Meet the ever stylish: Discoholic, a music group that creates disco-inspired songs with influences from other R&B genres. Think of them as a bartender of discoholic beverages that can satisfy your tastes. Whether you want to dance the night away, contemplate song meanings, or relax with some beautifully crafted instrumentals – Discoholic can serve you. They aren’t afraid to have fun while making meaningful songs that put the party directly into your speakers…The bar is open, would you like a drink? Source: About Discoholic, Spotify.
My Kind of Music, with Discoholic.
Disco got me STUCK IN A TRANCE.
Returning to the US for more Disco than one could ever want or ask for. If you’re in desperate need for a good shake of life and limbs, I suggest you start listening to Discoholic. If listening doesn’t do the trick for you, you might as well start watching them too: if their visuals aren’t able to make you shake, even if from laughter, I don’t rightly know what will. Click the pics 😉
Discoholic came to my attention, when mentioned by one of the earliest Spotlights. The name kept coming back to me, lastly when working on my previous Spotlight, it was clear to me I just had to ask them if they would be interested to be my guest. In the meanwhile I had started to listen to their music and watching some of their video’s on YouTube. And this particular one had me utterly convinced:
I’ve known for the better part of my life, sarcasm is as a matter of fact, a language not everybody speaks. I can assure you, Discoholic has its grammar on point and their humor is most certainly not for the faint of heart. Reading their comments and answers to bold questions, had me laughing so hard and at the same time crinching for the recipient. Well… Some people just ask for it…
Now, if the above sounds a bit harsh, sorry-not-sorry, but in my opinion their aim is not to be cruel, they’re just straightforward and honest. Their intention is to make a lasting impression and if their music doesn’t complete that achievement, their wit should definitely tip the scale. And boy, do I appreciate the effort. If you can manage a song around an energy drink and make it stick…pun intended…
Discoholic’s sound brings me right back to the oldskool Disco from my teenage years. When a night out for me meant nothing more than to dance the night away. Lingering on one drink, because that was how far my money would stretch after entrance fee lol. But what a joy. Discoballs were feeding the what-ever-night-fever was taking place.
Discoballs are also feeding my imagination when it comes to Discoholic’s identity. I guess the glittering reflection it offers is more than enough to keep the audience distracted. If not, the secrecy is bound to keep listeners captivated to see it through till the end, hoping to enjoy the Grand Reveal at some point. It all adds up to a very enticing picture, especially when you realize that acting without being able to show your facial expressions requires an even greater effort.
Their music is absolutely made for you to rock the dancefloor. If you’re aiming for an all-nighter, I suggest you listen and play some of their mixes too, if you like one, you’ll like them all. Their choice of music is impeccable and should keep you going for a while. To give you an example:
Don’t let them fool you though, next to the happy-go-lucky attitude, there’s room for some serious stuff too, with serious emotion in the lead. Heartbreak might have never before sounded so funky. There’s no denying the truth in the words ‘no one ever stays the same‘.
There are always interesting things to find on social media, like the ‘behind the scenes’ facts about the work Discoholic put into the flow of the tracks on their album ‘Illusion’. ‘Shift’ and ‘Falling Apart’ share an identical melody and they made sure transitions to every next song was smooth. It’s real clever. It’s art.
Whenever a song catches me within the first beats, or when the chorus strikes and I can’t seem to lose it for the rest of the day, it will for sure end up on my playlist. (Unless it’s super annoying and I wish to flush my ears with bleach). It’s quite a feat to be able to create music that sticks to you straight away. Feels like meeting an old friend. ‘I’ve never seen you before When you walked thru that door You’re familiar’
Discoholic’s bartender is the one who ‘tends’ to the audience. My first question was how big their group is, but he wasn’t going to disclose that. He is very active on social media, which is entertaining indeed. This is where their humor surfaces while interacting. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the onlyfans page lol, you can take your pick, this bartender will serve you, apparently never running out of drinks. I can only imagine the level of busy he must be dealing with is somewhere out of this world.
I cannot even in all honesty say, I get all the jokes, which is as much intriguing as it is annoying 😂 However, the one post where Spotify wrapped 2019 for Discoholic, showing all stats for streams / hours / listeners / countries in one and the same amount…yeah
Their overall presentation breathes their fun in making music. If you need some more encouragement, but you’re still down to get down, Discoholic is more than happy to share their dance moves with you, with or without pants. You can even sing along while you’re at it.
Watching them shake their Discoballs, I was really wondering not only about their ability to see, but more so how they’re even able to breathe. When I asked the bartender about this, his answer was: ‘That’s just my head‘. Well Alright Then.
