Laura Les and Dylan Brady are 100 gecs, the weirdo experimental pop duo “scavenging scraps of musical influences and welding them into dangerous machines”. Born out of Soundcloud, their debut album 1000 gecs, released at the end of 2019, was a total mindfuck of a record. Ten songs across 23 minutes — made mostly over email — it jolted from emo to dubstep to something entirely unheard of before and instantly propelled them to internet fame.
With an official remix album on the way — 1000 gecs & The Tree of Clues, featuring reworks of their music from pals illustrious as Rico Nasty and Charli XCX — their glitchy productions are being soon to be pushed deeper into pop music. Laura reckons the album would be a good soundtrack for Avengers: Endgame.
Currently locked down with their respective partners in different states — Dylan in LA, Laura in Chicago — the childhood friends are taking the pandemic fallout in their stride and keeping busy. “I cannot make songs with people in real life,” says Dylan, “but it is interesting finding new ways to live your life. I’m learning every day!” Laura, meanwhile, has been WFH for a while, but feels that the “general unease has definitely bled into all parts of life at times”. That said, last month the duo managed to produce their very own virtual festival, Square Garden, within the Minecraft world, with sets from Dorian Electra, Cashmere Cat and Danny L Harle. It raised over $50k for Feeding America.
While Dylan doesn’t have any tips for staying sane and keeping creative (“it’s really hard lol”) he’s just aiming to stay happy and healthy and close to the ones he loves the most. Laura, meanwhile, recommends trying to not force yourself to be creative. “Every time I do that I just get frustrated and don’t make anything good,” she says. “Good stuff comes when it’s ready.”
Knowing they’d pull together a fun selection, guaranteed to lift spirits, we asked 100 gecs to curate a self-isolation playlist especially for i-D. “These are songs we’re listening to in a very wild situation,” says Dylan. If you’re into *NSYNC, Soulja Boy, and Kreayshawn you’ll definitely love it. Especially if you consider Cam’ron x Julez Santana’s “Oh Boy”, Uffie’s “Pop the Glock” and Crazy Town’s “Butterfly” to be absolute classics.