COMIN’ UP
THY KINGDOM COME
How Louis The Child, two teenagers from Chicago, wound up leading the charge for the next generation of dance music lovers DJ MAG USA is standing on the top balcony of Chicago’s Lincoln Hall watching local duo Louis The Child play to a sold-out house. They drop the DATHAN remix of Drake’s ‘Hotline Bling’; the crowd erupts. Random people start leaning over others to high five. The girl next to us, a towering, Bella Hadid-like beauty, is overwhelmed by the moment and bows her dad hat-adorned head over the balcony rim with hands in prayer. Looking around, the aesthetic runs like a capillary system throughout: fashion-forward normcore, dad hats in bounty, splashes of thoughtful floral and tie-dye, young, beautiful faces. This is the nation Louis The Child built, and they are its kings. Robby Hauldren is 19; Freddy Kennett is 18. Speaking to them post-show while the staff cleans up and counts tills, they read like a modern day Abbott and Costello – Hauldren the tall, more practical voice and Kennett the smaller-packaged comedic relief. At one point, while we speak about the long lineage of music in
Hauldren’s family – a father who plays guitar, cousins who sing in the Metropolitan Opera, others who are singer/songwriters, there’s a pause in the conversation. All eyes turn to Kennett who says without skipping a beat, “and my dad’s Beethoven.” We all laugh. Jokes aside, it’s been a meteoric rise for the still-in-school musicians over the past year. ‘It’s Strange’, their funk-driven and Flume-esque single with K.Flay, was featured in FIFA ’16. They’re performing at Coachella, Governors Ball, Buku and a host of other festivals in 2016. They have an upcoming EP on Ultra and a forthcoming collaboration with none other than Icona Pop. And they still have homework. “I visit a tutor twice a week,” says Kennett. “I’ll get to walk in graduation with my friends and get my diploma… I just don’t have to go to class so I can travel and work on music.” Hauldren’s a freshman in college and while his situation is slightly more complicated, he’s manipulated his
schedule so weekends are free for touring. It’s certainly not a normal scenario for teenagers, but according to them, they’d rather have it that way anyhow. With a life their peers can’t relate to, they admit the current circle of friends runs older, “in their mid-twenties,” and that being a student is well, tiresome. “I’d rather be in the music world than that world,” states Hauldren with frankness. The duo started Louis The Child at the age of 15. While most other teenagers were fretting about which crush to ask to homecoming, Hauldren and Kennett were locked away, experimenting with music and planning their first event. “I remember it too well,” says Hauldren. “Our first show was in Chicago three and a half years ago, in a community house basement and we expected 150 people. There were seven, including our parents.” A lot has changed in a short amount of time, as evidenced by the sermon led tonight. “When I got on the mic
and said, ‘How many people have seen us before?’ so many people in the crowd raised their hand,” notes Hauldren with a smile. “People have been with us through the whole ride and it’s starting to feel like it’s going somewhere.” “Going somewhere” is an understatement, especially when you’re working with international artists, playing the nation’s biggest festivals and aren’t even old enough to have a beer. These two are tapping into the next generation of music lovers, feeding them not with the big-room beats that previously dominated stages, but with swelling emotional melodies… with feels. And to those who still don’t understand why legions of the Under 21 Club are trekking out to their shows, Kennett has this to say: “People hated on rock ‘n’ roll when it came around. People love to hate on the new kids.” DANI DEAHL
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22/03/2016 11:06