Sound Advice: Two Friends

Join Two Friends on Sound Advice, the weekly interview series covering artists’ journeys and their creative process. In this episode, we discuss the DJ/producer duo’s Big Bootie mix series, new country-EDM sound, live show and more.

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Welcome to Sound Advice, the series spotlighting artists’ creative process and their SoundCloud journey. We’ll get the inside knowledge straight from the source on how musicians, producers and creatives are leaning into everything SoundCloud offers to elevate their sound, get heard and catapult their careers. Sound Advice is now available in audio format on the SoundCloud Stories profile.

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On this episode of Sound Advice, we talk to Two Friends, the Los Angeles-based DJ/producer duo of Matt Halper and Eli Sones. Matt and Eli met in high school, and were inspired by acts like The Chainsmokers and Avicii, as well as the Sahara tent at Coachella, where they were first exposed to DJ culture on a massive scale. They taught themselves to produce and mix while working on their college degrees, and used SoundCloud to grow their profile through remixes and their in-demand Big Bootie series. These influential mixes have soundtracked many a college rager, with their wild flips of hit songs across genres. 

We caught up with Two Friends in the midst of working on Vol. 28 of the Big Bootie series, and asked them about their production process, the synergy with their live events, how they stay organized, and their foray into mixing country with EDM on their latest EP, ‘Big Boots.’ We also talk about how they use SoundCloud to build an engaged community, and why the platform is their go-to place for music discovery. If you’ve ever wondered how to DIY a career in music from the ground up, Two Friends are here with a roadmap for you. 

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LISTEN TO THE AUDIO EPISODE OF SOUND ADVICE FEATURING TWO FRIENDS

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LISTEN TO ‘BIG BOOTS’ EP BY TWO FRIENDS ON SOUNDCLOUD

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Things We Talked About In This Episode of Sound Advice

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Diversity and Energy in The Two Friends Live Experience

• Two Friends are actively touring right now, and their shows are always put together with the fan’s enjoyment in mind. In recent years, they’ve performed in a floating spaceship, at Coachella and have evolved their famed Big Bootie series into an event series. The series, called Big Bootie Land, features parties across North America. So what can fans expect from a Two Friends show this summer? 
• “We never try to limit ourselves in terms of the music we make or the shows we put on,” says Matt. As part of their latest country-EDM sound, as heard on their upcoming EP, ‘Big Boots,’ the duo have been working on spearheading Big Boots Land in Nashville in December 2026. You can find out more about the event here.
• As long-time fans of country music, they’ve always been curious about working with the sound — and with ‘Big Boots,’ they get the chance to bring these worlds together in a live setting.
• “If you’ve been to a Two Friends show, you know that it’s high energy from start to finish,” Eli says. “We have our own music, remixes, bootlegs, special edits.” Eli goes into more detail about the diversity of the events they’ve hosted, how their music allows for that diversity and what inspires them. 

The County-Dance Sound of Their Latest EP, ‘Big Boots’

• Lately, Two Friends have been experimenting with a blend of country and EDM. The ‘Big Boots’ EP marries storytelling and songwriting from Nashville with their high‑energy dance sound. So how did they come to this blend, and how has working in country music shows them new ways of writing, producing and collaborating? 
• “In country, the song comes first — everything else is behind it,” Matt explains. “So we tried not to overcomplicate it. You want to lean on what makes country great, then blend in dance elements organically. Less is more.” Here, he goes into more detail about the tricks and tips about working between country and dance genres, while bringing out the best in both sounds. 
• One of the most rewarding challenges of the ‘Big Boots’ process has been working remotely with Nashville-based artists. “We met most collaborators in person only when we flew out to film videos,” says Eli. “The trick is blending both genres without neutering either side — you don’t want country fans saying it’s too dancey or dance fans saying it’s too country. We think we’ve found a good balance.” 

