Danielle and Gabrielle Verderese, also known as the bass/trap sister duo Duelle, burst onto the dance music scene just over a year ago with high hopes of finally being recognized for all of their hard work. During Miami Music Week 2014, I had the pleasure of meeting up with them at the Stacked Pool Party when they were only spectators.

Within a little over a year they are now filling slots at some of the biggest festivals in the U.S. The Life in Color "World's Largest Paint Party" traveling tour booked them as a headliner act in Cleveland, Ohio, Spring Weekend brought them to Panama City Beach where they tore it up and Tampa, Florida's Sunset Music Festival also had them as headliners this past weekend at a festival that brings over 65k people in two days.

I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with them post-set at Sunset Music Festival to dig a little deeper into their journey as artists. It was humbling to hear how hard they've worked, how much effort they put into their daily routines and most importantly, how much they love their fans. Read on below to learn more about #DMNDMOB, future Duelle bookings/tours and how they've pushed past ordinary to find their niche.

Ariel DB: I want to hear about your set. What did you guys think about the crowd here and how do you feel that you did overall?

Duelle: The crowd was pretty wild. I think at first they were timid. I think that we had some hardcore fans, but then toward the end everyone migrated and we had everyone together. I think the set went really well. They went hard even though it was raining. Besides the delay....once we went back on everybody started going really hard. We had everyone there, I could feel their energy, they were so into it - so that was great.

Ariel DB: Now, I know you guys played at LIC, but would you consider this your first major festival?

Duelle: Yes. I would say it is for sure.

Ariel DB: How did it feel to play a festival as big as SMF?

Duelle: It's huge. I mean, especially in our home state, that's what's so cool. We went from LIC Miami locals to actually being headliners at SMF so, it's an awesome feeling to be stepping it up that fast. We're finally getting support from Florida.

Ariel DB: Can you guys tell me about your beginnings with dance music?

Duelle: Well, we started making music about 6-7 years ago, as vocalists mainly just making original tracks. About a few years ago we had a track call "Your Addiction," which really was our break in the EDM scene. The blogs went crazy over it and we started to get a lot of attention off of that and really realize that the dance music scene was the path that we wanted to take for sure. There's nothing like the fan-base in EDM and just the community of people. When they support you it's like "ride-or-die." At that time, I feel like we hadn't found our niche yet. We were kind of making dubstep at the time and we still make bass music now, but I feel like trap and us rapping separates us from anybody else and what they are doing so. That's just who we really are, too, ya know. You have to be YOU, so yeah, we realized that.

https://soundcloud.com/duelle/your-addiction-radio-edit

Ariel DB: What artists would you say got you into dance music?

Duelle: Definitely Skrillex. I mean, he's everyone's biggest inspiration. Back in 2010 when we first heard his new album that came out, we were obsessed with it, and that got us into the dubstep and the bass scene. We just met him yesterday actually. He told us to kill it today so we were like "oh hell yeah Sonny, we will." But yeah, that's who honestly got us into the dance music scene.

(continued...)

We started noticing what was going on and we were like, wow, this could be a huge platform for us. As we started to get more and more into it. In the past couple of years we started DJing and now we're on a whole other level with everything, which is really cool. It's really been a platform for us to showcase our music and we're slowly bringing in the live vocals. Now, this is the second show that we did a full on live vocal performance. People have been getting more and more into it. People actually started to get tattoos. Two days later after we got these, some of our fans in chicago, this girl had already gotten this tattoo. What was really dope about it was she got it because of the #dmndmob thing but there's a deeper meaning to it as well. The diamonds are a symbol of strength. Diamonds were created under pressure. So, it's kind of symbolic of our journey as artists.

Ariel DB: So you guys broke out and were like BOOM, here we are!

Duelle: YEP! Exactly.

Ariel DB: That's so cool.

(continued...)

So I noticed purple and blue everywhere. What's the purple and blue all about? You guys have your hair dyed those colors and then everything else is either purple, blue or black pertaining to Duelle. What exactly do those two colors mean to you guys?

Duelle: Well when we actually recreated our logo, we were working on stuff with the diamonds, and I guess some of our favorite colors are like a teal or purple, so we made the two diamonds teal and purple and then we just decided to dye our hair those two colors just to make more of a mark - I feel like people will remember that, more than us just doing something plain. Yeah, so we just really wanted to stand out.

