The Bixel Boys: Commitment to Excellence
The afternoon heat was percolating through South El Monte, enough to actually fry the bacon-and-eggs smiley face print on my vapid T-shirt. Day two of HARD Summer had commenced, and Whittier Narrows Recreation Park was still filling up.
At the main stage, Ian and Robert of the Bixel Boys were throwing down a fervent, genre-be-damned DJ set for a handful of committed fans who had made the daytime trek. Not showing the slightest bit of letdown by the turnout, the two, dressed in their signature FREELIFE jerseys, were flawlessly mixing hip-hop and rock with ghetto-tech, juked-out beats, and whatever classifies as deep house these days. Heck, they even dropped an evocative bassline edit of “Sweet Child o’ Mine.”
A year ago, they were spinning smooth, Balearic-inspired house music at basement parties in Venice Beach. Now they’re playing everywhere from EDC and HARD, to national tours and international locations like Australia. But the Bixel Boys and their crew leveraged their music to create something much grander: FREELIFE, a movement with a simple philosophy of being yourself and doing you. Its focus is on building and giving back to the community, particularly toward cancer charities. Their appreciation for sports has influenced the trendy FREELIFE apparel line that’s supported by the likes of Martin Garrix, Skrillex and What So Not.
But despite, as Thump claims, being “the most universally respected act bubbling up from the L.A underground at the moment”, they are just two quirky and humble goofballs improvising and building a brand under the spotlight, finishing each other’s sentences and chasing their dreams.
We caught up with Rob and Ian in the trailer park after their HARD Summer set.
We had an interesting predicament where we were put in a spotlight position right off the bat. We didn’t have a few years to mess around and make whatever we wanted.
You’ve been in the game for a little over a year but are having some great success. Though you often say that you are still figuring out your sound. How’s that been working out?
Ian: The thing with us is that we’ve been in this interesting predicament from the start, where we sort of didn’t have a lot of time to explore what exactly we wanted to do. There are a lot of producers out there right now who have been in the game for 10+ years, who have been sort of behind the scenes and taking their time like Worthy, DJ Snake and Tchami. But we had an interesting predicament where we were put in a spotlight position right off the bat. We didn’t have a few years to mess around and make whatever we wanted. Everything we make has been constantly getting scrutinized in some way, so I think that’s why our sound evolves in some way.
In terms of scrutinizing, I suppose that goes for all kinds of art that’s parading the internet these days, right?
Rob: I think what you’re hearing in terms of our productions and DJ sets is a learning process. It’s kind of liberating, where we can just go with the flow and learn. I learned something about Rob yesterday that I didn’t know on like, a friend level. We still barely know each other.
This afternoon, you dropped an edit of “Sweet Child o’ Mine.” It’s a tune that you’ll hear during last call at a dive bar, rather than an electronic music festival. If you generalize your music as “big room underground,” your DJ sets are like a harmonized sonic mishmash. Where does it all spur out?
Rob: When we practice at home, we try to be as eclectic as possible, so we don’t just do by-the-book DJ sets. We like experimenting with classic rock, hip-hop, classical music, you name it, and we try to put everything in. And occasionally we run across these gems, and then you find an opening loop where you can experiment with something like Guns N’ Roses, and it sounds great. So, a lot of the process behind the DJ set is the ones you’ll never hear at a festival.
Ian: I’m going to talk particularly about that “Sweet Child o’ Mine” one now. So we were at a show in Dallas, and it wasn’t the best turnout, but it doesn’t matter; we have a good time playing at every show. So we’re having a blast and playing for about 50 people. And Rob had told me that day that he was going to play Guns N’ Roses—not an edit or a remix.
Rob: The full original.
Ian: And so he dropped it. And I was able to mix out of it okay, and then I think what happened was it kind of stayed in the peripherals of what we were doing and then all of a sudden…
Rob: It was kind of like, “Huh, that’s interesting. People responded.”
