Interview with Halogen

House Duo Halogen talks Housewerk and Imagine Festival

7/22/2018

Atlanta-based House Duo Halogen, comprised of Josh Taylor and Alex Dunsker, stopped by to talk about their growing successes, teamwork, and some of the experiences they've had performing together. The answers below were provided by Josh Taylor.

Could you give us a brief history of how Halogen has gotten to where they are today?
We met through mutual friends back in 2012 and got together to talk about production. We found that our goals were aligned and also that we were stylistically similar in what kind of music we wanted to make. We started off the project really quickly, first by producing electro house but later transitioning into more deep and future house. The transition was just a natural progression of our growth and maturation as artists. We found that our taste changed as we got further into it so the decision to rebrand was a natural result of that shift. Our Soundcloud channel started to really grow in the beginning of 2014 after multiple consecutive releases reaching the top of the Hype Machine charts. We’d like to attribute a lot of our initial success to the organic growth we received residually from those releases.

How did you go about building Housewerk?
We had been wanting to throw our own show in Atlanta for a while. We were waiting for the right time and opportunity to come about and we had gotten booked at our first show at Music Room. The event went about as well as we expected but the silver lining was that we realized that Atlanta was missing a type of show like Housewerk. It has been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made and one of the greatest things to be a part of. The growth, in our opinion, is due to the music: you play good music, book good artists, and that’ll make more people want to come. Almost all of the money that we’ve made from the show has gone right back into it and as a result, we think we’ve created an event with a unique vibe that you won’t find in many other places throughout the city.

This Saturday we are bringing Housewerk back to @musicroom327 If you want to catch the premier underground house party join us as we invite @golfclapdet to Atlanta for the first time! • ?:@_chaseanderson

A post shared by HALOGEN (@wearehalogen) on Apr 23, 2018 at 9:12am PDT

You’ve been to Miami Music Week eight times now. Tell us about some of the best experiences you’ve had there and what keeps you coming back to that event.
Miami Music Week has been a completely different experience every year for us. This past year was the first time that we were a part of a hotel party lineup which was cool. We spend most of our time meeting other artists and connecting with industry people, but eventually we’ll end up partying and having a good time. When we were younger we would like to go to Ultra, but now we tend to spend more time on South Beach. We could go into detail on some of our experiences, but for now we’ll just leave it there have been some crazy times!

This last year has been a constant struggle to hone our skills. If you want to compete with the best musicians in the world that means there are no easy roads. #goals

A post shared by HALOGEN (@wearehalogen) on Mar 16, 2018 at 9:48am PDT

What is the dynamic like between you two?
In the studio we tend to go back and forth on who is controlling the mouse aka “driving”. On stage, if you’re look closely, you will see us doing hand motions to signal to each other what they want the other to be doing for certain transitions for songs (ex. Hard cut, let it play out, etc.) We don’t really have any rituals other than at least one song every show - Alex will play a dope song I have never heard and I will freak out in front of everyone. Outside of the music, we both have our own separate hobbies: Alex has an extremely impressive collection of comics and knows everything about them and I’m into conspiracies and know way too much about film. We both fight crime full time during the week.

Considering the caliber of events that you all have been to like Coachella, Shaky Beats, Imagine Festival, and countless headliner shows, what have been some of the most memorable moments that you two have shared on or off stage.
I think one of the most memorable shows for us was our very first show together back in 2013. We opened up for Knife Party at a sold-out show at the Tabernacle. They didn’t gimp us on lights or anything – pretty much we had the same set up that was used by Knife Party which was like the whole nine yards. For me, personally, to go from playing a couple shows by myself at the quad for like seven people and two of them playing PlayStation facing the other direction to performing at a sold-out show was quite the experience. Playing Coachella was memorable also just because of the fact that we were asked to come play all the way out in that desert was just surreal. We ended up walking into this club-like tent later that night and saw The Black Madonna put on one of the most insane techno sets. If you have a chance to see one of her sets, do it.

Tell us about your experience playing at Imagine Festival in 2017 and what are you most looking forward to in 2018?
Imagine last year was awesome experience. The Shipwreck Stage was fun at night and the vibes were great. We ended the set with a Myon track, if I remember correctly, because sometimes you’ve just got to give them the feels. We typically prepare festival sets a bit different than club sets. Different environment deserves different music. This year we have a few surprises, so I don’t want to spoil the fun. If you are interested, you should catch our set!

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So much love to @imaginemusicfestival for having us out last weekend. You can catch us playing at the Imagine Festival Music Block on @groovecruise Miami in Jaunuary. Use code IMAGINE for $200 off your cabin

A post shared by HALOGEN (@wearehalogen) on Sep 29, 2017 at 2:56pm PDT