I got to sit down and have a brief chat with Nicolas II and Aria S., better known as L.A.-based electro-pop duo Louis Vivet. The guys won Insomniac’s Discovery Project in 2014, and have since been at the forefront of a more instrument based style in electronic music. Louis Vivet’s newest single “Best Thing” f/ Gavrielle is out now on THRIVE records.
Q: Hey guys, first things first, for those who don’t know about Louis Vivet, tells us a little about yourselves and what Louis Vivet is all about?
Aria–“Well, me and Nick we first met at USC, and I guess we bonded and it was kind of instant. We literally bonded over moombahton and Dillon Francis music. Nick was producing a little bit and I was DJing and we decided to combine forces and create Louis Vivet.” 
Nicolas-“Yeah, it’s actually a funny story. I was DJing a little bit in college and so was Aria at the open bar. I actually opened for Aria at a USC party and then we started making music together. It was pretty funny though that I opened for him, that’s kind of where it started. We found Louis Vivet and we stumbled upon his story through history. We were just reading all about him and we thought it would be a really cool idea to kind of resurrect him from the dead and create this whole brand around him and his persona. So that’s kind of where our music comes into it. We’ve got kind of highly emotional and contrasting music and we kind of put it to his story and his name, that’s kind of how it all started.”
Historically speaking, Louis Vivet was the first person diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, more commonly called multiple personalities, back in the late nineteenth century.
Q: Your new track “Best Thing” f/ Gavrielle is coming out on Friday. On your Soundcloud you say it’s your best production yet, why do you guys say that?
Aria-“It came together so easily. Gavrielle, she had a verse and a chorus written for something she was going to make herself. She brought it to us, and I remember she played it on the piano for us and Nicholas and I just looked at each other and we instantly knew we had to produce it.”
Nicolas-“It started out as kind of like a pop production too. We were just messing around with it, we put some chords behind the vocals, we were really digging the vibe. And then we had the craziest idea to kind of like deconstruct entirely. It was almost like a finished production at first and we deconstructed it. We actually set up a studio outside in Malibu and just like for hours were just producing in the sun, outside, and we kind of created this like really complicated mixture kind of of deep and progressive house with some progressive trance. And it kind of wound up being one of our more complicated productions because the song evolved so many times. Like, even the intro section was like an entirely different production in it’s own. We were kind of like pasting together all of these different songs we were making in this outdoor studio. It was kind of like the craziest production session we’ve had, but it was really interesting to see how the song came together like that. And we kind of had no plan for it, we had no idea what we wanted the sound to be, but it kind of just came together on it’s own, which it’s kind of hard sometimes for that to happen.”
Aria-“I think it happened so naturally because it was Malibu, really just producing out in the sun.”
Nicolas-“Literally hundreds of tracks were in this song, so it was such a monster of a project.”
Aria-“We didn’t really have expectations for the song, we just wanted to do whatever came naturally.”
Nicolas-“Yeah, we were just kind of fucking around with it, but that worked so well. And ever since, just to get the ideas flowing and to lay the outline for tracks down we’ll set up an outside studio and work outside for a couple of hours. It’s just real nice to be outside with the fresh air, it’s a pretty different vibe from being in the studio, and I think it’s highly beneficial.”
Q: Your live show is a mix of DJing and a live performance, tell me about what makes your show different from a typical DJ show and what instruments you play?
Aria-“Right now the live show, it’s a DJ set in the sense that all the songs will kind of just flow naturally together, there will be maybe a couple of pauses in between songs, but the live portion, me and Nick are going to be playing all different instruments to our songs, we have drum racks, we have all the synthesizers that go into our tracks.”
Nick-“We have some live vocals.”
Aria-“We’ll be doing some of the harmonizing vocals in the background for the live singers as well”
Nick-“It’s actually really interesting because most live sets stop in between songs, and that’s actually one of the cooler parts of our sets is that it flows together like a DJ set, we have these really complicated transitions where we’re bringing in, I don’t want to spoil it, but some really really cool songs that we’re kind of re-editing and re-producing as transition songs, so I think there’ll be a lot of surprises and I think it’ll be really interesting to see how the audience reacts to it.”
Q: Nicolas, you also oversee the live visuals? Tell me a little more about this.
Nicolas-“I’ve been doing most of our art direction and our graphic design since we started. And as we tapped into our live set, we’ve been doing a lot of our live visuals and kind of animating our artwork. We’ve been focusing on, it’s almost like these lines of paint and colorful masses so we’re kind of experimenting with that idea with the live visuals, and I think they’re going to be really psychedelic in a way. You know quick moving, it’s going to be exciting, pretty psychedelic actually.”
Aria-“Yeah, exactly. And also we want to make sure that the art kind of tells a story throughout the entire set, as well. Like that whole aspect of Louis Vivet that was really important to us. He has such a fascinating story and we kind of want to bring that to life in our live shows.”
Nicolas-“Yeah, like the art direction will definitely change in color and contrast and probably in shape too as the set progresses. There’s an entire progression to the set that the art will then follow. It’s definitely complicated for us to construct, but I think once the audience sees it it will be a pretty unique experience, hopefully something that no one’s done before.”
Q: Where can we expect to see you guys touring this summer?
Nicolas-“We’re playing San Francisco on May 12 and then we’re playing the following night at Avalon (Los Angeles) with JackLNDN and Luca Lush, both shows, you can definitely see us there. As for the summer we’re going to be making a lot of music, we will be playing a couple shows here and there so stay tuned for that.”
Q: Any other words or messages for the fans?
Nicolas-“We have an incredible catalog of music that we’ve been working so hard on, and we don’t want to spoil it by telling any collabs or featured artists, but I think it’s definitely going to be something to look out for. The new music is something I’m so excited about, as well as the live show.”
Aria-“Yeah, we’re constantly trying to, not re-invent ourselves, but kind of push the boundaries for us, for our music, so we’re really excited for what people are going to hear.”
Nick-“Yeah, we’ve been experimenting with psychedelic rock, a little soul, gospel, trying to bring different genres into electronic music for our future releases. So I’m hoping that everyone is as excited as we are.”
Get your tickets to see Louis Vivet at 1015 Folsom in SF here, get your tickets to see them at Avalon here.
Check out their latest release, “Best Thing” f/ Gavrielle below.
