This Friday, April 19, Alumni Gym will host 22-year-old Justin Blau, also known by his stage name, 3LAU. Before his performance, senior reporter Casey Brown talked with 3LAU about his rise in the world of dance music and what he likes most about performing on college campuses.

CB: How did you get involved in music making?

3LAU: I didn’t choose, so to speak. I kind of got thrown into it by the world. I have been playing piano and guitar for forever, and I went to Sweden with one of my best friends from college, and it totally changed my life. Everything about it was spectacular – the club scene, the music. When I got back to the U.S., I decided, ‘This DJ thing is kind of cool. I can make some money DJ-ing for free and charging on campus. Let me just try it.’ Things took off on their own without me having any idea.

CB: What makes your music different than other music in your genre?

3LAU: At the beginning, when I was doing mostly backup stuff, I tended to think my stuff was cleaner. When you mix a lot of stuff together, it’s hard to get them to fit perfectly, and I spent lots of time making sure every fit was clean and flawless-sounding, almost as the original. That’s where that came from. Everything was a little bit higher quality when I was doing mash-ups. Now, for future release, what makes my style different is that it’s a combination of melodic and hard-hitting. You have tracks that hit really hard in the club to get people super amped, but you have to stay melodic and beautiful to the point that people can recognize and follow along with the song.

CB: What inspires you most when you make music?

3LAU: Other music that isn’t in my own style. I listen to everything. I listen to U.K.-based music. I listen to indie folk music. I take a lot of inspiration from that stuff and try to fuse it with dance style.

CB: What has your experience been like on college campuses? Are they a crowd you enjoy performing for?

3LAU: I love playing colleges and campus shows. I play at a lot of clubs and venues and colleges. Whenever I play for a full campus, it’s especially awesome because everybody goes and the crowds are crazy.

CB: What is one of the biggest challenges in playing for a live venue?

3LAU: With dance music, it’s always a challenge to get a crowd super amped when you’re playing a big stage, because I’m not in front of the crowd on a mic jumping up and down with the crowd. For me, the big challenge is to keep the crowd interested, because I am behind a table playing music. Big Sean is a phenomenal performer. He’ll hop on the speaker and interact with a crowd. For the people who are familiar with a dance music style concert, those people get it, but for the people who have never been to one before, it’s a challenge to get them interested when I’m just playing music.

CB: What do you try to do in that case?

3LAU: I always try to get in front of the stage, get out in front of the people. I have cool production stuff. I try to use all these tools to get people excited. At a show I just performed, there were a lot of people there. I stood up on the table and jumped off. That’s what I feel like when people get excited about a show. The last time I performed with Big Sean, he came up to me, and said, ‘I’ve seen a lot of DJs, but I don’t see DJs do crazy sh**.’ I’m a college kid, too, so I feel like I know what the audience wants in a show.

 

To see 3LAU, along with other musical guest Big Sean, you can purchase a Spring Show ticket through SUB.