Ian: We realized that this will work at some point, and I think a lot of that comes from the happy accidents we make. It’s like when we do all these weird things and we don’t care, and then we realize, “Oh shit, we can make these work for these big massive stages and stuff”. But yeah, that’s how we do it. Thank you, Dallas!
Rob: Thanks, Dallas!
Trap is like American-born, and kids feel like they own a piece of that. You’ll understand it here better than anywhere else.
The #FREELIFE shirts have caught fire. They feel like a remix of different sports teams all combined into one—but very Bixel Boys-esque. What role did some of these teams have in influencing the brand?
Ian: It comes from a lot of things. So, with the L.A. Galaxy, they actually play our song “Black December” during intervals at their home games, and they made this whole clip show. So we wanted to kind of homage and appreciate that, so that’s why we made this jersey. That’s why there are four stars.
Rob: As far as Oakland goes…
Ian: So we have people from Oakland that hate us and love us because we flipped the logo. For us, the Raiders just epitomized this whole brand for us. You know, “commitment to excellence,” “just win baby,” and it was about what they meant to L.A. [when they were here] at the time, and I think there’s this ghost here that everybody roots for. It’s still like this huge hole in Los Angeles, and they [Raiders] are not here anymore. I thought that was a really powerful idea, and we kind of just ran with it.
Seems like it’s been working well. I was here at HARD Summer yesterday and saw people wearing FREELIFE, Jack U and Floss, and all kinds of artist-inspired apparel. It’s really great to see these festivals building an identity through different kinds of sub-cultures.
Ian: I kind of think it’s a little more conflated than people think. Most people think very isolated, if you like dance or hip-hop music, you dress like this, when the actuality is that everybody can like everything. You can go wait outside Undefeated, grab a pair of Jordans, and then go listen to some Floss or Axwell. Our whole thing was to establish this persona that people can attach themselves to.
Rob: We like to think of it as Floss Jr., or Baby Floss.
Ian: [laughs] I always joke around, saying we’re like Fasstradamus because we just don’t dress as baggy as them. We’re much more aerodynamic. Floss is a really cool example for me because they actually played Coachella like, way back when they were just DJs. It’s so interesting because they come from an era of DJing that is so forgotten. But it was playing great sets that got them where they are. And getting nasty on two fucking 1200s and a mixer! The fact that they’ve been able to elevate their productions to the level it’s at, we have nothing but respect for those dudes.
Yeah, their set yesterday was a real ground-shaker, almost caused a dust storm. There was also so much trap being played from all corners of the festival. The whole hip-hop/electronic crossover is taking over in such a big way.
Rob: I think what’s awesome about trap is that it’s purely American. It’s an American idea that has come into dance music. Whereas when you look at house music—I mean granted, that’s American and started from Chicago—but everybody equates it to a European connotation.
Ian: Trap is like American-born, and kids feel like they own a piece of that. You’ll understand it here better than anywhere else.
How’s Freeelife spreading into charitable endeavors? I heard you guys have created a draft of some sort.
Ian: So, there’s this guy Pontius in Sweden who I’ve connected with, and he’s just finishing up his chemotherapy. He’s got like lymphoma cancer, but we did this FREELIFE Draft where if you told us a great story on why you deserve this shirt, you would get one. So he told us this amazing story about how he is a DJ and still goes out with cancer, and he’s been our mascot of the whole movement. It’s been awesome because I’ve been able to talk to him everyday, and I think that’s pretty much the most liberating and awesome thing that all this has brought: connection with people who I never thought I’d meet before and then inspire the fuccckkk out of me!
Rob: We want to take FREELIFE beyond dance music.
So, you guys want to go beyond DJing as well, then? Where do you see this moving toward in the future?
Rob: Honestly, I don’t want to be a DJ my whole life. I think that DJing is a means to something greater. I would personally like to produce because I’ve always been a more behind-the-scenes person. It took me meeting this guy to get in front of decks. I like sitting in a dark room.
Ian: Yeah, we both complement each other in some way, and we’re trying to build on that everyday.
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