It's unarguable that Boombox Cartel's, "B2U" was one of 2015's hottest electronic hits, standing in as both a club favourite and festival banger. The unique blend of Ian Everson's R&B riddled vocals, kinetic future bass synths and filthy drops created for a unforgettable track that reverberated the electronic scene. It's been a year now since the fiery track was released and since then, the LA-based duo originating from Mexico, has been unstoppable, with copious amounts of new material released off big labels including OWSLA and Mad Decent. Since the commencement of their rise, Boombox Cartel has toured North America and are now approaching their Australian and New Zealand tour. With the two constantly staying in the loop with new releases and tours, it's evident that Americo Garcia and Jorge Medina's hard work has paid off to catch momentum in the scene as the next big thing.
In the duo's latest "Dancing with Fire", Boombox Cartel delivers a powerful future bass inspired track featuring Stalking Gia, who's also offered vocals in SoySauce's "Born Free". The track starts with a pacing of glittery synths eventually met with Stalking Gia's ashy voice. The synth work grows sharper towards the hook and embraces spiky melodies that compliment Sparkling Gia's vivacious vocal work. "Dancing With Fire" builds up to an explosive drop that captivates listeners into both the lyrics of the track and its infectious melodies. Check it out below and download it for free here.
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Taking note of Boombox Cartel's promising future in the scene, EARMILK is celebrating both the release of "Dancing with Fire" as well as the anniversary of "B2U" in an exclusive interview paired with a bangin' playlist from the guys, to beat the hump day blues.
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A Chat with Boombox Cartel: On Game-Changers in the Scene, their Upcoming Tour and more
EARMILK: Tell us a bit about yourselves, how did Boombox Cartel come together?
Boombox Cartel: We met through a mutual friend during High School when Jorge was a DJ at clubs and Americo was producing records. Later on, when we both moved up to Minnesota to study audio engineering and music production and after a couple months we decided to start a project together, merging all of our influences and ideas into one in late 2012.
EM: Who are your musical inspirations? What keeps you guys motivated to produce music for people everyday?
Boombox Cartel: Everyone and everything is inspiration for us. I could tell you that Skrillex & Diplo are our biggest inspirations, but then again so are our life experiences, our musical past, that one unreleased song we heard at that one show, that one beat you thought of 3 days ago. It can be anything.
EM: Your mix with Diplo and Friends was fire and contained a crazy amount of ID's for people to get excited about! Tell us about that feature and how it is like getting support from game-changer, Diplo.
Boombox Cartel: Thank you! Getting the opportunity to do a D&F mix was one of those things you cross off the bucket list. Working closely with Diplo has been a really cool experience, he’s a great guy and we’re very thankful for how much he has supported our project.
EM: Do you guys have any particular favourite artists at the moment that you feel are killing the game?
Jorge: Some personal favorites are Ricky Remedy, Quix and Louis The Child.
Americo: Getter, Point Point , GTA, Haywyre to name a few!
EM: You've recently collaborated with Stalking Gia who featured her strong vocal work in your newest track “Dancing with Fire”. How did you decide to work together and how is working with a vocalist in your production?
Boombox Cartel: We first heard her on SoySauce’s remix of her own record ‘Born Free’ and immediately fell in love with her voice and immediately got in contact with her. We literally only sent that track to her for vocals and she nailed it in the first session!
EM: Collaboration is huge in your guys work, you've worked with big names including JACKAL, NGHTMRE, Bro Safari and more. Dead or alive, who would your guys dream collaboration be?
Jorge: As far as electronic music collaborations I’d really like to work with Kill The Noise, Haywyre or Grey – those three acts’ musical knowledge & production skill is impeccable, sound design is so clean and such tight mixdowns too. But if I had to say a DREAM collaboration, it’d probably be with Skrillex. It amazes me how versatile he is.
Americo: I'd love to work with Kendrick, The Weeknd, Skrillex, Passion Pit, Flume, Mr Carmack … my list is all over the place. I really enjoy all styles of music. I'm very hard to impress especially when I comes to sound design and mixdowns.
EM: You guys embark your Australian and New Zealand tour soon in March and are tagging along Zomboy for a couple dates in North America. What's the most exciting part about touring? What's the worst part about it?
Boombox Cartel: Getting to play unreleased tunes is so rewarding! Hearing the crowds reaction to stuff they’ve never heard before is priceless! Also meeting new people and making new friends is a gift that comes by the hand with traveling so much.
EM: Are there any favourite cities you guys love going to? Any countries you still haven't been to that you'd like to see?
Boombox Cartel: Most cities in Australia go sooo hard, the crowds over there are NUTS!! And we’d love to tour Europe & Asia!
EM: If you're not touring or making music, what else does Boombox Cartel enjoy doing in their spare time?
Jorge: I like to watch sports (GO SPORTS!!), find & eat at new bomb food spots, watch series (movies not so much) and grill out with friends… can’t go wrong with a carne asada!
Americo: I enjoy good food, extreme sports, traveling, more music, being a synth geek etc…
EM: Do you guys have an interesting fact to share about yourselves that fans may be surprised about?
Jorge: My middle name is Alberto and I just started eating seafood slightly over a year ago.
Americo: I played paintball semi professionally and was a drummer in a rock band for 5 years.
EM: You guys are constantly bending genres and developing unique sounds in your tracks, what do you see from electronic music in the future in regards to versatility?
Boombox Cartel: Being a versatile producer is everything right now, that’s what makes people actually respect you.Can’t really tell where the electronic music spectrum is headed towards but we’re trying our best to constantly change the game. We have upcoming singles and remixes that will 100% establish we’re not fucking around.
EM: It's been a year since your huge hit “B2U” was released, how has Boombox Cartel changed and progressed in that year? What can fans expect from you two in 2016?
Boombox Cartel: Happy B2U day! For this 2016 we’ll keep grinding, we’ll continue to release quality music and we’ll keep changing the game progressively with every song that we release. Mark our words.
