Over the weekend, Lansing welcomed 18 different musical acts to Adado Park for two days of hip-hop and electronic dance music during its Prime Music Festival.
While on stage, musical artists can seem out-of-touch with their audiences, but some of the single and duo performers took time to answer questions from The State News about their backgrounds, music and what they were most excited about for their audience at Prime.
Ontario natives Andrew Fedyk and Joe Depace both grew up and went to school in Canada before and moving out to Los Angeles, California to pursue their music goals. Today, they perform together under their stage name Loud Luxury.
After heading out to California, did you guys know what kind of music you wanted to pursue?
“We kept it pretty open, we just had an open mind going there cause it’s a pretty big place and there’s a lot of diversity there in terms of music," Depace said. "When we moved there, we just started meeting everybody we could, going out to different bars, different places, going to see different shows.”
“I loved electronic music growing up. I actually learned how to make music by making hip hop beats and when I started making electronic music it was more so because I went to school and lost touch with all the rappers I was working with back home," Fedyk said. "So it’s sort of funny it came out of that necessity, but there was always that passion there.”
What is your favorite part about performing live?
“I just love bringing people together," Depace said. "There’s no better feeling than when you’re on our side looking out and seeing the look on everybody’s faces. You kind of have that special moment.”
“Bringing the party to people, it’s a really special feeling, having all that positivity and knowing that you can play a part in that," Fedyk said.
When you aren’t performing, what do you like to do for fun?
“I like to hike. I like art, I’ll go to galleries and stuff like that," Depace said. "Go to the beach or something like that, something low and chill.”
“Yeah, we spend almost all of our energy either making music or performing it, so I think anytime we’re not doing that, we just really like to relax," Fedyk said.
Jackson Stell, known by his stage name Big Wild, grew up in Massachusetts and headed to the West Coast to DJ and produce music.
When you perform, do you go in with a prepared set list or do you read the crowd?
“We’ll try to have a set in mind. I make a few tweaks but I always want to make a show. If I want to cater to a crowd a bit, I might do that before hand," Stell said. "For the most part, it’s how I want to present my music. I don’t try and change that too much, just so I can stay true to my own sound.”
When you’re not performing, what kinds of things do you do for fun?
“I like to go hiking, but to be honest, I’m mostly doing music stuff," Stell said. "It’s what I love to do and it just happens to be my job.”
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Rob Abisi and Nick Shanholtz grew up on different cities on the East Coast, and after moving to LA, met and started making music together as the Lost Kings.
How did music bring you out to the West Coast?
“I grew up in Baltimore, went to music school in Boston and then I moved out to LA and just started making music for other artists, and working at studios producing music, trying to find where I fit in," Shanholtz said. "Then it got to a point where I wanted to put out my own music and I met Rob, and Rob was doing a similar thing and we kinda hit it off.”
Preparing for a show takes a lot of time and preparation from the artists and the tour crew, according to the two. The Lost Kings said they like to gauge the crowd for what kinds of their music their audience wants to hear.
How often do you perform shows?
“We’ve performed all over the world and pretty much perform every week," Abisi said. "We’ve been everywhere and in between.”
When you perform, do you go in with a prepared set list or do you read the crowd?
“Each show is different," Abisi said. "We always know there are certain songs we’re going to play, like our originals and those are always going to be key staples in our set.”
When you’re not performing, what kinds of things do you do for fun?
“Usually we’re kicking it in LA," Shanholtz said. "We don’t really go out that much anymore, but we play a lot of video games. Rob just got a new puppy, so that’s entertaining right now.”
"Like Nick said, we don’t really have the time and we’re working around the clock," Abisi said.