Ariel DB: As for collaborations, what has been your favorite one thus far? I know you guys have a huge collab already with Protohype.

Duelle: I mean, that was definitely one of our favorites. We actually have a new hardstyle/trap collab coming out with Skellism, which is going to be really dope. We're working with Riot Ten on a trap collab, which is also going to be insane and a collab with Ricky Remedy that is super different and not what people will expect. Also Breathe Carolina, we're really good friends with them, we have a house collab that we actually dropped in our set today. We have more things coming up with them too, but yeah, I mean, we're just constantly linking with people and working on collaborations on top of our new EP that we're currently working on.

Ariel DB: What's your EP going to be called?

Duelle: We don't know yet!

Ariel DB: You haven't come up with any names?

Duelle: Well, we have one track, it's called "The Resistance," and it's in the works right now. It's literally only four lines so far, but we're basically just saying that we're going against the whole "genre" thing and we're just doing what we want to do. We came up with "The Resistance" so that could potentially be the title. This is the first time we're saying this so nothing is finalized yet. You've got it first haha, we're giving you the exclusives here!

Ariel DB: I know you both are friends with a lot of DJs, but if you could pick two producers/DJs to be your parents, who would they be and why?

Duelle: To be your parents?? Oh gosh, this is so hard. Well, a lot of them are really not that responsible *laughs*. You know what? Maybe Tiesto would be a good dad. Yeah, we would pick Tiesto as our dad. As for our mom, we would pick the Nervo girls. Yeah, definitely Nervo! They would be good moms and they are so cute!

Ariel DB: So, since you guys are more on the end of up-and-coming artists, but you're definitely blowing up, what advice can you give to producers in the same position that you're in right now?

Duelle: Honestly, just work hard, don't give up and don't let people box you in. Really just find your own sound. It's not even like getting caught up in your own sound. What's cool is that we can play a whole bunch of different genres in our set and we love making lots of different styles of music - we hate being boxed into one specific thing. You really just have to believe in what you make and when you play it and everything, if you're just who you are, no matter what genre you're making, stay true to yourself. Staying true to yourself is probably one of the most important things to us because I feel like for a while we were trying to find our niche and it's hard. Once you get to a certain point, stick to who you truly are, make what you like to make and experiment. Those are the greatest artists, the ones who people really look up to. Don't listen to what everyone is saying and don't give up because we've been making music for years, over 7 years actually. People think we're super young, but we're not as young as everyone thinks we are.

Ariel DB: What's next for you guys in terms of shows, releases, etc.?

Duelle: We have some big shows coming up. We're playing in Vegas and at Avalon in L.A. In Vegas we're headlining Marquee Dayclub pool party. Also, we're working on some more festivals. Yeah, and then music wise, you know all of those collabs, our new EP to look forward to, AND a special Fall tour.

Ariel DB: Can't say where?

Duelle: Well, we're planning out this co-headlining tour for the Fall, but we can't say who with. It's going to be totally different though. It will be very interesting for sure.

Ariel DB: What can you tell your fans?

Duelle: That we f*cking love you guys, seriously. I don't think people understand. Honestly, they are the ones that get you further. We have this crazy connection with them, like I said, we got this tattoo and then a couple of days later we had some of our fans getting it. That means more to us than ANYTHING. The fact that we're inspiring them and the fact that they want us to keep going is huge, that means a lot to us. We have this connection to them and this energy on stage. We can't even explain it - they almost read right through us. We love them! And those ride-or-die's that we have right now and the movement that we're building - there's nothing like that. Our fans are everything. We do this for them, we do this for that relationship. We wouldn't be anywhere without them. #DMNDMOB for life.

*BONUS QUESTION*

Ariel DB: If you could relate yourselves to one type of drink, what would it be and why?

Duelle: Champagne! It's bubbly and it's classy, and we're definitely classy, but we also like to turnup. We're about that classy-turnup *laughs*

Stay tuned for future announcements on upcoming shows/festivals and new music by following Duelle:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/duellemusic
Twitter - https://twitter.com/DuelleMusic
Instagram - @duellemusic
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/Duelle
Snapchat - @dmndmob

Photos: Facebook - Marinade Photography // Instagram - @marinmedia