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Overnight, the Meritage, a luxury resort elbowing acres of ripe vineyards, has been flipped into the Palm Tree Music Festival’s Napa debut. The property’s sprawling lawn usually reserved for wine tastings is feverish with the bodies of hundreds of festivalgoers swaying to EDM beats and guests staying on-site gathering on their balconies like attendees in an opera box to inquire about the commotion below.
I’m sitting on one of those balconies next to Vandelux, who just performed one of the most blissful sets of the day. Outfitted in a black tee, white pants, and shades, the former hedge fund COO-turned-DJ/producer looks at ease with a bottle of Don Julio in one hand as he talks to Rolling Stone about his new joyful album, which dropped the day prior on Friday, his emotional connection with audiences, and a potential collab with headliner Kygo.
“This new record is about starting a family and having a child, and all of the ups and downs related to that,” says Vandelux, whose daughter was backstage sporting noise-cancelling headphones. “You hear about all the challenges and how hard it’s going to be from your friends that have kids, but you totally underestimate how amazing the highs are. This record reflects on those feelings and emotions that my wife and I were going through at the time — these really grandiose moments that were very unexpected. The album started with the heartbeat of my daughter, [which] became the foundation of one the first track I made.”
While parenthood is rarely the subject records are dedicated to, Vandelux’s exuberance and reverence for holding those we cherish is translated on his sophomore LP, Closer, in a way that is ubiquitously thrilling. “Best of My Love” — which declares, “When your head is full of doubt, when your heart is on the ropes/I promise not to let you down, I will always want you close” — is a sweeping offering that immediately captures the audience when he plays it live.
Vandelux says that while he’s an introvert and it was at first overwhelming to be on stage, the more he performs, the easier it gets to step out of his “little bubble and connect with the audience.” It’s an overwhelming experience, he points out, “When you’re looking at these people that are singing the words back to you, I get emotional if I think about it too much. So, you try to have this balance where you’re appreciative, but also not getting so wrapped up in it.” He adds, “It’s been an incredible experience.”
During the conversation, the heavy-hitting beats of Australian DJ Odd Mob reverberate around us. I ask Vandelux which of his peers on the lineup he’d hope to work with some day. “I’d say Odd Mob, because he’s just been on a tear lately, and he’s really created his own sound. It’s very distinct, which is what every producer dreams of. And also Kygo, we’ve been chatting about doing a track together, sharing some ideas. So, I think that’s definitely coming in the future, but we gotta get the perfect team down.”
It’s a potential opportunity that Vandelux may not have predicted when he was still working in finance just a year and half ago. “You only live once, and if you have the opportunity to do something drastically different, I have to take it,” he says when looking back at that time, before mentioning Closer track, “Last Train,” which he likens to reinvention later in life. He remarks, “Chase what your soul wants.”
Don Julio 1942 Añejo Tequila
Later in the night, the Chainsmokers take over for their co-headlining set and, amid a high energy performance, deliver their massive single “Something Just Like This.” Soon, the balconies are spilling with guests cheering on the crowd below packed shoulder-to-shoulder, the lawn doubling as floor seats in a resort-turned-stadium show. Bottles of Don Julio 1942 appear on tabletops and margaritas dressed with pineapples pepper the audience. When Kygo appears in a blanket of fog to close out the show, bringing out a series of hits including the likes of “Stargazing” (with Justin Jesso showing up for the occasion) and his reworking of Whitney Houston’s cover of the 1986 track “Higher Love,” it feels like both a belated sendoff to a very California summer in fall, and a celebration of a new chapter.
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