On Tuesday and Thursday nights in New York University's Palladium Residence Hall, electronic music pulses through the third floor walls of the music rooms. Two NYU sophomores, Dan Valente and Ki Hoon Suh sit together with a drum set, keyboard, and heavy-duty speakers. On a computer, they have a plethora of vocal and instrumental samples in what seems like an incredibly complicated set up for those without the know-how for such a digital-audio workspace. Self-taught and highly driven, the musical duo have been producing electronic dance music together under the name MSTRS (pronounced masters). The two met through a mutual friend on the NYU golf team, Chris Nolte, who is now their manager.
Valente quickly explained the funny nickname he and his friends have for Suh.
"When I found out that he rapped, I would always be like, 'Oh, hey look at Kanye West over here.' Even though nobody followed my roll, I kept calling him Kanye because I was already so committed to it. Other people started calling him Kanye and now that's the only way people refer to him," Valente said.
Valente and Suh became fast friends, both collaborating on several tracks together released last year under their previous name "Project Mayhem," which was inspired by their shared love for the film, Fight Club. However, the pair noticed that they "didn't really have a direction and every song was noticeably very different."
"I was more into hip-hop and Dan was more into electronic and house music. We failed to find that middle ground," Suh said.
After spending a summer apart, Valente and Suh came back together at the beginning of this year and finished their track "Falling Stars." The song has taken off on SoundCloud as a part of a larger collective featuring other producers from around the world. The collective, Forward Theory, is something that they're very excited about.
Between Suh's rap and drum skills and Valente's knack for mixing sounds and developing chord progressions, the two have formed their own dream team.
"I could get good sounds and good chords, but my drums weren't always full and would sound boring. I could just send things to Kanye and in an hour or so, he could flip the track," Valente said.
"Yeah, it's a good team," Suh said.
The two have taken their skills way past the confinements of SoundCloud, playing in live in venues all around the city. Thanks to Nolte, they spun in a handful of clubs and rooftops in October and are hoping to do more of that in the future.
Their endeavors as MSTRS seem to be a truly collaborative team. Throughout our conversation, the two of them were constantly complimenting each other, making it obvious that the work they do is out of mutual respect and a meaningful friendship.
"Kanye's a DJ at heart, I mean he had the mixer and everything. He taught me how to work with live mixing. 'Falling Stars' would be nothing without Kanye and honestly everything we do is 50/50," Valente said.
"Dan introduced me to all of this house music and without him I wouldn't have realized that I could enjoy listening to and making electronic music," Suh said.
Armed with a track that continues to garner more attention, a new group name, and a handful of live sets under their belt, the two producers are feeling optimistic about the future.
"It would be really cool to have a track signed. We also want to make an imprint in the New York City club scene by consistently DJ-ing and playing live," Valente said.
"The potential is there, we just gotta make it happen. It's hard though because there's a lot of DJs out there and because they're so many, they don't always want to listen to your mix," Suh said.
As ambitious as the they are and as difficult as it is to break into New York's DJ scene, Valente and Suh constantly emphasize the importance of staying true to themselves and adhering to a sense of originality.
"It's important to have those connections, but at the end of the day we sit here because we really love making music. There's a lot of kids who are in it for the fame, which is the most wrong thing you could be in it for. You can hear it in the music, the lack of originality and an artist's imprint," Valente said. "We don't play for a crowd; we play what we're into. Some people just go with whatever others tell them, but for us, it's important to keep doing what we like because in the end, that's all that really matters."
Check out their music here and follow them for more news about track releases and live performances here.
