When I got to sit down and chat with TLUXX (Brian Johnson) for our zoom interview, I told him “even though this interview is scheduled for an hour time block, our interviews are usually around 20 minutes or so.” We ended up talking well over an hour, as Brian told him everything from the heartbreak that led him to finding music, his experience as a young artist moving from New Mexico to Los Angeles, his struggles with alcohol and how he overcame them, and so much more.

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We began our talk discussing how he prepares for his sets, along with his upcoming schedule. While he had a bit of down time when we met for our interview, his schedule was soon to pick up. From an undisclosed “boiler room” set in LA on June 22nd, to a couple more LA shows, to eventually heading to Croatia in July, Brian talked about how he just wants to put on a show that allows people to have a good time. I asked him if he could describe his music or sets in three words, and he chose “high energy euphoric.” He likes creating a “rollercoaster of emotion” with the idea being that you have “ups coming back from the downs.”

Brian is no stranger to experiencing life’s many ups and downs, as he found his passion for music after experiencing a cancer scare as a teen. He was set on pursuing a professional career in baseball, but the surgery and recovery from the cancer scare had him bedridden for two months. He had previously dabbled in DJ-ing for fun – when Brian was around 8, he “discovered Avicii before he was Avicii” and around the age of 10, he tinkered with samples to make songs and made mixes for the car. A couple months after his surgery, he tried to get back into baseball, but had lost so much of the progress he had made. It was then that he began to realize that he didn’t love baseball “for the right reasons.” He learned that he wouldn’t “enjoy the ride with baseball – it was always a destination I was getting to.” But he discovered that he DID love music enough to want to work hard at it.

With music, he realized he would enjoy the ride.

We went back through his history as a young teen DJing at an all-ages nightclub, to what led to his decision to move to LA to pursue a formal education in music. Once he learned music theory, things started making more sense with his craft.

Moving to LA and being involved in the industry at such a young age wasn’t without its downsides. Brian opened up about his alcohol abuse, and his eventual journey to sobriety. He explains that because he had seen some success early on in his life, he

“started drinking to kill time, because I was under the impression that I didn’t really have to work hard to make it famous…I was waiting for something to happen.”

He would drink to pass the time, rather than grind and work, because his early success skewed his perspective into thinking, “wait and good things will come to you.”

After about 6 years of consistently drinking, he had a busy period of about 3 days in June of 2022 where he was so busy, he happened to not have a drink. On the third day he felt like he had the flu, and was trembling and could barely walk. When he went to the doctor, he was told he was having withdrawals, and it was then that he realized his dependency on alcohol. He describes this as “his first wake up call, but I didn’t answer the phone.” The second time this scenario happened again, he realized that the first incident was not a fluke. He stopped drinking completely and hasn’t looked back, recently celebrating 2 years of sobriety. Through these struggles, he was able to dedicate himself to music even more.

He prides himself on being in the room during vocal recording sessions, so he has more control during that portion of the production process, and is able to “sprinkle a lot of himself in during the song, with lyrics that mean something to him.” We also discussed a previous charity event he put on called “Play it Forward” where he had raised money for a homeless teen shelter, an event he would love to bring back in the near future.

Brian named some of his greatest achievements-to-date as graduating college with a music degree in Sound Design from Berklee College of Music, getting his first job at Revolver Recordings, playing Avalon and Insomniac nightclubs, getting tracks signed, and having support from the likes of Paul Van Dyk and Orjan Nilsen. His humble nature had him feeling “somewhat uncomfortable” listing his achievements, because he still wants to achieve so much more.

He described his future releases as “going more euphoric again” and talked about how he feels there is “math behind music,” as he is really big on music theory, and is a self-described “rule-player” when it comes to producing.

We closed our discussion with lighter, less technical topics. Brian divulged that his hobbies include iRacing and cooking – specifically classic French cuisine – because it’s “simple, but done right.” After claiming that he “loves a good steak,” Brian admitted he is a bit of a purist when it comes to both music and food.

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We look forward to watching what TLUXX has planned for the future, and hearing the high energy euphoria of his music!