Students wanting to dance to modern electronic music with the carefree sounds of yester-year’s pop and a distinctly disco feel should look no further than New Orleans’ own Christoph Andersson.
The 19-year-old disc jockey and producer has taken the local electronic scene by storm with a unique sound that he calls “neo-disco.”
Andersson’s music is gaining attention. The young artist has already performed at Voodoo Fest and TKVR, an electronic music event in New Orleans.
Though he has yet to perform outside of New Orleans, Andersson has already built a following at the University and in Baton Rouge.
“I like that he’s our age and he’s still able to play shows,” said Antoinette Savoie, English senior. “I like electronic music, and I think he’s got a great sound. And I like that he’s from New Orleans.”
House music is also growing in national popularity, and Baton Rouge is no different.
“House music is one of the only styles of music that gets everybody dancing,” said Nick Fayland, coastal and environmental science senior. “I’d love to see a bigger electronic scene everywhere.”
Andersson says he’s planning a tour that will include Baton Rouge.
“I hope that people in Baton Rouge will come see me play,” he said. “I’ve never played in Baton Rouge before, and I think it’d be a good time.”
Andersson said his songs are unique because he combines house dance-beats with influences from pop and classical music.
“I come from a songwriting background,” Andersson said. “The more melodic the track is, the more I’m into it.”
Growing up, Andersson was exposed to a wide variety of music; his grandfather conducted the opera in New Orleans.
Andersson developed an appreciation for classical music, and he said classical artists like minimalist composer Philip Glass have influenced him as a producer.
“I grew up watching movies that were scored by Philip Glass, and what you grow up listening to has a huge effect on you when you’re older,” Andersson said. “Now, I really like his use of repetition and countering melodies.”
Andersson also says he’s influenced by new-wave bands from the ’70s and ’80s like Japan and Tears for Fears, and also modern rhythm and blues.
Andersson, who plays guitar as well as other instruments, started playing in bands at a young age, but he said he eventually got tired of the music he was playing.
It wasn’t until he began attending the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, or NOCCA, for audio production that he began making electronic music.
Now a student at Loyola University, Christoph has released two singles, “Tuxedo” and “Capital,” started his own label, Hurst Recordings, and has a new single, “Metropol,” set for release on Jan. 25.
All of the releases are being promoted online, a strategy Andersson’s manager, Max Braun, said he hopes will help promote Christoph both within New Orleans and nationally.
“We’re releasing them on big national sites so the music can be received by people on a national level as well as within New Orleans,” Braun said.
Both “Tuxedo” and “Capital” are part of a four-part release project that also includes “Metropol” and a future single.
Rather than release all four singles on one EP, Andersson chose to space apart the releases — a unique marketing strategy he hopes will pay off.
Each release includes the single, an alternate version of the track composed by Andersson, and a remix by another producer.
“We could have released one EP with all these tracks, but when we sat down and talked about it that seemed like a very old-fashioned way to release the songs,” Andersson said. “We thought this was a really exciting way to release the tracks, so we said, ‘Why not?'”
 
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Contact Andrew Price at [email protected]