Electro Rouge, a Baton Rouge EDM promotion company, is determined to expand the city’s already booming electronic dance music scene.
Founded in 2013, Electro Rouge was created by Karel Losada, who is originally from Cuba, where EDM has recently picked up a lot of momentum. His home country’s growing EDM culture inspired him to establish a presence for the genre in Baton Rouge, he said.
As evidence of Cuba’s flourishing electronic music scene, a Kickstarter campaign recently ended which will fund the country’s first ever EDM festival in May of 2016.
“There’s a really big culture surrounding electronic music in Cuba,” Losada said. “When I started Electro Rouge, that culture was missing in Baton Rouge altogether.”
When Losada first started Electro Rouge, the company only hosted around one event every month. Currently, it hosts events nearly every weekend at venues all around Baton Rouge.
The company promotes a mix of up-and-coming local performers and touring international acts.
Some of the most notable international artists Electro Rouge has brought to Baton Rouge include Dotcom, MiMOSA, Gladiator, Congorock, Herobust and Barely Alive.
Electro Rouge is set to host two more touring acts at City Bar within the next few weeks. Boombox Cartel, a duo of producers from Los Angeles, will perform March 26, and Candyland, an EDM group from Santa Barbara, will perform on April 16.
“We also like to promote local artists,” Losada said. “Everything we do at Spanish Moon is local. We try to give Baton Rouge artists as much attention as possible.”
Some of the local performers Electro Rouge has promoted include Eduk8, Klutch, SFAM and Boo Munch. Losada said he sees a bright future for EDM in Baton Rouge, and in the United States as a whole.
Electronic dance music isthe fastest-growing genre of music in the country right now. By the end of 2015, EDM had grown into a nearly $7 billion dollar industry. Losada said he doesn’t see the momentum slowing anytime soon.
“Electronic music is growing in popularity all across the country,” he said. “Baton Rouge is no exception. I don’t think it’s going anywhere.”
In the future, Losada hopes to develop a website which will allow artists to promote upcoming shows and events to their local communities free of charge.