Summer Solstice: a Dance Music craze

MANILA, Philippines- The recently concluded Close Up Summer Solstice, held April 27, was a mix of local bands and international artists that made for a truly unforgettable music extravaganza.

Local acts Spongecola, Urbandub, and Sandwhich, were joined by international stars Dev, Cobra Starship, and Jump Smokers!, as well as DJs Afrojack, Alex Gaudino, Apster, and Cedric Gervais for 12 hours of good music and good vibes.

Rappler got the chance to know more about music stars Dev, Jump Smokers!, and Cobra Starship before the festivities commenced.

Dev’s Maternal Enlightenment

Dev turned heads as she walked in clad in a black elbow-length sleeved top with crazy neon colored necklaces.

The young singer is known for a synth-pop-sing-talk kind of music as seen in her collaboration with Far East Movement for pumping hit “‘Like a G6.”

She describes being a new mother as her inspiration for her new music.

“I am newly engaged, and a [new] mother. It has a lot of things to do on the songs I’ve been making. They’re very, sort of, feminine, but still electronic and dance-y in a sense,” she said.

“I love her. I definitely appreciate [life] a lot more – now, that I have a daughter. She made me realize how precious life is,” she added.

The singer first performed in Manila in 2012.

The Uprising of the Jump Smokers!

Jump Smokers! is a Chicago based band composed of Roman, Flipside and Marquee, who are both Filipinos, and Johnny Digital, who was added to the group to enhance their social media presence

The group stared out remixing songs and were later on inspired to produce original tracks.

“We get to work with these artists and they’re so amazing. But, we also want to show the world what our direction is. What kind of music we want to create,” stated Roman.

“Remixing and original material are the same things. We’ve been doing over a hundred remixes and creating these amazing tracks, but they’re actually called original music,” he furthered.

If given a chance to collaborate with a certain person from the past, they would want to work with the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

“[Working with] Michael Jackson would have been such an honor. Actually, we were teased about that two years ago, after he passed away,” he explained. “There was an album that came out … and the music label hired us, and asked us to remix one of those songs. We were so excited about it, but it never happened.”

Cobra Starship’s Disco

Alex Suarez and Ryland Blackinton shared how they first gained popularity with dance hit “Good Girls Go Bad,” a collaboration with actress-singer Leighton Meester.

“It was the song that transferred us from underground following to more pop following. For our underground fans, it was the big song. Then, we made a lot of new fans from the radio. It was the pivotal song for us,” said Ryland.

With the growing rage for electronic dance music, the pop band differentiates themselves from others  through making use of their remixing skills.

Ryland narrates, “We do a lot of remixes of our own songs, which has a lot more organic elements to them like guitars, bass, synthesizers that we play. So, we try to bring the live element that we have on stage as a band and do our DJ sets. There are more organic elements, I would say.”

Another milestone for the group was becoming the opening act for Justin Bieber’s American Tour.

“It’s really an amazing experience for us because it was like nothing we’ve ever done or will do again,” described Alex.

“The stadium they built in Rio for the Olympics; we played there for like two nights in a row and played for 80000 people. It was crazy,” Alex added.

“And at Peru, we played for 90000 people. Only Bieber can bring that kind of audience. To open on that bill is very special for us,” shared Ryland. – Rappler.com