Das Energi Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah is less than a month away. The festival, held on August 18 and 19, is set to draw people from over half the states in the country six years after it first came to the Great Saltair.
With a massive lineup full of well-known names in EDM, such as Zedd, Diplo, Knife Party, Adventure Club, Dieselboy, Rezz, and Zomboy, V2 Presents is set to bring festival goers a truly “energi”-charged weekend. See the full lineup here.
Along with all those big names, V2 Presents is showcasing some local talents who have been gaining momentum in the Utah scene lately. One such local talent is the duo of Allen and Omar known as Z&Z. The Utah residents have been on the rise in the local scene lately, having opened for several big names at SKY, and are well known by Utah’s EDM enthusiasts.
Rave Jungle had a chance to meet with Z&Z for a quick interview last month at White Rabbit Ravers’ inaugural event, The Junkyard, on July 1st. Check out the interview below.
Did you guys know each other before you started Z&Z ?
A: Barely. We had known each other for about two months before we decided to team up.
O: Yeah, our friend introduced us after he listened to a mix of mine and decided that we needed to meet up.
What drew you guys to electronic music ?
A: My friend showed me trap music. Flosstradamus was one of the first ones I heard. I was already producing music at the time, just simple hip hop beats, but then I heard trap. So I said, I want to make something like this.
O: For me, I went to EDC and it changed my life. I loved it all so I decided to give it a shot.
Who would you say are your musical inspirations ?
A: For me, the game changers like Flosstradamus, Skrillex when he was coming out with dubstep, and GTA.
O: In general, I’m an Eminem fan. But as far as EDM, I love DJ Snake, I love Above & Beyond.
How would you describe your sound to people who have never heard it before ?
A: We just like to make and play whatever we feel. Because Omar’s style is so different from my style, we tend to cater to a very wide variety of people. I’m more of the filthier stuff, like trap, dubstep, and Omar is more of a trance and house kind of guy. But as we become closer as a duo, his styles start to reflect onto me, and my styles also reflect onto him.
O: We’re Z&Z, our sound is different. It varies, you never know what we’re going to make next. We want to make sounds that will hit people so hard that their eyes widen and they start jumping with energy.
Was Utah an easy choice as a launching point for Z&Z ?
A: Abandoning ship isn’t really on our mind at all. Utah’s scene is growing so much, it’s been growing for the past few years, and we feel like we’re a part of that too.
O: Utah is our home. We want to be part of it, we want to contribute to it. We will never turn our backs on Utah, we want to see it grow and we want to grow with it.
Where do you think the Utah EDM scene will be five years from now ?
A: I feel like it’s really been getting more and more on the map. You see that all these big artists keep on coming here now. And everyone is trying to put on more and more shows here in Utah, and it’s really creating a market here. It will be exciting to see how much Das Energi has grown by then.
O: It’s been growing so much and so quickly lately. V2 and other event production companies are doing such an amazing job. We have so much respect for the people at V2, LNE, White Rabbits, all those guys put forth so much time and effort into putting out top quality shows for the local community to enjoy. I feel like at some point it’s going to grow really big, it’s just going to really explode.
Who would you love to open for the most ?
A: Opening for Skrillex would be huge for me!
O: I would love to open for RL Grime someday, but my ultimate dream would be to open for DJ Snake.
What would be your dream festival to headline someday ?
A: It would be so rewarding to be a headliner here in Utah. It would just show that we came from here and worked hard and grew with the scene and ended up making it all the way to headliner status.
O: Das Energi, because it’s here in Utah. Or maybe one of the other ones here in Utah, like Get Lucky or Get Freaky. It would just be really cool to be from the local Utah scene and end up headlining a big festival here too.
Where do you see Z&Z in five years?
A: Maybe on a tour, like a North America tour. That would be incredible.
O: Headlining at Das Energi. Doing more shows out there, and still doing local shows, continuing to grow.
With the explosion of EDM into the mainstream, do you think that the underground scene will eventually fade away in favor of bigger official shows ?
A: I feel like right now we’re going in a direction where the people are being bombarded by all the big stuff, and sometimes they feel that it’s nice to go to something a little smaller and more underground for a change. You’ll always have the big official stuff, but people will always come back to the underground. The quality of these shows is always so amazing.
O: I don’t think it’s dying, especially here in the United States. I think underground raves are going to keep on growing because they bring the new local artists to the scene.
Z&Z will be performing at Das Energi Festival on the weekend of August 18th. Tickets can still be purchased here, get them before the prices go up this Saturday !
