Breaking barriers and pushing the boundaries of music, SadBois, a unique blend of emo, alt, punk, and melodic bass, have become the latest sensation signed to Flux Pavilion’s newest sub-label Circus Electric, a subdivision of Circus Records. The trio’s recent single “Lonely Nights,” in collaboration with friends and artists MashBit and UNDY, marks yet another exciting breakthrough for the group, expanding on their fast growth and diversified success in recent months. From the creative ebbs and flows of their production process to their engaging social media strategy and the challenges of live performances as a trio, SadBois offer an insightful look into their journey in an exclusive interview.
Embracing an electronic-dominant position, “Lonely Nights” follows their successful Caslow / Micah Martin collaboration, “In Love,” released on Future Generation, which showcased their adeptness at the ‘rocktronic’ aesthetic. The new single captivates listeners with an emotional escapade, where dramatic melodic bass aligns with squeaky-clean vocals and skillful songwriting. The rising energy levels are matched by a rougher guitar section, rounding off with a ‘full-circle’ moment, a perfect conclusion to the track. In this conversation, the trio discusses the unique strengths each member brings, the challenges of navigating the industry, and the role social media plays in their interaction with fans.
What unique strengths does each member bring to the group?
Elias is the production mastermind behind the project, lovingly referred to as the “mad scientist” due to his unique approach to the production process.
George helps to finalize productions, going back and forth with his brother, Elias, to bring all of the elements together and has a great ear for finding vocalists that fit perfectly on Elias’s productions. He is also the DJ for the group and lastly George also runs SadBois social media, finding the perfect aesthetic or meme to engage fans.
Peter is the guitarist of the group and his incredible guitar work can be heard throughout productions, as well as in the live setting. Peter’s energy and personality shine on the stage through guitar performances as well as engaging the crowd throughout SadBois’ sets.
The trio that makes up SadBois have been lifelong friends, before music became an integral part of their life. This creates a unique dynamic in the group as each member is readily aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They tackle problems together and make sure that each member has a voice when it comes to any decision.
In your opinion, what’s the biggest challenge of navigating the industry as a trio?
Our situation feels a bit different than what most trios may experience in the industry. Since we have quite literally grown up beside each other, we have grown into our roles in the group. We have a mutual understanding of how we conduct our work and productions and as a result have a fairly streamlined approach to everything. Honestly the biggest challenge we face is on the live performance side. Offers to play on the west coast and other areas far from us mean we require three times the travel compensation that a solo act would have.
We have always had pride that SadBois has become what it is as a result of all three of us and so we want to have each member present in our productions and performances. This has been especially difficult as our project has ramped up and we exist in this vast middle ground where we want to play shows in cities where we have strong fan bases but are unable to cover the travel costs ourselves and lack the performance history for promoters to take a chance on having us out.
In today’s industry, do you think duos and trios have a bigger advantage in the industry than solo acts and artists? Why or why not?
One of the biggest aspects of being in a trio that we feel gives us an advantage is the distribution of work. As Elias works on productions, George is able to engage with fans on social media and discuss the creative process with vocalists. This means that Elias is able to produce a large number of demos and gives the band creative freedom to move forward with the ideas that are the most exciting.
George’s ability to handle vocal work allows him to take Elias’s productions and ensure that the meaning and emotion of the track is carried on by the vocal, resulting in deep, meaningful lyrics that incredibly align with the emotions that Elias is wanting to create in his instrumentals.
When is the best time in a career to start a group or trio? Is it at the early stages when you have no connections and are starting from the ground up or once you already have some things going for you?
In our experience, starting out as a group allowed us to grow together and learn how we worked in a team and with each other, this allowed us to smooth out our process as we were beginning and now we act as a well oiled machine. We were able to grow the vision of what SadBois meant together and now our core hopes and dreams for the project are truly shared across the team.
Many successful projects are the birthchild of multiple experienced individuals coming together so we aren’t one to say which is better but we do know that having built this project together from the beginning has allowed us to find a unified vision and voice and made this journey something we share with each other.
From the first tracks we released that we look back at with humor seeing how far we have come and all the memories we have had sharing our music with our fans we are glad we have done it all together.
What role does social media play in your relationship with your audience and promoting your music and do you think being a trio affects your content strategy in different ways than solo acts?
Social media is a powerful tool for any creative, and especially for musicians. Despite its power there is a unique dynamic that exists in finding what content connects with your fans while also engaging those who are discovering the project for the first time. As we mentioned, being a group, we are able to disperse the workload across bandmates.
George has been the lead when it comes to content ideas and fan engagement, taking the burden off the rest of the team to focus on productions. We had worked through a number of content ideas, from showing guitar and drum work on tracks to live show footage, we were quite surprised when we found that our favorite childhood tv show created the greatest engagement.
George’s commitment to creating an engaging and supportive space on platforms is an integral part of our project and it means so much to see our music, which we put so much emotion, time, and thought into, picking up traction across social media and reaching new fans who appreciate what we do.
How do you approach your live performances as a trio and how do you approach stage presence?
Our mashups and live sets are crafted by all three of us, but George is the mastermind behind our sets. He is the sole DJ and has an amazing ability to put together sets that highlight our original music but still bring an enthusiastic dance energy for all to enjoy. While George DJ’s, Elias and Peter are able to highlight the instrumentation in our original works on drum pads, electric/bass guitar.
Peter is our natural when it comes to stage presence, he often gets up close and personal with the crowd, sometimes even jumping down and joining fans at the highest energy moments. We approach our performances in the same way we address our productions, we each have a role that we fit and together we are able to support each other and celebrate these chances to perform alongside each other together. At the end of the day we want to share these memories and experiences together as we always have and being able to take our work to new cities and communities is so inspiring to all three of us.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
