Dance Loud: Hybrid Performances, Emotional Dance Music, and Creative Vision on the Virtual Sessions 8/17/23

Dance Loud: Hybrid Performances, Emotional Dance Music, and Creative Vision

In this lively Virtual Session, The DJ Sessions host Darran Bruce welcomes Chicago-based duo Dance Loud (Kristin Sanchez and Desiré Fawn) for an in-depth conversation about their unique hybrid approach to performance, their philosophy on music, and their passion for blending art with sound. Known for describing their style as “emotional dance music,” Dance Loud defy simple categorization, existing somewhere between a DJ act and a live band.

They share how their sets combine DJing, live drums, vocals, guitar, and custom-triggered samples, creating an immersive and unpredictable experience for audiences. With a constant push toward innovation, the duo discusses the decade-long evolution of their hybrid setup, the challenges of performing in venues that aren’t always designed for mixed live and electronic acts, and how technology has shaped their creative process.

The duo also reveals their vision for a dream event, complete with moving speakers, immersive LED environments, and subwoofers embedded under plexiglass floors, designed to transform sound into a physical, multi-sensory experience. Beyond live shows, Dance Loud talk about their work producing albums rooted in field recordings, analog synths, and stop-motion visuals, as well as their passion for releasing vinyl records with uncompromising audio quality.

With influences ranging from Pink Floyd and Daft Punk to Mortal Kombat’s soundtracks, Dance Loud embody a multidisciplinary spirit, bringing together film, visual art, and music into a holistic creative journey. This conversation highlights their originality, resilience, and commitment to keeping emotional connection at the heart of everything they create.

Show Notes 

Host: Darran Bruce
Guests: Dance Loud (Kristin Sanchez & Desiré Fawn)
Location: Virtual Studios, Seattle WA & Chicago, IL
 

Overview:
Darran Bruce speaks with Dance Loud about their hybrid live/DJ performances, creative philosophy, inspirations, and how they’re redefining emotional dance music with technology and art.

Topics Covered:

• Origins of Dance Loud and defining “emotional dance music”
• Hybrid performances blending DJing, drums, vocals, guitar, and custom-triggered samples
• Evolution of their setup and navigating challenges at DJ- or band-focused venues
• Technical experimentation with hybrid drum kits, field recordings, and analog synths
• Vision for an ideal event with moving speakers, LED floors, and immersive sound design
• Balancing live instrumentation with electronic production and reverb sensitivity
• Producing albums with analog and digital blends plus stop-motion visual components
• Passion for high-quality vinyl releases using half-speed mastering and holographic artwork
• Perspectives on AI in music, originality, and human “soul” in creative work
• Inspirations from Pink Floyd, Daft Punk, John Carpenter, and Mortal Kombat soundtracks
• Aspirations for film sync opportunities and integrating music with storytelling visuals
• Personal hobbies, from building custom cars to lifelong stop-motion projects

Call to Action:
Follow Dance Loud on Instagram @danceloudmusic and explore their music, visuals, and vinyl releases on YouTube and all major streaming platforms.
Discover more exclusive interviews and live sessions at thedjsessions.com

[Darran]
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions presents the virtual sessions I’m your host Darran and right now i’m sitting in the virtual studios in seattle, washington And coming in all the way from chicago. We have Dance Loud dj Christian sanchez and desiree fawn. How are you two ladies doing today?

[Dance Loud]
Thank you so much for having us. Hey.

[Darran]
Hey, we’re doing fine Absolutely the last time we did this interview, uh Thing that we did it was in my other studio and my other Other uh place that I was dwelling in i’ve now moved into a new place up on the 16th floor A beautiful view at the back window and i’m loving it. So i’m glad that I have you both back in the studio with me today um, you know Dance Loud as I quote off your website is not a dj and not a band But somewhere weird in between Which one of you would like to elaborate on that?

[Dance Loud]
Oh goodness, um, I think we might have gotten that as a comment from someone i’m, not even sure where that saying even came from but it’s it we get kind of um, A lot of questions as to what we do. Are we the djs? Are are we a band?

What do we need? Why do you need a monitor? I just and it’s really just to make sure our sound equipment’s perfect Yeah, I never know what we’re getting into it’s like is there going to be a sound person or or not is this Is this a stage mostly for djs?

Is this one for bands? And places where you go to see bands don’t typically ever work with djs and vice versa So I play the drums guitar and vocals kristin spins

[Darran]
Yeah, you know my my my business partner jay out of uh, phoenix, arizona He is in a drum and bass and one of the things he does now is he does a lot of He will play a live drum set over the drum and bass music, but then He’ll also jump out and start playing guitar as well Perfect and then jump back and play the drums and it’s like really kind of kick-ass to see that kind of that is fusion

[Dance Loud]
Yeah, and drum and bass is fast and it will it takes your energy I feel like you would jump out to play guitar to like build your energy back up to jump back on the drums, you know It’s it’s like a physical aspect

[Darran]
If you could describe your music in three words, what would you call it emotional dance music Okay emotional dance music so edm right That’s awesome, um, you know You know Let’s talk a little bit about You know what your live set entails actually, um if I were to come to a show What would I see? What would I?

Expect or what would I would I expect something or am I seeing something that’s never been done before or?

[Dance Loud]
Tell us what that live set entails so knowing our personalities I bet it’s gonna change every single year of what the heck we’re gonna touch on stage Like am I gonna do this on stage or that? We have many variations this year our set entails Desiree on the drum kit. I am on the drum pads Uh playing a lot of the recorded samples that we created from field recording and then blew it up on the computer Whatever we did.

