Cody Cordova was born and raised in East Sacramento before deciding to move to Los Angeles to live out his passion of becoming an electronic dance music artist. At just 9 years old, Cody began getting involved in music through being a classically trained violinist and played for the Sacramento Youth Symphony. Although violin was not Cody’s true passion, it allowed him to develop an appreciation and love for music. A couple of years later when Cody was 14, his older brother introduced him to FL Studio and taught him how to make hip-hop beats. After Cody began producing hip-hop beats, he began focusing on dubstep and other forms of electronic dance music. When Cody moved to Los Angeles after college his best friend became his manager and began introducing him to the full spectrum of electronic dance music.
Cody’s manager and best friend began introducing him to late-night warehouse parties that typically played tech-house and techno all night long. Even though Cody was primarily a dubstep producer at the time, his love for tech-house began to grow. Cody has never backed down from experimenting between genres, which has allowed him to dip his foot into the genre of tech-house by releasing his debut tech-house release, ‘Kitty City.’ With the release of ‘Kitty City,’ the former dubstep producer has effortlessly transitioned into the world of tech-house. This is how Cody described his transition from dubstep to tech-house,
“For me, there’s no better feeling in the world then seeing others dance to my music. It gives me the type of joy I imagine a father feels when seeing their child walk for the first time. Thus birthing the rebrand of “CODY CORDOVA” from heavy dubstep to groovy tech house. While the transition took some time, I am now confident I understand the genre because of the research I did into its history, and by meeting other inspiring tastemakers currently driving their own tech house movements and learning from them.”
Cody Cordova was able to premiere the release of ‘Kitty City‘ via Insomniac TV’s ‘We Love House,’ powered by EDM Maniac on Thursday, May 13 alongside performances from Mary Droppinz & No Pants Party. This will not be the only time that Cody Cordova will be able to rinse his debut tech-house tune within the next couple of weeks, as the same lineup for the Insomniac TV and EDM Maniac ‘We Love House’ event will also be featured at EDM Maniac’s event, ‘Midnight Frequencies’ at the W Hollywood hotel on Friday, May 14. Following ‘Midnight Frequencies,’ Cody will get to play ‘Kitty City‘ live once more in Cabo, Mexico before closing out the massive release at the end of the month.
We were able to catch up with Cody this past weekend to discuss his career, inspiration, and more before he embarked to Cabo to further promote his recent tech-house release, ‘Kitty City,’ which can be viewed below.
EDM Maniac: How did you start getting into producing music? What about producing music was interesting to you? Tell us the story of how your brother first introduced you to FL Studio?
Cody Cordova: Music has always been a part of my life ever since a young age. I grew up playing the violin and was enthralled by composers like Vivaldi, Paganini, and Bach. I found it so riveting that sound could evoke such powerful emotions in people. The desire to create paralleled my desire to play. I remember this program that I used to play with that would allow me to score my own sheet music and play the audio back to me. It wasn’t until I was 14 years old when I came across a particular computer program called FL Studios that my older brother was using to make beats on. I was immediately hooked from just watching and observing what he did. He helped me download it onto my computer and that was game over. I first started out making hip hop beats as that was what I was just wanting to tap into on my beginning creative side. I really enjoyed that I could make anything that I wanted, and quickly realized that it would be a lot of work to actually be able to transfer an idea from your mind onto an actual DAW. Thus the grind began and I just started making as much music as I could and also challenged myself to push forward new ideas by trying out different genres. 11 years I have spent making whatever I so pleased. However, I found my calling when I experienced Tech House blasting on a proper sound system in a late-night warehouse party in LA. I was immediately keen on the idea of creating music that people could actually dance to. As a former dubstep producer, I enjoyed headbanging but from a dancer’s standpoint that only goes so far. There is so much more movement-wise you can do to house music. That drive to make people dance is what fuels my music today. There is no better feeling than seeing people dance to your own original creations.
EDM Maniac: What did you enjoy most about first learning how to produce music? What about making music made you realize, ‘this is what I want to do?’ How did you start setting yourself apart from everyone else at such a young age?
