Local Americana band Luxxe is gathering national attention as it prepares to open for country big-name Hunter Hayes at Devilpalooza, a free concert for ASU staff and students.
After winning the Devilpalooza Battle of the Bands competition, Luxxe is set to open for Hayes on Feb. 26 at the Sun Devil Fitness Center East Field in Tempe.
As the excitement sets in for their performance, the band’s preparations include listening to Hunter Hayes more often, along with practicing at various rehearsals.
Nullin Hasan, the band’s keyboardist and flute player, is especially excited for the event after acquiring a new keyboard, as he no longer has to rely on a computer onstage.
“This will possibly be the second time I actually play this keyboard live,” Hasan said. “I’ll be able to not have to think about what might go wrong [with the computer]; it’ll definitely be a lot more fun to play.”
Meanwhile, vocalist Anna Philippe has a different reason to be excited for the show, and said she’d initially listened to Hunter Hayes during her first year at ASU. She said it’s like coming full circle now that she’s nearly done with school.
“It’s super cool how if I went back now and told my freshman self that in four years I’m going to be performing on the same stage as Hunter Hayes and opening up for him, I don’t think I ever would have believed myself,” Philippe said.
Tracy Haddad, bassist, hopes to get more ASU followers through Devilpalooza.
“I’m hoping to get our name out there, for a lot more people to know who we are,” she said.
It’s a sentiment shared by Philippe, who said she hopes people enjoy what they hear and decide to get to know them as a band.
“The number one goal is for people to hear our music and to get it out there, since we believe in it so much,” Philippe said.
As for what comes after Devilpalooza, Seth Smades, lead vocalist and guitarist, said they’re participating in various festivals, including the SO WHAT?! Music Festival in Dallas.
“We are also going to be releasing our sophomore EP that we did recently in Atlanta,” Smade said.
Drummer Devon Quartullo said the main focus will be on their new EP coming out, but they are hoping to have success in other ways as well.
“Our next goal is to obviously be on the radio,” he said. “We’ve actually started to make some breakthroughs on the charts.”
In regards to the future, Haddad said, “My personal hope is that we are able to retain our sound and not be pushed too far into the mainstream.”
It is difficult to imagine the band being pushed to the mainstream, however, when their sound is composed by unconventional instruments such as the upright bass and the flute.
“We have all the acoustic stuff, but then we also have some pretty loud, really killer drum stuff and then I’ll put in the electronic production,” Hasan said.
Smades’ vocals, which have a blues-y rasp to them, allow for the folk sound of the band to come through.
“With Tracy’s classical background, she’ll come up with these crazy elaborate scales and it’ll sound so cool. Then Nullin can just play to anything, it’s crazy,” Quartullo said. “It all just comes together.”
With the new EP coming along, Luxxe’s fans can expect a more polished, cohesive sound.
“Now you can tell that each song is a Luxxe song,” Haddad said. “The second one is more colorful and complex, more advanced instrumentation.”
Most of the members agree that the new EP is more of a collaborative project, demonstrating a more definite direction in which the band wants to go.
“You can capture the magic and the sound of Luxxe in this new EP,” Quartullo said.
As for the band’s connection to the Valley, most of the members are natives. Haddad, the only member not from the area, still feels attached to it. In some ways, she likes it more than Thousand Oaks, California, where she’s from originally.
“It’s always going to be home to me,” Smades said.
In fact, the four members native to the area met in high school, and it was there that they began their musical collaboration. Smades, Quartullo and Hasan had been in bands together around that time, while Smades and Philippe met through their high school’s choir. It was through Philippe that the band later encountered Haddad.
The band has grown musically since high school and has become a more cohesive group.
“We’ve all become better players; we’ve become tighter with our sound,” Smades said.
Contact the author at vgrijal1@asu.edu. Contact the columnist at Emily.Liu@asu.edu
