CHEAT CODES MUSIC TOUR FULL
And sometimes we’ll start the song and pretty much have a full demo or most of the song written and from there we’ll be like “This would be perfect for a singer.” “With “No Promises,” we had the song on hand, we finished up almost all of the production, and then we approached Demi to do the record with us, and she sounded great on it. But if we’re inspired by an instrumental, then we’ll write the melodies to that. A lot of times because we come from a songwriting background we like to write the songs first–the rhythm and melodies, and then build the track from there. I think Trevor felt like when he was doing his acoustic music, if he added a synthesizer it would be like, “Whoa what’re you doing?” I think he felt like there were certain rules, so one of the things with Cheat Codes is we were pretty open about where a song comes from. The reason we even started Cheat Codes was because we wanted to not to be restricted by genres and by too many rules. Can you talk a little bit about the creative process behind your releases? It’s not like you’re just hearing house music for an hour and a half–you’re hearing some hip-hop, you’re hearing throwbacks, you’re hearing pop songs, mixed with big dance tracks as well.Īs a three-piece group, your writing process is more collaborative than if you were individual solo artists. So now, when you come to one of our shows, it’s very apparent that we really like all styles of music. I had been roommates with Trevor who was making acoustic coffee shop-pop music… So when we started writing music together, all those influences were kind of present, obviously we were going for electronic pop, but having these backgrounds made it kind of unique to us.
When I first met Kevin, he was actually a rapper who was looking for beats and I was making hip-hop beats at the time. From your personal experience as well as having worked with Trevor and Kevin, how would you say each of your styles shines through in Cheat Codes’ music? Getting into electronic when we first started Cheat Codes, I would say one of our biggest inspirations was Avicii–we really loved his sound–blending organic instruments and pop structure of songs with electronic, so I think that’s something that really excited us about moving into the electronic space.Īll three of you have extremely diverse musical backgrounds, with each of you trying to make it in your own genre before you formed Cheat Codes in 2014. And we used to play different styles of music growing up, so we all know different instruments–I used to play bass guitar in a pop-punk band.
We used to listen to Green Day, Blink 182, Sugar Ray, a lot of bands like that when we were younger. We all used to really love rock bands–punk rock bands. Whether this was early songwriting or listening to music, what would you cite as your earliest inspiration to pursue music as a career?
Looking back to the beginning, early exposure to music is probably influential to where you’ve ended up today. With the future for Cheat Codes looking as bright as ever, Matt Russell sat down to reflect on the group’s beginnings, collaborations with other artists, and what’s coming down the pipeline later in 2019. With the year already underway, it’s set to be filled with new releases, new sounds, and new destinations for the group, beginning with their February single “ Ferrari ,” lead singer Trevor Dahl’s independent release “Think About Us,” followed by a U.K. Candidly, it seems that everything they touch turns to gold–and 2019 looks to be no different. For the trio, composed of Matt Russell, Trevor Dahl, and Kevin Ford (KEVI), these singles were just the beginning.Ĭollaborating with the likes of Demi Lovato, Fetty Wap, Kiiara, Little Mix, and U2 just to name a few, Cheat Codes has had seemingly unstoppable success at churning out hits that few other artists have rivalled. Their early career releases “Sex” and “Turn Me On” were undeniable hits, garnering over 500 million and 350 million Spotify streams respectively. Cheat Codes’ rise to fame has been astronomical.