Coachella Band Preview: Calvin Harris

I hope none of you are undergoing the winter blues. If so, it’s time to shake them off because Coachella season is here. Warm desert spring days and cool nights are just around the corner. I finally created a Coachella playlist so I’ve been listening as often as I can. That being said, “band preview” is not the phrase I would use to describe who I’m writing about this week. It’s definitely more of an artist spotlight. I debated changing it while writing this, but ultimately decided to keep it the same, as it’s always been the theme. Criticize it all you want though because Calvin Harris definitely isn’t a band.

Calvin Harris, known otherwise as Adam Richard Wiles, is an electronic artist specializing in house, electro house, and electro pop music. He was born in Dumfries, Scotland to English parents and began making music in his teenage years out of his bedroom. While trying to make it in the electronic scene, he moved to London where he did not find success right away. He ended up moving back to Dumfries and continued to produce music from home. He got his break after being discovered through the tracks he posted to his Myspace page in 2006.

Upon signing a recording deal, he went on to release 6 studio albums, 9 EPs, and 51 singles through the last 17 years. Some of his biggest hits came from his 2012 album 18 months and his 2014 album Motion, which include “Feel So Close,” “We Found Love” featuring Rihanna, “I Need Your Love” featuring Ellie Goulding, “Sweet Nothing” featuring Florence Welch (Florence + the Machine), “Summer,” “Outside” featuring Ellie Goulding, and “Blame” featuring John Newman. He ended up winning a Grammy Award for Best Music Video for “We Found Love.” Some of his other biggest hits were only released as singles, such as his 2016 single “This is What You Came For” featuring Rihanna and his 2018 track featuring Dua Lipa “One Kiss.”

Calvin Harris first played Coachella in 2008. He played again in 2012 and 2014 before he became the first DJ to ever headline the festival in 2016. He was slated to play the 2020 installment of the festival but makes his return to the desert in 2023 for the first time in 7 years. Much like last year’s lineup that featured Swedish House Mafia returning to the desert, Calvin Harris also has his own spot on this year’s lineup poster. Given that, I wasn’t sure what night his set would be. After checking out the Coachella app a few days ago though, it seems to have him listed for Saturday. This gives me something to look forward to on Saturday as there are not as many bands or artists I’m looking forward to that day. It’s definitely going to be a fun night. In fact, as I keep going through his discography, it hits me more and more just how underrated this set will be, given the hype over BLACKPINK and Bad Bunny. Also from what I’ve heard, Coachella tried to book Rihanna to headline the festival but the deal didn’t pull through. If history wants to repeat itself for a third time, I wouldn’t be surprised nor would I mind if Rihanna showed up again to perform with Calvin Harris. There’s no question that Calvin Harris will be performing on the main stage. The only question mark I have are whether he will perform after BLACKPINK or not and who will he bring out as his special guests? He does have plenty of other collabs besides the ones with Rihanna. His set is likely to include bops from his entire career so here’s a few you might want to know before showing up to the one of the most fun sets of Coachella 2023:

1. One Kiss ft. Dua Lipa
2. This What You Came For ft. Rihanna
3. Summer
4. Feel So Close
5. We Found Love ft. Rihanna
6. My Way
7. How Deep Is Your Love ft. Disciples
8. Outside ft. Ellie Goulding
9. Pray to God ft. HAIM
10. Sweet Nothing ft. Florence Welch
11. I Need Your Love ft. Ellie Goulding
12. Blame ft. John Newman
13. Under Control ft. Alesso, Hurts
14. Giant ft. Rag’n’Bone Man
15. Slide ft. Frank Ocean & Migos, Funk Wav

Coachella Band Preview: Zedd

In 1 month today we will be on the brink of Coachella 2019. Campers will be coming in. Hotels will be filled. That anticipation of another year of Coachella will fill the air. It will be similar to Christmas Eve with one exception: Coachella lasts 2 days longer than Christmas. I guess you can say that for any highly anticipated music festival, but trust me, Coachella is a special place in the festival world. That being said, there’s only 4 more weeks to learn the tunes of your favorite Coachella acts before they’re performed live on the Polo fields. This year I haven’t been as stoked for many of the electronic artists as I was last year. Most of the electronic acts I’m excited for this year fall on that indie electronic spectrum and are bands, not DJs. However, I decided there is one electronic DJ I’d like to see this year and that’s Zedd.

Anton Zaslavski, better known as Zedd, is an electronic DJ and producer. While growing up, he received formal training on instruments such as piano and drums and was part of a band. He got inspired to start making electronic music because of French electronic duo Justice. He first entered the EDM scene around 2010. He released two tracks on the website Beatport which included an original song and a remix of Skrillex’s “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites”. After that he began remixing songs of well-known artists such as Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and the Black Eyed Peas.

In 2012 Zedd signed with Interscope Records and released his debut album Clarity. The album included the hit singles “Spectrum” featuring Matthew Koma and “Clarity” featuring Foxes. “Clarity” has since gone on to receive Platinum status. Zedd also received a Grammy for “Clarity” for Best Dance Recording. In the following years, Zedd went on his first headlining tour and sold out venues across 5 continents worldwide. He also released several more singles like “Stay the Night” and “Find You” in addition to producing songs for the likes of Lady Gaga on her 2013 album Artpop.

