It’s only the second month of their sophomore year, and University of Miami students Matthew Jost and Myles Kreiner landed a DJ gig opening for rap sensation Trippie Red.
Jost studies music production in the Frost School of Music and Kreiner is an entrepreneurship and global business double major at UM’s Business School. Together, they form “Mature.”
The two work in tandem, with Jost overseeing production and Kreiner balancing DJing and event booking.
“Opening for a popular artist versus playing for a club is actually very similar,” Kreiner said. “The goal is to get people moving to the mixer by playing interesting records.”
The booking agency — which wishes to remain unnamed — did not disclose how Jost and Kreiner landed this opportunity or how much they earned. Regardless, the proof of their success is in their performance.
Mature identified its main challenge as building the crowd’s energy way before Trippie Red arrived on stage, as it’s a decision that has to be made in the moment.
Kreiner described a typical set as “a mix of stuff that we created ourselves and also popular records, and then [we] find stuff that’s really unique.”
“One thing that’s really important when playing a show is digging really deep into the creative songs that I have on my USB,” Kreiner said. “We look for tracks together, and we decide what we want to play.”
Jost adds, “It’s never pre-planned.”
While their sets are up to chance, their plans are “set in stone.” Mature has a lot of unreleased music in the works, with these tracks gearing up for release on SoundCloud and Spotify.
When creating tracks, both Jost and Kreiner adopt different roles to deliver the best performance possible. Jost describes the production experience as fast-paced and nonlinear.
“The production and the mix evolve hand in hand; I never treat them as separate stages. I’m shaping the mix as I’m producing, so sound choices, space and balance are all shaped in real time,” Jost said. “By the time I’m polishing, I’ll sit with the track for a couple of days, listening on repeat, adding tiny touches that make it feel complete.”
Jost continued, “Oftentimes, it isn’t about the stuff that you hear, but it’s the stuff that you feel.”
On stage, Kreiner effortlessly mixes tracks.
“When mixing, my rider of choice are two CDJ 3000s and a V10 mixer. The V10 allows for lots of options when mixing two records,” he said. “I start by beat matching and then typically mix for 32 bars to transition cleanly from phrase to phrase.”
Kreiner and Jost cite Prospa as an inspiration for their music.
“We have a couple of remixes of their songs,” Jost says. Daft Punk and bradeazy also inspire their production, Jost describes “their mixing is second to none.”
The duo also tries to capture aspects of Mati Astroza, Interplanetary Criminal and John Summit in their sound.
The two look towards the coming months with excitement
“We’re really getting going,” Jost said. “It’s good for you to see what’s happening now and then check back in a couple months and see where we’ve grown.”