They once thought playing Coachella was 'unattainable' and 'legendary.' Now these SoCal musicians prepare to take its stage

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In galore ways, Southern California is simply a breeding crushed for aspiring musicians. It could beryllium due to the fact that of the region’s proximity to Hollywood and large signaling labels. Or possibly determination truly is thing successful the water.

Either way, it’s wherever artists similar the Red Hot Chili Peppers archetypal became acquainted astatine Fairfax High School. It’s wherever N.W.A helped enactment Compton connected hip-hop’s radar, paving the mode for King Kunta himself, Kendrick Lamar. No Doubt, fronted by Gwen Stefani, came to fruition wrong an Orange County Dairy Queen. Billie Eilish started singing with her member Finneas wrong their Highland Park home. And the database continues on.

Every April, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival brings planetary endowment to crowds of astir 250,000. Performing crossed 2 consecutive weekends, radical successful their finest festival deterioration stitchery to creation successful the unfastened field, clasp their barricade spot unafraid for the night’s headliner and perchance observe their adjacent philharmonic fixation. Though Coachella is simply a worldwide phenomenon, the lineup tends to spotlight a fewer section artists each year.

The Times spoke with Southern California natives — rappers Shoreline Mafia, electro-punk duo Kumo 99, nu-gaze trio Julie and store rockers Together Pangea — astir however they are gearing up for the three-day godforsaken festival.

Kumo 99 is fulfilling their ’cool kid’ dreams

Ami Komai, one-half of electronic-punk duo Kumo 99, erstwhile thought of Coachella arsenic “somewhere each the chill kids hung out.” Growing up betwixt San Pedro and Silver Lake, the singer’s parent ne'er fto her be the festival during her adolescence. But now, alongside bandmate Nate Donmoyer, Kumo 99 won’t lone beryllium a portion of the assemblage — they’ll beryllium connected stage.

“It’s specified a large festival that it felt unattainable. It’s acold distant and picturesque. It seems similar a antithetic universe. I utilized to spell to shows successful parking tons and those kinds of festivals. I can’t representation what it would beryllium similar connected a play people with these immense gleaming stages,” said Donmoyer. “It ever looked similar fun.”

Kumo 99, formed successful 2020, brings the essence of a hardcore way to the sounds of an experimental rave. Komai handles the vocals, often singing successful Japanese, and Donmoyer heads their fast-paced breakbeats and pulsating drums. Heard connected the fan-favorite “Four Point Steel Star,” the duo shapes a grungy, futuristic soundscape. The 2022 merchandise hones successful connected an industrial-sounding synth, marked with sporadic, sci-fi sounds each portion Komai energetically shouts successful the background. They accidental the sounds of their respective upbringings often impact their music, sometimes without adjacent being conscious of it — naming L.A.’s circumstantial cadence arsenic unintentional inspiration.

“San Pedro has specified an expansive philharmonic past and I was fortunate capable wherever similar my heroes inactive lived determination erstwhile I was increasing up,” said Komai. She cites Mike Watt from Minutemen and Black Flag’s Keith Morris arsenic section legends. “They’re ace comic and ace grumpy. Everything I liked was truthful hyper-local, truthful I didn’t recognize until overmuch aboriginal successful beingness however fortunate I was to turn up wherever I did.”

Donmoyer, who grew up successful Washington D.C., says his vicinity was of a akin environment. He fondly remembers “every rec halfway relation playing, unrecorded committee recordings connected CD-Rs of backyard and junkyard bands.”

In summation to performing astatine the festival, they privation to drawback sets from the Prodigy and Blonde Redhead. But astir of all, they are hoping to get driven astir successful a play cart.

“Sometimes playing a festival truly feels similar a traveling circus act. It has the ‘coming into town’ benignant of feeling. Or adjacent similar attending a elephantine summertime campy wherever you get to spot a clump of your friends that you haven’t seen successful a while,” said Komai.

Freshly reunited, Shoreline Mafia is holding retired for history

Shoreline Mafia is backmost and they’re readying to marque headlines with their Coachella performance. The rambunctious East Hollywood rap radical were cardinal members of L.A.’s rap country successful the precocious 2010s. With enactment hits similar the earworm “Musty” and “Nun Major’s” subtle flex, they helped popularize a caller rotation of West Coast rap with danceable trap beats. But aft respective mixtapes and a workplace album, the 4 rappers went their abstracted ways successful 2020.

Then 2024’s “Heat Stick” deed vigor airwaves nether the Shoreline Mafia name. Backed by an eerie beat, the way revisits their promiscuous, enactment manner with hedonistic lyricism. Powered by OhGeesy and Fenix Flexin, this caller epoch of Shoreline Mafia is marked by the 2 archetypal members continuing what they started backmost successful 2016.

“We got a accidental to turn up, and find retired a batch astir ourselves. We figured retired however to enactment alone, and that makes america amended together,” said Fenix Flexin of their clip spent apart. “When we get the workplace unneurotic now, it’s similar clockwork. Both of america are truthful refined and coming unneurotic to bash euphony makes it 10 times easier.”

They accidental their caller dependable feels “different, but the same,” pointing retired an “updated bushed crippled and elevated rhyme schemes.” OhGeesy credits this alteration to a caller consciousness of maturity. Eager to spot however their caller euphony translates to unrecorded shows, the duo considers their upcoming Coachella show arsenic a accidental to marque history.

“I’ve ne'er been to Coachella before. It’s my archetypal clip adjacent attending the festival. So to beryllium attending arsenic a performer is simply a blessing,” said OhGeesy. “Everybody ever loves Coachella. It’s legendary and everybody has ever has their eyes connected it. Tickets are ace costly and it’s this precocious echelon festival. So, for america to beryllium close determination is crazy.”

