By Samantha Richard, Western Communications
It’s mid-afternoon and Joe Depace and Andrew Fedyk are relaxing on a sunny beach in Cancún, Mexico, wrapping up a spring break tour before returning to Canada. It’s a calm before the storm for the DJ duo most would recognize by their stage name, Loud Luxury.
This upcoming weekend, the pair, known worldwide for creating deep house music, will return to London, where their friendship and musical journey began, as they open the 2019 Juno Awards.
In 2012, Depace, BA’14 (Popular Music Studies), and Fedyk, BA’15 (Political Science), met at the first meeting for a DJ club run by Depace. The two exchanged music and, from there, a friendship bloomed. At the time, DJing was a hobby and the furthest thing from a career idea.
“I was making playlists on iTunes for my friends, making music for parties, burning CDs, and making mixtapes for girls that didn’t have a crush on me back,” Fedyk explained with a laugh. “So DJing was sort of the next step for that.”
When they graduated, the duo made the leap. “We just started making music and then that happened,” Fedyk said.
Neither thought they would be where they are today.
In 2015, they moved to Los Angeles and began touring, opening for artists like Arty and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. In 2016, a collaboration with Borgeous, Going Under, scored a minor hit. That was followed by Fill Me In and Show Me. Their big break came with their remix of Martin Garrix’s Scared to Be Lonely.
In October 2017, Loud Luxury released Body on Armada Music – and everything changed.
Described by critics as “two minutes and 43 seconds of tropical, feel-good dance-pop featuring American singer bravado, whose desperate plea to get out of the friend zone” began the song of the summer and sent the duo into the stratosphere. Today, they chart around the world and play to sold-out crowds in Canada, the UK and United States.
Seven years and numerous awards later, the pair credits Western for contributing to their massive success.
“All of our friends, all of our peers we know, that we’re surrounded by, they all went to Western,” Depace said. “It has been huge for networking,”
“We would not have met if we were not at Western,” Fedyk said.
The dance/electronic duo have been nominated for four Juno Awards, including Canadian Breakout Group of the Year and Juno Fan Choice. Their song Body is nominated as both Single of the Year and Dance Recording of the Year.
Body topped the Billboard charts last summer. Its official music video is nearing 100 million views.
Describing their sound as “deep house with a shot of tequila,” Los Angeles-based Canadian duo make bright, ecstatic dance-pop with wistful lyrics, inspired by Disclosure, the Weeknd, and Calvin Harris.
“Everything that happened to us wouldn’t have happened if we thought, ‘Oh, I’m not going to become a DJ, I’ll work in law or politics instead,’” Fedyk said.
Depace agreed. “Don’t stop, just keep going, and surround yourself with the right people.”
Though their music’s reach has spread far past Canadian borders, the pair will never forget their London roots.
“We love coming back. We’ll come back to Western any time. It’s the best feeling,” Fedyk said.
“Every single time we come back it’s almost like a new milestone,” Depace added.
Last time the duo visited Western in September of 2018 to perform at Purple Fest, they had just released their official music video for Love No More. Today, the video is approaching 2 million views on YouTube.
“We’re just going to keep growing,” said Depace before Fedyk added, “and we’re excited to be back.”
