“Timeless, unique, uplifting.” Those are the three words that West Babylon natives feel best describes their DJ duo music.
ONEDUO was created in 2012 when Mike Scimeca called his friend Steve Georgilis, who is a graduate student at Stony Brook University, to join him on his quest to DJ fame.
Georgilis graduated with his bachelors in business and a double-minor in political science and accounting. He is currently finishing his first year in the Master of Business Administration program.
In an email interview, he said that having a background in business, while also getting a degree, has made a significant impact on the way he views the music industry.
“I had always wanted to get into it being around dance music,” said Georgilis. “And Mike had perfected the art of DJing since he was seven years old.”
Scimeca first started DJing at a very young age.
At 13 years old, Scimeca was dealing with family problems and extreme bullying, so he considered DJing as a way to escape from his daily struggles.
“It shaped me to be the person that I am today, and even though there were rough times, I had music to bring me out of it and realize what made me happy,” said Scimeca.
Before making it big, ONEDUO performed at local clubs around Long Island such as Bridgeview in Freeport and Aura in East Meadow.
Two summers ago, the duo traveled the globe to places like St. Maarten, where they performed on two tours. They also traveled to Tampa, Florida, last February to perform at District 31 at the “Get Wild” tour in front of thousands of college students.
Their first performance at a festival was at Electric Adventure in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is a two-day festival that features a broad span of artists and genres.
Georgilis’ sister, Kristina, reflected on her brother and Scimeca’s success.
“When ONEDUO performed at Electric Adventure I began to realize how important music was to them. It made me happy to see them happy.”
The difference between a festival and a concert or tour is a festival is held outdoors due to its size, and there are multiple artists of different genres. A concert or tour is usually held inside a venue, with a single artist or multiple artists of the same genre.
“That was an incredible feeling to be a part of our first outdoor festival, playing in front of people from all different parts of the globe, it was pretty surreal,” said Scimeca.
In October, ONEDUO took a trip to Amsterdam where they performed at the “Amsterdam Dance Event,” as known as ADE.
ADE is the world’s biggest club festival and dance related lifestyle program with over 2,000 artists, more than 450 events, 365,000+ visitors and over 115 venues.
The atmosphere of Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, gave the duo a clear direction on what they needed to do with their music after that trip.
Between Twitter, Vine, Facebook and Soundcloud, ONEDUO has over 40,000 followers.
Electronic dance music dates back to the 1970s. Although the exact birthplace is still unknown, it is known that artists such as Donna Summer, Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra were among the firsts to perform disco/dance music.
It was the type of genre neglected by record labels at first, and then popularized by the European dance scene.
After disco came electro, house, acid house, trance and techno, which all lead to the popular festivals we hear of today. The music is played in a continuous ‘set’ by the disc jockeys, meant to be heard in a ‘mix’ or ‘surge.’
ONEDUO’s biggest hit, called “Silence” came out this past January. It was being played in Amsterdam after it premiered on “YourEDM” on Nicky Romero’s Protocol radio.
Nicky Romero ranks number 18 on DJMag’s “Top 100 DJs.” He is a Dutch DJ and a music producer.
“Silence” is a very upbeat track with all different types of levels to it. Oliver Dumoulin from Casulin describes it as featuring “a delicate balance between a soft whisper and a thumping festival size scream.”
Along with their hit “Silence,” ONEDUO recently released a song called “Her Name” with another West Babylon native, Zach Burns, on the vocals.
You can find “Her Name” and “Silence” on their Soundcloud account, and they will also be on Apple Music this coming June.
“Music shaped me as an individual and that is why I’m glad that I can do what I love and hopefully that can continue for many more years to come,” said Scimeca.