Cody Cordova: I really enjoyed the total control you have a music producer to create quite literally anything you want. When I open up my FL Studios I feel like a painter with a blank canvas. I have an unlimited array of colors and techniques I can use to conjure up a beautiful piece of art. In the beginning, I really enjoyed being able to make something that I myself liked, and felt comfortable playing to my friends. I realized I wanted to really make music when I played my first show in LA and witnessed people experiencing pure joy and dancing to my original tracks. I was hooked from that point on. I did my research on everything music including music history, pop culture, obscure sub-genres, and origins of sound. I made sure to understand the roots and origins of what I was creating. I always wanted to create from an informed position instead of create blindly, which is not necessarily a bad thing I just wanted to be cultured in the music styles I was producing at the time. I would interact and engage with my favorite artists and always ask questions to better my craft. I never got bummed out by my mistakes, I instead felt inspired and wanted to learn more and do more.
EDM Maniac: What made you want to move out to Los Angeles? Did you have any friends or family who helped push you along the way? Who or what motivated you to continue your musical journey at a young age? What motivates you both personally and professionally?
Cody Cordova: Actually, the reason why I moved to LA is extremely ignorant and a crazy story. Long story short, I grew up in the hood and some hoodrat activities went down resulting in me going to spend time with my older brother in LA. What was supposed to just be a little getaway ended up with me not wanting to leave. I loved the LA music scene. It was way more diverse and larger than Sacramento, especially for the type of underground dubstep I used to listen to. Obviously, my mom knew I found my passion down here and didn’t stop me. My older brother Kyle has always supported me in everything that I do and I reciprocate the love. I look up to my older brother a lot and view him as one of the most important people in my life. He would always encourage me and push me to my limits. It was pretty wild when I got so good at FL Studios that after some time I started to show HIM tips and tricks I learned on my own. While he made music as a hobby, I made it my reality and he always supported me with it. The drive to want to impress my brother and myself is what motivates me daily. Also, I get extremely motivated by the winnings and successes of my friends and family. Seeing my fam win makes me want to work even harder so I can make them proud!
EDM Maniac: What about producing music makes you the happiest? What part makes you the least happy, if any? What genres of music do you enjoy producing the most? Why were dubstep and hip-hop your primary genres of music you chose to first produce?
Cody Cordova: The happiest feeling ever like I mentioned above is seeing people dance carefree to your music. You provided them a moment of pure ecstasy, not a single ounce of doubt or responsibility lingers in their mind just pure freedom and love. I love people! So being able to do that created a passion within me like no other. I can’t say I dislike anything about creating music. Even the hard strenuous tasks are always challenging my brain and making me come up with new solutions to different approaches. I absolutely love producing all genres of music but I have an innate calling to house music for some reason. I wonder if it’s because that’s the genre I kind of ignored for most of my production life. I literally made everything else except house music. I feel that my past knowledge of producing made it easy to transition into producing house music because it wasn’t necessarily much of a change but more of a new way of thinking. All music is relatively similar, but also vastly different. I made rap beats because I enjoyed recording raps with my friends. I always loved being able to include my people in my music-creating process by either recording vocals or sampling their voices. I happened to stumble upon dubstep as that was the first genre of EDM I really dived into. I loved the wonky, psychedelic but aggressive noises. The sound design is what sold me. I would have so much fun using digital synthesizers to create wild sounds. I’m sure by now you can notice a common theme: I love when you have the ability to do anything. It entices me.
EDM Maniac: When you moved out to Los Angeles and started experiencing warehouse parties, what made you realize you wanted to produce tech-house tracks? Have you always thought you wanted to produce music for this genre?
Cody Cordova: Everybody was dancing all night long. I’ll say that again: EVERYBODY WAS DANCING ALL NIGHT LONG. With dubstep, you’ll probably perish if you dance the whole time, haha, but with house, you can move and groove the whole night. People’s passion is what really sold me at the first warehouse show I went to. I wanted to tap into that ability to be able to give people pure bliss for an hour while they’re on the dance floor. And to be honest, I had no idea what any of this music was. I was a complete noob. I had to teach myself everything. I started by researching the origins, listening to pioneer artists, and consuming as many mixes as I could. Watching documentaries helped me understand what house music was all about. Learning the history honestly helped the quality of my production.
EDM Maniac: What has the process been like transitioning from producing dubstep/hip-hop to tech-house. What do you enjoy or not enjoy? What are you looking forward to the most about producing music in an entirely new genre?