One of the things I would not want you the miss, are their (Anti-) Valentine’s Day playlists. Have a look at the titles and you know this is the right music for your particular Valentine’s day. The tracks are definitely a treat and should be able to either romance the night away, or display your righteous indignation about being alone. The Funk goes both ways.
Well that’s it, time for Discoholic to sparkle. I encourage you all to have a listen (and look), you won’t be disappointed I’m sure. For now, a Big Thank You Discoholic! It’s been a pleasure meeting you and your music. I wish you all the blessings and the fun, looking forward to your next project and will keep trying to decipher your epic Tweets. I will add you and update anything new on the Spotlight page, where you will shine indefinitely.
The Interview
Let’s start with the obvious: Can you please introduce Discoholic and tell us who you are, where you are from and for instance, which instruments you play?
‘Hi! I’m the bartender behind Discoholic, a group inspired by the likes of Disco, and really, anything R&B. We started in the Washington, D.C. area. Playing keyboard’s my forte, but other members are active in vocals, lyricism, songwriting, and visual art’.
Your Spotify bio speaks about your disco inspired songs, with influences from other R&B genres. Can you please elaborate on that? Any specific bands that have influenced you?
‘Discoholic is less straight Disco, and more so inspired by the spirit of Disco. Genres like Nu-Disco, Nu-Funk, Acid Jazz, City Pop, New Jack Swing, G-Funk, French House are some genres that inspire us. Anything funky under the sun!
If we wanna get specific, check out Breakbot, Cerrone, Soulpersona, Tuxedo, Bobby Brown, Patrice Rushen… y’know what? I could go on for hours. Best to listen to our weekly rotating Spotify playlist to get a good grasp of our influences’.
You also mention that your drive is to make music that is just as enjoyable after the 300th play. Now I am a person who can have one song on repeat for days on end. How hard is it to create something like that? (Finding a great hook is gold I should think).
‘It’s hard. It involves listening to a LOT of music to get a solid understanding on how songs tick, and in our case, how addictive songs stay addictive. I think the most straightforward way is to study songs that I find addictive and note specific things in songwriting, structure, melody, that makes them earworms. A lot of folks say our stuff is catchy – probably thanks in part to making the hooks distinct, easy-to-sing, and repetitive. Free tip!’
How did you go from being solo to being a group, can you tell us a bit about how that happened and what this meant for the musical / creative development?
‘Discoholic started as a solo project, until close collaborators became regular collaborators that we decided to call it a group. At times it’s very much a solo project with me tackling most of music production, live performance, songwriting, social media, correspondence, and financials. Without Discoholic being a group, I don’t think the music would be as successful as it is now. At the very least, it helps to bounce off second opinions on our work’.
How does your creative process work? I can imagine you’re not always around each other (even less so during this Covid situation), how do you make these collaborations work? Is everybody always equally involved or do you guys alternate?
‘It depends. Most of the time one of us cooks up an instrumental, a vocal idea, and/or a thematic idea for a new project. It’s usually on me to flesh out these ideas on a piano hooked up to my computer, while we meet up periodically to brainstorm lyrics, melodies, and visual ideas. None of us are easily within reach, but it’s pretty easy to hop in a video call – not too different from how we worked pre-COVID.
I’m doing a lot of the work at the moment alongside keeping social media active and performing live sets, as others in the group are waiting for me to finish production on our upcoming album’.
Are you responsible for the hilarious YouTube video’s too? And what about the Discoholic live @WAVEPOOL video, please enlighten us 😉
‘Most of the time, yeah! If not ideas, I’m definitely the man in front of the camera and behind producing, shooting, and editing. The WAVEPOOL set and other DJ sets are just me. I try to make my online DJ sets as engaging & entertaining as possible, with me attempting to juggle something between a DJ set, a choreography video, and a comedy sketch. If they didn’t like the music, at least they laughed!’
How much time do you need / spend on keeping up with Social Media? How important is interacting with your audience / fans for you guys?
‘Too much time. Nowadays I probably don’t spend as much time as I should in production, but we love our Discoholics – and it’s always good to build up and engage an excited audience!’
What can we expect for the near future? Any exciting projects / collabs coming up you wish to share? Do you have a vision for the long run, any long-term goals you wish to achieve? Anything else you wish to add?
‘Expect a new album called Discoholics Anonymous. Been in the works for at least 3 years now. After that? Likely a concept album that fleshes out Discoholic lore. After that? Global domination: turn everyone into Discoholics’. https://discoholic.neocities.org/
Again, big thanks to Discoholic, hope you all enjoyed it and please, find them on Spotify – YouTube – SoundCloud – Facebook – Instagram – Twitter
Wishing y’all a great weekend with great music, good food and some elusive discosauce ❤
Read my review of their latest single in Flashlight on ‘Movie Love’, released 6/25/2021
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