Coachella Band Preview: Illenium

I swear the 3 months between the lineup release and Weekend One of Coachella always fly by. Now, once again, here we are just over a month away from the festival. As always once March hits, time is winding down. I’m sure plenty of attendees have begun the planning process of fashion and travel. It’ll be a few weeks before the set times and food vendors are announced though. I hope your planning process also includes jamming to some bands and artists playing the festival this year, otherwise why am I even posting this?! Regardless, at least you’re finding some info out about the music world, I guess? But let’s be real, I hope you’re using these to prep for Coachella. This week I’m previewing an electronic artist that hopped on to the scene around 2013. Since then he has quickly rose in the EDM rankings.

Denver’s Nick Miller, better known to the world by his DJ alias, Illenium, has made a notable impact on the electronic music scene recently. He was inspired to start recording music after he saw Bassnectar perform at Red Rocks in 2012. He released his first EP in 2013 and his debut album, Ashes, in 2016 under his own record label Kasaya Recordings. Ashes peaked on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums Chart at number 6 and on the Billboard Top Heatseeker’s Chart at number 19. About six months ago, he released his second album, Awake.

Illenium was originally a melodic dubstep/trap artist, but his latest album strays from that a bit. Several songs are more downtempo and have an atmospheric type sound similar to what you might hear from Odesza or Gryffin. It’s a definite progression from his debut, but still incorporates his signature sound. He’s stated that he plans on straying from that dubstep/trap sound in his live performances as well by sticking to more of his own music and playing less of others’.

I first heard of Illenium last year when I heard his collaboration on the track “Feel Good” with Coachella 2017 performer Gryffin and vocalist, Daya. After the release of his latest album, I spent a week or so listening to it as part of my work out routine, eventually downloading and adding a few songs to my typical work out playlist. I really liked his more recent sound and I definitely felt like he was an artist I would want to check out at a festival over the next year. Luckily that might happen!

Illenium plays on Sunday at Coachella. I’d guess his set to be at the Sahara Tent. He might even play there before expected Sunday Sahara headliner, Odesza, plays. If I’m free, I’d definitely want to drop in to his set for a bit. The only conflict for me would be if Portugal. The Man plays around the same time. Honestly, I’d probably go see Portugal. The Man. But if you’re trying to maximize your Coachella experience, you may want to catch a little of both sets. If you want to check out Illenium’s set, here’s what you need to hear first:

1. Feel Good
2. Fractures
3. Sound of Walking Away
4. Crawl Outta Love
5. With You
6. I’ll Be Your Reason
7. Don’t Give Up On Me
8. It’s All On U

The Film Playlist: We Are Your Friends

While at my cousin’s house over the weekend, we watched another movie that easily makes The Film Playlist. It’s been a while since I wrote about a movie for this series so let me explain. The Film Playlist is a blog series I started about movies that are about music. It’s been about a year since I added anything to it, but as soon as we started watching We Are Your Friends this past weekend, I knew I had to write about it this week.

The 2015 drama stars Zac Efron, Wes Bentley, Emily Ratajkowski, Shiloh Fernandez, Alex Shaffer, and Jonny Weston. It was written by Max Joseph and Meaghan Oppenheimer based off a story by Richard Silverman. Joseph also directed the film which marked his directorial debut. The movie is about an electronic music DJ named Cole Carter (Efron) who is trying to work his way up in the music industry. It’s also partly a coming of age story because Cole and his friends are young adults trying to figure out their lives in the midst of partying at night clubs, selling drugs, and being part of the electronic music scene. While booked to play a gig at a club one night, Cole meets the headliner, who was once a hot commodity in the electronic music world, James Reed (Bentley). Reed in a way becomes a mentor for Cole once he realizes his talent and helps Cole to understand how to create music that doesn’t sound like every other electronic song.

As soon as we started watching this film Friday night, I knew I would love it. The plot is average though. It’s nothing out of the ordinary or exceptional. I strictly loved it for the fact that it was about music and electronic music in particular. I’ve never seen another film that surrounds the electronic music scene. It was cool to see scenes about creating electronic music and also scenes featuring EDC Vegas, which is an electronic music festival done by one of the leading electronic festival promoters Insomniac Events. The soundtrack for the film was excellent. Its feature track “We Are Your Friends” by Justice featuring Simian is where the film got its title from. It also features songs by Years and Years with Gryffin, AlunaGeorge with Tchami, Seinabo Sey with Kygo and Deorro ft. Erin McCarley.

If you’re expecting an award winning film, that’s not what We Are Your Friends is. It’s really just a fictional coming of age film that surrounds the electronic music industry. If you’re at all into electronic music, I suggest you check it out. It’s a film you don’t have to think much about and can purely enjoy, especially if you have a love for music, especially electronic music.