If you haven't heard of Dirtyphonics or remember them by name, you've probably felt them at a music festival. Their music, how do you say, makes you feel dirty. The trio*, originally a four man group, have taken the raw energy from their Metal roots and redirected it into Dance music that will have your heart racing faster than a team of race cars on unlimited Nitro at the Indy 500. They just released their new Write Your Future EP on Dim Mak and it's similar yet different from everything they've already done. It's not just an electrifying view into their worlds but also a reflection of yours. The group has an abundance of positive energy that they just want to share it with their fans. Can you blame them? The only thing is that the fans might also get a little dirty along the way.

It all started around 2006 when the three original members--Charly, Thomas, and Pho--ran into each other enough, through mutual friends and shared interests, that an eventual trip to the studio together made it obvious that they needed to work with each other. PitchIn joined soon after and Dirtyphonics was born. From the start, they avoided following trends and instead created their own. They were known to break rules and ignore genre boundaries by incorporating tempo switches into their music early on, something commonplace with many EDM producers today. But the extra ingredient that made them unique from everyone else was their love of Metal.

When they were in their respective Metal bands, they were already experimenting with creating new sounds like tweaking guitars, messing with the mic, and working on the mix and arrangement. But then their introduction to Electronic music opened their minds to even more possibilities: "Only the tools changed over the years. Electronic music is limitless in terms of what you can do and we felt right away we could inject all our influences in this new environment." One of their early singles, "Vandals," is a great example as it provides the drive from the straight, rapid drum patterns in a Metal song over a dark and distorted synth line. If you felt the urge to bang your head with your hair down to your shoulders to it with a glow stick, you wouldn't be in the wrong.

Over the years, they've perfected this synergy and nothing makes it clearer than their latest EP, Write Your Future. It has enough of both genres of music that could bring in an arena full of fans from both worlds as they completely lose it. This time around, to add an extra level of emotion to connect on, they included a vocalist on each track.

They all have a different stories. Some of them were friends we wanted to work with, others were artists we discovered and loved the vibe of. We've known UZ, 12th Planet, and Matt Rose for a while and we recently met Trinidad Jame$ and Julie Hardy. Working with other people took us places we wouldn't have gone to on our own and that was the whole point of doing it.

The stories told by the vocalists are meant to be relatable to the fans, which ties into the overall theme of the EP: "You don't always chose what happens in your life but you choose how you react to it which will influence your future." Even the artwork represents their message. The fountain pen is for the emphasis on the lyrics for this project and the "stippling is a link to tattoo culture, where you write your story on yourself-forever."

While you might be content with listening to the new EP through your headphones or speakers, what you really need to do to get the full experience is see them live and get stamped. Their massive sound has heavy overtones and yet, "it still has something that makes you want to grin." Part of their "dirty" sound is the contrast that they bring to certain tracks. For example, on "Free Fall," the song opens with an airy, sparse instrumental with Julie Hardy singing her lines before dropping you, head first, into a disruptive array of sounds. And when you thought the song gets the busiest, you get a peek at a sunny solace with a single bar of euphoric synths. That one bar is like the second you get of seeing the whole theme park at the peek of a roller coaster, right before you drop. As a result, the emotional affect of each part grows significantly.

It's no surprise that the group has something more than Red Bull that keeps them going: "[It's] the energy that burns inside us. We’re adrenaline junkies." When asked what they would call themselves if they formed a Metal band, they answered with, "Dirtyphonics Against The Machine." Touche. Here's to the hopes of a Dirtyphonics Against The Machine tour and more adrenaline injected music from the group.

*Thomas left in 2014 to pursue another passion in art. Pho is currently in France to help with production as well as taking care of his new born child.

Last Call

1. What is your favorite movie of all time?Charly: American Beauty
PitchIn: Back To The Future 2

2. As a young DJ, who was the one DJ you looked up to?Charly and PitchIn: Andy C

3. As a DJ, what's your biggest pet peeve?Charly: When the light dude does a shitty job.
PitchIn: Hearing someone play two songs at a different (enharmonic) key

4. What is your current DJ set up at home?4 CDJ 2000 Nexus, 2 DJM 900 Nexus, 2 Native Instruments S4 running with Traktor.

5. What's your favorite record of all time?Charly: It would be sad to have only one favorite record
PitchIn: Michael Jackson - "Thriller"

Keep up with Dirtyphonics on their Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. They'll be on tour supporting their new EP for most of February and through April. Check the dates on their website. You can purchase their new EP HERE.
Bryan Hahn missed his prime when he should've started a Metal band. He's on Twitter: @notupstate.