We did surgery with our our field recordings And then they went in we grabbed hits from the master tracks where they’re alone We just muted everything And put it into the usb of the drum pads So we just have our own kits we create our own kits on our our live set is where we had to adjust a lot of The sensitivity and velocity and a little bit of reverb Is there going to be a couple reverbs? How are we going to do a reverb is it through a computer or is it through the sound person? Will there be a sound person?

so kristen does, uh, she does cdj’s And the drum pads and then I do this year. We’re taking it back to the roots We started off as a dj and drummer. So we’re like going back to Now we’re performing the songs my part i’m doing just drums and vocals um So that’s kind of to see live.

That’s what it looks like It’s like a dj drummer this year and like the past we’ve done guitars and stuff, but it really like it made it really Laid back and it’s like our whole album is like 128 beats per minute But when I play guitar it can be perceived to 64 beats per minute So this year we’re like, well, let’s keep it up. Let’s keep up the You know a lot of our shows were all mostly dj events no venues the guitar I think is good for venues, but the dj and drums just want to keep the energy up And and the drum kit that you’re using because you mentioned you’re using drum pads But are you using like a roland v drum with this or is it like is it a lot? It’s a full real Analog, it’s an acoustic kit that i’m in the midst of converting it to becoming a full hybrid kit That the kick right now is being triggered from her drum pads, but I want the toms and snares to be triggered as well So it’ll be like half because it’s kind of like vinnie paul from pantera.

His kit was half hybrid It was it would trigger and it was also a live kid kit. That was miked Which is our favorite sound that we both prefer is a mic. Yeah With some reverb for the mic kit and then a separate electronic club kick coming Triggered off of the pads or actually the kits behind us.

I don’t know if you could see it. Here’s Yeah, it’s got real symbols it’s all real yeah, but there’s triggers on it and it’s smaller these days now She used to travel with a giant kick, which is better for recording. But this since we go on tour we Really like carrying what it was what was used in new york often for jazz, but it’s like a floor tom, but skinny So that’s the kick and then that’s what has the trigger so we can get away with this tiny kick now

[Darran]
nice what are some of the difficulties and or benefits of being this hybrid band in a Say a dj dominant festival or a festival that has no djs at all

[Dance Loud]
I mean the kick sounds a lot better, but the sensitivity was I don’t know how how long did it take us to figure out? the sensitivity Yeah, a couple different triggers this this one we went with d drum It was actually the venny pulse signature trigger um in the past i’d use aquarium because I loved aquariums kick drum heads, but the the sensitivity would be weird where i’d hit the kick and they’d be like You know or it would be like i’d hit the kick and it was delayed it was like It’s a piece of two so it’s never forever You know, that’s how that one was.

So that’s where I feel like You know a lot of times when we’re playing And Specifically like d, you know clubs where there’s a booth Kristen’s set up in the booth. Sometimes she even has stereo monitors But then it’s like okay, where does the live part of it go? You know those stereo monitors could catch some feedback right like live vocals like having you can’t have speakers behind you I need to hear her, you know, like I need to hear every I want the whole mix It makes it really tricky we get so scared of feedback Uh, I got this hypercardioid mic.

That’s supposed to be better than a sure 58 um I think it’s got a better low response and I also blow up the mic using A cloud lifter so i’m pumping in 48 volts to a live audience It’s really dangerous and a lot of live sound guys are scared of it or they’re not, you know, they’ll use a gate whatever um But i’m I just warn them like hey Yeah, 48 volts down here. Just be sensitive on the game, you know, because we also have our own volume attenuator on her microphone Just oh just for safety reasons because she has in-ear. Oh is another expense and venture was being a hybrid band in a club world dj world She needed special 3d in-ear monitors to hear a little bit of her kit Because a lot of the times the kit is not mic’d up.

So if you have complete sealed in-ears You can’t hear yourself, you know, and that was the con of the clubs where um, It wasn’t the kit wasn’t right and I think the best sound of live, you know is when I hear my They turn those subs on when we’re doing mic truck and my kick starts kicking in and it’s just in the whole room It’s so big and it’s like that’s where a lot of clubs. We just didn’t have that That’s why we started triggering our first major clubs together with acoustic set. It was awful It sounded like poop because there was delays.

It was not mic’d you could nobody nobody could hear what you know It’s it was too big Because the acoustics is just a mess, you know We’ve gone so far into this hybrid hybrid setups like Probably a decade of messing configuring with this at least a decade On the bright side though. I do think there’s a trend coming of hybrids and we played Heatwave this summer and we were on the hybrid stage So they brought this entire roller cart only for my drum kit to be able to roll it off the stage real quick It was a platform. Yeah on a giant platform the size of a bedroom It was huge And it just would roll it off, you know So now that’s where it’s like i’m happy that it’s coming because now bigger venues and festivals are like, okay How do we cater to this?

but the past 10 years there was Us catering Even to you know when we’d play venues. Well there there’s you know, this kind of People not, you know here here it is. There’s like rock people don’t understand djs you know and And it you know, and there was always that kind of tricky thing, you know, it’s like well What do they do back there?

It was like a lot. I don’t even know how to do it, you know Like and then we’ve been battling now that the stages are getting bigger and bigger. We’ve been been battling Having our own field recordings that we blew up into the loudspeakers of these major events Because now the stage is rattling And I don’t think any no, I watched the whole everybody said nobody was rattling And I I do make it a point in our songs to make extra extra extra bass I’m, probably going deaf.

I’m, not sure But I like it, you know Um And the whole like you can’t even des race even with her new in-ears. She’s like, I don’t even know I was just your search seats the whole the whole platform bedroom is just shaking, you know, yeah That sounds crazy.

[Darran]
You know if you two could host an event of your own without any limitations Name five or six things you would want to have at that event tech wise Tech Without any limitations our own event our own event.

