Chomstars
Origin: None
Electro trio Chomstars have been working hard since their inception to make a mark on the world of EDM. Having performed at Club 50 in Miami, Oasis Nightlife in Boca Raton, Club Jillians in Albany, and the Washington Ave. Armory, to name a few, Chomstars know how to create a powerful live experience with their emotionally charged melodies, big-room awe, and face-blasting basslines. Hailing from both New York and Los Angeles, producers Colin Youngwall, Jordan Hewitt, and Nate Martorano have witnessed the United States’ immersion into the EDM age from two crucial perspectives.
Using their diverse experience and influences Chomstars are currently working on a collaborative EP comprised of heart pounding rhythms, organic harmonies and powerful anthems crafted for the intensity and sensation of a stadium event.
In addition to original tracks, Chomstars created compelling remixes that draw new listeners in with their energetic take on an original record. The trio kicked of their career strong by winning a remix contest for the award-winning electropop artist “Lights.” The Chomstars remix of her single “Toes” was released by the Lights Label via Spotify, Itunes, and Amazon MP3. They have also made unofficial remixes of a number of records for their fans including “Starlight” by Muse and “Ladi Dadi” by Steve Aoki & Wynter Gordon.
The Chomstars are no strangers to DJing at house parties and clubs alike near Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where they met. That experience came in handy when they leveled the competition on the FromDJs4DJs worldwide mix contest, culminating in a huge performance at Club 50 on top of the Viceroy Hotel in Miami.
Having a staggering list of accomplishments in just a year, Chomstars have no plans of slowing down. It seems everything these young producers touch turns to bass, and they certainly have a loud future ahead of them.
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We are three guys who met at college in New York. We discovered that we share a passion for creating music that gets other people excited emotionally and can make them dance. Growing up we all had different musical interests from rap to classic rock to indie stuff, but we all took to dance music, and really all electronic music, very early on in its relatively recent revolution. Two of us went to EDC back when it was in Los Angeles and it was so life-changing epic that we decided then and there we needed to get on one of those stages. Seeing all those people screaming and dancing and generally losing their minds is insane. There’s no metaphor that better conveys the power this music can have. Anyway it took us a while to get together to create Chomstars, but when we did we decided on a vision for creating music and performing live. That vision stems from a frustration really. As much as we love raging to the hardest electro drop that came out that week (and they are great for beefing up our sets), we recognize that a lot of those tracks are pretty uninspired from a compositional and melodic standpoint. This is why many artists these days are able to pump those tracks out so quickly-it’s much easier to make a cookie-cutter electro “banger” than to develop an artistic vision beforehand and carefully follow through on that vision. It’s also why so many of those tracks don’t have staying power and get old fairly quickly. We want our tracks to standout by being compelling and memorable from the rhythm to the melody to the sounds we chose. That same frustration pertains to live sets as well, as many big name producers seem to phone in their sets by taking the same tracks that everyone else is using that week and mixing them in very predictable ways. Now whether they just don’t have the time to make their set unique or they just don’t think DJing can really be an art is up for discussion, but either way we want to avoid that. Our sets for big events are designed from the ground up to have emotion, serious aggression, a mix of recognizable and surprising elements, a ton of exclusive edits and mash-ups, and overall a crazy amount of energy. We think our EDC NY set is a good example of that. We also look forward to experimenting with different live hardware when we have more time/money/freedom.
Interview
Home Town: Los Angeles / New York
Currently Living: New York City
Origin Of Name: We found the name on Urban Dictionary. Here’s the definition, it should clear things up: “A real Chomstar don’t give a fuck. Anybody and they momma can be a chommy. But to be a chomstar, u gotta be down to ride no matter what. A real chomstar don’t think twice about slappin a dumb dingy bitch, and a real chomstars got his boys back (no homo) at all times. Chomstars are the hardest mutha fuggas on the planet. Chomstar are the all-stars of all-stars, best of the best, chommiest of chom.” That chomstar was not playin, he stole my house.
Weapon of Choice: Throwing (Chom)Star
Source of Power: Porter Robinson, Wolfgang Gartner, and deadmau5 are sort of our “tri-force,” if you will—they seem to treat each of their tracks as their children and endlessly obsess over every micro detail, and it shows. They are icons sitting where we hope to one-day sit. However there are many lower level producers and artists in many genres that have been majorly influential in developing our sound from Ashley Wallbridge to Lemâitre to Air to Mikkas. Anyone who treats their music as an artistic expression of themselves and puts all of their effort into it would be an inspiration of ours.
What do your parents think of what you are doing?
Our parents are amazingly supportive of us and excited about what we are doing. We probably wouldn’t be able to do this otherwise.
What’s the biggest misconception about being a DJ?
The biggest misconception is that we just press play. There is also a pause button, an air horn button and a few knobs that don’t do anything. You have to twist these knobs at appropriate times or you won’t look cool. There is also an emergency switch that just plays “Levels” if we screw something up.
Does what you do for a living affect you on a day-to-day basis?
Well our friends obviously love coming to these shows and supporting us—we definitely like to roll deep. Aside from that they probably wish we get out of the studio and go outside more.
What is your ultimate career dream?
Our ultimate dream is really to just have some significant contribution to the music world. Validating that would be a combination of headlining huge events, developing a devoted fan base, and—most importantly—being invited to collaborate with other artists that we really respect.
Are you impulsive with your work or do you have a sketch in mind before you start?
It’s really important for us to have a vision in mind before we start. We have spoken about actually having someone draft an image or something that captures the feeling we want, so we can reference that throughout the production process. If you don’t know where you are going it can be hard to get anywhere.
How, if at all, does listening to music figure into your creative process?
Porter Robinson + Mat Zo “Easy” was really inspiring to listen to, especially with that beautiful video. How those two managed to find that obscure sample and produce such a beautiful piece out of it all while touring we just can’t imagine.
What’s the most important piece of gear in your studio?
Definitely the mini fridge stocked with Red Bull. That’s our fuel. Production-wise everything is in the box for now until we can afford some analog synths.
What sound or noise do you love?
The sound of an enormous crowd going crazy in front of us.
What advice would you offer someone thinking about entering the Discovery Project competition?
Our advice for making your entry worthy is the same as our advice for making any worthwhile music: spend a ton of time on it, and try to make it unique. Our advice for when you make it to the festival would be to display as much energy as possible when you are onstage, to enjoy the performances of the other amazing winners when you are offstage, and to meet as many famous producers you respect when you are backstage.
Winning Track:
Winning Mix:
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