Loud Luxury: how the 'Body' duo became one of Canada's biggest dance acts

"Body on my..."

It's a song that's been unavoidable for the past 15 months. Whether you're strolling through a grocery store or hitting up a club, Loud Luxury's mega-hit "Body" has launched the London, Ont., duo into the dance music stratosphere. And soon, the duo will be bringing its newfound star status back to its hometown when Loud Luxury performs at the 2019 Juno Awards on March 17.

But before the duo hits the big stage, let's get to know Loud Luxury better. After all, you may be familiar with "Body," but who is behind the hit and how did they become one of Canada's biggest dance acts in the short span of a year?

Here is everything you need to know about one of this year's biggest Junos acts.

Who is Loud Luxury?

Loud Luxury is a duo made up of friends, Andrew Fedyk and Joe Depace. The two first met while attending university in London, Ont. After school, they relocated to Toronto briefly before heading out to Los Angeles, where they told Billboard, "Our main hustle was going on SoundCloud all day and messaging artists we were excited about to try and write music together."

Fedyk and Depace's music, which they've described as "deep house with a shot of tequila," is marked by upbeat tempos, and big, bombastic pop choruses. They draw a lot of influence from contemporary dance acts like Disclosure, Deadmau5 and Calvin Harris, but they also really like R&B and hip hop music, having also listed Toronto artists the Weeknd, PartyNextDoor and Drake as influences.

But unlike Harris and another big dance duo, the Chainsmokers, Loud Luxury doesn't plan on singing on its own tracks anytime soon, instead preferring to work with guest vocalists. But if the two ever do take to the mic, they would "definitely need vocal lessons," as Depace told Idolator.

Did they have any music before 'Body'?

Yes. Just before the success of "Body," Loud Luxury had a small collection of songs available on SoundCloud, including "All For You" featuring Kaleena Zanders, "Fill me In" featuring Ryan Shepherd (which was released on Tiesto's AFTR:HRS label) and "Going Under" featuring Borgeous. They also remixed songs by Justin Timberlake and Charlie Puth, and their remix of Martin Garrix and Dua Lipa's "Scared to be Lonely" even got picked up and featured on Garrix's 2017 remix EP.

So how did 'Body' come together?

According to Fedyk and Depace, their daily SoundCloud search led them to an unnamed artist who invited them to the artist's showcase in Hollywood. But when the two arrived early, they were impressed by the opening act, which was a band that included Brando, the singer featured on "Body." "We were so blown away by his voice and performance that we totally forgot to say hi to the artist we actually intended to go see," they told Billboard.

So they reached out to Brando, who showed Loud Luxury a song he was working on called "Body On My." Originally a slowed-down "hip-hop-type, strip-club anthem," the duo liked the vocals but suggested a faster-paced dance version. The result, which took a year-and-a-half to create, is the hit that's playing on radio stations everywhere now.

Loud Luxury's big year

While "Body" was released in October 2017, the track really started building up momentum last year. In March, Loud Luxury was featured on Billboard Dance's Ones to Watch discover series. The two were also performing all over the U.S. and Canada to help promote their single around that time. "If you really want to grind, you have to tour [...] If you want to actually build fans and connect with people then that's how you build it up," Depace told EDM Canada.

By the time summer rolled around, "Body" had well surpassed 30 million streams on Spotify. (The song has climbed past 393 million Spotify streams now and its lyric video has more than 100 million views on YouTube.) Its upbeat sound was tailor-made for the hotter months though, and that is definitely where it thrived. The song was featured on CBC Music's 2018 list of the songs of the summer, and it also earned an iHeartRadio MMVA for song of the summer.

While Fedyk and Depace admit that they didn't expect "Body" to blow up the way it did, they have enjoyed the song's longevity and see this as a sign that they're on the right path, musically. As they told SOCAN, the biggest lesson they've taken away from this experience is to "stick with the songs that feel special to you and your team. Even if no one else believes in it, you're not crazy, and you should fight for what you think the world needs to hear."

The extended run of "Body" on the charts, and the song's continued radio play, may have delayed the release of other singles ("We had releases lined up and then it just kept growing and growing. We are trying to make the most of it," Depace told Idolator) but Loud Luxury did squeeze in two other singles this year.

First, there was "Sex Like Me," released on AFTR:HRS in March, featuring singer Dyson. Then, they teamed up with Mississauga R&B singer Anders to release "Love No More" at the end of August. Interestingly enough, the story of how "Love No More" came together is very similar to "Body": "Anders was working on a slower version of the song that we restructured and brought out the parts we were most excited about," they told Billboard. ("Sex Like Me" now has more than two million views on YouTube, and "Love No More" has raked in 1.6 million views.) 

To cap off 2018, Loud Luxury sold out their Toronto hometown show at Rebel, one of the city's biggest club venues. "Body" also landed the No. 4 spot on Billboard's 30 best dance/electronic songs of the year.

What's next?

In addition to their big Junos performance — they are also up for four Juno Awards — expect Fedyk and Depace to continue putting out music in 2019, but an album or EP may take a little longer. "It's not something that we're really focused on right now," Depace told Idolator. Fedyk adds, "We're just really hungry to establish ourselves first. Once we have a firm footing and people know what we're about, that's when we can start exploring an album a bit more."