[Dance Loud]
Yeah. Um, oh, um, I think okay, it would be indoor It would be indoor. We like we prefer indoor sound versus outdoor.

I’ve had this long time dream Of having this is so outrageous. It’s it doesn’t even make any logical sense, but I think it would be the best Um, but if there was flying speakers above everyone’s head like 11.1, but they moved You know the same way you would automate that above your head in logic or something like that, but have it physically doing it instead of an automation I mean it you see that’s why it doesn’t make sense because if you have 11 speakers, then you wouldn’t need to have them flying But I think it would be better Okay, that’s the second aspect and then the subwoofer would be underneath plexiglass and it’ll be on the floor and then it’ll be I have actually Drawn out an entire. Okay, so that’s two parts of it I have drawn out an entire thing that it was a 33 part stage And it’s a huge circle and it would come into town like a traveling circus And so that’s where it was like all the speakers could actually be on tracks And be able to move on different parts of it and the floor and the ceiling and the walls and everything Would be like led or it’s like completely interactive but like how to create You know when a base hits you can make it feel like you’re falling off of like a waterfall But like how not to make people just like fall on the ground I mean it would almost maybe the ground could be padded, you know because all your senses would go off and You would have to almost be careful the way you would take someone to the next screen because it could You could make someone just fall over, you know, and that was something that it would be like an entire Truly integrated, you know, there’s they had the there’s a lot of things coming in town that are um, what was it like the van gogh exhibit, you know, and Different things where it’s like, yeah, that’s fun, you know, but it’s not there yet. So okay.

I got it that times 100 Here’s one. I just came up with it right now. I was paying attention.

I swear, but here we go uh a new idea, you know when you go to great america six flags and they have that thing where you can go into a Space shuttle and it’s like a maybe 20 people go into the space shuttle thing and it’s on hydraulics It rocks you like this and it’s got a movie screen Okay, so sell the street festivals. There’s a bunch of those hydraulic machines for like kind of like asian karaoke You rent the room And then it’s your whole 20 people party in there. It’s just you guys and um, it’s and then it’s like this whole like hydraulic experience of like surround sound and the screen or you know 3d screen above your head everything like a zone your space shuttle I know before that before we started the show we were talking about a subject we talked about last time Which is a virtual reality?

[Darran]
and you know, it’s going to be very amazing to see what people are going to eventually create in those virtuality lands where you might Literally fly up to a stage And then the sound can change depending on what zone you’re in You know or or the way you’re going to be able to interact and Have a concert or show in virtual reality and and maybe Maybe your drum kit isn’t like a standard drum kit where you’re doing drum or your pads aren’t there They’re up here and you’re you’re doing all your stuff Like this But if you watched it with a video camera on you, it looked like you were doing some interpretive dance or something That would work within the show, but you’re actually creating a pattern of doing it in vr.

I think that’d be Really awesome of of doing that but we’re at three. I think that’s number three. Was there at three or four?

[Dance Loud]
Okay, I think that was four. Yeah, so there was like it’s indoor the sound the moving speakers the visual Aspects. Yeah the surround I guess we are in a way describing vr in real life And then yeah, but I want it without the headphones because I get motion sickness sometimes she does get motion sickness on her vr and and the other thing is like I want the The the headphone quality to increase in time as vr increases It’s you know, it’s awesome that you know, they’re not over your ears and you can hear everything really well We have the oculus but it would be nice to have where it’s like bass um, but the the last part of it would be um, I don’t know tech. Okay.

I’m leaning towards this is touring, you know, we’re able to Enter a bunch of cities like our next big goal is japan. Um or I think I would actually just say just no tech issues like If there could be at one time where there’s just no tech anything we have to figure out on the fly All that’s figured out Yeah, that would be the fifth part is it’s just like a perfect production

[Darran]
You Totally can understand that after doing video production in the field for years I was the guy that would run to have to run to radio shack and build something on the fly in the radio Going this part this part this part. Okay, cool. Come back to my producer and go How do you know how to do all this stuff?

I go. I don’t know man. I just made it up.

It works. Let’s go Troubleshooting is the best skill anyone could have If you could look at one of your uh Take a look at your list of productions you’ve done so far as in songs that you’ve produced Which of those stands out the most to you and why and uh, both of you get a chance to answer this I know she’s gonna pick wildlife and i’m gonna pick shady beach Am I right?

[Dance Loud]
Maybe no, maybe. Oh, she said maybe i’m wrong.

[Darran]
No And and why would those be your selections?

[Dance Loud]
You go first Um Shady beach is the happiest song. I’m like more of that in that mode full time Um of how that song sounds i’m usually I stop smoking newports and then for me to transition out of that I had to smoke a lot of something else so now i’m still transitioning to to to not Do any kind of smoking as much? so It’s just part of the transition where i’m in the state like that song almost I mean it incredibly often Um, so I guess that’s why it’s most enjoyable to me plus it’s like the bassiest song too Yeah, that’s when the mode came in Yeah, I guess I would choose but sorry Yeah, I guess I would choose while I yeah because I was the field recordings Like it was a storm in my parents front yard.

It was a song that I started writing almost 20 years ago. It finally completed um But I think that especially like with shady beach was that’s when we’d gotten the moog synthesizer and the bass on the moog You know, we had boughten, you know another like this bass guitar up here and you know I was trying to figure out ways of blowing up the bass and then it was just like analog synth was the route Yeah, you know when you buy a bunch of software like well, you start with free synth then you go with not so free synth then it just then it’s like a 500 thing of sounds you don’t even like Like

[Darran]
You know, yeah, I grew up playing with my my father financed my brother’s studio when I was a kid While my brothers weren’t the most literate They were they were is it literate literate was when you can read right?

