Last week, I found myself dancing in the grass of Stanford’s Frost Amphitheater on a scorching 87-degree afternoon to Fred Again… along with 8,000 other people. When I woke up this morning still buzzing with happiness, I started wondering why his music is so infectious.
My journey with Fred Again.. began in April 2021, when I stumbled upon his Instagram post about making one of his first solo projects, Actual Life 1. Fred’s phone was set up on a piano, capturing him riffing through his musical inspirations. His unfiltered storytelling and instantly danceable music captured my attention. Since then, his music has consistently featured in my Spotify top songs for the past three years.
On July 29, 2022, Fred Again…’s iconic Boiler Room set was released. My family and I were packing up our tents on the last day of our annual Lake Tahoe camping trip. In charge of providing the soundtrack that day, I connected a tiny, tinny speaker and turned his Boiler Room set all the way up. We danced our way from tent tarp to Suburban trunk, carrying sleeping bags, blankets, and kitchen supplies—pausing only when the YouTube stream stopped loading. The irresistible nature of the repeated vocal samples he pulled form real life and dabblings in DnB (Drum and Bass music) offered something for my whole family to enjoy.
In that Boiler Room set, he teased Clara (the night is dark), a song that became my anthem over the next year for clearing my head during runs along the beach in San Diego. I still remember what a lifeline those words felt like the first time I really heard them: “Courage, my soul / And let us journey on / Though the night is dark / It won’t be very long.” Those lines repeated over and over in my head got me through months of a brutal fundraise. After one such long run in the fall, I bought tickets for a show in LA, which was taking place on a Tuesday a few days before I was to leave on a multi-week art trip to Guatemala with my mom. I drove my two younger brothers from San Diego to LA to see his show at the Shrine.
For most live shows I’ve been to, there is a delicate spectrum of ideal artist familiarity. You know too many songs, you might get disappointed if they didn’t play your favorite niche song or don’t have the same set list as the show they played last week. You know too few songs, you could spend the show waiting around for the couple songs you know really well but not resonating with the other songs you haven’t listened to.
Because of Fred Again..’s musical structure, it’s incredibly easy to latch onto a few songs and feel right at home at a show the whole way through. What struck me was the fidelity between the music he made and the set he performed. Watching him on stage, transitioning from singing an iconic vocal piece to looping the sample and layering on beats until it became recognizable, reminded me of the way he interacts with his fans on social media, sharing the building blocks of his music.
From a performance perspective, Fred Again..’s music is perfect for live shows because if you know the title of each of his songs, you know a good quarter of each song. And because most of his music is house music, there’s a predictable four-on-the-floor beat that’s easy to dance to, a higher BPM which can increase your heart rate and make you feel more excited, and simple vocals.
Beyond the music, almost all of his visuals for his shows are in 9×16 format, he uses the Instagram native font to communicate on screen through out his shows and it feels like he truly understands the internet. But beyond understanding the internet, he knows how to reach out beyond the algorithm and say, “Hey, can you contribute to this show? This song? This moment?”
Fred shares the stories of these samples and their significance to him through his social media channels, giving context and heart to his music that would otherwise be absent. This sets his songs apart—at least in a metatextual sense—from similar vocal sample-based dance music. There is a boisterous lightness to the way Fred makes, releases, and performs music. Watching him build a song from scratch at his sets, you can see his pure joy. Listening to his music, I feel that same joy.
His first 17-song album pulled clips from both his real life and spoken word poetry he’d found on his Instagram feed. The song “Marea (We’ve Lost Dancing)” was particularly striking because of its timely resonance—an ache for dancing together in the midst of a pandemic. There weren’t many artists incorporating the lived experience of the pandemic in a way that didn’t feel clichéd, overdone, or sanitized.
Fred Again..’s music is more than just a series of beats and melodies—it’s a conduit for joy and connection. From the spontaneous Instagram posts that first caught my attention to the electrifying live performances that brought thousands together, his ability to create and share authentic, danceable music is unparalleled. The concept of residual joy encapsulates the lingering happiness his music brings, a testament to his unique approach of blending real-life experiences with digital artistry.
My Predictions
I predict that 2024 will be a breakout year for a new breed of live-show focused house DJs, With the post-COVID time for artists to develop and rising concerns around AI and automation, I think there will be even more demand for live acts like Fred Again.. who literally build their music in front of you.
I’m excited for a new generation of DJs to be inspired by Fred Again.., sampling pieces of their own life experiences and building sonic dance diaries. Disco Lines is a DJ in particular who I think will follow in his footsteps. I believe his production will be lauded as one of the most inventive, for how seamlessly he blends pieces of his digital and real-life experiences at home and on tour. I feel so grateful to have attended two of his shows and look forward to attending more.
I am grateful for the moments of pure joy his music has given me and look forward to many more. Whether dancing in the grass of an amphitheater or connecting through a tiny speaker on a camping trip, Fred Again.. has shown that music can be a powerful force for happiness and unity. As we move forward, I believe his influence will only continue to grow, inspiring artists and fans alike to find and share their own joy.