Your EDM Premiere + Interview: Bandlez – The Anthem [Firepower]

The origin story of duo Bandlez is about as innocuous as they come. They’re just two kids who met on the bus on the way home from school when Diandre heard Vishal listening to “Ghosts n Stuff” by Deadmau5. And now, Vivi and Didi have an EP coming out on Firepower Records. Funny how things work sometimes…

From the Heist EP, Your EDM has the pleasure of premiering “The Anthem,” a dark and evil track with one of the gnarliest bass synths I’ve heard in a long while. And while the song is somewhat riddim-esque, it still retains a significant classic dubstep sound – and toward the end, they even manage to weave in some future bass! Neat.

With their debut EP on the label, I also had to ask the two some questions. Peep “The Anthem” below and read on for a deeper insight as to who Bandlez really are. Download the Heist EP here.

First off, I absolutely love the art for the EP. Who came up with that?

DiDi : Well initially, we wanted it to seem like we were getting away with something that we shouldn’t have.
ViVi : Yeah. that quickly turned into us robbing a bank, which our friend Eric (Solid Soul) ran with and turned into a masterpiece.

What were you both doing before you got into music?

ViVi : I moved to the US in 2010 and quickly realized “I am so alone, nothing feels like home.” Since I didn’t have many friends, I ended up spending majority of my time playing videos games and shitposting online.
DiDi : haha before I met Vishal I didn’t even know what Reddit or Soundcloud was. I spent time in a few bands as a guitarist which weren’t really going anywhere but were just for fun. Vishal showed me Deadmau5 and a few other artists and I said oh snap cool noises.
ViVi : We started hanging out and watching Dunkey Videos for inspiration. It was a bonding experience.
DiDi : Yeah he showed me his DJ stuff his mom bought him and we used to spin everything from Hardstyle to Dark DnB. Things kind of kicked off from there.

How did you get in touch with Datsik and Firepower Records?

ViVi : 6 years later we started the Bandlez project and we worked with Eric on our logo. He asked for some music to get inspired and see the vision. Little did we know, he ended up sending it to Datsik.
DiDi: Yeah he ended up Skyping me at like 5am in the middle of the week to tell me that Datsik had heard our tunes and wanted to sign all of them. I honestly thought he was trolling at first.

Tell me a little bit about your Heist EP.

DiDi: I think this is the perfect collection of songs for our first EP ever. All of the tunes perfectly showcase our production and creative style. I love the idea of a couple of kids just real-life shitposting haha
ViVi : Most of the tunes were written 2-3 years ago when we were living in DiAndre’s grandpa’s vacant house or my moms apartment. We’ve since sat on the songs and developed them to fit our new style.
DiDi: Yeah it’s crazy to think that we used to listen to Datsik and the whole Firepower crew regularly as fans. Now we get to share our art with them and we are just so stoked about it.

Specifically the track “The Anthem,” that is one of the gnarliest bass synths I’ve heard in a long while. How long did it take to come up with that?

DiDi: That whole track stemmed from us buying our first microphone and trying to record ourselves without cringing haha.
ViVi : I remember how excited we were because we just started winter break and bought this mic. Things kinda just rolled from there.
DiDi : Yeah, as far as how long it took most of our songs are done within a month but that one took less than a week for some reason. Guess we just like making the riddim stuff.

When do you think you’ll start touring and showing off the music live?

ViVi : We have been waiting to play shows for a while. We just wanted to do it at the right time. I feel like now is the time for us to really get out and have some fun.
DiDi: Yeah I really hope this EP can bring us some exposure and bring us closer to that but I really don’t know honestly. I can’t wait to travel and make some new friends though, that is going to be the best part about shows for sure.

Will you wear the burglar masks like your artist name might suggest?

DiDi: I sweat enough as it is honestly haha
ViVi: NO!

Any final words?

We’re just a couple of small memes with big dreams.