Musicians since they were wee lads, Zach Morillo and Will Mills (yes, that's his real name) met in the jazz program at University of Miami, Frost School of Music. They've performed together in about four bands since then, including reggae act Jahfe and Studio City. Together, as Sounduo, their newest venture, they call themselves a "post-dub, audio/visual live performance project." It's definitely some bassed-out trippy shit.
For the past two years, they've been playing their own brand of electronic music. "We like to play in all different types of tempos," Morillo says. It's not just dubstep, influences include "bass music from dubstep to glitch hop to traditional dub."
Mills is from Washington, D.C, and Morillo is an Orlando native. These close friends have been creating beats as Sounduo for two years. Of their dynamic, Morilla notes. "a huge part about keeping a band going is having a good relationship with your band members. We definitely understand each other musically an on a personal level. So, it allows for it to move smoothly and progress gradually and steadily."
Three years ago, Morillo got turned on to dubstep at a particularly dubstep-y stage at Ultra Music Festival. "I had never heard of dubstep and really was not familiar with many electronic music genres." But once he heard what was being mixed on stage, "I totally lost it, because I'd never heard anything like it before."
When they play live, they use instrumentation, adding a different dimension to the electronic elements. Morillo gets on drums and Mills plays keyboards or guitar. What sets them apart from other acts is simple. "We're kind of approaching it from a musician's standpoint where when we make our tracks, we play a lot of our instruments." Morillo reflects, "Will's an amazing guitarist, and jazz guitarist and he has an extensive knowledge of harmony and chords. I think that might help us stand out, just because we have that experience."
They recently released their first LP Departures. Sounduo has toured around the Southeastern U.S., and headlined a night at Vagabond's Get Low party. "We've been wanting to expand outside of Miami as much as possible... Our reach has definitely grown."
They'll be playing at the end of June at Green Room and in September they're heading out on an East Coast tour all the way up to Maine. Sounduo live with Dusthead at Cinema Paradiso 503 SE 6th Street, Fort Lauderdale at 9 p.m.
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