nothing nice: how los angeles electronic collective wedidit built a brand out of hanging out. - electronic erase board

It's not hard to find the WEDIDIT studio, but you have to know where to look.
It is located in the long section of Melrose Avenue, a bohemian shopping center in West Hollywood, sandwiched between a juice store and a weed pharmacy with bullets --
Glass windows.
After a day or so on the afternoon of the working day, the space will wake up slowly.
Someone will screw up a spliff.
Doors that are not marked downstairs may be opened.
It was the second day of the parade, but the studio combined the huge dry wipe calendar on the living room/kitchen wall to draw an interesting itinerary for June.
June 7: Salmon.
Call Mike 4 Molly.
June 19: Susan is invited to the ball.
If the calendar is used seriously, in the right month, around March 19, there may be a cycle for Shlohmo's upcoming national tour.
Sure enough, 24-year-
Old producer Henry Lauver was born and could hear him in the practice space below the hall, piecing together a new life scene for his near futureto-be-
The second album, dark red, was released.
This time, perhaps due to the strong metal influence of the record company, he arranged a task for himself to arrange the production of the notebook computer within three months. Live band.
He and 24-year-old WEDIDIT member Djavan Santos will bring the guitar, and D33J will also bring the guitar;
Bill DeLelles, a hired gun punch from New York, will perform some of the mechanical installations of the album.
Arrange with field Pad drum.
It takes time to learn music. consuming work--
For past fewhours, they have started and stopped in the bittersweet "later" of shlohmo, the signature sound sample of the song sounds slower and more painful
In the end, the groan stopped, and laud appeared in the public area, wearing a black hoodie and black jeans, pale and slim, and his eyes leaned against the half mast due to the combination of smoke and fatigue.
"We had to learn the score there, just like the score," he said with a wry smile . ".
This is my third day with seclectic from wedidit.
Sounds like an electronic collective in Los Angeles, but with the exception of these short cameos, Laufer has been reclusive in a way that is better than fitzsh Moody's music.
When someone else goes in and out of public space ---
Light Ableton in the control room, look for slaughterhouse in the shelf unit at the door-
The only thing that really persists is Nick Meledandri, who is currently scanning Gmail in his chair. Meledandri--
DJ name Nick Melons--
The tag component that runs WEDIDIT.
He also works for the hybrid management company, which manages "Harlem Shake" producers Baauer and heartthrobsinger-
Songwriter Tobias jerso, Jr.
In addition to the multiplayer inWEDIDIT, including the Shlohmo and the rl edm festival dear dirt.
Meledandrilives and RL Grime in a big house on the mountain of Los Feliz, as we all know, they host strange boiler room performances in the garage.
It is unusual that Meledandri is both the subject of my story and a handler for me to report ---
Arrange interview time and shuttle from one place to another.
With his childish figure, relaxed laughter, and vibrant brown eyes, he is considered a cooler child than Lauver, eager to help me decode the isolated presence of this group
"I 've always said that it feels a bit like a plane," he said of the studio . ".
"You never know when in the day.
"Meledandri and Laufer have been friends since the age of 12 when they are in progressive-
The intersection of private schools in Los Angeles.
This is where they meet founding member ne Jasper Patterson, who is now a tall, fat, happy person --go-
Luckysneakerhead likes to quote video game soundtrack in his musical instruments pop music.
Starting at the age of 16 or 17, when they started driving around, smoking marijuana, lighting the bottle, shouting, "We did it!
"People on the street.
Since then, they have used their common interest in party music, clothing and youth provocation to create a fully functional music and lifestyle brand consisting of record labels, clothing collections, you can't resist tracking the bff group on Instagram.
Labelgenerates earn primarily through merch sales, and artists earn a living by combining travel with licensed transactions.
The unofficial motto of WEDIDIT is "passion allyunprofessional.
"Their logo is a tombstone engraved with collective names and smiling faces, both a declaration of success and an inevitable reminder of their outdated hostility.
