Hailing us from Ohio is the eclectic-electro solo project Dress Code from Derek Holley. Since becoming a solo project from initially being a duo, Dress Code has been creating exciting electronic music that has been featured on many indie films and music compilations and continues to push above the limits. Dress Code shows what he is capable of, to continually keep us hooked onto fresh new sounds. This is true in Dress Code’s latest release EP ‘Light up the Night.’ After diving deeper into the title track, we were quickly blown off our seats from the moment the first note hits us. ‘Light up the Night’ is one of those records that will be able to send any mediocre dance floor into an exciting full-on party that will go until the sun comes up. There are a bunch of fantastic elements in “Light up the Night.” From the aggressive synth bass to the massive sounding drums, to Dress Code’s honest evolving vocals, to even an epic guitar solo, “Light up the Night” has a little something in it that anyone will be able to enjoy and instantly start dancing. Overall, “Light up the Night” keeps a steady happy bounce to it from start to end, which makes you feel good on the inside.
You can dance to “Light up the Night” here.
Hey there Dress Code! Welcome to BuzzMusic! We could not stop dancing to your release “Light up the Night”! When did you start creating music, what had inspired you to create electro dance music that fused in other genres? I wanted to show my other influences. I like electronic/dance music, but I also grew up listening to funk and rock. We can’t get enough of the groove you created in “Light up the Night”, what was the creation process like for this one? Was there any personal event that sparked the inspiration for you to write this? I wrote it after it had been cloudy for almost a week and darker during the day than normal. The point of it really is to not let distractions stop you from goals or things you want to do.
I got the idea for the chorus first. The sunlight eventually came through the dark clouds and that was it! "Light The Dark" didn't sound that catchy, so I changed it to "Light Up The Night". Congratulations of working hard to push being your own solo act, what was that transition like? Do you ever wish that you had a writing partner for your music? I started out as a drummer, but it got to where I didn't know any other bands to play with and after that, I started working on writing and producing with other people who suddenly quit. I had to figure out what I wanted to do and how I wanted to sound. The idea I had was to mix electronic-based music and recording with live instruments and different influences. Scoring for film is definitely an accomplishment, how did you get that first opportunity? What kind of challenges did you face during that and how did you overcome them?
This was actually music licensing. The songs were already recorded and a separate thing before they were part of the film. I knew someone who also knew these music supervisors that needed music for different projects and they liked the songs and put them in these indie films and TV shows.
The challenge is to find the right project (film, TV show, video game, etc.) to go with the music and get it to whoever decides what music is being used. Some music supervisors and publishers would post what projects they're working on and what kinds of music they need, and I'd try to contact them. Some are easier to get to than others.
I got a licensing deal once because this indie film couldn't afford to pay the fee for a song by The Prodigy they had in one scene, and they used one of my instrumental tracks instead! This was a big deal to me since I'm a huge Prodigy fan, but it happens a lot in indie films since they work with lower budgets and can't afford music from major artists.