ATHLEISURE MAG #80 AUG ISSUE | IT'S ABOUT THE MUSIC Cheat Codes

It may be the end of the summer, but festival season continues and here in NY, we're excited for Labor Day Weekend when Electric Zoo brings some of our favorite DJ/Producers to Randall's Island for 3 days of music from Sept 2nd - 4th! We caught up with one of the acts who will hitting the stage to get the scoop ahead of their performance.

Matt Russell, Trevor Dahl and KEVI make up Cheat Codes, a trio that has been collaborating with a number of people from Demi Lovato, Afrojack and Wiz Khalifa to name a few. They shared how they came together, how they got their name and their collaborative process. They also talk about dropping HELLRAISERS Part 1, 2 and 3, upcoming country music with Jimmie Allen and Dolly Parton and of course their upcoming performance for EZoo!

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did each of you fall in love with music and what was the moment that you realized that you wanted to be a DJ?

MATT RUSSELL: 3rd grade music class, they handed me a recorder, I made hot cross buns sound like Beethovens 5th, and it was over. We didn’t start the project by DJing we just wanted to make songs, and once we started gaining momentum we had to learn very quickly. Our first DJ gig was rough, let me tell you.

AM: Tell us how the 3 of you came together to become Cheat Codes?

MR: We all met in LA, but came from different musical backgrounds. Trevor was doing acoustic singer songwriter music, Kevi was a rapper, and Matt was in an indie/hip hop project. I was making beats for KEVI’s rap project, and Trevor needed a studio, so he turned my laundry room into a dope recording set up. We had the idea to just mess around and do a session together, and thats when we wrote Cheat Codes first song “Visions”.

AM: Where did the name Cheat Codes come from?

KEVI: My brothers were in this band called Clear Static, and they had a lot of early success. They were opening for Duran Duran at Madison Square Garden and I came out to support them, but was dumbfounded by everything they were accomplishing. So I asked my bro Tom, how you doing this, and he told me “I found the cheat code little bro” haha!

AM: As a trio, what do each of you bring to created your DJ group?

TREVOR DAHL: We all handle different roles, which allows us to do more and not get burned out. Matt handles a lot of the live set, live edits, etc. I finish a lot of the production on the songs, and Kevi handles a lot of the visual aesthetic, as far as merch idea, album artwork ideas etc. but we collaborate with each other on everything. We usually agree on most things.

AM: How do you find inspiration when you are creating new music?

MR: Well we do a lot of collaborations, so I think that makes it easy. Just trying to find something that works well for both artists, but is still representative of our sound.

AM: What’s your process when it comes to creating your music – do you have set roles?

K: It just depends on each song, but we all write and bounce ideas off each other. We all have vocals on different records as well. But dividing and conquering helps us do a lot more for sure.

AM: You have collaborated with Demi Lovato, Kaskade, Afrojack etc. When you’re collaborating with other artists, what are you looking for when you’re thinking about whether you can work together?

TD: Just an idea that sounds like Cheat Codes, but still works for the other artist. WIth Demi, we had the demo idea and we just thought her voice would sound awesome on it so it was kind of a no brainer. With Kaskade and Afrojack we really wanted to lean on their production sound and write some cool vocals that would compliment their ideas, so those were a little more production driven.

AM: How would you describe the Cheat Codes sound?

MR: At this point we’ve done every genre basically so we’re its hard to put in a few words. We kind of have different eras, where early on it was almost tropical house leaning, then kind of went more pop, dance, but we definitely hate being put in a box, we get bored easily.

AM: I’m a huge fan of Squid Games and I can’t wait for when the next season drops, you made Way Back Then an Official Squid Games Remix. How did that come about?

MR: Well we binge watched the show, stayed up all night actually. We were having an argument on the best way to watch it, with Korean voiceovers and subtitles or English dubs, then the idea hit.

AM: Tell us about HellRaiser Part 1, 2 and 3 as you released these albums over the last 18 months. What was the concept behind it and why is it a series of 3 albums?

MR: It was originally 1 album, and then Covid hit. We couldn’t tour for 8 months, so we just spent extra time in the studio, once we had all these ideas, it didn’t sound like 1 cohesive project, there were more 3 distinct sounds, so figured why not, we’ve never done an album before so lets go big.

AM: We know that you have been teasing a country album for awhile. Why was this a genre that you wanted to incorporate your sound into?

MR: We've always been song and vocal driven, and one of our early influences was Avicci, so it never seemed too out of bounds for us. When we were making Hellraisers, we had this record called "Never Love You Again." It was never intended to be a country record, the production is more dance, but we just needed a very soulful voice that matched, and little big town jumped on. Something about their harmonies and soul made the record what it is, so we kind of went down a rabbit hole.

AM: Is there a synergy between EDM and country music?

K: Yeah for sure, I mean EDM is so global, and its taken us so many places around the world, some of the best times to blast country music is on a road trip, or hitting up an isolated place, and I think that works really well especially in a festival environment. Just bringing good vibes and people together.

AM: Jimmie Allen is going to be on this record, what can you tell us about the music that you worked on with him and what was that like?

MR: What I like about this record is, it's not a typical country record. Jimmie's vocals aren’t overly twang, and the lyrics aren’t about trucks or anything. So it became this easily accessible thing whether you like dance music or country or pop.

AM: Are there other country artists that are also on this record?

TD: We have Matt Stell, MacKenzie Porter, Madddie and Tae, Lady A, and we’re working on one with Dolly as well.

AM: With it coming out Sep 30th, what are you doing to promote this album, will you participate in country festivals and will these songs also be incorporated into other sets that you’re doing outside of the country scene?

K: Yeah, we've already performed some of the records at different electronic festivals this summer, so it kind of just depends on the vibe and the edit. We’ll be doing Rodeo World in Vegas in December, so catch us at the official after party. We’re gonna do something special.

AM: You’ve been creating so much music, are there other projects that are coming out that we should keep an eye out for?

MR: Yeah we’re already working on the album after this, so stay tuned, we can’t really talk about it though.

AM: We’re looking forward to EZoo as you’ll be here in NY! What are you excited about for this festival?

MR: We play in NYC all the time, but I think this will be the biggest festival we’ve played here, definitely electronic based. I think I heard everyone's dressing up as animals, so I’m excited to fulfill my fantasy as a sexy elephant. Stay tuned.

AM: When you’re performing at EZoo, do you have routines that you do prior to your set to get prepared for the show and do you have things that you do after your show to relax?

MR: Yeah we usually play “Kill, Marry, F$#%” and then follow that up with 30 burpees and we’re ready to hit the stage. Afterwards we relax by putting on our noise cancelling headphones and listening to ASMR.

AM: How do you balance your schedules from when you’re performing a festival, being on tour, your residencies, creating music etc?

TD: Yeah we just have to prioritize what’s most important, so we’ll usually block off time to be in the studio where we won’t play shows no matter what. But organization is key for sure.

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