What comes to mind when you hear the words Sweater Disco? If you’re anything like me, you might imagine a slick dancefloor complete with a glowing oversized discoball, funky grooves encouraging everyone around to getdown, and a whole lot of cool fashion. I’m thinking something akin to the coolest ugly sweater party you’d ever see complete with the three Hs: hugs, handshakes, and high-fives. Yezzir, that’s a sexy scene if you ask me. Man, I’m getting a bit hot and sweaty just thinking about it!
Now, I performed that visualization technique for your benefit so I can tell you about the ACTUAL Sweater Disco who is, in fact, a real live person. And an artist. A very cool, spirited, engaging young fella who mixes and produces sweet tunes to dazzle and delight fans through auditory excellence. Heck… yes… ladies and gents (OH YEAH)!!! So let me share some of what he’s all about, cuz in a little over a week, I’m headed to Indianapolis to catch a whole heaping helping of Sweater Disco’s style. That’s right! On October 16 at the Vogue Theater Indy, Sweater Disco and his boy Samaro are providing direct support for Omnom. W00t W00t, it’s gonna be one hell of a Proper good time, I’ll tell you what! Would you like to know more? Of course you do. I had you at Sweater Disco, and he was gracious enough to speak with me in the weeks preceding autumn’s arrival.
I think the best place to start with Sweater Disco is his beginnings in musical vocation. As you’ve come to know of me, I appreciate taking time to delve into an artist’s backstory. Sweater Disco has been producing his own tunage these past fifteen years, starting around 2011, so I asked him to tell me the tale of what brought him into the electronic fold.
“I grew up playing music since like, I would say first grade. I took weekly piano lessons for 12 years basically. So that’s kind of my primary instrument. I would say I played jazz guitar for like six years as well, so I do have a lot of more hands on musical experience and some of the theory backgrounds before that, but it was definitely my sophomore year in high school [where it all started].
“I went to Noblesville, so I’m from central Indiana. That’s a point of reference probably because electronic music hadn’t really proliferated in a pretty Midwestern area. I had some really close friends, like five or six guys who were in the central Indiana area who were getting into electronic stuff and kind of like, you know, sharing stuff on our little Facebook group of 10 people. Lo-fi Hip Hop and dubstep and electro house and things like that. A lot of those friends who I met through jazz band in high school and Drumline were showing me Skrillex and Deadmau5 and early Getter.
“Right around that time, Skrillex was touring, like his first or second big tour that he had done. And I was 15 at the time, so sophomore in high school. This was probably November 2011 I want to say. He was coming to Egyptian Room, which is like an old national center in Indianapolis... And so that was really my first electronic show I had ever been to. So I got tickets, and I will never forget just the excitement around that moment. I didn’t know anything about the scene. I had never been to a show in Indianapolis because I was still up in Noblesville. My mom drove me and my older sister down to go to this show and dropped us off, and it’s like a line around the block with fuzzy boots [and] rave gear. Like, it’s all the stuff I had seen on the Internet and just had never gotten to be a part of in real life.
“I just remember exactly what it was like to kind of be in that crowd and hear the loudest sound system I had heard at the time and [it] just immediately hit me. I think I was just like, damn, I really want to figure out how he’s doing that and how this stuff is made. And so I basically immediately after that pirated Ableton Seven or something. And then I’m like, what does Skrillex use to make music? Ableton. Cool. So that’s kind of where I started.”
That’s pretty friggin’ neat if you ask me, conscripted into the scene at an early Skrillex concert. Dude spends most of his life playing traditional instruments like piano and jazz guitar, and then gets to experience that type of an atmosphere for the first time? Lucky mug, of course he’d want to join the raver’s ranks immediately! How could he not? It was meant to be and all he needed from then on was his own alias to start releasing tracks. Which is why I just had to know where Sweater Disco originated from. It kind of makes him sound like he has a closet filled with phenomenal sweaters. Connoisseur type shit, you feel me? Thus, I requested details on how his moniker came to be.
“I think I made my first couple of songs and was like, oh, I guess I need an artist name to put stuff online and toss it on SoundCloud and whatnot. And I did wear a lot of sweaters because [of] jazz band. For whatever reason we invented our own, like, holiday, which was Sweater Mondays as a fun bit. I was getting all these random sweaters and people started to notice I guess. So I think when I was putting a name together, I [didn’t] just want to choose a random name. I wanted it to be something that [made] sense and people associated with me.
“One of my really good friends at the time was also into dance music and electronic stuff, and we were just spitballing names and just kind of came up with that. And it was like, oh, that feels right. That’s pretty much how it happened. I feel super comfortable with it. I still feel like it makes sense with what I’m doing… There’s a huge percentage of people that don’t know my real name, and they just call me Sweater. And I’m like, that’s chill.”