Yeah illiterate. Yeah, they were the most literate youth But uh, they just didn’t understand technical stuff and back in the 80s the manuals would come Written translated from japanese into english and it didn’t really make that much sense I would go in there at eight years old and be playing with the keyboards the eight tracks the four tracks you know the rack mounts everything and they’d come home and they first of all beat me up, but then i’d show them what I did and they’d be like They’d be like don’t touch our stuff.

And then they’d be like Well, how’d you make this happen? This is so cool. And i’m like I read the manual You know, I think when you mentioned earlier about troubleshooting or figuring things out.

It’s just doing that hands-on Research to figure out how to use that but you’re right. You could end up with a machine Like I don’t like any of these sounds

[Dance Loud]
Sounds and everything And then the album made us realize it we went back to basics and that sounded the best, you know and field recording and With the other software since we added that as part of one synth So you collect all these synths and you have to master phasing issues You know taking putting something in without phasing something out accidentally and yet keeping it full or sounding full And they all complete as like one giant orchestra And that’s that was the problem with finding a good synth. It’s like well, I guess you need all of it you know

[Darran]
well, and nowadays, I mean I remember going back in the day and I just as a hobby project I bought a roland mc505 and And a roland sp808 Which is the yeah the sequencer and the sampler and just at that time you were just starting to see the software Programs come out but you know to get a computer to run it and do all that You’re looking at five six thousand dollars and i’m like i’m not that serious about making music I just wanted something where I could turn knobs and make different noises and put in a beat and make it in the sequencer like real time um and You know, but then I went to go work for apple years later And when I was working for apple I got introduced to logic and I just fell in love With that that program even just using soundtrack.

I don’t even think soundtracks around anymore Even garage band was fun to play around with you know, and how easy it can be to make songs What is your take?

[Dance Loud]
on Ai entering into the music industry We started listening to a bunch of ai music just the other day Yeah, it was actually like not they would take like a song and then throw a different vocalist on it And I was like, I kind of like this version more um for what we were specifically listening to someone posted it and I caught it and then Um, I don’t know. I think it’s really interesting. I you know, I I don’t think it’s gonna take anyone’s jobs away You know, it took her gerbs.

I took her gerbs. It’s not You know, I don’t I don’t have a problem with it because I like pop music and I know a lot of people Can get tired of it and I think there’s such a science To to pop music like a mathematical thing more likely um, and the ai robot is exactly a representation of It’s it’s basically math, you know music is math um I I think For original artists, it makes it even harder You know and and what people are calling original artists today doesn’t even it almost feels like ai anyway like if you hear I I like for example billy eilish a lot of the songs like there’s this one spot where It’s it sounds like a collage of many famous songs You know, the production sounds really original but certain tiny one four second spots Uh will sound like for example the doors like you could hear the influences on a lot of people’s music So it’s almost already ai, you know but I do think it’s another tool, you know, I feel like it’s like anything, you know, if it’s um, mariah carey, that’s basically all her christmas songs are Like a person Or an ai robot, whatever you want to call them. They studied jazz classics For chris for old christmas, um, like what is bing bing crosby and a lot of yeah Mariah carey’s originals are basically remixed bing You know, it’s it’s almost like the hit songs of today Are already ai’d by a human It’s musicology. It’s the study of musicology and it’s fine.

I don’t have an issue with it But then to make something newer is even more of a challenge

[Darran]
Our original well and I was watching somewhere a video the other day and it was this guy and he was talking about How he blew up and became this internet sensation, but he did everything himself and he was comparing himself I think I want to say he was comparing himself to taylor swift And now taylor swift has 14 writers on our team We call it the all those people are probably classically trained Have in-depth background maybe doctorates even if you want to put it down and and you’re right Is that the human element becoming ai and is this guy just doing it on his own? And doing it all natural or what’s the term you just used a few moments ago was um Not independent artists. What’s the term you just used it?

original Yeah I think it was original.

[Dance Loud]
Yeah, we call it the bus we call it like when there’s when you look at 14 writers. Yeah together Yeah, it’s like any track any big Radio-friendly big music label and you look at the bus of people that’s on it that created the album Like I mean, you’ll see like you look at madonna beyonce. There’s 40 people, you know And that’s where I mean, I guess in that way you could use ai as a tool to create your bus so, you know, it’s like I feel like You know, it’s like every we’re just constantly evolving We were listening to like 90s alternative rock yesterday, you know, it was like oh man think about the evolution when That came from and then where we are today and as like genres keep coming and you know as the dog, you know made it where it was actually affordable to start being able to like create on the computer and have plugins and um, you know, I just feel like You can still be original using a tool like that to an extent. I’ve never done it, but I feel like You know, it could make you become more creative in a sense. I you know, I don’t know I don’t even 100 I think you type in hey create this and then it will create this but You know if you could use it as like inspiration like I would like to hear what?

the like, you know the clave mixed with like monks mixed with you know, like what would these three very underwater sound like And then to be like, oh, okay, this is like a whole new sound okay, like maybe I could draw inspiration from this I feel like and that way, you know, I think it could be a tool that can help with original Work. I mean, I don’t know.

[Darran]
I’m just well I was at ade last year and the question came up I was asking people about ai and the involvement of and they said the one thing that they didn’t think that it would have would be Soul, that was the word that kept coming up. It wouldn’t have heart. It wouldn’t have soul Um that you get from somebody actually composing or putting something in there um, but if I came up and said I want a 124 house with guitar female vocals, you know And And it pops out this song and i’m like, okay I go and put that out there How do they was that my soul that was putting into it was that my I was still Creating that vision of what I wanted to see somebody may not be so Talented or educated to know How to make music but if they’re trying to put in their feelings Is that putting soul in this?

