Electronic duo Classixx will perform at the Westcott Theatre Saturday. Michael David of the LA based electronic duo spoke about the upcoming Wescott performance, their latest album “Faraway Reach” and how Classixx came to be.

The Daily Orange: Have you guys ever performed in Syracuse before?

Michael David: No, this is our first time. I think we’re making our way up north, and it seemed cool to added Syracuse to the routing, because it worked geographically — but also because we’ve never been there. It’s nice to visit a new place.

DO: How do you think the Syracuse audience is going to respond to your music?

MD: I honestly have no expectations, which should be really interesting. But I do think they’ll like it though because even if you’ve never heard or seen us before, we’ve made the show pretty dynamic. So, I think it’ll be fun to hear and see, and experience it with your friends. I’m really proud of the show, and all the bands that are playing with us are really awesome, and there’s some great musicianship, but it’ll be a really good time.

DO: Could you let tell us a little more about the bands that are playing with you?

MD: Harriet Brown is opening for us. She’s an incredible multi-instrumentalist, plays guitar, keys etc. And then Alex Frankel is on the tour with us. He’s the singer from Holy Ghost!. He just fits really well on the EP and it sounds incredible, and all of those guys are playing with us too.

DO: What is the story of Classixx? How did the duo come to be?

MD: Tyler and I went to school together. We met when we were probably about like eleven years old. In about junior high school and high school, we kinda learned instruments and stuff. We started playing together when we were about thirteen. And, slowly we ended up acquiring some drum machines, and keyboards, and got into like early electronic music. And then, by the time we were about twenty, we decided that we like wanted to sort of make some remixes and learn how to DJ, and pursue it as a primary objective. And that’s how we came together.

DO: You guys have a really interesting name, Classixx. Where did that come from?

MD: Yeah, that was simply based on us sort of trying to come up with a name that you could search easily on the internet, and not find a bunch of duplicates. So, that’s sort of how the name came together. And, it’s sort of meant different things to us over time. It’s a name that tends to evolve a little bit.

DO: Your latest album “Faraway Reach” came out in June. What was creating the album like?

MD: It was great. We worked on it a lot while we travelled, because we did a lot of touring throughout the process. We had a great time collaborating with a lot of people on the record, which was different for us. I think it was like a really great learning process.

DO: Was it any different from when you produced your first album “Hanging Gardens?”

MD: It wasn’t so different. I suppose the main distinction was that we worked with a lot of people that we weren’t immediate friends with. So, it sort of forced us to break out of our comfort zone and sort of really try to create something imaginative with people that we don’t really have a short hand with, sometimes developing friendships quickly in the studio.

DO: You guys have some big names like T-Pain and Passion Pit collaborating with you on this album. How was it like working with these artists?

MD: So with T-Pain, that was like done over email, and then we met him later and he’s like the sweetest guy ever. He’s such a cool, nice, generous guy. And then with Michael [Angelakos], we kinda just showed up at his apartment in New York and kinda took over for two days, and he was a very gracious host and we had an amazing time working with him in New York.

DO: What were some of the tracks that you guys liked producing the most on the album? Any favorite ones?

MD: I really loved creating this song which is called “Ndivile.” We made that in South Africa. We were visiting my family in Cape Town and we got into a studio with a lady named Nonku, and she was just like one of the most potent talents that I have been ever spent studio time with. So, it was very very humbling.

Published on October 14, 2016 at 9:16 pm