The Flagstaff EDM duo AsYouWere makes its ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ debut at this weekend’s Gem & Jam festival at the Pima County Fairgrounds.
The pair’s appearance Saturday, Feb. 1, also marks their first ever festival show.
The duo — Cole Truitt, 23, and Jackson “Jay†Rothermel, 22 — combine a trap house sound with live vocals that has earned them a reputation for getting a crowd rowdy and pumped up with one drop of a beat.
AsYouWere was Truitt’s idea after he started out as a backyard DJ making beats for himself and his buddies. He met Rothermel while they were both working as ski and snowboard instructors at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Snowball Resort, and Rotherhmel introduced him to house music.
Truitt said he fell in love with the genre and the pair decided in spring 2018 to start taking their music seriously. They began playing shows in Flagstaff including the Gopher Hole bar and ventured into the Phoenix area with shows at Shady Park on Mill Avenue and The Pressroom in Phoenix.
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But their ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ gig will be their biggest to date.
“Just being on the same platform as some names like Big Gigantic and Desert Hearts, I think the experience of being able to be there and being a part of the entire thing … it’s really big for us,†Truitt said.
Truitt said being a part of a big festival — their first — was one of their early goals.
“We made a promise to ourselves that we wouldn’t pay for another festival, because we had too much to focus on with our own music, and the next festival we would go to would be the one that we were playing and that’s Gem & Jam for us,†he said.
AsYouWere describes its music as signature trap beats with melodic vocals accompanying a very dubstep-like sound with a psychedelic vibe.
“It’s a clash of the trippy techy house (music) and that heavy bass trap house, and we do get weird,†Truit explained. “For Gem & Jam specifically, we have a lot of original music prepped. Originality is trying to be our main focus.â€
One of AsYouWere’s favorite things to do when performing is getting the crowd involved, engaging and reading the crowd’s reaction to the music, Truitt said.
“I haven’t gotten a lot of time in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ but everything I’ve seen is that it’s awesome,†Rothermel added.
“There’s a great lineup with us. I’m excited to go out there, show ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ a little Phoenix vibe and Flagstaff vibe.â€
