LAMP Weekly Mix #96 feat. Sunset Groove
LAMP Weekly Mix #96 feat. Sunset Groove
This week's guest mix is from young rising producer/DJ duo Sunset Groove. Their homage to classic house, hip-hop and disco reigns true with each transition. Their track selection reflects a refined taste in music and a clear appreciation for house, a genre of music that spans cultures, styles and time periods uniting people from all walks of life under one roof. Still in the early stages of their careers Sunset Groove stand to make an important impact on LA's scene by communicating diversity, and equality in a scene dominated by old relics and mis guided perceptions of what dance music truly imparts. MR PUZL had the pleasure of discussing some of these topics at length with the duo along with more pressing topics like record shopping ;)MR PUZL: You've got some great selections in this mix, especially that opening song. Tell us a little bit about the tracks you've chosen.Sunset Groove: Thanks man! Well the tracks that we chose to include were songs that we had been playing out a lot over the summer that were and still are some of our favorites to play. We also absolutely love 90's and 00's classic house and always try to dig a little deeper to find some older gems that other new school producers and DJ's might not have. Some of these old tracks work just as well, if not better than some of the newer stuff that's out today, and these songs sound absolutely timeless. 'It's Yours' By Jon Cutler and 'Lonely People (Club Lonely)' by Lil Louis, still set the dance floor off till this very day and it's amazing to see younger people such as ourselves dancing to house music our parents might have been listening to. Also, as far as the first track, I (Mike) am a huge fan of GoldLink and we are both massive fans of J Paul Getto so including that remix was a no brainer. We also thought it would be the perfect opening track to set the vibe that we were trying to go for in the mix. And lastly the final song in the mix is a rough edit that we did of the song 'Why Can't We Live Together' by Timmy Thomas which is an old soul song from the 60's. People might know it as the song Drake sampled for 'Hotline Bling', but 'Why Can't We Live Together' is an absolutely amazing tune about world peace and unity. It's a message that still resonates very deeply today. We will be releasing that edit as a free DL on our Soundcloud very soon; so look out for that one! ;)MP: You've mentioned that the two of you met through a mutual friend. Can you share a little more about how that came about?Mike: Sure, I think it was around 2010 and Micah's best friend, a guy named Stephen, was dating a close girlfriend of mine at the time. Stephen who has also been heavily involved in music and now works for WME, knew I was a DJ and told me about a kid in his frat at UCLA named Micah who also a DJ and producer. I immediately knew who he was because I had been to a number of their frat parties which were really wild and really popular back then and Micah would always be DJing them. Anyways after a few months of Stephen trying to make our introduction, Stephen finally made it happen and Micah arranged for us to meet at his apartment at the time in Hollywood off of Sunset (which is where the name Sunset Groove comes from) to work on some music. We didn't really finish anything then, but I remember the sessions being really fun. After that, Micah left for New York for a few months to go to school at Dubspot, but when he returned we resumed working and that is how Sunset Groove was born.MP: Both of you come from music families and it has clearly influenced your passion to create music. What other people or moments in your life have helped to inspire and motivate your to pursue careers in music?SG: I think for both of us it's not as much a moment, but more so a certain era in time, and this something that we have talked about extensively and have bonded over, and that era would be the Los Angeles rave scene in the late 90's and early aughts. Events like EDC (when it was in Los Angeles), Monster Massive, Together As One, Fresh, Love Fest, Hard, Nocturnal, and many, many more were so instrumental in introducing electronic music to our generation. These festivals were the pre-cursors to the festivals that we are seeing now and inspired so many kids , well all of us are adults now, to want to DJ and produce and get involved with the dance music industry in some way possible. We can distinctly remember ourselves and our friends and many other people going to these festivals for the first time around that time and having their lives completely changed by the magnitude of what they were experiencing. Flash forward to now though, that creative energy is showing more than ever in Los Angeles! More and more artists and people are making the move here to follow their dreams make something happen, and it is incredibly inspiring to be around, and makes us work harder to achieve our own goals and dreams.MP: You both have strong individual careers and have clear synergy when producing tracks under the Sunset Groove moniker. How do you strike a balance between them?Micah: Even though this sounds kind of contradicting, we strike a balance between them by using both of our strengths from our different projects. Mike comes from more a DJing background, and I come from more a production and engineering background. So with that, Mike is very good at arranging tracks and songs and making them more dance floor ready, where as my strengths lay with sound design and coming up with musical ideas, and when we combine these two strengths instead of trying to balance them out it usually always works out better.MP: Micah. Your study in Ethnomusicology probably led you down some intriguing and exciting paths within the spectrum of music. How do you take that extensive education and implement it into your productions? Mike. Your family is rooted in the history of disco, what knowledge did they impart on you that influences how you create music?Micah: For starters, it opened my mind up to a lot of genres and styles that I would have never explored on my own. Everything from medieval chant to Beethoven symphonies to urban blues. Some of it was great, and some unbearable. But all of it has given me a new perspective on making music, allowing me to see the big picture of how the styles