I recently had the amazing opportunity to meet up with one of my favorite upcoming artists, The Dean’s List, at Denver University. I had the rare chance to see them perform live, meet them backstage, and then conduct a brief interview with them offstage.
I’m not sure how to convey to everyone just how cool these guys are. I met them backstage before the show, and they were energetic and truly in the zone. Their performance was absolutely amazing, opening with The Beast and finishing with the amazing track off The Drive In, Dear Professor (this doesn’t include the crowd chanting for an encore, at which point they played Caveman). Throughout the show Sonny Shotz and Alex Mendoza carried an energy and enthusiasm so genuine, and so real, that it truly lit the audience up and got the whole room moving. Sonny wasn’t shy with the crowd, often jumping off stage to get right up among the fans to rap along to hits like No Sleep and K2YL.
After the show, we walked with Sonny Shotz, Alex Mendoza, and their touring manager, Ralph, to an off-set greenroom for the interview. During the entire walk there, the guys were conversational, laid back, and clearly still on an energetic high from their performance. Sonny asked genuine questions about myself and Condor, my partner, and carried a very real and unpretentious conversation.
This, kollectors, is very rare. I was more than impressed with Shotz’s and Mendoza’s answers to my questions, but I was perhaps even more impressed with their dedication to my interview and the way that they shut out everything else to really pay attention to the way that they answered the questions. Here is a group of young people, ready to start their own night of partying after a show, telling their friends to leave the room and give us some quiet to conduct the interview – that’s impressive.
The Dean’s List was professional, and showed class, and I truly respect these guys’ willingness to work with me, as The Kollection, to share their thoughts and insight to their music with tens of thousands of our fans here on the site.
With this in mind, below is the interview I conducted with The Dean’s List (Mik Beats not present). This interview was audio recorded and then transcribed. I have kept the conversational quality of the interview in tact, and the following interview should be read as such, however I must disclose that minor edits have been made for the sake of readability and clarity.
I hope that the following interview will shed some light on The Dean’s List, their work as artists, and their amazing music that they have been sharing with the world.
The Interview
What artists artists have influenced you and helped to give you your style?
Sonny Shotz – Bob Dylan. He’s a great rapper (laughs).
Alex Mendoza – Influence, as a producer, I mean like classics, like Quincy Jones, or even Timbland I like. He’s more of that poppy, mainstream sound. I think what’s really key though is an artist like Kanye, who’s able to develop his sound over a period of time, ya know, whether it’s Graduation to 808s & Heartbreak, he’s just able to switch up everything and still have that Kanye style, and still have that sound. That’s where I wanna be as a producer.
What’s your favorite kind of music? More poppy, or laid back?
Alex Mendoza – I don’t listen to any really pop stuff actually, I listen to a lot of classical. I do like Kid Cudi, you know, shit like that. I really try to shy away from listening to what’s on the radio. It’s one thing if you’re at a party, but I’m not into the top 40 shit, not for me.
Sonny Shotz – I’m a huge Jay Z fan. Bob Dylan. Love Bob Dylan.
Alex Mendoza – Beatles.
What happened with Jordan Brown, your fourth collaborator back in 2010? What’s the full story?
Sonny Shotz – He was like a strong feature, it wasn’t really like a group kind of thing, but he was a strong feature.
Alex Mendoza – We’re all friends.
We have lots of emails coming in from users looking at which tools to use for production. Mendoza, what do you use during your production and sets?
Alex Mendoza – All Logic Pro. Always. That’s all it is. I make the beats in Logic Pro, the mix in Logic Pro. A lot of plugins from Machine to Massive, FM8. A lot of plugins.
Do you know the name of your next project?
Both – Ahhh. Umm. No no. (laughs)
What music video are you working on next?
Sonny Shotz – Dear Professor. And then Burn It All.
Are you going to make videos for some of your older work, like Kardashian, Repeat?
Alex Mendoza – Kardashian, we can’t say. Uh, if not bigger, it’s just as big as Dear Professor. But we just wanna leave that one for now.
What is your favorite song to perform?
Alex Mendoza – Dear Professor.
Sonny Shotz – I mean, it changes all the time for me. I love doing K2YL, just because like, it showcases the rest of the band, you know. No Sleep is cool, live. Um, La Vie is crazy, it has mad energy. Dear Professor vibes really well.
I dunno, it depends. I like all of em.
Alex Mendoza – I mean, he just named, you know, like six songs. That just shows, you know? K2YL is another one that’s really cool. It’s just amazing being able to perform with the band.
Why doesn’t Mik Beats travel with you?
Sonny Shotz – Because he doesn’t DO anything! (laughs)
Alex Mendoza – He doesn’t do anything live, but we’re trying to incorporate that though, it’ll come.
Mendoza, from the business side of The Dean’s List, what does an average day look like for you?
