Fans might recognize Styles & Complete from their bangers on labels like Buygore, but in recent months, the duo of Alex and Austin has begun to explore different sounds. Recent singles “Wave$” and “Losing Days in LA” present a softer side to the duo that we’ve never been aware of, but to them, it seems their most natural state.
As it turns out, Styles & Complete are songwriters and producers at heart and have worked for a number of artists behind the scenes, but they’re bringing their sound out themselves via their newly minted label Metta Records.
We caught up with Alex (Styles) and Austin (DJ Complete) to catch up about everything Metta and more. Listen to “Losing Days in LA” below and read on to learn more about their journey to this point.
You guys are fairly well known for your bangers, but you’re obviously showing a different side to your artistry with these new releases. How long have you had this alter ego that no one has been aware of?
C: We both come from pretty diverse musical backgrounds and honestly have always been pretty diverse in the stuff we’ve written. We had a few records earlier in our career like “Hold on Little Girl” & “Free” that kinda teased this vibe but we feel like “Wave$” & “Losing Days in LA” were our chance to really put our foot forward with a different/bigger sound.
S: It’s something I feel like we needed to do because we wanted to feel it from our souls and were yearning for something new.
Do you feel like the different sounds represent two different entities, or are they more like two sides of the same coin?
C: A lot of what held us back in the past from releasing more songs like this was trying to figure that out. We had become known and were touring & making good $$ off of a specific kind of sound and for a while we thought we had to stick to that to keep things moving. But we knew we had so much more to offer than just trap bangers & we werent putting our best foot forward musically without showings this other side. We were really inspired seeing guys like DJ Snake who can put out “Propaganda” and “The Middle” and still have it make sense for their brand. I think the musical climate of 2018 is becoming such that you can put out many different vibes under the same brand as long as it’s dope.
You’ve recently developed your own label to house your sounds, as well as cultivate others. How did you come up with the name Metta Records?
S: It was just a saying we always used. Whenever somebody did something next level or said something deep we’d always say “Whoaaa thats so Metta.” Not sure where that came from haha but it was literally the first thing we thought of for a label name and it just stuck with us.
What was the process like developing the branding and vision for Metta?
S&C: We are focusing on working closely with a few artists and executive producing their projects for them as well as being very hands our with branding and promotion techniques. It’s something we’ve always wanted to do as the next step in our career and have been doing for a while. We are going to be very selective with what we put out, we want the songs we release on Metta to be timeless. A lot of what we put out initially will be focused on Hip Hop/Indie/Pop. There may be some bass music eventually but are going to stay away from really heavy stuff unless we feel it’s timeless. Even our own heavy stuff we will shopped to other labels.
Your new song “Losing Days in LA” is coming out Friday. Is the title based on real experiences in Los Angeles?
S: This was actually based on an acapella sent to us by Lauren [Marie] in 2015. We have since made 3 different versions of the beat and several re-writes of the lyrics. The song really did resonate because living in LA coming from North Carolina we were seeing the darker side of how people could sometimes act out here, especially in our industry. We love being in LA but so often in music people talk about the glamorous side and don’t mention how things can really be out here.
Are “Wave$” and “Losing Days in LA” part of a bigger project from Styles&Complete we can look forward to?
S&C: Yes! our debut EP on Metta records “Do Not Disturb” will be released April 6th and then you can expect an experimental EP of show ready heavy hitters shortly after.