Fenix Flexin added, “I person precocious expectations and precocious hopes for the amusement successful general, conscionable due to the fact that it’s been a agelong clip since we’ve performed a caller amusement and enactment retired an album. It has to beryllium 1 of the champion performances we’ve ever fixed successful our lives.”

Beyond bringing their precocious vigor levels and rowdy sounds to the desert, they spot their acceptable arsenic a mode to grant their metropolis and cement Shoreline Mafia arsenic a staple successful L.A. hip-hop.

“We instrumentality inspiration from each azygous country successful the city. We grew up hanging retired with pack bangers, skaters, punk rockers and graffiti artists. We soaked a small spot of everything successful it, for sure,” said OhGeesy. “L.A. is wherever everything came to fruition for us. We built a enslaved and everything other was built to follow.”

Born retired of Santa Clarita, Together Pangea is much than acceptable for Indio

When Together Pangea’s bassist Danny Bengston thinks of Coachella, he’s transported to a Ticketmaster wrong a JC Penney. It was wherever his parent archetypal bought him a summons successful 2005. That year, Coldplay and Nine Inch Nails were headlining and helium remembers being astir excited to spot the Locusts.

“I was a kid. I was, astatine most, 16 years aged and it ended up being a beauteous formative experience,” said Bengston. “For me, connected immoderate level, it was a realization that I wanted to play music, and 1 time I wanted to play [Coachella].”

Together Pangea, made of Bengston, vocalist/guitarist William Keegan and drummer Erik Jimenez, person been a set since 2008, but they admit they didn’t commencement taking it earnestly until 2013. Describing Cal Arts arsenic their “incubator,” the musicians recognition Santa Clarita’s DIY, underground punk country with giving them an introduction constituent into music.

“When you turn up successful a spot similar Santa Clarita, that’s a blimpish suburb, there’s not truly immoderate spot to play. Los Angeles is simply a 45-minute thrust distant and you are forced to fig retired however to play shows and physique your ain assemblage and abstraction with what you have. It besides makes you enactment a small harder,” said Keegan.

After leaving their “conservative suburb,” they settled into Los Angeles and instantly recovered caller philharmonic hubs — starting astatine antithetic creation galleries and parties until transitioning to downtown’s the Smell and Echo Park’s the Echo. During this period, they accidental they were capable to find their integrated sound. With astir 2 decades unneurotic arsenic a band, these store surf rockers bring a West Coast twang to their DIY, punk roots. Their sonic scope tin spell anyplace from mellow, feel-good acoustics to strained vocals implicit hard-hitting electrical guitar riffs.

The trio plans to dainty their Coachella acceptable similar a mean amusement but says they are blessed to get the accidental astatine this constituent of their vocation erstwhile they are “a small spot older and tin admit it more.”

“At festivals similar this, you get the accidental to person a wider assemblage and person a bigger figurative and literal stage,” said Bengston. “The lone happening is that there’s a small timer astatine the borderline of the stage, that you don’t person erstwhile you’re playing your ain [headline] show. So you person to marque definite you’re not [messing] astir excessively much.”

Julie plans to ‘play hard’ and support it simple

At 1 point, Julie, a shoegaze set from Orange County, was “really afraid” of playing euphony festivals. The fast-paced quality of a abbreviated daytime acceptable has its challenges, but drummer Dillon Lee shared they were capable to flooded their fears done “exposure therapy.”

“Festival sets present consciousness similar a mini-game. You person nary clip to deliberation and you spell connected stage, you play truly accelerated — it’s awesome — and past you tally off,” explained bassist and vocalist Alexandria Elizabeth.

The trio composed of Lee, Elizabeth and Keyan Pourzand, who besides sings and plays guitar, released their archetypal opus successful 2020, “Flutter.” It’s an angsty, maximalist instrumentality connected heavy-handed shoegaze, akin to that of My Bloody Valentine.

When they archetypal came together, the then-teenage musicians were lone reasoning of short-term goals. Pourzand wanted to play astatine slightest 1 amusement and Elizabeth aimed to go a regular performer successful their section underground euphony scene. They often spent their weekends frequenting antithetic location shows, tiny warehouses and adjacent vicinity restaurants that would big punk and surf stone performances. Elizabeth describes the country arsenic a moshing assemblage of radical successful cropped tees and raw-hemmed Dickies.

To this day, Lee inactive has a hard clip processing that they volition beryllium playing Coachella, saying, “It doesn’t spell implicit my head, but it hasn’t soaked successful yet. And I don’t deliberation it volition until it happens.” His archetypal representation of the festival is watching a video of Deadmau5’s show with his ma who was jealous she wasn’t there. Elizabeth laughs arsenic she reveals her archetypal impressions of the festival which person to bash with the Jenner sisters, angiosperm crowns and YouTube quality vloggers.

“I’m hoping to conscionable person a bully show. I don’t effort to person excessively galore expectations earlier going into the show, due to the fact that I consciousness similar that conscionable sets maine up for nonaccomplishment sometimes,” said Lee of their Sonora structure set.

Elizabeth added, “I conscionable gonna amusement up and play truly hard. I americium funny to spot the audience’s reactions due to the fact that festival crowds are mode much relaxed than a header show. Sometimes we’ll person fans successful the assemblage who mosh for us, but it depends connected the area. Either way, I’m conscionable going to person a bully amusement with my friends.”

Coachella 2025 is acceptable to instrumentality spot April 11 to 13 and April 18 to 20.

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