Feature photo courtesy of ISOxo
The Impossible Tour touched down at Gilt Nightclub in Orlando, FL last weekend. Among a stacked support lineup including Zeke Beats and Moody Good was the young west coast producer ISOxo who has been making waves in the bass music scene for the better part of the past year. I had the chance to sit down with the young producer after a stellar set and ask some of the questions everyone’s been wanting to know.
Jordan with Festival Squad: Where did you come up with the name ISOxo?
ISOxo: I came with the name I think in 8th grade. My last name is Isorena, so I took the first three letters of my last name and put xo at the end because it rhymed. I thought it sounded cool, so I stuck with it.
FS: Have you heard that people have been thinking it stood for “In Search of Hugs & Kisses?”
ISOxo: Everybody thinks that! I’m confirming right now that ISOxo does not mean in search of hugs and kisses.
FS: How long have you been producing music?
ISOxo: I started producing in late 2012, I think it was middle school. So about 8 years.
FS: How did you meet Knock2?
ISOxo: That’s a very funny story. We’re both from San Diego, California and we have this county fair. At this fair they had this thing called “Electronic Friday’s” where they would basically throw a rave every Friday. So back in 2016 I signed up, I was only 16 years old. I had barely DJ’d before then. It was my first time ever DJ’ing live. Knock2 actually played right before me, so I got to see another young producer just like me, so we connected after and it just went from there. He’s been my best friend since.
FS: Can you walk me through what it was like making “Radial”? What was it like getting it signed and released on Sable Valley?
ISOxo: It’s a very long story. Knock2 actually knew Graves while he was doing A&R work for Sable Valley. So Graves reached out to Knock2 looking for some music to potentially release on Sable Valley. Knock2 told me about it, and I thought it was cool, but it was kind of in the back of my mind for about 2-3 months. Then one night, I was making this drop with a sample pack I created and there was this one dial tone sound that I thought was sick. So I finished the drop, and sent it to Knock2 asking for feedback, and he replied “Dude, this is the one. This is it. Let’s finish this and let’s send it to Sable.” So we made the demo version , which is completely different from the official, but they saw potential in the drop I made. Henry gave us so much feedback on what to do with it. Shoutout to Henry he’s the GOAT. So we went back in the studio for a couple more months and really polished it and turned it into its fullest potential. I feel so blessed, I feel like I skipped a lot of steps. That song was my first co-sign and it was by RL Grime, how crazy.
FS: Where were you when you first heard “Radial” dropped live?
ISOxo: Knock2 and I went to Hard Summer just to hear it live. We knew it was going to be played because Henry’s management reached out to us and said that he loves the song so much that he’s playing it in all of his sets and we should come out. So we went, expecting to hear it from RL, but Graves actually played it first on the same stage. It was totally unexpected but we went so hard. It was crazy. He didn’t play it all the way through, he kind of mixed it in but I heard it and looked at Knock and we freaked out and started a mosh pit. It was like 100 degrees outside too.
FS: What can we expect from you in the future? Do you have any specific plans or goals?
ISOxo: Most of my way go going about things has always been to go with the flow. My end goal is very vague. I just want to create music. I want to be a respected artist in this industry and to inspire people to do whatever they want.
FS: Is there anything else you’d like to say?
ISOxo: Thank you to anyone listening to my music, and to the artists that are playing my song, thank you so much. This is all so crazy. You guys have no idea, it seriously means the world to me.
You can keep up with ISOxo on his Twitter, Instagram, and Soundcloud and be sure to catch him on the remainder of The Impossible Tour when it touches down in your city.