Electronic music duo Bob Moses raises profile with a headlining slot at the new Interstellar Festival.
The EDM duo nab a headlining slot at this month's inaugural Interstellar Festival
Tom Howie and Jimmy Vallance — better known as the electronic music super duo Bob Moses — never thought they'd be invited to sit at the table alongside the biggest names in electronic dance music, let alone asked to headline the debut of Insomniac Events' Interstellar Festival, set for Aug. 19-20 at the L.A. Waterfront at Berth 46 in San Pedro.
“Tom and I have been around for a minute now, and we're so used to being the black sheep of a lot of dance music festivals,” Vallance said with a laugh during a recent phone interview. “It's great to finally feel like we're a part of not just history with this amazing debut, but we feel like we finally belong.”
Bob Moses' willingness to experiment and incorporate various styles of music — including house, synth-pop, techno and dance — is what has made the duo stand out from the rest. They've never been keen to stay in a single lane, but that's what drew the fans in the first place.
Howie and Vallance met in middle school in Vancouver, British Columbia, and reconnected in 2011 when they both landed in New York City and were slowly discovering they had a love for house music at warehouse parties. The duo ended up living in a small studio space together and created what would become early Bob Moses singles.
In 2015, they dropped the debut album, “Days Gone By,” which led to a Grammy nomination for best dance recording. Since then, they said, things have moved fast, but slowly at the same time. They're touring and recording almost nonstop, and it's become a lifestyle they haven't necessarily gotten used to. They joke about how they took it a bit too far in 2022 by not giving themselves enough time to rest. However, in return for all that lost sleep, they made dozens of festival appearances and expanded a fan base that now stretches over multiple continents.
“Last year, I think we really overdid it and learned a valuable lesson from that coming out of the pandemic,” Vallance said. “We became a bigger band during the pandemic and out of the pandemic because we released music and would even do live concerts on our YouTube channel. I think we did around 120 shows last year, which didn't leave much of that work-life balance. This year, we've really honed in on still having a good amount of shows while working on music, having time to be better parents and husbands, plus other aspects of our lives we needed to focus on. So it's been a great year for ticking all the boxes off with things we love to do.”
They've also gotten better at managing the touring artist lifestyle by ensuring the shows and events they play align with who they are as a group. Of course, a major one for Bob Moses is the Interstellar Festival, which they've been looking forward to all year.
The fest comes as a collaboration between Insomniac's
INTERSTELLAR FESTIVAL
When: 1-11 p.m. Aug. 19 and 20 Where: L.A. Waterfront at Berth 46, 3011Miner St.,
San Pedro
Tickets: Two-day general admission passes start at $179; two-day VIP passes start at $279; single-day tickets are $109-$199. 21 or older only. For tickets, go to interstellarexperience.com/tickets.
techno-focused Factory 93 and trance brand Dreamstate. Interstellar will feature rising and Alist acts in various genres.
“We've played other Insomniac events before and it's all amazing, but this really feels like a festival that we get to play next to our peers, but also the acts that inspired us since the beginning,” Vallance said. “Even all the upcoming acts that we play at our shows, it's great that it's finally a festival that feels like home and we belong. It's fun because we're excited to play but also see a lot of the acts.”
Vallance mentions artists like Jody Wisternoff, Sasha & John Digweed, Kasablanca, Sultan + Shephard and Jan Blomqvist as ones he wants to catch when not doing his set, which tops the bill on the Horizon Stage on Aug. 20.
At this event, Bob Moses is doing a more spontaneous club set versus a traditional live show. It's a big responsibility, they say, to be part of a debut Insomniac event, but they feel they're as prepared as they can be.
“For this, we're really just going to feel the vibe in the moment,” Howie said. “We really do DJ in the sense that we just sort of read the crowd and play the tracks that we think will go well in that scenario. At this point, the fans and us are just going for a ride.”