Alex Mendoza – It’s pretty hectic. It goes from emails, emails, emails, phone calls, contracts, all that bullshit. But, you know, it’s such an advantage because we do what we want, like, at certain points working with other people is great, and we have a great network, but like, being able to be able to have everything in house, whether its recording, management, every single thing, it couldn’t be more amazing just working with each other.
But yeah, it is tough to balance. I had to drop out, yeah.
So what about school? You done?
Alex Mendoza – One day.
Sonny Shotz – Fucckkaa school. (laughs) I plan on going back when I’m thirty.
Alex Mendoza – I mean, it’s tough. Dean’s list comes first.
Sonny Shotz – Our parents are really supportive though, it’s cool, they understand.
What was the point when you could say, alright, It’s The Dean’s List?
Alex Mendoza – Before Animal House [Tour]. And when Drive In dropped, it was like, alright I’m not going to be able to stay in school.
Sonny Shotz – I’d say even before that, like while we were working on The Drive In, we kinda realized it, like damn.
Alex Mendoza – As the anticipation built for it, it was kinda just like, damn.
Sonny Shotz – Yeah, it was crazy because of our schedules. Like, Mendoza would come back from class, and then me and Mik would just be like, ‘we’ve been working all day, just go to sleep.’ Mendoza would just be up all night working on a track, it was just weird.
Alex Mendoza – Now things are pushed so much faster without school. Granted, we’re not getting our degrees, but this is going like 110 percent.
Between performing, and working on new material, which do you prefer?
Sonny Shotz – It’s kinda like working out. You work out, that’s doing the music. And then you see your muscles, and that’s like doing the shows and performing, you get to see your work pay off. It goes hand in hand. I don’t really like one more than the other.
Alex Mendoza – It’s just different. But, you know, the passion is music, and it’s awesome to just meet all our fans across the nation.
What other artists would you like to work with in the future?
Sonny Shotz – NO BODY! (laughs) Besides Bob Dylan.
Alex Mendoza – Beatles!
How about emerging rappers, producers
Sonny Shotz – I mean like, we’re really picky about who we work with. I mean OnCue was the only rapper we worked with [on The Drive In].
Alex Mendoza – For a reason.
Sonny Shotz – Because, I love OnCue.
But, we’re not really interested in features, besides like the people we’ve already worked with. I think, probably in the future, like big people we’d like to work with – Kid Cudi, Kanye (laughs). Like, who doesn’t want to work with these people, know what I mean?
Alex Mendoza – I think what’s also tough is that it’s no disrespect to anyone else, but it’s just like we’ve always been working together closely. I mean, it started off just me and [Sonny] in our basement with a shitty like DJ speaker I used to use for Bar mitzvahs and weddings.
We just used to make fun music.
Sonny Shotz – The coolest music! (laughs)
Alex Mendoza – (laughing) Oh my god, some of that shit. But you know, we had fun with it, and I think that just built into working with Mik. It was very, like, not on purpose, but it was a really closed in network that just vibes so well. It just works.
Where do you see The Dean’s List in a year? Two years?
Alex Mendoza – Billboard.
Sonny Shotz – (whispering) Grammys…wherever the fuck we need to be.
Alex Mendoza – Yeah. Music first.
[End of Interview]
Sonny Shotz – Dude, you have the best questions. This is one of the best interviews we’ve ever done.
Anything else you’d like to say to Kollectors? You’ve got a ton of fans on the site.
Alex Mendoza – We appreciate it.
Sonny Shotz – We love The Kollection ya’ll. You guys support us a lot, we appreciate the gear you send us, the hats, the fucking new uh [points to tank tops]. Yeah, we appreciate all the love.
I think in two, three years, blogs are gonna be the new radio. It’s gonna be crazy because you guys are gonna have award shows n shit. I support you guys. Dope.
Greatest interview EVER! And now we rage.
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Conclusion
To Sonny Shotz and Alex Mendoza, thank you for the interview. You are some very cool guys, and it was great to finally catch up with you. To the entire Dean’s List, thank you for the amazing music that you are making – we’ve got your back here at The Kollection. To kollectors, I hope that the above interview was an interesting read, and worth your time. Thanks for your continued support for the site and for the artists that we share!
Great interview my man! I’d have to agree on all fronts you covered. These guys are some of the most down to earth, cooperative, willing, and focused artists coming up. Had the same great experience with them and they put on one RAGEEEEEEE of a show.
Everything that comes out about these guys, from music to articles and interviews, makes me like them more. I’m still dying to find a show close enough for me to go to cuz these guys are up at the top of my list of people I wanna rage with. Please come down to somewhere in VA or NC. these guys always keep it real.
Love everything about this interview, I also love when guys keep it simple. All of their music is done on logic pro with plug ins and they are still able to diversify their sound, so dope.
The music just blows me away. Can’t wait to hear more.