind of just flow with it. Whoever has a strong idea at the time, we’ll pursue the idea, no one’s holding anyone back. Whoever want’s to be in the driver seat for that period of time until the run out of ideas or wants to develop thing a certain way can. It’s a pretty smooth flow for the most part.
Whoever has a strong idea at the time, we’ll pursue the idea, no one’s holding anyone back.
Obviously the process has proven to work out, haha.
Yea yea, totally. And sometime we’ll be driving down the road and will bounce ideas back and forth, someone will be finalizing a mix, that kind of thing.
That’s cool, so when you guys were working on “Take Me Home,” did the three of you know it was going to be huge or were the varied feelings during the production process? Was anyone questioning the direction of the track or did everyone just “know.”
So “Take Me Home” and “Surrender” were two that came together really quick and it felt good through the whole process. We were like “Yes, we are on to something.” It was all wrapped up in a few days. We felt strongly about them from the beginning. I feel like you can really tell when a song going to be “big,” you can tell when you’re working on it if it feels right, you know? We’ve been kind of streamlining this process where like, if it doesn’t feel right after a few days and it’s sometimes the idea is a struggle to get out, we’ll move on, other times it flows more naturally.
Ya you’re gut intuition can tell you alot. Switching gears, last year around this time I had a chance to talk to Pegboard Nerds, they mentioned they were completing a track with you guys, when is it coming out?
We are still working on details timing-wise with the labels and stuff, but ya it’s pretty much close to done. We playing with it for a while, here and there, it’s sounds really, really dope. We [Cash Cash] were going back and forth on if we wanted vocals on it or not, but we’re just figure out things timing-wise on it right now. But it was definitely fun, working with them was definitely cool. They got some amazing ideas and are super talented in the studio.
Amazing! Can’t wait to hear.
On the subject of talented groups, what’s your opinion / perspective on the new generation of DJs and genres currently spiking in popularity in 2014-2015? Groups like Tchami, Hotel Garuda, or Jai Wolf and genre’s like future bass, new wave?
I think its awesome. I mean, it’s cool seeing all these new things pop up because you can really feel the energy from alot of these younger guys who are up-and-coming, you can tell there’s alot of new ideas out there, everyone’s about trying new sounds and really pushing the genre, opening it up, bringing in different tempos. I think that’s my favorite part, is that people aren’t afraid to jump tempos and different genres, you know? Someone will play a trap song, then come out with a future house, more like, underground sound, and it all works together because people are experimenting and opening it up. It expands our sets and gives us a whole new perspective, and it definitely opens up the audience a little wider I think, you don’t have to see a DJ and expect the same sound all night.
Are there any up-and-coming DJs off the top of your head you’re currently digging right now?
I think Tchami is definitely like, set a standard, it’s kind of deep house, funky, got some future sounds on it, it’s really dope. Abstrakt dude is, i listen to a bunch of his remixes, he does dubstep, but recently done a bunch of house remixes that are really dope. Wiwek, he’s kind of like “junge house.” There’s a lot of people out there that I’m digging.
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Like this interview? Check out the interview we did with Jean of Cash Cash last year.
Connect with Cash Cash
http://facebook.com/cashcash
http://twitter.com/cashcash
http://youtube.com/user/cashcashmusic
http://cashcashmusic.com/
Connect with Club La Vela
https://clublavela.squarespace.com/
https://twitter.com/clublavela
http://instagram.com/clublavela
http://www.facebook.com/clublavela
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