Louis The Child are unquestionably one of the fastest rising stars in the electronic and future bass scene.

The young duo Frederic Kennet and Robert Hauldren got their start in 2014 when they began playing together at small shows. By 2016, they had a hit on their hands with 'It's Strange', a track that saw support from major mainstream artists like Taylor Swift. The track, which was also featured in the wildly successful FIFA 2016 videogame, got the band further recognition, and by 2017, they had embarked on their own world tours, performing with the likes of Madeon and The Chainsmokers. 

Now, the talented young men are looking to take their shows to Southeast Asia for the first time, where they will perform at Good Vibes Festival in Genting Highlands, Malaysia.

Bandwagon had the opportunity to talk to the duo ahead of their SEA debut, where they shed light on balancing school life and music, dealing with the attention at such young ages and more. Check out the complete interview with Louis The Child below. 

Your popularity rose with the release of ‘It’s Strange’ in 2016. How did you react to the song blowing up, and what was it like having one of your songs featured in the FIFA 16 soundtrack?

Frederic: The FIFA soundtrack thing was really cool, we had a lot of people and friends telling us about hearing our songs on the game and they were really excited about it, which made it even more exciting for us. Also that was the first original song that did really well for us: it's a crowd favourite and it's the first song that people really took to, they knew all the lyrics to the song, so it's very special for us. The first time we heard the a cappella version, we flipped out.

Your rise to fame also came at a very young age, when you were both still schooling. How did you deal with the sudden attention? Did that affect your studies or school life?

Robert: Things started to pick up a little more in terms of our music towards the end of high school. We were gone almost every weekend to do shows so we didn't really have that much time on the weekends to relax and hang with our friends, but I think we did a good job of balancing our schoolwork and music until we eventually just had to leave school because the music started taking over too much. It definitely was really cool to be in school but still have that success outside of school at such a young age and to have music that our friends and peers really enjoyed listening to.

You guys went from doing school tours to playing at festivals like Coachella. What did you take away from your early experiences performing?

Frederic: I think the best thing we took away was that we've always had a really fun time, playing to any amount of people in the crowd. Whether there's 10 people or 50,000, we're still having the same great experience all the time. We love performing for people and we love playing our music for people. That kind of takes the forefront over anything else and we just have fun. We don't get caught up in how many people there are in the crowd, that's not our job, that's not our concern. We just love performing.

Robert comes from a rock background and did not like electronic music at first, so how did he eventually develop an appreciation for it?

Robert: Yeah, I really didn't like electronic music ,but I saw that it was becoming really popular and I saw that a lot of kids my age were enjoying it. I figured that I owed it to myself as a fan of music, first and foremost, to give it a chance and to check it out with an open mind. I heard songs by Deadmau5 and Skrillex and I really liked them, so I think I had a really naive approach to what it really was before that and once I truly gave it a chance, it was really cool and I'm glad I did that.

You’ve have collaborated with a lot of artists, the latest being Wafia for the song ‘Better Not’. How do you decide who to collaborate with and how does it carry on from there?

Robert: We've been big fans of Wafia and we happened to get a day in the studio with her, and that's how the song really came together. I think we're always finding new artists to work with. The way we find new artists to work with is, we really have to dig the music that they do on their own, we have to admire what they do and it has to be something cool and interesting, it has to be something we can connect with, as people first, then as artists. I think there's nothing better than finding that link and working with someone whose music you admire.

We hear that you guys are releasing a big album of about 20 songs sometime this year. What can we expect from it?

Frederic: We're not sure if that'll come out this year or next year. All we know is that we're on the right track to making the best possible album we could ever hope of making right now. We're just going to put out as much music as we can for the fans, make sure they never go too long without hearing new material from us. 

You guys will be performing at Good Vibes Festival in Malaysia later this month. How’re you feeling about the show and what can fans who’ve never seen you perform expect?

Robert: They can definitely expect for us to play a lot of our own music, we play a lot of music that they can hear at a Louis The Child show, music that they can't find on our SoundCloud or Spotify, because we have so much of music in the vault that we bring out for shows. We also fill out sets with a lot of reimagining of our own music, so it's always something new. They can definitely expect a good time and a lot of energy from us. At the same time, we're definitely expecting to have a great time, and have a crowd that are fun and energetic. We're excited to come out there, we've never been there before so it'll be a fun new experience. 

Good Vibes Festival 2018 will take place on 21 and 22 July at The Ranch, Gohtong Jaya, Genting Highlands. The festival is open to those aged 18 and above. Tickets are now on sale with Phase 1 passes going for RM 360 (S$121), Phase 2 passes for RM 380 (S$128) and Phase 3 passes for RM 400 (S$135). All passes will include entry to both days. Tickets are be available here.