Loud Luxury is a Canadian DJ duo consisting of Andrew Fedyk and Joe Depace. The duo met at school and after a studio session realized they both shared similar interests and embarked on making music together. After years of hard work and hustling, it eventually paid off as they put out the track 'Body' and haven’t looked back since.

Just before a show of theirs at the Rebel venue in Toronto, I got a chance to talk with them about meeting one another, the amount of learning and work they needed to do, knowing how to put on shows, and more!

Okay, so I know you guys grew up in London, can you tell about how you guys met up and I know the first thing was being friends, but how did the music come about?

Joe: Actually, no, we didn’t know each other at all. I was the president of the DJ club at Western University and had thrown the worst meeting, it was supposed to be on campus and I remember a bunch of things messed up for it, so I had it at my house the first night and I remember there was a bunch of guys in a living room and the power went out and I was like alright great, what a start to the year right? And I remember afterwards, Andrew was in the meeting and we met up and I said what do you do? What’s your story? And he said I make music and I had like a studio at my place and we got in the studio and started playing music and just kind of went there basically.

Andrew: Just started making beats together and it kind of just came swinging at school, just doing as many parties as we could together, we got booked for events, formals, anything we could get our hands on, just to get our names out there.

Did you guys have similar music interest at the start?

Andrew: We’ve always had common ground, like loving the same artist. I remember at that time, we both loved AVCII, Calvin Harris, Tiesto, Porter Robinson, so we always got along really well in that respect.

And on that note of Porter Robinson, I researched that you went to a show of his and got inspired, tell me about that?

Andrew: Just in the way he did his visuals, by the flow of the show. Like, in one way or another if you went to one of our shows it’s so different from Porter, but there’s a lot of emotions and like things that we channel that Porter’s show gave us that we need to do and it’s helped us out in terms of designing our shows.

Now people don’t really get a chance to see all the hard work that goes into becoming successful, can you tell me about the early tracks and the trial and error you guys must have gone through?

Joe: We have a graveyard of bootlegs and crappy originals and stuff like that, but they all came from the same place.

Andrew: We were releasing remixes for free on Soundcloud for ages, emailing blogs back when that was the thing to do and just trying to get our name out there that way, but we didn’t really start getting real success until the Spotify and Apple Music days.

And what do you think the learning curve was when you transitioned from Soundcloud to the streaming platforms?

Andrew: Hard at first, because we didn’t understand it. We knew how to use Spotify, but how do you get your music on there? Like what do you do? But we were really persistent about finding out, I think we’ve always had that attitude that when something new comes along, there’s a drive from both of us to master it.

Joe: And Spotify has been really supported of us, Apple as well, they are part of the reason we are where we are.

Now at this point, you guys have a team around you, but again, highlighting the early stages, how did you guys go about understanding the business side of things, beyond the music?

Joe: I mean, we’re both really good at different things and we kind of play to our strengths. I mean that’s why I think it works so well between us because whatever I’m not good at, he figures out and vice versa.

Andrew: There was a lot of stuff, going back to what you’re saying without a team, you know, just to get shows, we’d sell crazy amount of tickets and then I would go and hang out with all these people, spread the word, every party, we were just hustling to do anything we could.

Joe: Always grinding.

Andrew: Just making sure people knew who we were.

And when the first track 'Body' started getting its traction and moving, out of all the early songs you were making, did you see this song being the one?

Andrew: No, but if we had one to pick, we knew that this would be the one to pop.

Joe: This one was always the one we were trying to push for, which is good because it was the one with our team.

Andrew: Like we were all on the same page.

Joe: Like, everyone that was in our camp liked it and wanted to push it, but all the labels, except for Armada didn’t want it, they were all like, we don’t get it, like I've heard it before, so nobody actually understood it, except for Armada.

Andrew: And what mattered is that we were all on the same page about it and we would fight tooth and nail to make sure the song got heard.

And just on that same similar note, in the movie Bohemian Rhapsody the record label didn’t want to go with the song, 'Bohemian Rhapsody', because he didn’t get it.

Andrew: Yeah, that happens all the time. I remember hearing Travis Scott’s 'Sicko Mode' for the first time and everyone was so like it’s so dumb, it switches too many times, you know, but sometimes people don’t really get really good ideas and then they think it’s the greatest thing ever.

Now in terms of going from making the music and performing shows, how were the early shows and understanding how to put on a great show?

Andrew: Hard, nobody cared about us.

Joe: Yeah, it was hard because we weren’t making a lot of music at the time, so it was hard getting noticed, so I would make it a point in getting in with the right people to maybe play for 15 minutes before like 5 other DJ’s and then it was the main DJ.

Andrew: Yeah, and again, just the hardest part is that nobody cared about us, so playing a show where no one really cares about you is the worst feeling.

Joe: Sometimes, we would play in a room with like no people and then people would come in and then it would be busy.

Andrew: But it taught us, how to play in the best possible way.

Now I actually attended the IHeartRadio Music Awards 2018 and you guys passed me on the carpet, being from London, Ontario. How was it being a part of the show?

Joe: Yeah, it was amazing man, I grew up watching it at home and I had never even been to the event before because from London, it’s a mission to get to, so I was always watching it at home and such a cool thing. And I never even knew what it looked like, like Queen Street, I was always curious, so this year, winning an award, it was crazy.

Andrew: Yeah, you see it on TV all the time and just to be there, it’s a completely different feeling, it’s amazing.

And on that note of events, the 2019 Junos will be in London, Ontario. It must be special to have it there?

Joe: Oh man, it’s going to be so amazing. When I found out it was going to be in London, I was so excited because most of the time, some of the places they do it, is a bit far out like Halifax and other places, so to have it in my hometown this year is going to be so cool.

Andrew: It’s a big moment for artists, I remember when Drake first came out and Justin Bieber first came out, they had the duet on the Junos, you know it’s a launchpad for a lot of things, so we’re hoping it can be the same for us, it will be really exciting.

And now back to the IHeartRadio Music Awards, I saw an artist I had interviewed before Anders and I know you guys worked together on the hit single 'Love No More', how did that come about?

Joe: So, I remember last winter, I was at home listening to music on Spotify and I came across Anders and I was like who is this? I hadn’t heard him before, and I was like we have to work with him, like we need to work with him, so luckily enough we had mutual friends and they introduced us and we got into the studio and the energy was there and it worked.

Andrew: And he’s just so talented, he’s got a big year ahead of him, just to get the opportunity to work with him and showcase his talent, it’s an amazing feeling.

Now building off of his huge momentum of a great year, how do you guys see 2019?

Joe: We’re going to be travelling for shows, a crazy amount. In January, we’re going to be going to Australia. We do have a little break, just a vacation we’ve been planning, but after that, we’re basically doing shows and booked up until the end of summer. Then there’s Europe and South America, all over.

Andrew: It’s only bigger and better from here, so we’re just going to keep the good times rolling.