evolve and interconnect. I used to be pretty against sampling, but when I learned that throughout history, some of the best compositions are built on pre-existent melodies, and it seems as if this is the historical counterpart to modern-day sampling. The classes for our performance requirement were on point (I did intro to keys and gospel choir), and the music theory requirements taught me the fundamentals of harmony, rhythm, and melody, three elements that seem to be underdeveloped in a lot of the music coming out these days. The music history classes were really amazing, minus the 10-page papers, which fucking sucked. I got pretty burnt out the last year but as I put the finishing touches on my senior thesis (30 pages about race, gender, and sexual orientation in dance music) I felt an inexplicable lightness in my body. There was blood, sweat, tears, and the occasional failed midterm along the way, but I wouldn't trade my education for anything in the world. Mark Twain said "I never let my schooling get in the way of my education," and his philosophy is spot-on. I spent hours and hours in the studios, trying to squeeze as much studio work as I could in the little time I had. In addition to having access to professional recording facilities, I have been fortunate to become close friends with some amazing singers and musicians, such as SAV and Josef Gordon, who we have collaborated with extensively. Last but not least, my schooling led me to explore and re-discover musical interests of mine that I had abandoned when I started getting into house music. I just graduated this summer, and have been hustling my ass off in the studio everyday - you'll be hearing new influences on a lot of upcoming releases, both Sunset Groove and my solo projects.Mike: The biggest piece of knowledge that my family imparted on me, besides my dad giving me EQing tips when I DJ, is is that dance music (especially disco and house) should always at the end of the day be about DANCING first, and having a good fucking time! Whenever my Mom or Dad would be playing records, that's what it was always about, that is what the disco era was all about, having a good time. Every record they played, whether it'd be for themselves or their friends or for my siblings and I, it would be something that would make everybody get up and dance and be happy. Even it was a sad or dark record, and I think that influences how I create music because that's exactly what want for people. When I am playing music I want to see people dance and to be happy, and to feel good. I like seeing smiling faces on the dance floor and asses shaking. Plain and simple, because I know for me, listening to music that does that is one of the single greatest feelings on earth, and I want to share that feeling with other people, as cheesy as that sounds, but I think that is why so many people look back so fondly on the disco era, because that is what it was all about. Actually dancing and having a good time. MP: We are definitely seeing a shift in electronic music groups pursuing live performances to supplement their DJ sets. Given your experience and background with instruments would you consider a similar approach?SG: Absolutely! That is something we will definitely be doing in the future! We sort of see the live set as something as an end-goal for Sunset Groove. You'll start to hear that with some of our releases coming up next year that it is direction we will be taking things in. A lot of music we have worked on and finished recently, as well as some of our upcoming releases, were made with us and other musicians playing live instruments as well singing and songwriting. 'Summertime' was small taste of that, but you will see that idea expanded on a lot more in the near future.MP: LA is constantly pushing the boundaries of music across all genres. How do you see the city's multi-cultural character affecting and molding the house scene?Mike: Well one way we see it affecting and molding the house scene is that city's multi-cultural character is certainly giving Los Angeles its own distinct sound in terms of a global regional standpoint. An example is the rise the G-House sound, which even though was started by two French guys, it was picked up quickly among house fans in Los Angeles due to our city's long history with gangsta rap. While that is all well and good though (and LA's house scene is fairly diverse in terms of its fans) we do think that in terms of the artists and people working in the industry that scene is greatly lacking in diversity. Especially considering the ethnic diversity of Los Angeles and house music's ethnic origins I think that we could do a lot better promoting racial diversity. MP: We loved your collab with Jayko ealrier this year. As 2015 is winding down will we see some new releases coming out or will you save them up for a fresh start in 2016?SG: Thank you! As we mentioned earlier, we will be releasing an edit of 'Why Can't We live Together' by Timmy Thomas sometime within the next couple of days, but I think after that we're going to wait until next year. We have something big planned for next year with some artists and people you guys definitely know. We can't speak on it yet, but we can't wait for everyone to see what it is. It is very exciting! ;)MP: If you had $100 to spend at a record store what would you buy?SG: Hmmm, thats a good question. I think we'd both buy a bunch of old house, disco, and funk records that we can't find online digitally. As well some of our all time favorite house records, just to say we have them on wax. Also we'd buy a bunch of records for sampling, and maybe some old rare cassettes and mixtapes.Micah: I know i'd be looking for some old Parliament-Funkadelic recordsMike: I'd be looking for some Dam-Funk records, and probably some old Jay-Z stuff, and of course some Larry Heard!
Tracklist
1. Sober Thoughts - (J Paul Getto Remix) - GoldLink2. Keep Bouncing - Cupcakes3. Feeling You Girl - New Jack City4. Beggin For Thread (Friend Within Remix) - Banks5. Forever - S Jay6. Ministry Of Love (Andre Crom Remix) - Romanthony7. I Don't Wanna (Washerman Remix) - New Jack City8. Yeah Chicago Hustle (JPG DJ Tool) - Jaceo x CZR x Alex Peace9. Funky Rhythm (Kreap Mix) - DJ Sneak10. Club Lonely (Lonely People) (Shield Re-Edit) - LIl Louis & The World11. It's Yours (Original Mix) - Jon Cutler Feat. E-man