Osheaga 2013 | Robert DeLong

Photo via RobertDeLong.com

My final Osheaga interview this year was with EDM artist Robert DeLong. This talented young musician was included in Billboard's list of artists to watch in 2013 and has definitely been proving that he has what it takes to make it big time. His unique live performance and cool beats are what sets him apart.

Take a look at his awesome music video for his hit track "Global Concepts":

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Christina: This summer has been pretty jam-packed with festivals…do you prefer sets like those or the smaller shows?

Robert DeLong: It’s totally different. I love festivals because you give people 30-40 minutes of what feels like a commercial for Robert DeLong. It’s cool and fun because there’s just so much energy and you get to play for people who have never seen you before. So I love that. But playing small shows is great too because I have total control and I get to play an hour set or whatever. It’s cool.

C: For someone who hasn’t heard your music yet, how would you describe it to them?

RD: This is always a tough question for me to answer. I usually say indie songwriter meets electronic dance music with a crazy live show involving a Wii remote, joysticks, drum kit, etc.

C: Where did this signature X come from?

RD: My girlfriend just painted it on my headphones one time and my good friend who’s a graphic designer turned it into what it is. Then it was sort of my branding from there on out.

Photo via RobertDeLong.com

C: What was it like getting into the EDM scene and since then, have you noticed any major changes?

RD: I live in LA and it’s definitely grown a lot and changed a lot, even in the last two or four years. It’s cool because there’s a lot more exposure but also it does create the weird thing how it becomes more commercial. I’m glad that people are embracing dance music and getting into new sounds though. Especially the LA people; they were introduced to dub step and now there’s the whole world of electronic music they can get into.

C: What went into the making of Just Movement?

RD: That was an album I wrote over almost four years. I’ve just been writing songs and putting them together and then at some point I realized I had a pretty massive collection of songs. So I chose songs that I thought fit together and then last summer we got into the studio just to do the final mix on it. It was really just a labor of love. A lot of those songs went through multiple iterations. Some of them were on acoustic guitar initially, then I started performing and I’d mess around with doing it electronically and then I’d go back in the studio and take those ideas and recreate the songs.

C: What advice do you have for aspiring musicians?

RD: Work hard. I think that’s actually the most important thing.  Work hard and you have to love it. Those things go hand in hand. If you can work hard and obsessively work on it that means you love it. And be nice to people.

Check out http://robertdelong.com/ for more updates!

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28