Is that the same thing you’re doing when you’re using a dog like logic or ableton or something like that? You are physically putting the notes in there, but you usually are using sample packs, right? You know or something on the back end or or you may be having some ghost producing done for you You know on the back end so

[Dance Loud]
You know, it’s it’s very interesting I feel like too I mean maybe i’m taking it a different route but like, you know the quantize, you know were You know, someone would put in on a drum machine or something into a dot and then you’d quantize it to make it either more perfect or less perfect and I was never i’ve never been very good with the quantize and there’s certain things that you know when it comes to bass and drums like Specifically bass. I think bass really needs to be dead on and it really needs to sit perfect in the song it’s one of the very few aspects but You know say that you’re messing with the synthesizer you’re doing vocals or or you’re doing like, um, like mid-high work You know, like whether it be keys or guitar or something That’s where it’s like human error comes into play And I think that makes the song sound more real like you don’t want that to be perfect And that’s where I think ai could take away the soul if they’re not adding like a quantize to make error So we noticed with our past productions before the album And the productions with the album because we got the moog and we couldn’t figure out the midi Use for it and we just did straight up audio Uh signal using the moog so that that made us forced us to do entire takes and with takes It’s always a fun fact that take one is probably the most soulful or the best take And another fun fact slean dion’s titanic hit That was a take number one. I don’t think ai could could get take one on that You know, and it just the whole the whole thing Is if you don’t cut and you play the whole song There’s some kind of magic that happens towards the end three quarters.

Usually something like that depends on the length um Or you you become soulful 20 minutes later you chop it up and then you bring that You know bring it over to the you know to the to the structure of the song So I think there is going to be a weakness with ai like that’s that live thing and I think it actually happens from playing something by not by um I mean, I I would consider still sequencing notation While the record button is in for a long length of time It’s still you know I would like to point out though too just because You know the way we make music is we see it as a restaurant that makes everything in-house and we consider it fine dining Of music because we have created everything and their soul added to everything But what who’s not to say that like someone who grabs like samples or loops? I mean, they didn’t make it, you know and not to say that there wasn’t a soul that did make it But there are a lot of like, you know different programs that will create drum beats You know where the that’s in a way ai, you know, like and it’s been In music for a long time.

I think if you If you choose to do something like that and you use it as a single track You know like the clave that creates the drum and bass, you know underwater, you know or something where you can do something where you can still like You know as long as I guess it’s not the entire song if you’re using it as an element I mean because there’s a lot of people that have like Splice memberships or they’ll use they’ll straight up get a pack and it’s a song And has every part of the song and then they just like arrange it But they didn’t make it, you know, like they didn’t make any part of it They just arranged it and they were kind of the mix engineer on it and that’s fun But it was like at what point Where did that pull the soul out of the music and then you hear other people those packs and it’s like all these songs Aren’t the same y’all are using the same thing. Imagine like a high-end garage band loop Loop arrangement, you know compared to like, I don’t know a real like glennard skinner yeah, so I feel like It could be used as a tool like if it’s like a single track Or something, you know versus the entire song.

[Darran]
I don’t know Well, you know technology moves pretty fast in nowadays And if you could both think of something that’s not on the market today And your vision would be really amazing. What would that be?

[Dance Loud]
technology I mean I’ve always had a vision of roller skating While live and going to like I would need roller skates because the channel I want to mix in is like 24 channels away But it’s a it’s a it’s a ridiculous not necessary technology Of like just having 24 channels to dj with live That sounds fun though I mean i’ll go like old school and say I think I would love to um be zapped From our studio to our venue And like there’s no loading and there’s no travel and like what is that like star trek like it’s virtual reality Teleportation.

Yeah, or we could just virtual reality.

[Darran]
Yeah.

[Dance Loud]
Yeah, I think it all just comes back to that equipment already virtually set up And then we’ll just perform that template that we created And then all we have to do is log in And perform in a I don’t we don’t even move And we’re just always in our one stance stand still thing. So our arms just go like this. We’ll just be octopuses It’s gonna be like lawnmower man the movie Yeah, upload Dance Loud live live set go Going back to going back to that virtual reality discussion, right?

[Darran]
I’d buy that as a musician Name the most inspiring person you’ve ever met backstage and tell us why this person inspired you Um, that’s where you go you can go first, um Backstage It’s the people on a monday at the dive bar downtown.

[Dance Loud]
That’s the most inspiring Yeah, that is tricky it’s because the ones backstage they’re wearing a fictitious suit often and you don’t And then it’s a lot of small talk Yeah, i’ve kind of been a big believer of like never meet your idols, you know i’ve like I have been disappointed like several times where it’s like yeah, I mean it takes a certain personality to get to a certain place, you know, but Inspirational. I mean i’m trying to think of like even stage crews these people work hard And what’s crazy is you’ll see them asleep under these big stages like fully asleep and it’s so loud You know, it’s like how do you sleep? You know, it’s just like you’re just so tired.

This is your one chance to sleep to see that. I mean it’s like Trying to think of where was that bathroom stall? In that witch’s city in a small town Oh, it was like this town in florida that was like known as like a Like esoteric occult witch town or something and we were close to it and someone said hey, you should check it out We’re like, okay And then we went to this old hotel Uh to get lunch and then it had this restroom.

What are you talking about the restroom? Is it that yeah But I don’t even I just remember feeling really inspired leaving there from all the quotes on the wall Then I don’t even remember. I have such a terrible memory Yeah, but I can’t say ever backstage that i’ve met someone Inspirational they it was just because you they’re it’s not just a a suit that they wear.

It’s a work suit on top of it so it’s very you know, you know that um If you’re ever in the service industry, there’s this moment the calm before the storm And that’s for the most part. These artists are in that calm before the storm And you almost never meet them after the storm, you know, like that’s probably at 5 a.m Yeah, you know so Yeah Do you two become different people when you get on stage?

[Darran]
Are you the same people? Off stage that you’re on stage or is there a change that Uh, I think it’s the same both.

[Dance Loud]
We we see ourselves it’s kind of like Eat dude bros Like I don’t know like We joke that we’re a couple bros naturally which we are we like to play flip cup with loudspeakers pumping edm and You know chugging beers and making beers we’re like Homebrewers. Yeah, we’re growing we’re evolving We saw this episode and it was like of this bachelor. It was like had Uh, you know a refrigerator in their living room and speakers all around the house and every room and all that and we’re like Yeah, that’s us actually reach over and grab a beer.

We have a kegerator in our living room We actually started making mineral water We put loudspeakers in every single room that our floor standing, you know, every room has speakers. Yeah it’s uh, I think we’re this is why Like we’re in what we are into or what what we do is because of that that core personality And I just when we get into stage mode, it is work mode. It’s it’s it’s I’m more I’m more i’m still social though I think we’re just in fact we bring people to we try to bring people pre-show a lot of the times um Which a lot of people don’t I don’t think they like to socialize pre-show, you know I don’t I mean it’s like when I play the drums like I feel like I Just go out and there’s a lot of head banging There’s a lot of energy and it’s like animal from the puppets and I think it’s just like a part of like my personality I was like diagnosed with adhd twice like when I was a little kid and when it Adhd like the hyperactive I was like a very hyper kid The hyperness comes out in the drums. I still have that energy and then like with the guitar. I just I think it was like I Was at pavalog’s dog.

I conditioned myself when I played the guitar. It’d be around a bonfire I never sung growing up or anything. So anytime I would sing it was like if I had it, you know We’re around a bonfire Who am I drinking a couple beers or something and then so when I do play guitar like we’d mentioned earlier it was like on stages It turns into welcome to the quiet storm like very turns into 64 beats Very chill like it’s like almost this really I don’t know where it comes from.

It’s very drums are You know very much and I think that’s the other part of this like our you know That bro personality of just kind of like chill like I don’t Sounds good, you know like thing that changes that we can’t do shots before a show and we have to eat perfectly so We turn fancy right before she’s like, what did you guys want some top balls caviar Yeah Oysters do well. I’ve yeah, I have a super sensitive stomach so I can’t I can’t have dairy You know i’m dealing with a sensitive. Yeah, like I can’t Like 128 beats per minute.

[Darran]
Yeah, we’re terrible That’s awesome So when you’re not entertaining others you did mention a few of your hobbies that you’re doing right now when you’re not Entertaining others. What do you do to entertain yourself? What do you primarily like focusing on?

[Dance Loud]
I have like 30 hobbies kristin counted them once Um for me I have this constant like old cadillac in the garage. It’s really a jeep wrangler 2002 Um, and i’m constantly trying to like create this fantasy jeep with subwoofers and blah blah blah chrome I’m almost there. Not really like my senses.

It’s not even working right now. I’m so sad but That’s been my lifelong Thing and desiree’s lifelong thing is her stop motion. That’s like, you know beetle juice.

He’s got his thing in the attic, um And he’s constantly his taking his whole life to work on this like giant awesome Uh art, what do you call it? Um diorama? Or whatever he has what is the alec baldwin has in the attic so That’s desiree.

She has this lifelong Movie long movie like what is it? You’re I mean ideally it’d probably be like an 80 minute movie for all stop motion Oh, yeah For every second takes like so long to create the stop motion. I swear it’s like don’t even blink Like, you know, it’s gonna be like clockwork orange Like keep the eyes open because you just missed out on like four days worth of work at that blink

[Darran]
Wow and that’s that you mentioned clockwork orange is like my number one favorite movie in the world so I totally know the reference that you’re talking about but Um, wow, that’s that’s awesome If you could score a hollywood film Which director would you like to work with?

[Dance Loud]
Oh, man, I see. It’s not really a jury. Okay.

Is it mike judge a director? Is that is that what he does Creates the whole thing Who does mike judge? the biggest about head idiocracy office space, um Um, I think yeah, is he producer now he might have director credits terrible I am I should know this um But yeah Yeah director wise because immediately what came to mind was like ed boone It was like I would love to do a sync with mortal kombat because I love mortal kombat so much.

Um, uh, that was uh, wes, uh Because he did a soundtrack too. I like the whole soundtrack. No john carpenter.

[Darran]
Isn’t john carpenter the one that uh, He creates his own soundtracks, too Oh, yeah, john does his own soundtracks Yeah, I mean they live such a great I just like his whole concept That was a tie I was like that was A very underrated b film that I loved out of the 80s. I mean that was That escape from new york. I think was it was a really kick-ass one, too big trouble in little china I think he did that movie that movie was really that that’s another top one favorite one of mine.

I’m a huge movie buff. I’ve Watched movies since I can’t watch movies over and over and over and over and again and memorize them.

[Dance Loud]
I mean, yeah the warriors The warriors I oh, hold on hold on hold on the idea with all the best friend We’re best friends wearing the same outfits. I love it. We love that movie Give me two seconds.

J-o-h-a a group of best friends.

[Darran]
Yeah best friends I swear it is Come on, let me just get to his eye really quick. I like to Yeah, he’s pretty. Oh Okay, we got john carpenter I swear he did the war I know that’s what i’m feeling like so I naturally have Uh consistent taste.

[Dance Loud]
Okay.

[Darran]
Good Just give me a second because gotta I know i’m doing the same I’m in 2007 right now I gotta get down to the 80s. Oh, there we go so director walter hill um New yorkers 81 prince of darkness they live Escape from la god.