Evolving The Two Friends Sound, From College to Coachella

• When they began producing music together seriously in around 2015, Eli and Matt were immersed in “straight up” progressive house, the dominant dance genre of the time. “Everything was 128BPM, with layered, sawed, detuned synths.” Name-checking acts like The Chainsmokers and DJ Snake, who were “breaking down walls” for them, in what electronic music is. “It was like, ‘Whoa, this is just a really good song with dance elements,’ Matt remembers. “That opened the floodgates.” 
• That sonic diversity was a major inspiration for the Two Friends sound. “We’ve always danced with the question of, do we need to figure out our exact sound or tempo?” Matt continues. “And the answer was kind of no.” Whatever the BPM, as long as it feels true and the song’s great, that’s what matters to the duo. 
• Two Friends may have become a serious music duo more than a decade ago, but their friendship goes back much farther. Reflecting on their relationship Matt and Eli talk about how they first met in 2005, in middle school in Los Angeles. Here, Eli talks about how they decided to start making music together right before they attended different colleges, and how so much of their early music-making was done online. 
• “The first four years were pretty much long‑distance,” Eli remembers. “We’d be screen sharing and video chatting, sending stuff back and forth.” During breaks in the semester, they’d work in person, too. This dedicated process meant that as soon as they graduated, they were established enough as Two Friends to devote themselves to it almost full time. 
• Throughout those years, it was a balance of dedication and sacrifice. “To really get good at this, you’ve got to lean full in and love it,” Matt says. “I’d have friends knocking on my dorm door trying to get me to go out, but I was hunched over the laptop grinding.”
• Their earliest experiments were rooted in curiosity. The two started making hip‑hop beats with indie rock samples, which they’d send out to rappers — without much of a response. But the real turning point was discovering EDM at Coachella. As LA natives, the festival has a magical local pull, and they felt DJ culture becoming a bigger part of their musical lives. “We’d camp out all weekend at the Sahara tent watching everyone from Calvin Harris and Zedd to Avicii,” Eli remembers. 
• Here, he reflects on the impact of the music, how it inspired them to make electronic music, and how they used forums, YouTube tutorials and production software to start on their journey as Two Friends. Guiding them was the ambition of playing at the Sahara tent — the pinnacle of “we’ve made it in dance music” for them.

Two Friends on Their Vision Powering the Big Bootie Mixes and Parties

• For many fans, Two Friends are synonymous with the Big Bootie mixes; their marathon DJ compilations that have become a SoundCloud institution. “When we started, we didn’t want to only do mashups,” Matt explains. “But there were cool edits and ideas we wanted to share somewhere.” Realizing that the DJ mix was the ideal format for bringing all of these sketches together, they made ‘Vol. 1’ and dropped it on SoundCloud — and after building up a loyal following for them, the series “just exploded” in 2016. 
• By then, the duo’s skills had sharpened through years of remixing, often topping SoundCloud’s charts. As they explain, the series evolved into technically intricate showcases, blending hundreds of clips and stems. As Eli describes it, it was an “almost industrial‑scale process of creation.” Here, they go into more detail about how they look for music to work into the mixes and how they organize their ideas into the best blends. 
• The crowning moment in the process is Big Bootie Land, a live event that started in 2022 and premieres each new mix. Here, the two get into more detail about how they plan and present these events, and how they function as activations for the mixes while still being a fun and memorable party for everyone to attend.  
• “People are going to be listening to this mix on SoundCloud — pre-gaming, working out, driving — but how do we make everything work for the show?... It’s our biggest show of the year,” Eli enthuses. Here, he explains how the shows come together, all the elements they fold in and how they feel the pressure to elevate Big Bootie Land each year.

Building The Two Friends Universe and Fan Experiences 

• The ever-changing landscape of the contemporary dance music industry means that artists today have to be one step ahead in how they present their work. Being authentic, engaging and memorable is the aim of the game — and Two Friends know it. Here, Matt and Eli discuss how they treat Two Friends as not just a DJ/producer duo, but as a whole “creative world” that can be explored and expanded. 
• One way they do this is through investing “time, money and energy” into their live show. “You’ve got to get Sally from Nebraska, who barely listens to dance music, at your show,” says Matt, “So what does she like?” Figuring out how to appeal to a large, cross-genre audience while still maintaining their signature as artists is the key for them. Here, they get into more detail about their way of thinking. “The Big Bootie mixes lead people to our original music, which brings them to shows, then they buy merch, join the Discord, and meet other fans,” says Eli. “It all feeds each other, it’s one big community.”
• Another key way of building this world around Two Friends is through experimenting with fan engagement tools, from posting remix stems to DMing college groups and livestreaming game shows on social media. “We’ve done Jeopardy streams where we give people $5 for right answers,” Eli laughs. “And at shows, we stay after to take pictures, and post full sets to SoundCloud.” It’s a lot of work, but it all comes down to wanting the fans to feel part of the Two Friends universe. 

