I had the pleasure of talking to progressive trance duo Calise & Carigz at Whisky Saigon in Boston this weekend, following the release of their newest single, "Infinity." Mike and Matt make for a dynamic DJ-producer combo; they've performed across the country while still balancing music and school, all the while remaining approachable and down-to-earth guys. Here's their insight from 2014:
Batch: What industry advice would you give to your 18-year-old self if you could travel back in time?
Carigz: Probably, work a little harder.
Calise: Start now.
Carigz: It’s tough, you know, with work, school, and life… it’s tough to sit down and do it.
Calise: Definitely start now. Now I’m 23, so you don’t have the time; a lot of these up and coming producers are really young—look at Martin Garrix—eighteen and nineteen years old. When these kids started making music, it’s basically transferring it from your head to the computer… I think the younger you are—and the better you are at understanding the programming—the better adapted you are. Luckily for [Carigz], I wouldn’t be able to do it; he’s more of the production and I do more of the DJing.
Batch: What software and hardware do you guys produce on?
Calise: Logic. For vocals we’ll mess with Ableton.
Carigz: Massive is one of our favorite plugins—it’s one of everybody’s, but it’s really up to how you use it. We also use a Novation Launchkey for a MIDI keyboard, but that’s about it; we try to stay in the box. Just the computer and software, keep it simple. Nothing too crazy.
Batch: What’s been your favorite set so far?
Calise: Life in Color was crazy—Oklahoma was nuts.
Carigz: It was our biggest crowd.
Calise: It was like five or six thousand, that was dope for sure. Tonight was pretty cool, too, especially for how many people were right in front of us. It was intimate, so it was a totally different scene.
Batch: What venues are on your bucket list to play?
Carigz: Pacha.
Calise: Ministry of Sound. Beta in Colorado.
Carigz: Basically anything out of where we’re from.
Calise: So tonight’s a treat, to be able to come up to Boston, it’s a lot of fun. We’re both from North Providence.
Batch: What advice do you think your future self would give you?
Calise: My future self talking to me now would tell me to keep going, no matter what. You see, tonight I fucked up twice. Not even beatmatching; I totally hit the wrong CDJ and started the song all over again. You’ve just got to overcome it and keep going.