While their marriage may seem unlikely, Carnage, Erick Morillo and Harry Romero were a match made in Miami.
After being put in touch by mutual friend Dave Grutman, founder of Miami Marketing Group, Carnage dropped by Morillo’s sprawling Miami home to preview tracks for a potential collaboration.
“Instead of just playing out of a computer, he started DJing,” recalls Carnage. “It was basically like getting a private show by Erick Morillo. I was starstruck. He’s a legend.”
An unfinished tech house tune that Morillo made with Romero two years prior caught Carnage’s ear, and he sent over the stems for Carnage to transform them into “Let the Freak Out.”
“Those tech house songs are pretty simple, it’s like one huge build and you can get lost in the song if you just turn it on,” says Carnage. “I kind of dumbed it down so my fans could know ‘this is the drop or build,’ and made it more listenable for kids in my kind of world.”
Sporting an upbeat bass line and shuffling hi-hats over distorted variations of its eponymous spoken hook, the rollicking collaboration rides festival siren builds into rap-laden interludes and tightly coiled percussive drops.
Listen to the full premiere of “Let the Freak Out” exclusively on Billboard: Despite the significant stylistic and age differences between Carnage and Morillo, the collaboration felt natural to both artists involved.
“We’re both Latinos, we’re both from South America,” explains Morillo. “We just kind of bonded. I love the energy and intensity of his sets, too. It’s really important to me to see that a DJ is having as much fun as the crowd is. I think we have a lot of things in common.”
After struggling with well-documented substance abuse issues, Morillo says he is eight months sober and living a much healthier lifestyle since moving to Los Angeles. In between yoga and nutritionist appointments, he’s also hard at work on a new album.
“What I’m trying to create in my head doesn’t exist,” he says. “There’s a niche in the industry right now that’s not being met. You have the real poppy EDM stuff or the real underground tech house, but there’s nothing in the middle that is dirty, pumping and throbbing, without it being noisy, with sexy vocals.”
Fresh off a summer full of festival bookings, Carnage also has an album on the way next year, as well as no shortage of confidence regarding its positive reception.
“My album is about to shit on every other album coming out around that time,” he says. “May God give them help.”
Carnage, Erick Morillo and Harry Romero’s “Let the Freak Out” will be available through Ultra Music on Oct. 24.