The five artists behind the West Coast group 45redline, each grew up listening to different music – everything from classic rock and grunge, to early 2000’s nu metal and rap.

Coming into their artistry, they’ve made the unique decision to fuse styles into something innovative; if I could paint a picture, it would look like the Red Hot Chili Peppers had a baby with the Migos and birthed the sound of 45redline. A sound best described as a blend between alternative, rap, and rock music.

The group released its first single in February of 2022, “NIGHTMARE,” a mashup of guitar and electronic beats with some vibey vocals. Followed by two EP’s and nearly a dozen tracks in all.

“Those were teasers,” says Blake Evan, an artist and videographer for 45redline. “They’re really a test to see what it would look like when we put all our music together for the first time. We were really proud of those projects, and I think they resemble what we’ve got going on.”

Other releases include, emo-inspired, “UPSET!”, thus far reaching 14,000 plays on Spotify alone. The Red Sun EP featured, “So Close” and “Death Letter,” featuring mypoorneighbor.  The latest EP, Dark Moon! includes four tracks and another feature from mypoorneighbor and up and coming artist, bats.

“bloodyred6,” from the Dark Moon EP, is a colorful introduction to 45redline. It’s a rage driven track that alternates between screamo and rap.

“It’s a song where we’re laying it all on the line,” says Flam Pkmn, an artist and one of the founding fathers of the group. “The song definitely brings intense vibes; The beat goes crazy. It’s more of a rager, I’d say.”

The origins of the group – which consists of Cole Henry (artist, producer, videographer), Hersadhero (artist), Flam (artist), Duxe Lee (artist), and Blake (artist, videographer, photographer) – dates to late 2019 when Cole and Flam (Founding Fathers) started writing, producing, and recording in some of Sacramento’s hidden gem in-home studios.

As a hobby turned into an undeniable passion, the two began reeling in other friends who shared the same love and ability to make music – including guitarist Miguel Ramirez – and by the middle of 2020, the group took shape and began to focus on developing its sound.

Interest from industry insiders and artists generated some notoriety for the group, and 45redline built on the momentum by working with Grammy nominated and award-winning producers and engineers like MILLION DOLLAR SNARE, Q MADE THE BEAT, J3M Sound, JORGE MARROQUIN and Tatum Martin.

In February of 2022, they signed with independent label PAKKMAN RECORDS.

“We all have our own sense of influence with music and so we each bring something unique to the table with our skillset and influences,” says Flam. “I’m not exactly a lyricist but I can definitely come up with clean bars, hooks, punch lines and definitely direct a beat.”

Blake says, ‘it’s all a huge team effort”. In addition to being one of the artists, he handles some songwriting duties as well as videography, photography, along with managing 45redline’s social media accounts.

Cole is one of the main producers in addition to being an artist and writer. He plays a big part in constructing the structure of their songs and handles the engineering and mixing.

The group’s name was also a collaborative effort: Flam, liked the sound of “45” and another friend liked “redline,” so they put the two together.

45redline is set to drop a full project come this November 2022, featuring new songs with sounds nobody’s heard before.

“We’ve had some snippets on social media but this project doesn’t have any songs people have heard before except one or two,” Blake says. “Most of the new fans won’t recognize it. It’s going to be exciting.”

The group says the sound will be more polished, distinct and unified.

“It’s going to be a real display of what we’ve been working with,” Cole says.

45redline will return to the stage in October for a performance at Kushstock Festival.

Make sure to stay connected to 45redline on all platforms for new music, videos and social posts.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0o1vKOhY268e6gbFFHfndE?si=5FRiVI8CQ3m78k6wqs8VDg&nd=1

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Q6I7XlFa2dYc1h9Rv6Qfg/about

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/45redline

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/45redline/?igshid=1d1lm45vass1z&hl=en

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@45redline

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/45redline?eav=Afb9fuq0F8PVMKRdBNMUuHYvtiv-2OmjXUkLNbswi1hFpJ7MFGehN5PSg1U11kkirzs&paipv=0&_rdr

When it comes to his music, Maurice Carroll has a simple goal.

The Baltimore-based composer and producer has worked with artists who’ve been nominated for – and won – Grammy awards and others who’ve delivered chart-topping hits. He’s toured across parts of the U.S. as well as eastern Europe and in Africa. He coaches other artists to help elevate the independent music scene.

But at the root of it all, Carroll wants to expose more people to house music by combining it with other genres like R&B and hip hop.

“The intent is for people to not pigeonhole dance music for a certain type of person,” he says. “It’s not just for one type of person. I want to make people more aware of it so they can enjoy it more and understand it more.”

For Carroll, it’s as simple as this: house music is easy to move and dance to. With a background in multiple genres, he says this genre is the party genre for him.

“It makes it easy for people to dance and be free of what they might look like when they’re dancing,” he says. “Be free with it. You don’t have to know specific steps and dance moves, you can move freely in it. I’ve also found it’s a controlled musical genre for me. It’s simple to the average listener but it has intricacies that I enjoy and it’s about the placement of those intricacies.”

Beyond just introducing fans of other genres to dance music, Carroll enjoys the difficulty of combining house with those other styles. When he’s mixing with something like R&B, for instance, his music isn’t written and arranged the way a traditional R&B song would be.

“You have to leave enough room on the front and back end for the DJs to blend it,” he says. “Placement for the vocals is important, and even if you’re featuring instrumentalists, where that instrument is being showcased within the song is important and has to be calculated because you have to anticipate what the dancers are doing during that song and not abruptly introduce another element where the listener isn’t prepared for it.”

Carroll has worked with artists like Michelle Weeks, a dance music artist who was a singer in Little Shop of Horrors. He’s worked with Michelle Shellers (vocalist for the electronic hit song “Keep on Rising”), The Floacist (formerly of Floetry), Ruff Endz and more.

He’s been building a buzz with his 2-step mix of “Ooouu Work It” featuring rising hip hop artist Lor Dae. And he recently composed, produced and arranged the dance track “Under My Own Weather” for Carolyn Malachi, a Grammy-nominated artist.

“KP (Kevin Powe Jr.) insisted that she work with me. Then she asked me to produce a song,” Carroll says. “When I sent it back to her, she was really taken aback by what I did. She said it was exactly what she was looking for.”

Malachi sat with the music for a while, wrote to it and then brought Carroll into the studio to hear where she’d taken the project with Grammy-winning and multi-platinum producer and engineer Andros Rodriguez.

After listening to the song, the two asked Carroll for his thoughts. He said it sounded good, but they still sat waiting for his real producer’s response.

“I said okay, can we listen to it again? I have some suggestions,” Carroll recalls. “Let’s move this here, place this here, manipulate it this way. Then we sat back and listened to playback and everybody in the room was like oh, I get it. That’s what we’re hearing as the record has been released, those changes and arrangements are what we hear.”

“Under My Own Weather” appears on Malachi’s new EP, Counter Narratives, which was released Aug. 26 and is available on Apple Music.

Make sure to stay connected to Maurice Carroll on all platforms for new music, videos and social posts.

Website: https://mauricecarroll.net/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO1DqJMN6SssUG3dz2viDTw

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MauriceLCarroll

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mauricelcarroll/