CM
interview by Jorge Perezchica
Nothing says summer quite like 100+ degree sunshine in the Coachella Valley, and on August 10-12 the ultimate poolside weekender Splash House returns to Palm Springs venues: The Renaissance, Riviera, and Saguaro Hotels. The event will welcome a massive collection of artists from across the electronic spectrum. And once day turns to night, the party continues with after-hours beneath the starlit desert skies at the Palm Springs Air Museum. But why wait? Listen now to “BEAM ME UP” the new track from duo Win and Woo and be transported to topical paradise. Let your ears and dancing feet soak up the vibes, savor the taste of piña coladas, imagine grooving along with a throng of bikinis and shirtless bodies or just relaxing on a floatie with your bestie. We know, it’s still July but it’s no dream—August is not far away. In the meantime, get to know Win and Woo in the Coachella Magazine interview and give the track below a listen.
Coachella Magazine: Introduce yourself: Tell us who you are, where you’re from and your background in music.
Win and Woo: Whats up! We are Nick & Austin aka Win and Woo. We’re from Chicago and until this year lived here for 7 years, grew up just south of Chicago, and we started making music together when we met in College at Illinois State way back when.
Nick has been playing instruments his whole life, was always in bands throughout high school and college. He even threw a rock festival in his fraternity’s backyard that was a pretty big thing. He then picked up DJ’ing shortly after that. He actually taught me how to DJ!
I (Woo) grew up playing band instruments just like pretty much everyone did, was all state in Chorus believe it or not lol and then never really pursued it after that until I got into DJing. I had always loved going to concerts and music was a central point of my life though. I’m a huge computer nerd though so the engineering aspect came to me easily.
CM: How has life changed since Win and Woo broke out into the scene in 2015?
Win and Woo: So we officially started the ‘Win and Woo’ Project in 2014 when we made a re-brand that was more representative of the music we were making as we matured as producers. Since then we sometimes have to take a second and realize how crazy life has actually gotten, and this is just the beginning. It always seemed like such a far fetched dream to make a living off of music. Now, We’ve played all over the USA, Canada, Mexico, and even Rome. We’ve done Electric Forest, Firefly, Ile Soniq, and a ton of other festivals. It’s absolutely insane to think about that. We’re grateful.
Truly though, when we’re not playing shows we try to keep a pretty normal life. We sit in our studios all day and work, We hit the grocery store, we have awesome girlfriends and friends who put up with our bullshit and we kind of balance both worlds pretty well. That’s important we feel. Keeps us sane.
CM: The new single BEAM ME UP feat. COSMO & CREATURE has a tropical vibe. What is your creative process when recording a new track?
Win and Woo: Yeah this one was really fun. Beam Me Up actually came about quickly. Brandyn & Molly (C&C) are some of our oldest music friends and were in the studio with Nick in LA with the hook already written going into the session. The “blame it on the president and MTV” part. From there they wrote & recorded basically the whole track in that one session. Then we just spent a bunch of time trying out different “drops” until we got the tropical feel good vibe!
Usually thats how most of our songs come about, especially now that Nick lives in LA & I’m here in Chicago. Thank the lord for Technology…. & Splice.
Win and Woo: What’s on the horizon? Where do you think the music scene is headed?
For us, I think we’re coming back into our roots. We have been very eclectic with our production thus far because we make music as we feel it right then and there. There shouldn’t be boundaries on creativity, But something keeps drawing us back to that signature Win and Woo vibes, so I think you can expect more of our music headed in that direction.
As far as the electronic music scene goes, House music is back. Chris Lake headlining EDC mainstage, Hardwell playing Tech House at Ultra & even Calvin Harrs & Dua Lipas ‘One Kiss’ being #1 forever is the mainstream testament to that. Also bass music/Dubstep is SO big right now. It’s crazy how music cycles like that.
CM: What’s your advice to artists trying to break out of the bedroom and into live arena?
Win and Woo: It sounds cheesy as hell & we’ve all heard it before but WORK YOUR ASS OFF. In todays musical climate you have to be everything. Be good at marketing. Be good & production. Be good at business. You have to be your entire team starting out. We spent the last 7 years of our lives working every single day to get to where we are right now & we aren’t a household name by any means. It’s really hard. Your social life will decline because you will be locked up in the studio. It’s not lucrative in the beginning & your going to think you suck every other day (that never changes) but if you believe you can do it, you really can. Surround yourself with positive people who are ambitious like yourself & you will all rise together.
Also just be genuine. People see through fake personas so easy nowadays. Just be you, It makes it easier for people to relate to you which in turn will get your music out there.
CM: What do you love most about the DJ scene?
Win and Woo: We love the community. We have met so many amazing people. Everyone is so involved and truly invested in the artists & the artists are truly invested in their fans. It’s such a positive force in the world & we think that’s really cool.
CM: What can audiences expect at Splash House in August from Win and Woo?
Win and Woo: If you have never seen us live, expect everything. We love to mix different genres into our sets to create amazing moments of high’s & lows. One thing you can be sure of is that we’ll have some fun 🙂
LISTEN
WHAT: SPLASH HOUSE AUGUST 10-12
WEB: http://www.splashhouse.com
MUSIC: Win and Woo