One of the most exciting projects of the year is upon us, a coming together of two of the most talented rising stars of the indie electronic music world - OLAN x QRTR.  Individually these artists have been covered by the likes of Pitchfork, The Fader, Spin, Mixmag, and DJ Mag, to name a few, and this collaborative project brings the excitement to an entirely new level.  

The first OLAN x QRTR music release, ‘All U Need’ is available now on ODESZA’s Foreign Family Collective imprint. ‘All U Need’ is rich with emotion, lead by chunky broken beats contrasted with OLAN’s silky vocals. It encapsulates the best of both artists, meshing QRTR’s incisive beats with OLAN’s rolling melodies.        

‘All U Need’ started out as a Hudson Mohawke remix we were going to do together. I made a draft quickly and at one point we took it to Andrew Bayer’s house and jammed on it a little bit. I was working on the stems in Meagan’s car and I just thought we should make this an original. It all clicked. Megan’s music is really punchy and from there she was able to take what I had which was melodic and cute and she made it punchier,’ OLAN says.  

QRTR adds, ‘Thematically, ‘All U Need’ is about breaking out of the loop of being in an environment or a relationship that doesn’t work out and meeting someone that’s open to accepting you as you are.’

Meagan Rodriguez is QRTR, a musician, DJ, and film composer flourishing within modern electronic music, recognized as a top-rising indie artist. Building music of conceptual depth, the tonality of QRTR’s productions pulls from various ethos: the entrancing and pulsating waves of house rhythms, psychedelic scopes of space and layering, and immersive worlds of sound that utilize her vast film and field recording library. QRTR can activate the biggest of stages and can also immerse the mind into a menagerie of unfolding styles cascading over one another. A singular artist in this generation that has released two monumental works within a 24-month window: 2020’s Drenched and 2021’s infina ad nausea. The live resume and presentation of QRTR’s music has become just as exemplary, making her presence known at prestigious festivals such as Coachella, HARD Summer, Electric Zoo, and Electric Forest, completing a full sold-out tour opening for Luttrell, and performing at some of the most cutting edge underground shows around the globe. Most notable was her appearance at A2B2’s sold-out Night of Fire festival at the Knockdown Center in New York, featuring QRTR alongside Arca, Eartheater, Andy Morin, Machinegirl, and Kero Kero Bonito. Millions of plays across streaming platforms worldwide and a dedicated fan base that’s expanded far outside of her East Coast roots, QRTR has become an undeniable force within modern electronic music. 

A multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, producer, and DJ, OLAN’s music is as intriguing and hard to categorize as she is. Born Luzana Flores in Columbus, Georgia to a Dominican mother and Puerto Rican father, OLAN cites church as the place where her musical foundations were laid. In between orchestra classes and worship bands, her youth was spent listening to Paramore while honing her bass, guitar, and songwriting skills. Her tastes changed, as teenage tastes do, and after a move to Atlanta, she joined a songwriting camp for J.Cole’s Dreamville Records, which led to her co-writing ‘Bussit’ for Ari Lennox. At 21, OLAN moved to Las Vegas, where she delved deeper into the electronic music scene and launched her OLAN project; then a combination of sprawling DJ sets and electric guitar-based live shows. A friendship soon blossomed with Mat Zo, and OLAN became the acclaimed producer’s main collaborator on his 2020 album Illusion of Depth. ‘In Motion’, a collaboration with fellow rising star Nourey followed, and in 2022 OLAN released her debut album Contra, on renowned electronic music label Anjunadeep. On stage, her raw energy and distinctive fusion of singing, playing guitars, and live electronic programming stand out, as does her presence as a queer woman of color in a space often occupied by straight white men.

‘All U Need’ is available now on Foreign Family Collective.

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