Last Friday one of EDM’s newest artist Brett Stogsdill, or known by his stage name Mielo, opened for GTA on their, \”Goons Take America Tour\” at Concord Music Hall.
Most of the time, I’m the type of person who usually misses the first performance of a concert. Whether it be from running late, or how the opening acts never tend to grab my attention. However, lucky for me I was on time for this show and got to see Mielo perform. And I am pleased to say that I enjoyed every minute of it. If you\’re into the whole future producers like I am then you\’ll definitely want to look out for this kid and see where his successes will go. I had nothing but great notes on Mielo’s performance and even found my self at one point writing down, “Look this kid up on Soundcloud and make sure to follow his stuff.” He had that unique sense of style that will sure to set off.
Mielo and I were able to hangout a bit that night where I had the advantage of conducting his first interview of becoming a new artist to the EDM sphere.
Check out the interview.
Talk to me a little about your style of music?
\”I like the more geekier end of the future bass, to down tempo stuff. Kinda similar to Porter or kinda the new wave of future producers coming out right now.\”
Who are your biggest inspirations?
\”Probably, Porter Robinson, Slow Magic, Giraffage, and Manila Killa. Anyone from Moving Castle. That whole collective, they are all just awesome.\”
Because you were recently in school at Iowa, were you attending school for music?
“No, I was going to school to be a doctor. I wasn\’t doing terrible but I was trying to be a DJ and at this time I wasn\’t producing, just actually learning how to be a DJ. I would play a little club popular in Iowa City. ”
“I kinda didn\’t wanna be a doctor and go to school for 12 years so I switched to speech and hearing, which is like speech mythology. Then I was like, still too much to go to grad school, so I switched to business and I thought, ‘alright I like business, ’ because as an artist you kinda gotta have a business sense.\”
\”It\’s not just posting a song to Soundcloud and it blows up, you kinda gotta be like, ‘alright how do I brand?’ And as much as people say, ‘oh it\’s all about the music, ’ there is a little business end that I had to learn.\”
\”Basically being able to learn some business stuff, kinda try to emulate with what other artist are coming up with and what\’s making them get noticed.”
What would you say you used the most to get your self out there?
\”Soundcloud. What helped with my first song is I was working with this guy and I was kinda nervous; I’m a real anxious person and I didnt want to release it that week, but he was like, just release it, and I was like alright fine.\”
\”I released it on a Thursday at the end of April and in a week it had 25k and another week from that it had 50k. Mr. Sucide Sheep then hit me up and was like we love this and they posted it.\”
What was the song called?
\”Surreal, featuring this singer from Iowa city that I had met; her name is Abby Sevcik. The song popped off and I met a ton of people through it and that\’s when the new management came in and saw it. I did one show with them before when I was just a house DJ opening for them and he was just like, thats what set off everything.\”
What management are you under right now?
\”Nick Bush, he manages artist like MilknCookies. He\’s killing it right now.\”
Are you touring with GTA for the remainder of their tour?
\”No, just this Chicago stop, but I have a show in a week. I’m playing with AC Slater at University of Illinois, I\’m direct support for him. Then I am playing with Black Tiger Sex Machine in Iowa city, and then for New Years, I’m playing for React and that\’s going to be awesome. It has not even been a year since I started really releasing music, so I’m still kinda getting used to all this.
Since you’ll be performing React’s NYE, which is a huge event. What can fans expect?
\”I’ll probably drop at least two brand new songs. I am currently working on a ton of stuff. I have a new single probably coming out next month in a half, two months. Then I have this official remix I am doing for this pop singer out of St. Louis, it’s a super awesome song. Then I plan to be releasing an EP in February.\”
What’s expected from the EP?
\”Probably an evolution of my sound from when I started, because now I actually do know how to produce and at first I was iffy when I released my first song. Now I have so much time, with a lot of free time I can just focus on the music. It\’s an evolution of still sticking to the sound I established but now just becoming a better producer. So just a lot more refined.\”
Do you plan on sticking to the future sound?
\”I am trying to distinguish myself, where you can listen to it on Spotify with your friends and can also go off on a stage. So when Im trying to make music, Im like alright this isn\’t going to be annoying to listen to, because some songs are a little too much to just chill to but also if I go play a big stage people will like it.\”
\”I\’m starting to mess with 140 bpm with remixes. So I\’m trying to figure out how not be dubby but have that sound, to make it work, because I’ve only worked with down tempo like 100 bpm and 90 bpm.\”
What would you say you have to do to break away from other upcoming artist in order to remain on top?
\”To constantly put out good music that isn\’t just something a DJ is going to play, it\’s more so like, I would rather have no DJs ever play it, but have people enjoy listening to it on Soundcloud and Spotify.\”
\”I am more about that, I am not a huge person on where I\’d hit up a ton of DJs asking for support or anything. More so, I just want people to enjoy listening to it. I would rather make a chill song where people would wanna listen to it than a banger.\”
It is good to have a mentality like that where you want to stay true to yourself, because these days a lot of artist break away from what they want to produce, to just what people want to hear.
“Exactly, and I get caught up in that sometimes and I\’m just like, Surreal; my first song, I was thinking, \’are people going to like this?\’ I thought it was a different song and it\’s more a newer wave then a Portery sound. It\’s a fresh sound and it did well. So alright, if people like this, cool I can keep revolving from that.\”
So if you wanted to have your own tour, what sort of graphics would you show to the audience?
\”I think it would be cool to have a lot of the gamer feel. I grew up with Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z, I was a big video game kid. I was kinda into all that, a big techy kid. Probably, a lot of video game influences and I think it would be sick to have South Park visuals, because I love South Park. I haven\’t been to a show where I’ve seen South Park visuals and that would be sick. The current season is absolutely killer.\”
Personally can\’t wait to see whats next for Mielo.
Listen to Mielo\’s song \”Surreal\” below and make sure to keep an eye out for his new music coming out. For more information on Mielo\’s performance dates this winter check out his Facebook page here.
