It’s not about the money, it’s about the music.
New York City’s Cash Cash is bringing dance beats to the Center of Gravity stage for the popular festival that takes place this weekend.
This will be the DJ group’s first time performing at the event, according to member Jean Paul “JP” Makhlouf.
The electronic trio consists of brothers JP, Alex Makhlouf and friend Samuel Frisch. They’ve reached Billboard charts with their singles and international success with four albums.
Their latest single All My Love was released last week and features English singer-songwriter Conor Maynard.
“We knew we had something special (with the single), Conor’s voice is really cool and really emotional,” said JP Makhlouf.
Maynard became involved in the song after Cash Cash called him up, having previously done a remix for him in 2009.
“He’s grown lots since then,” said Makhlouf, adding “I think he was like 5-foot-2 and now he’s 5-foot-6.”
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But, on a serious note, Makhlouf believes Maynard found himself as an artist, as did Cash Cash.
The group started as an electronic pop band and released their first album in 2008 called Take It To The Floor, but they were always remixing for other artists on the side.
“It made a really slow transition,” said Makhlouf, as they transformed into their sound today which includes a trove of artists like B.O.B. and Nelly.
And they continue to move forward. “Every year our goals change,” he said.
The group loves making music and putting their time into touring and building their fan base.
“Seeing people sing our songs in other countries, we were like ‘oh my god how do they know our songs’ because people in the states didn’t sing our songs,” said Makhlouf.
The group is currently on tour, and is heading to Asia after wrapping up in Kelowna and doing a few dates in Las Vegas.
Lyrics are written in collaboration with the artists, which Makhlouf calls a special opportunity. Some of the artists they now work with they listened to growing up, he said.
They sit with the artists and share stories of past experiences which occasionally includes heartbreak.
These artists have also influenced them, as Nelly helped them remember their roots.
“We did a song with Nelly… over the years things started to get robotic for us in the studio and he came in and he turned the whole studio into a party,” said Makhlouf.
“We just loosened up and ended up making such a cool song. It reminded us that we needed to relax and it brought us back to when we started when we were just having fun.”
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The fans have always been supportive of Cash Cash’s ever-changing music.
“They don’t always want the same song over and over… it’s always about hearing something fresh,” he said. “It can get challenging sometimes, but it’s liberating because there’s no ceiling. There’s no ‘oh, we can’t do that,’ we try to just take it as it comes.”
The band plans to release new singles every few months and eventually put together an album.
“Albums are great but there’s something really special about putting a song out; to just focus on the songs. A lot of times songs get lost on an album and sometimes you work really hard on a song and want (people to listen to it),” said Makhlouf.
Center of Gravity is held at City Park this Friday to Sunday. Tickets and more information is at centerofgravity.ca.