Stay on their tracks for a few days and you will find that the logo is repeated almost everywhere you look, from the fluorescent imprint on the walls of the Meledandri and RL Grime living rooms to the small tombstone pendant that they always wear around their necks.
All group members, at all times, wear some items in the group's black and white T-shirt, hoodie and patch catalog.
When you see them walking down the streets of California, the monochrome uniform makes them not like a group of bedroom producers, but rather a group of little gangsters who are united at all times to survive.
One of them will most likely put an arm around a friend walking beside him and whisper something in his ear.
Laurel grew up at 15.
From the studio, in anin-minutes drive
He said that between downtown Los Angeles, "Hollywood is too South, but too North, in the middleCity.
His mother is a visual artist and his father is a singer.
Songwriters and conversational people roll in the circle of Beefheart and educate young Laufer in Los AngelesA. punk.
He inherited from his parents an instinctive distrust of all conformity.
"Why do I like normal things?
He once said to me.
"If this is normal, it just means that most people like it and most people are obviously stupid because everything is bad.
When he was a child, he liked painting and hated school.
When he was a teenager, he hovered between sub-cultural pursuits such as independent comics, skating, graffiti, punk bands and turn-in, eager to find his own direction in the broad range of the city.
Led by Meledandri, he worked as an intern at Fairfax's highest store, and the two even started a short t-
There's nothing to say about the shirt line. When he was15--
Inspired by dela and madrieb-
He began to make preliminary samples.
Based on musical instruments and posting them to Myspace, where he became part of an anonymous producer community inside and outside Los AngelesA.
Perhaps to honor the feeling of high school, his first producer name was Henry from outer space.
At the beginning, WEDIDIT was just an informal alliance ---
Laufair, Meledandri, Paterson, plus early members JosephCool and Julian Berg, aka Juj--
Occasionally, people who run into hips
Jump onSerato at a family party.
"We are DJs at the local high school," Lauver recalls . "
"Joe and I became the odd production team for every high school rapper.
There's no reason to call it anything, but you want to call your friend or whatever.
"At the initial stage, the collective also took the form of a blog, frequently updating links to their own work, and nodding to local contemporaries like odddfuture.
They borrowed an expensive sound system from a friend, but did not return it in the end;
In West L. A.
In private schools where they grew up, the speakers became lifeguards.
"I remember our friends selling drugs at school and then leaving and coming back with a brand new car they just bought during lunch break," Meledandri said ,", no stranger to the functional barriers that privilege and boredom can breed.
Henry Andy. -
"Our parents have always had good jobs and jobs, but there is hardly the economic scale of many of the people we go to school together," he said . ".
"We don't have to be outsiders to it, but we always do, 'this is ridiculous.
We thought, 'We are hosting these parties--
This is how we do these things.
Look at it like a fish tank.
Stand there and enjoy it and absorb it.
Whenever someone's parents are out of town, parties happen and often attract hundreds of young people from all over Los Angeles.
"I remember a party ---
It's not Lloyd Wright's house, it's not Ames's house, it's someone in the architect.
"Only the kids in Monica and Venice stole a lot of art books, like, 'Yo, it's expensive and we can sell it.
Someone opened the hose in the house and left.
Police helicopters are being searched.
Louver kept most of his high school dj career on the introverted side: "I 've always hated parties, and sodjing is just a way to get to parties and not interact with people.
"It is appropriate that when I drive to Beverly Hills for RL Grime and D33J spinning parties, he will be found.
It was a rainy night in Los Angeles and maybe couldn't escape the cold due to the lack of heating in most houses.
Some friends are celebrating a common birthday in a huge, dimly lit rental mansion that looks a bit like a porn set.
The bedroom is littered with oversized plush animals, and there is a crack crackling fire in the living room. several drunken strangers are weak with the "lifestyle" of the rich.
"For some reason, some of the kids in the pool room are wearing fake face masks, although merryderry keeps reminding me that this is not a typical night in town for this gang, this scene makes the city look strange, only L. A.
Locals like them probably understand.
Outside, WEDIDIT's only European member, purple, smokes at the pool without lights.