Cody Cordova: The process has been a super fun one! I am always down for a challenge and to give me something new to stimulate my mind. I’m an avid thinker, so mental exercise is my favorite. I found that coming from dubstep/hip-hop made it easier for me to create fat house basslines. I enjoy being able to quickly throw down a groove and build a song around it. That’s probably from the hip-hop side of me were creating a beat quickly was beneficial for the rapper or singer. One thing that did hold me down at first though was overcomplicating things. With dubstep, you have to design the sounds and that can get very intricate. So in the beginning I found myself “doing too much” with my house tracks and it would sound like a bunch of noise. So I made myself simplify my approach, and learned how to make bangers without overthinking them. The most important thing I’m looking forward to when creating Tech House is all the wonderful remixes I can make from old hip hop/dubstep tracks. I can blend my past into my future and create something new for everybody to enjoy.
EDM Maniac: Has the transition from producing dubstep/hip-hip to tech-house brought on any challenges? If so, what? Do you think you will produce music for any other genre of music? If so, which genre?
Cody Cordova: The only challenge it brought on is me constantly leveling up so every song I make is better than the last so it makes it hard to choose future releases when I know I could always pull up FL and make a new song that’s better than all the potential contenders. I have a completely open-minded view when it comes to music. With my Cody Cordova project I will mainly be sticking to tech house, and some techno, but that won’t stop me from creating other genres. I treat making others genres as practice for my production skills as it will always make you a better producer and in turn help me make better house music tracks.
EDM Maniac: What did you do during quarantine to further develop yourself both personally and professionally? What did you do to improve your tech-house production?
Cody Cordova: During quarantine, I practiced, practiced, practiced. I had free time and didn’t have to work so I didn’t waste my time. I would either be producing music, DJ’ing or doing research on music production/theory. This time was tough on us all but got to really show you who you are. I embraced myself and worked harder than ever. I feel I learned more this past year than I ever have in my entire life. Every day I’m always learning and I think that learning is one of the greatest gifts humans have. I would watch tutorials from YouTube every day and quickly go into FL Studios to practice what I learned. You gotta apply what you learn or else you will let it go to waste. So much practice and doing helped me really hone my skills.
EDM Maniac: How excited are you to be performing at festivals again this year? What can we expect from Cody Cordova in 2021? What can fans look forward to this year?
Cody Cordova: I’m beyond excited! I can’t wait! Honestly, I haven’t been to many music festivals. I’ve been to 2 EDC’s and 1 Beyond Wonderland. My brother said something to me a couple of years back that really stuck with me. He introduced the idea of not wanting to go to a festival until you’re playing one. So I took that as a challenge and just worked on my craft. I have so many unreleased songs in my arsenal I’m ready to show the world my creations. My fans will be in for a treat this year as I shower them with new music, music videos, and visuals. Rumor has it I might be starting an entire universe, but that’s a secret for now.
EDM Maniac: What has been your favorite festival moment to date? A moment that you will remember for the rest of your life?
Cody Cordova: Favorite is a loaded word because every moment I’ve ever had at a music festival was my favorite, to be honest. But I can tell you a very funny and specific incident I remember off the top of my head. At Beyond Wonderland I was with my friends Walt and Shaq. We were dancing at one stage having a good time when we met some cool girls also vibing out. Walt said he had to go to the bathroom, so we said we’d wait for him. I think we went to go look for him instead of staying where we were and we ended up losing him! We went the entire rave without him. His phone was dead and we had no way to contact him. It wasn’t until the last 15 minutes that we found him dancing on a hill. He was of course a little upset but didn’t mind as he had made a ton of new friends and got into wild adventures himself. I’ve heard many a story of people losing their friends or themselves getting lost and having a wonderful time because of the loving nature of the EDM community. Everybody is so caring and always looking out for each other. That’s also one of the main reasons why I enjoyed getting into EDM and house music. The vibe of the people was love.
EDM Maniac: Anything else you would like to tell your fans?
Cody Cordova: I do it all for you. The feeling I get seeing y’all dance to my music is like no other I can even describe. I don’t do it for the money, or the fame I do it because I want to make you dance and have a good time. Life is hard, and I want to be able to give you a chance to just forget about it for a little bit and move your feet to the beat. I have so much in store for every single one of yall I can’t wait. I love you all and wish the best of health to you and your families.
Listen to Cody Cordova’s debut tech-house release, ‘Kitty City‘ here, or watch the official music video above.
Make sure to follow Cody Cordova on Soundcloud, Instagram, Twitter, and his website to stay up to date on future releases.