[Dance Loud]
No, I don’t think he did just has that vibe Pure talent. That’s all I gotta say. Yeah, how do I hold on now?

This is gonna bug me Yeah, this is a really good soundtrack and movie at the same time not so much the lawyers but No director is john.

[Darran]
The director was john carpenter for that for the warriors Oh, no, i’m sorry big trouble.

[Dance Loud]
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that’s That sounds right Yeah, I think I would lean towards john carpenter because I really have a like a respect for him Um being a part of the soundtrack, you know, that’s it’s not a lot of people do that um and the soundtracks Of especially they live is just so like there was a uh, I think south park did a pandemic special And there’s a part where they’re like in the cafeteria was like that’s they live, you know It was like immediately like it was just so recognizable, you know, and and the director created that I think that’s amazing. And um Yeah, because that’s a sink is a big Goal of mine, you know, there’s very specific movies that um, like fight club when the pixies play and You know, they’re just very specific movies where the sink is just so perfect That that’s something we’ve we’ve been manifesting that I want more than anything it’s just a really perfect sink that you know, our you know, the Like uh, steven spilsberg said that sound is half the picture, you know To be able to be part of half the picture and be a perfect setup That’s that’s a huge goal of mine I mean Our goal we’ve said it a million times. We even went to where it’s made but and stood outside of it and dreamed but if we could do Mortal Kombat Imagine you remember the old tape cassettes from the old movie.

[Darran]
I don’t know like 1995’s world combat Yeah, that was fun that was actually a really great video game too when it first came out We played that in the arcade all the time then mortal kombat 2 came out and it was even better I’ve seen I think what are their mortal kombat 5 now or something like that when you play it on the playstation or something The graphics are insane.

[Dance Loud]
I think they’re coming out with like 11 or 12 now Yeah, it probably is up there.

[Darran]
You’re right.

[Dance Loud]
It probably is Coming in uh september There’s like a new Yeah, i’d nerd out on that. I mean, I love the mortal kombat legacy. You can see it Do a song bootleg it and then slip it under the door since it’s right here by us It’s not that far from where we live like where they yeah, I mean, that’s the other thing It was like, you know, this is like a chicago made, you know it was uh, it was midwest games originally like nether realm has their studios here and um, we’ll just slip a tape under the tape to center the door And I mean the history of it too they were I think mortal kombat the arcade was banned in australia when it first came out and you know, it’s I don’t I mean I like the storyline of it and I don’t know. I like kind of fantasy You know, I think that would be considered fantasy, you know, like I guess big troubled little china same thing I love that like kind of kombat, you know, I I got into avatar last airbender, you know of the different forms of I’ve just started watching korra the legend.

[Darran]
Oh, yeah I thought it was I mean, I know it’s nickelodeon. It’s for seven-year-olds, but I was like, this is actually pretty cool same with dragon prince and um castlevania I don’t know if you’re into anime type of stuff. But um Yeah, I I totally um Last airbender now were you talking about the movie the last airbender or the animated series?

[Dance Loud]
Yeah, because I just thought it was such an interesting how they took all of you know It was like like kung fu jiu-jitsu like there was each each element like represented a form of Kombat, you know, which was super interesting and I mean, especially speaking of anime. It was like, you know when daft punk hired You know that artist to create that all you know that video album for them, you know that animation it was like it’s amazing You know, that’s where and creating an entire storyline Around an album that had already come out. I think was even more amazing about that, you know, and and that’s a Literally just got shivers thinking about that.

[Darran]
It’s interstellar 5555. Yeah, it’s like I love that.

[Dance Loud]
I love that whole album, too And that’s where I mean, it’s it’s kind of you know pink floyd. They created the wall You know, there’s a lot of different artists that have you know, like the who you know creating tommy and stuff that was you know, it’s Because we’re making our next album in 5.1 We like are accompanying it with the stop-motion film and bring it to more film screening So it could be heard the way it’s meant to be heard because they made quadra font as like a little quick history They made quadraphonic Back in the day and then a lot of the 70s bands came out, you know And you know pink floyd and the doors and everything and simon garfunkel’s all in quadraphonic but it was up to the listener to go get the four speakers and You know and the the receiver and putting it together themselves and the people just weren’t doing it And then star wars came out and they’re like, okay here comes dolby. All right, here comes 5.1 and then you know now it’s people have home systems, you know that That you know, that’s they’re more apt to listen to surround sound when it comes to film But they won’t listen to it as much with music. Well, maybe vr can help with that more Especially if they we’re hoping yeah But that’s where you know, that’s it was like, okay. Well, we have to We have to work with the film realm then which I love anyway. I have a vhs collection.

I can’t help it We talk about have to just yeah, I mean I want to find all reasons to justify to work on it Yeah, we actually I did three episodes the first time i’d ever done stop motion It’s like on our youtube and it’s called don’t stop emotion Um, because it’s stop motion. Don’t stop. Yeah I totally got it.

Yeah And yeah, and so that’s where it was like I feel like that’s gonna be fun because we now have Our band we now have all the speakers. We have it already, you know, um It’s gonna be this project’s gonna take some time and we both went to art school So I was thinking well, you know there we went to columbia college chicago up here and There’s an animation department and there’s you know, maybe we can pull in interns or you know, whatever To help with the animating part because it does To make a three minute animation, you know, it’ll take me like a month, you know, so to create a 40 45 minute animation You know, okay

[Darran]
That’s I I was just watching that the show, um, have you seen it on netflix called the movies that made us

[Dance Loud]
I think so.

