Q&A: Two Friends Release New Hit “More Than Yesterday” With Russell Dickerson and Talk About This Year’s Special Big Bootie Land
MATT HALPER AND ELI STONES ARE JUST TWO FRIENDS — the Two Friends who have amassed over 1.5 million monthly Spotify listeners and just had their debut Coachella performance last month. But they are also the two friends who met in middle school, only to become producers in high school and the masterminds behind all 22 volumes of Big Bootie Mix. The duo, who go by Two Friends, created each volume to be approximately an hour long. Each Big Bootie Mix combines perfectly chosen popular songs from a range of genres in a timely manner that keeps you on your toes and exhilarated, making them a hit of their own. The 23rd volume of Big Bootie Mix will be heard for the first time during the duo’s festival, Big Bootie Land, making this year's their most special one yet.
While the festival takes place on June 2 in Chicago, their fans don’t have to wait that long to hear some of their new music. The duo also released a new song today, “More Than Yesterday,” featuring country-pop sensation Russell Dickerson. The extremely catchy song combines Dickerson’s deep voice with artful production and loving lyrics, creating the perfect song for the summer.
“More Than Yesterday” can’t help but make you feel good. It’s a song you’ll want to dance to and blast with windows rolled down.
Read below to learn more about Two Friends’ newly released track, as well as how the two friends from middle school became known for their Big Bootie Mixes.
LUNA: Firstly, I wanted to say a huge congratulations for your debut Coachella performance this April. What was the experience like for you both?
TWO FRIENDS: It was a dream come true, honestly. Our whole team put in so many hours prepping for it, and it ended up surpassing all our expectations. The two of us first started falling in love with dance music back in high school when we'd come to Coachella, and we'd spend most of our time in the Sahara tent, so to be able to play in the Sahara tent almost 15 years after the first time we went was such a special full-circle moment.
LUNA: Your Big Bootie Mixes are some of your most popular projects, with millions upon millions of streams on SoundCloud and YouTube. How does it feel to know that what you’ve created has been listened to by such a large number of people?
TWO FRIENDS: It's definitely something we never try to take for granted. Honestly, it motivates us to work even harder and do our best to try to make each new one better than the previous ones. But it's been awesome to see listeners from so many settings — whether it's someone working out in the gym, on a road trip, doing schoolwork, at a pregame, etc. etc.!
LUNA: You have a new song coming out featuring Russell Dickerson on May 10, titled “More Than Yesterday.” What can you tell us about how this song came to be?
TWO FRIENDS: We cannot wait for this one. It really feels like it will be a song we play at all our shows for years to come and hopefully have everyone sing along. We actually started writing this song last year on our last tour, The Adventureland Tour, while we were in a random hotel in Memphis on an off day. We got connected with Russell, and when we found out he wanted to jump on it, it was of course a no-brainer. His voice is so magical, and he's such a great guy. Very excited to do this one live with him at a couple of our Planet Two Friends shows!
LUNA: Rumor has it that you will be sharing Big Bootie Mix, Vol. 23 for the first time during Big Bootie Land, your festival in Chicago, on June 2. After releasing so many volumes of Big Bootie Mix, has your approach to making new mixes changed over the years?
TWO FRIENDS: Yes, the second-ever Big Bootie Land festival is happening in June and it's definitely gonna be a highlight of the whole year! I think our approach has actually stayed relatively consistent — it's all about presenting familiar, sing-along songs in creative and fresh ways. So really the main things that have changed are [that] we spend more time fine-tuning everything now, and we have higher standards for what makes it into the final mix.
The other main factor, now, is thinking about how to make sure the whole Big Bootie Land experience will be memorable for everyone who attends in-person or joins virtually, rather than the mix only living online as audio only.
LUNA: Each Big Bootie Mix is around one hour — how do you know when you are finished with a mix?
TWO FRIENDS: We usually actually go over an hour in the first drafts of the mix — intentionally — and then we choose a couple parts that feel like they aren't quite doing it for us and “trim the fat,” so to speak.
LUNA: When it comes to listening to and creating mixes, what are the key things you listen for that make a mix good?
TWO FRIENDS: I think one of the biggest things for us is trying to make things feel “different.” So for example, if you take a pop vocal and put it over a different pop instrumental, it may sound decent sonically, but it's not necessarily creative or memorable. But if you take an acoustic rock song and put it over an anthemic dance instrumental, sometimes that's where you hit the sweet spot. If it sounds good, feels unique, and gets the energy up... that's a winning combo.
LUNA: Do each of you have a favorite Big Bootie Mix? Why is it your favorite?
TWO FRIENDS: The upcoming one, Volume 23. And we promise that's not a cop-out answer.
LUNA: You two have known each other since middle school and have been creating music since high school. How has growing up together shaped the music you make together?
TWO FRIENDS: I guess we don't really have anything to compare it to, but it feels like the main two things are we can keep things fun and we can keep things efficient. Fun because we're still in the same basement that we used to have sleepovers and video games in... Now we've built it out into our studio, but it still often feels like we're just hanging out doing what we love. And efficient because we know each other so well. We know which things we should do together, which we should do independently, and it feels like we always know what the other person is thinking without even having to say it.
LUNA: From making music together in high school to having a residency at Wynn’s XS Nightclub and Encore Beach Club and millions of monthly listeners on Spotify, what are your next goals as artists?
TWO FRIENDS: Playing Coachella was definitely a big milestone for us — in a lot of previous interviews we would say that was a big goal of ours. And now that that's in the rearview, we need to find a few more tangible goals! Right now, the goals are a little more abstract: keep improving with the music, keep improving with the touring, and just keep growing and reaching new people! The magic formula the whole time has been extremely simple: have fun and work hard. If we stick by that, the sky is the limit.
LUNA: You are currently on tour traveling across the US. What is your favorite moment of tour so far?
TWO FRIENDS: We played a show in Hawaii a few weeks ago and that was incredible. Not only was the crowd amazing, but we got to stay for the whole week. Nothing like working on music with your best friend right by the beach in paradise!
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