T.H.E Interview – Name Unknown

Featuring lush vocals and emotional melodies, “Can’t Forget” by Name Unknown featuring ENMOCEAN is a Future Pop track which immerses the listener into the artist’s world.

We caught up with Name Unknown to learn more about how the track came about, creative process & more.

Aditya – Hey guys, Happy new year! Glad to have you for the interview. How was 2021 for you?

Name Unknown – 2021 Has been a whirlwind. We went through an entire rebrand. We previously went by another name “Famously Hot” which came from the city of Columbia SC’s moto “famously hot but surprisingly cool.” But, we later realized that calling ourselves “Famously Hot” sounds incredibly conceited lol so we decided to change. Plus there were some trademark issues.

Weve landed on the name “name unknown” and we absolutely love it. Plus we completed about 20+ tracks ready for release over 2021 so the next couple of years will be huge.

Aditya – ‘Can’t Forget’ with ENMOCEAN sounds exuberant, what’s the idea behind this track?

Name Unknown – This track started out completely different. It was originally this chill ODEAZA style song that we sat on for years. We sent the song to ENMOCEAN since it was just sitting on a harddrive and he put some work into it. We got it back and fell in love with it. We sat and wrote this about some personal experiences. It’s a song in which everyone can probably relate to. It’s about when your ex contacts you after you’ve already moved on and found new love. The contact brings back all the old memories and causes a whirlwind of emotion and you realize you just “can’t forget” the memories with the ex no matter how much you want to move past them.

Aditya – What’s your creative process like, how do you begin to produce music?

Name Unknown – We try to make a demo a week on our own. Once we hit about 8 demos each, we pick the top few and decide what we want to finish. Then we meet on the weekends to finish those tracks, find singer, songwriting, etc.

Joe is in school and works, Austin works full time, so it’s really just grindin’ whenever we get time. Time is scarce these days so theres very little “routine.” It’s when you have time, do it.

We like to make our process quick and streamlined since we have so little time. So we set how much time per day, put a timer, work for that time, and as soon as that timer goes off, we’re done. No more for that day. It helps train our brains to work quickly and not over think decisions.

Aditya – Who are your influences and why?

Name Unknown – Our biggest influence is by far The Chainsmokers. We’ve been to countless shows of theirs. There was even a time we went to one of their concerts at Social Club in Columbia, SC, way before they got big. I think it was right after “Selfie” came out. We jumped up at the front of the stage to dap them up and accidentally grabbed the table and pulled it back. It slammed forward and the music stopped. We’d love to see if they remember it happening lol.

But what we love about Chainsmokers is their relatability. We really dont want to get stuck into a niche market. We want to connect with anyone who listens. It doesnt have to be the best song youve ever heard, you dont even have to love it, but if it connects wit you in some way and you find appreciation for it, weve done our job.

Other artists we look to are Seven Lions, Two Friends, Illenium, Gryffin and Martin Garrix. Im sure you can hear a little of each in our sound.

Aditya – You’ve worked with a bunch of artists in the past, who’s the most fun to work with and why?

Name Unknown – Our favorite singer we worked with is probably Nate Mitchell or Jaime Durez. They are so incredibly talented and are able to get our idea across so well that its unbelievable.

Our friend Uhlone has been a great help on fine tuning our songwriting, he’s goofy as hell and such a nice guy. Always so willing to help.

Of course ENMOCEAN has been a blast to work with on this song. We used to all live together so working together has been nostalgic to say the least.

The most fun to work with right now is our buddy Candela. We have a number of songs we are wrapping up with him, a few shows, and a festival. We began our career opening for him. We honestly owe him for a lot of our successes.

Aditya – Pros and Cons of being in a duo?

Name Unknown – Pros, Splitting costs is a huge one for sure lol. A big one is that there’s never a lack of inspiration or ideas. One of us is always working on something to move us forward so being in a duo really helps when one of us simply doesnt have time. Plus we are best friends, its nice to have someone to do this with. It can get lonely being solo.

Cons are that we dont live together. So for us to get any media done, content, shows, etc, not only do we both have to be free but one of us needs to travel an hour and a half to the other to get it done. Makes photos, tiktoks and social media in general extremely difficult. We can often but heads on where our expenses go sometimes or creative ideas but we do well to try to keep that minimal.

Aditya – Being in a duo, conflict of interest is bound to happen. How do you cope with that?

Name Unknown – Surprisingly, we don’t have a huge problem with this. We are both really good at compromising on things with each other. But all in all we have very similar taste in music, art, and have very similar thought process on things. We’ve been together with this for 7 years now. There were 3 different times that we were a trio instead of a duo and everytime it was us being on the same page and the third not agreeing. Really the only time we but heads is finances (because we both hate spending our own money) and holding each other accountable. But as far as the artististic stuff, we are honestly super lucky.

Aditya – You’ve recently launched your own NFT, do you think crypto and blockchain technology is the future?

Name Unknown – Joe is a HUGE crypto head. Austin isn’t all that into it. Joe runs his own mining farm, manages a mining business, and invests. He thinks it’s going to be bigger than the internet and that the bubble isn’t even close to “popping.” We are still SO early in the market. We aren’t going to get another investment opportunity like this in probably our lifetime. Just have to have the guts to sit through the low swings.

Our NFT’s haven’t gotten too much traction, but once they sell, they will auto draft 20% of our royalties from our upcoming ep to the holders. So the more holders promote and market us, the more they make!

Aditya – Best part of being in North Carolina?

Name Unknown – Family and friends. We both grew up in the Carolina’s so our entire lives are here. It’s awesome to be able to do this from home near our families. It’s home.

Plus we are huge Gamecock fans, Panther Fans, Hornet Fans, and Hurricane Fans. There’s so many sports teams here and we grew up watching all of them.

Aditya – Lastly, who’s most likely to finish a beer first?

Name Unknown – JOE. Doesnt matter how quickly Austin chugs the beer. Joe wins.
Austin legit never finishes a beer. My man leaves the last like 3 sips every time because he calls it “backwash” lol.