Andrew Fedyk and Joe Depace of Canadian duo Loud Luxury have a tale similar to many aspiring producers — moving to Los Angeles after college to pursue their musical dreams — but their story now includes a certified hit that is quickly climbing the ranks. “Body,” out on Armada Music, is a house groover that’s the group’s first-ever track to make an appearance on the Billboard charts and first broke onto Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in December 2017 at No. 49.
While Fedyk and Depace told Billboard they were unsure how the record would react, they took great pride in knowing the song was true to them and what they represented. “It took an insane amount of time to get every detail of the track right,” they said, “but in that moment, we knew we had something special. We were always unsure of how far it would go but that never really mattered because we had something that we were excited about and it felt like ‘us.'”
Neither the record nor the group’s success happened overnight. “Money was tight and we lived in a one-bedroom apartment which happened to be Charles Manson’s old place in the ’60s, basically eating oatmeal every day,” they said. “Our main hustle was going on SoundCloud all day and messaging artists we were excited about to try and write music together.”
They continue, “One of the artists we reached out to invited us to their showcase which just happened to be down the street from where we live in Hollywood so one night we went and checked it out. When we got there, we had the chance to check out the opening band that brando was a part of. We were so blown away by his voice and performance that we totally forgot to say hi to the artist we actually intended to go see. It was one of those moments where you heard someone’s music and it just felt super right. There was this nagging feeling that we had to do something together.”
After a flurry of back-and-forth emails with brando and his manager, Fedyk and Depace were finally able to sit down with the singer. “He showed us this track that he had called “Body On My” that was a hip-hop demo. It was much slower and we all agreed it was a bit silly because it was in this DJ Mustard, strip-club anthem vibe. However, we were always excited about his vocals on it so we took it home and basically flipped the whole idea on its head. As soon as we sped it up a bit and put more emotional chords under the track, it felt amazing.”
“Body” is currently nearing 30 million Spotify streams and sits at No. 20 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, as well as No. 12 on Dance/Mix Show Airplay. “Right from the get-go, we had huge expectations for this track and for Loud Luxury as a whole,” says Maykel Piron, Armada Music’s co-founder and CEO. “We made sure our partners started working on the song from the release date onward. After a month or so, we saw a near-exponential increase in traction, so we decided to go hard on the promotion and marketing side of it all, determined to make ‘Body’ and Loud Luxury our biggest success of the year.”
George Hess, who heads the label’s radio promotion in the U.S., adds, “When I initially heard this, I knew it was special, and different.” He continues, “The team was very aware of the potential and the setup was thorough and clean. Dance radio and Spotify electronic in the U.S. responded and at that point, airplay and playlists began to roll in. As the research began to develop, we could see that No. 1 airplay was achievable.”
Speaking further on the record’s streaming campaign, Armada’s VP of Digital Distribution Ralf van de Ven says, “Our digital team serviced the track upfront to key curator taste-makers at DSPs. Apple Music was the first to recognize the potential of this super track straight away and showed lots of love and support in main dance and, later, pop playlists across its service. On Spotify, the track grew to a top five spot in dance’s flagship playlist ‘mint’, where Austin Kramer positioned it after various metrics (such as saves and skips) showed a very strong performance with listeners.”
Loud Luxury were featured in Billboard Dance‘s monthly Ones to Watch discover series in March, which mentions the group’s string of sold-out headline performances as well. Based on the numbers alone, it looks like the duo will be stripping their “up-and-comer” tag very shortly. Hess also notes that, based on extensive research and support from streaming platforms, Armada will be rolling out the upbeat club record to U.S. pop radio in April. Listen to “Body” below for the full experience: