Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kashed. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kashed, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?
The first time we ever earned money as artists was when we got offered to play an opening DJ set at McDonald theater in our college town. This came about after we had worked for this college event company called Up&Up as ambassadors during Covid when we were still going to the University of Oregon. when live shows started coming back around 2021 after we had graduated they reached out and asked if we wanted to open for their headliner.
Prior to this we had never made a dime from producing music or Dj’ing, it was really something we primarily did for fun and mostly consisted of playing at our friends college parties.
As you can imagine going from Dj’ing college parties to playing a full production concert with LED screens, lights, etc… and an actual crowd felt pretty crazy and definitely nerve-racking. Especially since we were big fans of the headliner “Troyboi” at the time as he was well established and playing major festivals like EDC and Lost Lands.
After this experience I think we were both hooked and just fell in love with playing live shows and being paid to do something we enjoyed was just an additional perk.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
So currently we work as a duo under the name “Kashed” both producing music and Dj’ing. Each of us had different musical backgrounds prior to forming a group and met in college at the University of Oregon. Really it started out as a project for fun and as things naturally progressed we began to take it more seriously and moved to San Diego to fully pursue music since the dance music scene there is so great.
From there it was just a slow build, taking things step by step and trying to break into that scene a little bit more with every show. We started from essentially zero, playing weekdays at almost empty venues but with each new show we got more experience, we made more connections and our name slowly made its way into the local San Diego dance music scene.
I think what initially set us apart and helped us progress quickly in terms of the events and venues we were playing was just taking every opportunity we got as seriously as possible and playing that set like it was the biggest show we had played. Even for those weekday shows with no one there we spent a lot of time practicing and preparing and making sure to put on a good performance. I think that inevitably this translates and people can feel the difference when you put a lot of time and preparation into a good set.
As far as where we are right now, we have been able to cross some of our favorite clubs off of the bucket list such as Nova SD and Time Nightclub in Orange County. Recently we’re most proud of getting the opportunity to play at Marquee Nightclub in Las Vegas which was just an amazing experience all around.
Primarily we are playing clubs but are always open to new opportunities and private inquires about our services either as Dj’s or music producers.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For us I think being artists and creating music is rewarding in mainly two different ways. The initial creative process when you get to take an idea that exists only in your head or not at all yet and turn that into something that you can hear, feel, enjoy etc.. is inherently rewarding. As music producers I think this is at the core of what drives us.
As DJ’s being able to connect with a crowd, provide an experience to people and have them connect with the music that you create is extremely rewarding as well and one of our favorite aspects of what we do.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I think for us personally it’s pretty simple, the driving goal is to just create music that feels authentic to ourselves and to other people who can connect with it and enjoy it.
This is most evident for us when we get to play live shows and can see people genuinely having a great time or when people tell us they really enjoyed our set or a certain song.
I think after experiences like these, when we feel like we played a great set and especially when we get to showcase original music we feel especially driven to keep moving forward and just progressing. To us this means reaching a broader audience, having more people connect with our music and shows and ultimately having more time and resources to devote to our craft.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Garrett Whittingham