[Darran]
I think i’ve seen the episode And they had an episode on uh, the nightmare before christmas nice And it’s yeah, they they go back. They start out with like robocop They start they it’s like all these movies that make all these cult classes. They’re just awesome Um and and all the trials and tribulations of what was going on in the back end talking to the producers some of the actors It’s just really awesome But it reminded me when you said taking time to make the stop motion They were talking about the nightmare before christmas and they’re like this is a nightmare that never almost never was It’s like three years it took to make or something. Yeah, I took a really long time for this to make that but um Just reminding me about that.

Well ladies, you know what it’s getting close to that time We’re gonna need to wrap things up here at the dj session.

[Dance Loud]
I got one last question for you Tell us about selling vinyl Oh, so we have our own Quote unquote independent private distribution company. It’s called desiree I think you know, I honestly we put so much into the vinyl where it had like a holographic cover the uh, There’s no silence between sounds the first and last song was two halves of the same song so the album could loop um That’s 180 gram We had matt colton tom york’s mastering engineer cut the lacquer and master it And he cuts the lacquer in this like special half speed Cutting technique where he puts the song in half speed and make sure every little sound gets cut in so when I approach Uh record stores, I just tell them all of that like how it’s made and it kind of just sells itself, right? So we do we she kind of combined her her um music marketing Information from college she learned which was one sheet But you need a press release you need a one sheet You need a bio yada yada So she created a one sheet for vinyl for the vinyl store owners because a lot of the times It’s owner own and owner at the cashier register So they’re gonna it’s like you need to almost present it the way in no other distribution distribution company ever will probably ever um um, but the one sheet is key for just the single vinyl store owner to really see the value of it because it is hard to see if you It’s first of all, we’re in a small sub-genre, you know So most vinyl stores will will sell a whole lot of I don’t know marvin gain so You know you have to you have to put it with um I mean the electronic section is usually kind of stashed away in the corner a lot of times in many cities in Most cities in america. It’s like this tiny little thing that nobody touches except for that one kid, you know so We have to we have to try to it’s it’s like the only way we’ve known to sell it I mean distribution companies are are selling a lot of vinyl incredibly low Because of the quantity I mean lizzo’s full album is like 14 bucks But yet we’re selling ours at a range from 14 to 25 Because it took a lot more cost wise with it took 14 to make it.

Yeah like That’s how much each unit cost was 14 Yeah, so like when with this with the stores, it’s like you could price it at whatever you want It’s just like we just want the money back of what we made it took to make it and even on the one sheet, we actually made a um those dividers showing, you know, here’s three dividers of like, you know electronic or You know melodic or you know ambient whatever like here’s You it will fall into this realm, you know because they a lot of times it’s just like They want to know it’s like what should this sit next to and it’s like well Maybe daft punk, you know d if we’re going to keep a da da, you know, that’s it is close to that and it letting You know, it’s like you kind of have to like it’s like with press you have to tell them exactly You know, here’s the points like tell them how it you know, they’re not gonna figure it’s not gonna be as easy for them To figure out it’s like you’ve already got it figured out. Here you go This is this is where you could put it, you know, right and it’s 180 grams So we couldn’t bear Because you know, you never know how often you can create an album So it might be once in a lifetime maybe thrice maybe five times in a lifetime I don’t know so we wanted to make sure this one was 180 gram because I don’t know if you guys are as much as I was when I was a kid but record vinyl connoisseurs it is Those lower quality wax. It’s just awful.

It sounds like you just I mean, what’s the point? I don’t understand the point, you know, it’s better to stream it at that point And I did do a test and our own audio test on the sound of the 180 gram in our loud speakers All of our speakers and compared it with the digital wave file and you can really see It’s it’s a fuller rich sound on vinyl I mean, you can’t see it. You can hear it um what I did get to see though is playing it through the djm and it act if you play the wave it rides like hot more often on a wave and with the rich vinyl it actually has much more of a Human like a natural up and down of dynamics It’s very very wide dynamic range that just doesn’t happen in the wave file I mean like people just can’t hear this difference anymore.

It’s like dying out. So i’m just here to save the world of audio quality Totally understandable on that.

[Darran]
Um now kristen and desiree Is there anything else you want to let our dj sessions fans know about before I let you get going?

[Dance Loud]
Um, your host is a really awesome person and we always enjoy talking to him.

[Darran]
So listen to him as much as you can Thank you so much for that, it was a pleasure having you on the show We’ll definitely be following up with you here in the new future Where’s the best place people can go find out more information about you both?

[Dance Loud]
Well our instagram we do stories pretty often. We also do lots of side hustles on those stories Uh, if you’re ever interested in building a house Or house music building houses and house music both Our youtube has our adventurous videos of all of our many many hobbies all entailed in one channel Yeah dance live music, that’s it.

[Darran]
That’s the one That one right. Oh, i’m so used to i’m so used to being on the other side I point down Right here, yeah Right there right there. Awesome.

Well, thank you both for coming on the show We’ll definitely following up with you here in the near future.

[Dance Loud]
I’d love to see more of that Project that house when it gets completed, maybe we’ll share some pictures next time Is there is there an eta kind of completion on that we’re gonna have one unit ready before the summer’s end and then depending on cold this winter is um, that’s how long it’s going to take us to do the Second floor first floor and basement. Oh boy, but there’s furnaces now. So it’s better than last winter true We did not have furnaces very true Awesome.

[Darran]
Well kristin and desiree. Thank you again for coming on the show This is Dance Loud coming into you all the way from chicago, illinois. I’m your host Darran and i’m in the virtual studios Where the dj sessions presents the virtual sessions.

Don’t forget to go to our website the dj sessions.com find us on tiktok instagram x Facebook we’re out there just click on the buttons at the top of the site and you’ll figure out all our socials 600 news stories a month virtual reality interviews virtual reality sets exclusive mixes Interviews and more all at the dj sessions.com. I’m your host Darran That’s Dance Loud and remember on the dj sessions. The music never stops