POSSE is a an electronic DJ/Production duo based out of Brooklyn, New York City, consisting of Justin Rodriguez and Chris Lopez. Their music captures the raw energy of old school hip hop/breaks while infusing it with today’s progressive bass & garage scene.  We connected with them to ask some questions about their musical goals for 2016, how they got started in music and much more.

Carlton Boyd

What are some of your goals for this year musically?

P: We feel we’ve really honed in our style of production and performance over the past year and a half and in 2016 we plan on really putting our nose to the grindstone, pushing as much material as possible and playing as much shows as possible. 

Who are some of the artists, regardless of genre, that have inspired you guys?

P: We really take inspiration from a lot of artists, both in music and outside. The beautiful thing about what we do is we both take what inspires us - whether it be a dope track, a scene off a film, a skateboard trick, or even a drawing and fuse that into our own sound. That’s why our music has a lot of “texture.” It’s the closest thing to ’touching’ those images.

How did you guys get started in music?

P: We met in the NYC dj circuit. We where both playing shows and supporting each others events. There were many nights where we talked of starting a duo and one day we just decided it was time. Since then we’ve been in the studio.

When can we expect to hear an EP or full album release?

P: While we’re still working out the release date for the album, in the meantime we’re just fine-tuning a lot of elements as a whole for the project. 

With so much technology and evolving techniques for music production/DJing, where do you see EDM going next? Could there be a new sub-genre that you see yourselves as the ambassadors or founders of?

P: We don’t know or pretend to know where EDM or pop culture is going next. It sort of feels like we are all in limbo right now, like EDM is actually growing more than ever, but nobody knows whats coming next. We are both a bit fatigued by the perfect pitch and the quantized beats. We would love to hear music with the tonal quality of today and the emotion of years prior. Old school did it better.