Born Louis Dorado, who has been in town for a few weeks and is ready to receive his dark romantic email
Pop songson the road is a direct support for Shlohmo, who brought him into folda a few years ago after messaging him on SoundCloud.
Adrifter's stuff-
Raconteur explained in his Portuguese accent that what brings everyone in the WEDIDIT team together is some sort of "fascination" with the darkness ".
"No matter what the source of this vague unease is, it seems to be with Shlohmo moving from Los Angeles to San Francisco, where he moved to the California Academy of Art to study painting after graduating from high school.
He lives in a dingy Mission loft apartment in Santos. -
A musician friend of Patterson from magnetschool Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, who will soon join WEDIDIT as D33J-
It was soon discovered that the world of art was not suitable for him.
"I just like painting. what the fuck? " he says.
"I don't want to lean on the gallery to make a living with bureaucratic bullshit pimping. F. art world.
"He dropped out of school a few years later;
Shlomoshun, a collection of early beat music he recorded in high school, has been L. A.
He spent his third year in San Francisco and recorded a complete
The length of the exit, got an inspiration from the "Chainsaw brostep and really bad hippie shit" that dominated the local electronic scene.
The title of the album is filled with carefully manipulated Beatles and textured guitars, a great summary of the loneliness he felt at the time: a bad atmosphere.
The same is true of his video directed and edited for droning's album trapped in a burning house, which filmed a lifeless body being dragged through the city at night.
In 2011, the year of his senior year at university, Laufer moved to New York and lived in a narrow East Village apartment with merry Delhi, where he received a degree in psychology at the new school.
They live only one door from Ben Kaspersky and Mason Klein Street, and they are two other childhood friends in West Los Angeles. A.
Who will continue to look for hybrid management.
Persky and Klein's third friend. -
One of their early clients-
It was RL Grime, later called Henry Steinway, with messy hair and soft
Students at New York University School of Music.
He has started a busy music career at an electronic record company.
The name of the house is clockwork, often giving up the school exam
Pay for the show.
When he was in high school, he enjoyed the party empire of WEDIDIT crew from a distance, and the three were soon inseparable.
"That's how Henry Steinway was introduced into WEDIDIT because we started smoking in their apartment every day and didn't leave," Lauver recalls . ".
"My time in New York was not used at all.
"However, looking back at the chapter in Lauver's life, New York seems to be the place where he started his real life.
On February, in 2012, he released Drake's edit for the love of the crew, turning the track into syrup --slow slog;
Guest singer The Weeknd got it and signed it together in The form of an official mix, which was also posted on The Reddit blog.
Later that year, when Shlohmo mixed Jeremih's stutter of "fuck you all the time" to sound cloud, something similar happened;
Piracy earned £ 9.
5 million SoundCloud play, a sexy pair of viralfan videos and an invitation to join Chicago
Start from scratch with a real song for you in the studio.
"We thought at the time, 'This is crazy, 'and Melde André recalled the sudden attention.
"There's something you can do, put it online, and then the person you listen to on your iPod yourself will call you and say, 'Hey, I want to work with you.
"By that time, he and Laufer had begun to direct the thoughts around Shlohmo back to WEDIDIT.
"We're like, 'Let's start publishing music as a label, '" Meledandri said '. ".
"We have all the people who make music, so we should put it out.
"Their first version is EP for RL Grime, re-release, style free --
Form alias for Steinway.
The grape is a giant, twisted dance recording electric eel that combines punishment trap shots and distorted R & B samples along with the breakdown of caffeine-containing buildings and ofEDM.
Looking for clues from cult streets
Wearing the brand they grew up in, when you bought their first limited edition merch: black and white WEDIDIT tombstone patch, the boys sold it as a download on Bandcamp.
Closely followed by an early EPfront Canadian producer Ryan Hemsworth, this time he also pictured a hand covered with tattoos from a Russian prison --
Graffiti and thes 1-800-KILLURSELF.
"It's cheap to make patches, and it's cheap to mail them.
The two sold out within 48 hours of release.
"Basically, it's just that we're really pissed off," Laufersays said of the label's portrait, which smirked at the misdemeanor of smiling faces, silver sheep and other "not cool" in his 90 s"
"It's all just Clown on shit, clown on design.
"Looking back at the antics designed by these teenagers, meridandri used a more sentimental tone:" I think I am a person who is always afraid of losing high school and college, not taking everything seriously, how interesting it is to have to pay so much attention to the real world pressure.
I want to catch the young part of our lives because otherwise it is always so serious.
"From the outside, a group of kids have an instinctive charm, and their business plan is more complicated than the simple behavior of posting cool dog shit online.
Maybe it's because it's never really a business.
Investing in wedidit merch and focusing on its members on social media may feel like a member of a group of childhood friends who are not too willing to give up the good times of the past ---
Not because they refuse to grow up, but because they prefer to spend adult challenges together.
Meledandri told me: "You know, I think a lot of the WEDIDIT thing is that anyone who is put down in the crew must be the one we want to go out together.
"It's not just business, it's a pleasure.
Like, 'You are on the same wavelength.
I want to be your friend.
"Looking back, Meladandri said that for some time he realized that the family atmosphere was contagious: fans began to appear on the show in their own homemade WEDIDIT costume.
Three years later, the appeal seems stronger than ever: the week I was in Los Angeles, the boys were posted on the pictures all the time, and the fans on the pictures waved the new on the red skin
"WEDIDIT fans have sex with WEDIDIT artists," Nick told me . ".
"They listen to all the voices and experience all the voices.
"On the roster of labels, this cult of fanfare seems to be even more striking, especially for the electronic world, where the roster spans an unusually wide range of sounds and scenes.
On a purely monetary level
Creative ability, which has won MVP in RLGrime, has developed his career to include major stage performances and Vegas resident life.
When I interviewed him at his home in Los Feliz, he told me that he and the people of the special class of Baauer ---
Much smaller than Avicii, but large enough to directly support headlines of this size-
A show can earn between $20,000 and $100,000.
This is far from an artist like Shlohmo who usually plays a medium role
He said he only recently started making enough money to take a live band on the road and break even.
Anyway, selling out shows isn't necessarily one of his highlights: "fans, I'm disappointed as long as they understand ---
But I don't need my name to go into the next platform for more people to see, "Lauver told me one day when I asked him if he wanted to come up with a name.
"You already know if you're smart enough.
"Especially as it continues to evolve, WEDIDIT seems to see the level of many different voices, living environments, and business ambitions as strict DIY or strict business. Since2013--
After Lauver, Steinway and melandry both moved to the West. -
The label was distributed by Congress subsidiary bill linemusic.
It's not common sense, but it's an affiliation and they don't seem particularly worried about disclosure, probably because they don't have the ability in character to put themselves in a situation where they have to cater to the vision of others (
WEDIDIT is actually moving to a separate distribution, Meledandri said).
As Laufer once said, "they screw up whenever I give anything to someone else.
WEDIDIT's unique positioning of the music industry ---
Take advantage of business while maintaining final control-
Perhaps best summed up as the story behind NoMore, the co-op EP Shlohmo was eventually cut together with jeremih in the studio, which was initially designated as WEDIDIT co-
Release with DefJam.
According to Laufer, the record hardly came out: After def Jam interrupted the project indefinitely, he and Meledandri gave the project to themselves and were surprised
Free release.
Maybe it was because of such a passion for the response to this album that Def jamnot took legal action.
While I was hanging out at the studio on my last afternoon, I walked into the door and found the D33J leaning against the table, fiddling with his dim sum and writing the answer on a print --
Out of the questionnaire
Before the post office was closed, he was busy completing the application for the Touring Artist Residence Red Bull Conservatory of Music, in a typical wedidit fashion, where he wore sunglasses while working.
"Basically this university application has been filled out all the time," he told me . ".
"I haven't slept all night.
"In the control room, behind a closed door, the rest of the crew is surrounded by a free giant desktop computer --
Associate the production proposal with a funk sample of RL Grime on Ableton, which includes the words she is a bad mother.
"You're bringing the mustard bass here!
"Put that sour thread up!
"At someone's request, he added a harsh, happy hardcore melody.
Meledandri left the room to pick up his real mom's phone.
In music, the iconic eclectic around the wedidit crew, your mind is not hard;
They are all post-90 s grown up, digital natives and poster kids from a generation of electronic music producers, everything you like about them is a fair game.
However, when they decided to take me on a shopping trip to town, it would be a bit scary trying to keep up with the details of their aesthetic feelings.
We are at the Slauson supermarket in South Los Angeles. A. --
A huge retail store with aisles one after another.
Sports shoes and cheap jewelry in stock-
Everyone seems to be looking for something very specific.
Meledandri wants a thin gold bracelet that looks a bit like a dog chain;
Paterson bought a bucket cap and customized the hat embroidered with DOTA to commemorate the online game defense of the ancients.
Shlohmo walks down the rabbit hole in avintage sneakers and seems intent on finding the stupidest and most inappropriate
The trend began in shops.
Instead, he finally solved the problem of white women flipping.
A huge cursive short shoe was scribbled on the strap.
"This is the problem of shopping with Henry," meledelli told me with a frown when he heard the purchase of Lauver.
"He always finds all the strictest things before others.
"I think I like those bad things," Lauver will tell me later.
We will finish our last interview on our way back to West Hollywood in the back seat of the car.
Staring at the windy House, the Street Mall and the gas station flew past, he told me that he liked this poorly designed shop awning and food menu that you can see anywhere in the city, in addition to its reputation for neat trim.
"Things like regs tend to be very mediocre and not offensive, neither here nor there.
Imagine what the yoga studio looks like, you know?
What is the font of papyrus?
It's annoying me.
I don't want to live in a place where everything is like Beverly Hills or something.
I don't want to live in a place where everything is flat, mediocre and beautiful.
"The most important thing is that Laufer's love for imperfections is the foundation of his unique cool brand.
It's in a stream of reliable, creepy images he projects to the world through his Instagram feed (
Our first day in Los Angeles. A.
He posted pictures of a row of palm trees that looked unobtrusive and sinister under the stormy sky).
It's in his news.
Long dark red with a layer of overpowered mud guitar, bass and worn-out organs that occasionally turn into an extremely ugly nadir.
Laurel said he recorded the album. -
Joint release with Matador mark real leopard--during a two-
He was fascinated by the psychology of serial killers for a year.
Although he did not want to delve into the issue, he said that the tension in music can be partly attributed to some of the hard experiences he experienced in his private life: He said: "There are a lot of family health problems and a lot of funerals. "
Like his personality, dark red seems to be more suitable for a night curled up to watch horror movies than for a night when Molly pops up in awarehouse.
In the wider career of Shlohmo, there may also be some provocations against the record;
When you set up a game for yourself that offers the music of the mutant party, crushing Aquitar on stage is probably the most opposite thing you can do.
It's hard for us to understand the isolated aesthetic logic that dominates the world, but listening to Lauver, I can't help but think that maybe it has something to do with his growth in Los Angeles: it's not easy to find something to stick ---
Or people insist--
The endless spread of its isolated world.
"We live in a strange fucking era," Shlohmo said as he adjusted the sunglasses . ".
"There are a lot of fake quirks out there and nothing is sacred because anyone can look up the history of the whole energy style and copy it in one fell swoop.
"When you live in a culture that no longer makes any sense and everything is done, the instinct to do the opposite of others when you are young can be confusing.
Survival Means never for WEDIDIT
End the reconnaissance mission for things that have not yet been cooperated
Chosen by all the regulations and yuppies, hipsters, Michael Coles girls and assholes ---
The people of Laufersays said, "try to adapt to Haila.
"It means betting proudly on things you do and don't like, even if you have to do that sometimes.
Perhaps most importantly, survival means knowing when to move on when things don't make sense anymore: when the car comes back to Melrose, I ask Lauver, what happens if all the kids in Los Angeles start wearing black?
"They did it," he said . "
"We have to start wearing all white now.