Over the course of a few months, their songs received millions of views and listens across every major streaming app. Lugue joins the call like an old friend. Valence is in his own bedroom.
He dons a pink, floppy beanie. Traveling at an accelerating pace is met with social media expectations to release more music quickly. Valence has been producing his own music from his bedroom since he was 10 years old.
He started with FL Studio a digital audio workstation , a laptop, and a microphone. Today, Valence is still using these same tools that when combined with social media, can accomplish everything recording studios, labels, publicists, and music video directors have done to promote bands in the past. Despite the convenience, skill and patience are still required. For each new track, Valence listens to audio clips for hours.
Some sounds inspire interpolations. But mostly, he uses royalty-free, fully produced audio samples from websites or old sample CDs. Once the music is mixed, he brings it to Lugue for the taste test.
For the next five minutes, Valence loops the beat and records Lugue rapping lyrics from his notebook. Valence later adds his own lyrics which oftentimes refer to musical influences, video games and consumer packaged goods brands from childhood. They give themselves 48 hours from the first beat to the final master. Like the music, their videos are made quickly; often in one-take, using cell phones or the camera on a Nintendo DS.