Whenever I chat with producers, I’m always curious to know what their studio time is like. What influences their work? Outside the DAW, what kind of tech do they rely on beyond mouse and keyboard? Sweater Disco is a classically trained pianist after all so he shared some insight on how he’s comfortable grooving in the studio and what kind of techniques he observes.
“I feel really comfortable on a MIDI controller and just playing by hand when I’m making stuff. And I find a lot of people, especially people that I’m teaching, whether they’re just getting into Ableton or even if they’ve been using it for a while, are not very comfortable with playing in parts. I find it really makes a huge difference when you’re interacting with your music in that way… If you want people to connect with it, you have to connect with it.
“I learn techniques from other genres. I feel like bass music has a lot of cool sound design and I’ve learned a lot of those techniques and then try to apply it to small little synth bits in house or techno or things like that. Or for drum and bass, like chopping up breaks and sampling and doing those kind of weird, jungle break effects. I’ve thrown that into some stuff more recently. So I think it’s just interesting to have those kind of influences.”
Now that we have the basics of Sweater Disco covered, the 101 course material if you will, lets talk about Proper. Damn, I love that word. Appropriate, suitable, fitting, good-looking, handsome, utter, absolute, correct, virtuous, respectable, genteel, completely in a thorough manner. Proper. AND it’s also a party series that has helped uplift local talent, promote events, and serves as pretty much the ENTIRE reason I heard about Sweater Disco, Samaro, and Omnom at the Vogue Theater in Indy. Thanks Minerva! It’s been in existence since about 2017 hosted by Nick Samark at bars like the now defunct Patron Saint. Sadly, that bar recently closed, so Sweater and Samaro are brainstorming what their next moves will be, but for now they’re helping to promote some sweet shows at the Vogue. So I asked Sweater to give me some insight into what Proper is all about at its’ core, regardless of where they set up shop in the future. He started by gushing over his friendship with Samaro, and we can all get down with that!
“That’s how I got to meet Samaro, from years of hanging out there and playing there and then, you know, playing together and just kind of chatting music for a long time. We just have a lot in common. We both enjoy movies, we both enjoy music. We get along really well. We have kind of similar personalities. He became one of my best friends in the scene.
“Samaro’s intention for the night always has been putting on new talent for people in Indy who are playing house and techno really well. Because it’s really the only spot that has the kind of freedom to book brand new acts and give them a spot to cut their teeth, practice, get in there, and then also showcase the people who are getting a little bit more established and are able to headline. Because me and Nick are like, this person deserves that slot, you know?
“You can kind of trace a lot of the newer house and techno parties that have come out in [Indianapolis] the last couple of years from, like, this person either started at Proper, got their first booking at Proper, met people through Proper. It’s a huge network of people who have played, gotten established, and gotten introduced to Indianapolis. It’s definitely a point of pride, I would say, just to even have some influence in that way.”
As I stated earlier, Proper has teamed up with the Vogue Theater in Indianapolis to promote some hella sweet electronic events. October 16 is shaping up to be a banger with Sweater Disco and Samaro lending support to Omnon. I asked Sweater what we can expect from him on this night. Turns out, he’s got a bit of a gameplan for how he’s gonna throw down.
“I am going to play stuff that you’ve never heard. That’s kind of one of the main goals for sure. New music that I find and new music that I am finishing currently. I love multi-deck mixing. I do a lot of 3 and 4 channel kind of mixing when I play on a full set of gear. What I would expect for that show is more of a set that feels like a club set as opposed to a festival [set].
“I think that’s kind of what people want… I want to make it feel like you’re just continuously dancing. Like, I don’t want there to be a lot of downtime if there doesn’t need to be. It’s just going to showcase a lot of my current influences, and I want to throw some weird curveballs in there if I can.”
Before parting ways with the man, the musician, the electronic magician, Sweater Disco, I asked him to share some words of wisdom. If he could pass on some tidbits of advice for the benefit of others, what would that be? He answered, “I would probably say that doing it yourself is always worth it… never give up your personal, artistic vision… there are many, many paths to success and trust your gut on the opportunities you take and what you’re doing because there’s no one right answer.”
If you want to discover more about Sweater Disco, follow him on Instagram @sweaterdisco, check out his Linktree, and stream his music on Spotify and SoundCloud. Sweater Disco will be providing sonic support for Omnon on October 16 at the Vogue Theatre Indy and tickets are still available.
This is Bear Swiftly, the Electro Scribe, signing off. Sayonara all you samurai.
Be well, be successful. Bear Swiftly.
–Electro Scribe–