Two Friends on SoundCloud and the Art of Community-Building

• Two Friends have been on SoundCloud since the very beginning of their music journey. So how have Eli and Matt used the platform over the years, and what advice would they give to fellow artists about how to use SoundCloud to get their music heard, connect with listeners and grow a fanbase?
• Before you lean into creating a fanbase, says Eli, focus on connecting with your peers, your fellow producers and DJs. “Build that community where you can support each other is so valuable, and it’s fun,” he says. By being active on group chats and email threads, giving feedback, collaborating on and listening to each others’ material, you can learn and grow together as artists. Reposting each other’s tracks is a great way to support each other and generate interest across fanbases.
• Another way to generate real hype is to try and break into a hit track’s virality by making remixes — and if you can be the first remix of that track to take off on SoundCloud, it can bring so many new listeners to your profile, too. And that cuts both ways, as SoundCloud is a critical discovery tool for them. “Every month, we dig through to find new edits and remixes for our live sets,” Eli shares. “It’s how we keep things fresh. You just can’t find that mix of creativity anywhere else [but SoundCloud].”
• After they finished college, they committed to posting one upload — be that a track, a mix or a live recording — to their SoundCloud profile every month, and then “we’d beg our friends to ‘heart’ our tracks,” Matt admits. Once that generated enough buzz on a track: “They’d chart and circulate on the platform. Suddenly, new people discover us organically,” Matt says. 
• Today, SoundCloud remains integral to their workflow – especially the private track feature, which they use to upload their tracks-in-progress and get visualised feedback from their peers, through time-stamped comments. 

What’s Next For Two Friends in 2026

• As they’re getting ready to drop the ‘Big Boots’ EP this May and are in the midst of planning Big Bootie Land, what else are Two Friends looking forward to in 2026? “The list is really endless,” says Eli. They shout out their love for collaboration, and how they’d want to work with bands like blink-182, as well as continuing on their path deeper into the country music world. 
• “We’ve met so many great writers and artists in Nashville already.” Matt says, reflecting on how the country-EDM crossover has tapped into a deeper kind of songwriting for them. “There’s always space for bangers, but the songs we remember years later are the ones that hit you emotionally. That’s where our heart is.”

Links and Extras

Follow Two Friends’ journey on SoundCloud.
Press play on Two Friends’ latest track, “Save A Little Love.”
Hit play on Two Friend’s collaboration with Chris Lane, titled “Under The Table.”
Go back to where it all began with one of Two Friends’ earliest original tracks, 2017’s “Emily.”
Explore some of Two Friends’ influences, including The Chainsmokers, Calvin Harris and Avicii, to name a few. 
Listen to the Club Party Bangers playlist on SoundCloud.
Never miss an episode and follow the official Sound Advice playlist on SoundCloud.

Getting The Most Out of SoundCloud

Learn more about using DMs to connect with fellow artists and potential collaborators.
Learn more about how to make a custom playlist on SoundCloud.
Learn more about unlimited uploads, available with an Artist Pro subscription.
Learn more unlocking access to unlimited distribution, available with Artist Pro.
Learn more about getting heard with SoundCloud’s updated algorithm, available to Artist and Artist Pro subscribers.

To discover additional features a SoundCloud Artist or Artist Pro subscription offers, visit here. To catch up on past installments of Sound Advice and make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, visit here.

_{CREDITS Host: Vivian Host, Executive Producer: Mike Spinella, Producer: KC Orcutt, Audio Engineer: David “DibS” Shackney, Coordinator: Trevor McGee, Editorial Associate: Lauren Martin}

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