Phantoms of the OWSLA

For quite some time, we’ve been elite supporters of Phantoms’ music and now, they’re joining Com Truise on a 30-city tour. Phantoms is an up-and-coming production duo that has taken the 5 a.m. underground dance scene by force seemingly overnight with a unique blend of Dirty Funk and Deep Electro grooves all their own. While the rise of these LA-based artists has left many questions unanswered, the buzz surrounding them suggests this may not be the case for long. With their self-titled EP out now on OWSLA’s (Skrillex) Nest IV, Phantoms continues to make moves and dedicated fans from those who hear their music. The Phantoms EP offers a vivid elucidation of their nightmarish vision. Reminiscent of a sweaty rave in the basement of a haunted mansion somewhere in Romania, the unique sound masterfully matches supremely simple, yet intensely ominous chord progressions together with piercing tribal drums and raw techno synths to create an almost indiscernible insanity suitable for only the darkest of discotheques. While “Do Yer Thang” utilizes chillingly funky vocal samples to accent a futuristically deep house groove and heart-pounding drum patterns, “NYE” explores the future of the traditional club sound, taking the dance floor on a face-numbing sonic odyssey. If you’re in Los Angeles, you should definitely go see the guys live tonight at Dim Mak Studios in Hollywood. They are supporting FEADZ during his new album release. Click here for the details and continue reading below for our interview.

Give me a breakdown of your name and your start with the label OWSLA.

I guess we started as Phantoms about five years ago because we thought it was really epic and crazy and then we realized that it wasn’t easy in concept. People would always get it wrong and say “Yeah, The Phantoms are here”. We kind of just acquired Phantoms and stuck with that. The OWSLA thing kinda happened because we worked with Sonny (Skrillex) a long time ago. He actually opened for us when we were playing in Riverside in 2009. He was going by “DJ Skrillex” back then. He was always just a great dude and amazing. So after that, one of our tour managers worked it out for us and it kind of all blended together with Sonny and him wanting to do that release, the first EP off of Nest as a result.

That’s really amazing. Congratulations!

Thank you. We’re very excited about OWSLA.

Besides the tour that you guys are getting ready to do, you said you were working on new music. Is that something that’s tentative or is it coming this year?

We have a single coming out probably in February and a music video, and its featuring a singer called Hayley Kiyoko. She did an amazing job on it. It’s going to be our first single with a vocalist on it. It’s sort of Phantoms doing Pop, you know? There’s a couple of other singles we’re working on and we’re planning on doing a full length. There’s going to be a lot of exciting stuff happening with the music. It’s weird because we have original stuff now that we’ve just been working on and it hasn’t been released but we feel like everybody knows it. We’ve had it and we’ve been working on it for so long. We listen to it like everyday. There’s going to be a ton of new music coming out this year. All original. It’s got the same flavor from the release of the Nest but bigger with vocalists and with a little more of what we wanted to do.

Listen to The Nowhere Tape below:

Again, they have a mini tour coming up with Com Truise. See the tour dates below or just click here:

For more Phantoms, just click here.