While everyone was battling their Thanksgiving food hangover and trying to get the best doorbuster deals on Black Friday, local electronic duo NEON84 dropped their new EP just in time for the festivities.
While everyone was battling their Thanksgiving food hangover and trying to get the best doorbuster deals on Black Friday, local electronic duo NEON84 dropped their new EP just in time for the festivities.
NEON84 is an electronic duo onsisting of Benni Barca and Ray Monatti make up the electronic outfit that is NEON84 which is an extension of their production label, Sidechang Gang.
While the two also produce independently, the idea of collaborating stemmed from Monatti’s shift in genres. “When I started dabbling in different genres is when the door kind of opened for conversation around collaborating with sounds we both wanted to work on,” said Monatti.
Barca and Monatti first began their music exploration together as cousins when they were in high school. “When I was 13, I wanted to make movies. and I had this idea that if I became a famous musician, that people would let me have to direct my own music video. And if I could do that, then eventually I could get to Hollywood,” said Barca. “It was 13-year-old logic, but it kind of came around that way.”
After breaking into the industry, there was a certain level of immediate success, and milestones came quickly. Monatti was DJing parties for money before he even got out of high school, paying his way through VCU and their first label placement soon after graduating.
“There was always this love for the music and the creation and production of it,” said Monatti.
“Djing itself is a production within itself, so I think that aspect of it led me to learning how to create the music as well.”
“The fact that it could be reality came pretty quick,” Barca said. “Our interest was more of the back office stuff, production and creating which are essentially trade work. It’s an actual skill set and a practical thing to do, it’s not like saying I want to be a superstar.”
“Since we came into the game with that approach, and experienced semi-immediate success, it never was a hobby.”
The two took some time to branch off into different directions. Monatti began working for XM radio in the hip-hop and R&B genre before switching gears into electronic while Barca got picked up by a production house in New York, writing top 40 pop songs.
The two eventually returned to their hometown. “New York can be congested and it can cloud your mind, Richmond is a good place to work. There’s a lot of open space for you to think,” said Barca.
Their new EP, which dropped Friday, revolves around a deep house genre feel with the aesthetic of a future from the past concept. The neon pink and blue’s transport you back to the height of the 80s where house music was prevalent.
The EP also features two original vocal tracks, one featuring local artist Chance Fischer.
“We didn’t want to flood the EP with a lot of vocals, we wanted to spread it out and have a mixture of {the} best of both worlds for everyone,” said Monatti. “There are some people who want to hear full songs with vocals while others prefer just the instrumental side of it. So we’re just trying to touch various fan bases.”
With famous electronic musicians collaborating with chart topping artists, EDM music has bridged the gap to top 40 music.
“My background is writing top 40 songs, so if we can create an EDM record that could end up number one…then it’s a good direction,” said Barca.
The duo is not however limiting themselves to just one genre of EDM. With two more EPs in the works, NEON84 plans to incorporate the sounds of electro, down tempo, tropical house, and various forms of bass music.
“We’re just trying to be consistent and consistently putting out projects and videos,” Monatti said.
NEON84 plans to continue their collaboration under that name, reaching out to local artists in RVA.
“It is kind of important to me that we actually do set aside a good amount of space on our projects to make sure we deal with local artists as opposed to just dealing with industry artists,” said Barca.
Their EP is available in all major online stores and streaming services, globally. You can check it out and follow more of the group’s production at here.