Zedd’s second album True Colors was released in May 2015. In the lead up to the album release, Zedd released the single “I Want to Know You” featuring Selena Gomez and the single “Beautiful Now” featuring Jon Bellion. Zedd embarked on his second world tour in 2015. Since then, he has released singles routinely. Some of those singles include hits like “Starving” feautring Hailee Steinfeld and Grey, “Stay” with Alessia Cara, and one of 2018’s biggest hits “The Middle” featuring Maren Morris and Grey. Zedd hasn’t released an album in 4 years, making him due for one soon.

Zedd plays a house/electro house style of electronic music. He draws influence from classical, dubstep, and progressive house music as well. At this point though, Zedd’s music can even be considered pop because his hits have become pretty mainstream. In fact, there’s a bunch of electronic artists that fit that category too since electronic music has risen in popularity in recent years.

I usually write about how I became a fan of the artist I’m previewing, where I first heard them, or some sort of story about them, but honestly I’m not a huge fan of Zedd. I just know a lot of his songs because many of them are very mainstream. I will say “The Middle” became a guilty pleasure of mine last spring and “Starving” was another guilty pleasure in late 2016. It was actually one of my favorite songs to play on guitar for a while. I know Zedd’s music well enough that if I were to pick any electronic DJ to see this year, it would be him. I think his set will be fun to be at and it’s sure to have a huge draw as well.

Zedd plays Sunday at Coachella 2019. This year will mark his 4th Coachella appearance. In 2012 and 2014, Zedd played at the Sahara Tent. In 2016, Zedd was the Outdoor Stage headliner on Saturday night. If Zedd isn’t the Outdoor headliner again, he most definitely will be playing the Coachella Main Stage right before Ariana Grande. In fact, we might even get a Zedd and Ariana collab during one of their sets since they did team up on Ariana’s “Break Free” in 2014. You might already know a ton of Zedd’s music, but in case you didn’t, here’s what to listen to in preparation for his Coachella 2019 set:

1. The Middle
2. Clarity
3. Starving
4. Happy Now
5. Stay
6. I Want You to Know
7. 365
8. Lost In Japan Remix (originally by Shawn Mendes)
9. Spectrum
10. Beautiful Now

 

 

Coachella Band Preview: The Chainsmokers

April 15th, Day 1 of Weekend 1 of Coachella 2016, is one month and 4 days from today. It’s the home stretch since the tickets officially went on sale and the lineup was released in January. This week’s preview features two EDM DJ’s who’ve been making their mark in music since their inception in 2012. If you’ve been following my blog, you know I’m not an EDM fan at all. I typically follow the indie music scene. It seems recently though that I’ve been contradicting myself when it comes to EDM. I actually do like the occasional electronic/digital dance song. When I do hear a song I like though, the music has indie roots, which is the case for some music by this week’s preview duo, The Chainsmokers.

The Chainsmokers are made up of DJ’s Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall. The duo started playing club shows together in September 2012 in New York City. Their indie band remixes are what first gained them attention as well as their original songs “Erase” feat. Priyanka Chopra and “The Rookie”. What gained the duo worldwide attention was the release of their single “#Selfie” in late 2013-early 2014. Since then they’ve collaborated with various bands/artists on several original songs and released their first EP, Bouquet, in October 2015. Their debut album is due out some time this year and the first single from the album, “Don’t Let Me Down” feat. Daya, was released in February.

Their music is obviously EDM (electronic dance music), as I stated before, but can also be considered dance, house, club, electro house, or progressive house. As I also said, they do have indie roots as noted from their remixes and I think it shows in several of their original tracks. That’s why I actually like a few of their songs despite not being an overall EDM fan.

I first heard of The Chainsmokers because of “#Selfie”. I hated the song. I still do. I’ve actually never listened to the whole song because I think it’s pretty stupid. In fact, I barely realized “#Selfie” was a Chainsmokers song until I started researching the group for this blog post. I thought I first heard The Chainsmokers in September of 2015, but I guess that’s when I actually got interested in some of their music. Thanks to recommendations from my favorite soccer player’s monthly playlists I heard several of the duo’s remixes and their song “Roses” feat. ROZES. It took me a few times hearing “Roses” to get into the song but eventually I got hooked. Within the past few months, I added a few more of their songs to my Spotify playlists.

This year marks the first time The Chainsmokers will play Coachella. After seeing the crowds that EDM sets draw last year, there’s no doubt that The Chainsmokers set will see a huge crowd at this year’s annual music festival. The only conflict would be is if another big EDM act plays at the same time. They play Sunday along with fellow EDM acts, Major Lazer, KSHMR, Flume, and headliner Calvin Harris. Supposedly their sets are wild, fun, and a giant party-like atmosphere that reflect the personalities of both Taggart and Pall. The set will most likely be filled with energy. To get you prepped, here’s a few of their songs:

1. Roses (feat. ROZES)
2. #Selfie
3. Don’t Let Me Down (feat. Daya)
4. Kanye (feat. sirenXX)
5. Until You Were Gone (with Tritonal feat. Emily Warren)
6. The Rookie
7. Let You Go (feat. Great Good Fine Ok)
8. New York City (feat. Victoria Zaro)
9. Erase (feat. Priyanka Chopra)
10. Split (Only U) (with Tiësto)