We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dillon Carlson & Brandon Berg a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Dillon Carlson &, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
SO CALLED Productions and Abbeypalooza are by far the biggest risks we have ever taken. It started with us playing shows with our friends in college at a local bar. We teamed up with another local artist Nolephant (Nolan Hall) to start SCP, from there we started organizing larger events that brought a ton of notoriety to our tiny town. We threw two large scale events in 2019 that paid off, however like most of the entertainment industry, when covid hit we lost all of our momentum. We tried to stay relevant with online streams, but there wasn’t much traction gained from it. Fast forward to 2021 we brought back our fall festival with the mindset of pushing the limit of what was possible for this event. We spent a bunch of money on advertising and production for this spectacular event that showcases awesome local talent. However, the pandemic was still very much a scary situation and lead to a lower turn out than we expected.
In hindsight we knew where we went wrong with budget, and we definitely have fixed those issues to ensure our bottom line is a viable option for the event. This year we cut our costs significantly all while paying artists more and bringing out larger talent!
Dillon Carlson &, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
SO CALLED is a Minneapolis based dance music duo. Their industrial, mid tempo bass sound is being blasted across the Midwest. Since 2016, they have been curating their loud, aggressive sound through multiple self released originals, label releases, live events, and remixes. Since 2019, the duo’s sound has grown darker and more abrasive resulting in releases like “IF U” garnering support from Spotify’s Bass Arcade and Dim Mak’s Midtempo playlists.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
We would love to be touring artists, or playing music festivals around the country. At the end of the day, we love writing music and showing off to our fans. If we could do that as a full time career that would be amazing.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Interacting with fans is amazing. We love when people come up to us and say “Hi”. It truly brings us joy, so don’t be afraid to approach us!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://socalled.co/home
- Instagram: @socalleddjs
- Facebook: @socalleddjs
- Twitter: @socalleddjs
Image Credits
Christian Sieler