Dylan Haviland – Arts & Entertainment Editor
The mainstage of Toad’s Place in New Haven was brought to life with strobe lights and glaring flashes of greens and reds. Chad Cisneros jumped out from his deck and grabbed hold of a mist machine, blowing it into the crowd. Behind him, David Reed exuberantly managed the progression of the track.
The duo, Cisneros and Reed, performed on Nov. 12, as their house music group “Tritonal.”
“We’ve met a few [fans] already and they always bring a cool energy,” said Reed. “This being our first time in New Haven, it was nice and they welcomed us with open arms.”
During the performance, the group combined the dual screens onstage to collaborate with their remixes and tracks that roared to the crowd. The setlist and performance showed Tritonal’s ability to smoothly transition between songs, while maintaining a constant presence with the audience.
In addition, the performance showed their progression as artists into the genre of house music. Prior to house, they mainly produced trance music, which was primarily featured in their debut album “Piercing the Quiet.”
Reed commented that much of their music takes in their favorite qualities from “Piercing the Quiet.”
“Even now, Chad and I are still developing and growing with all the writing sessions that we have done in the last year because we are currently working on our artist album,” said Reed. “We have been learning all these new techniques that we want to put into our productions.”
In many of the duo’s tracks, they incorporate a singer to accompany their music. Their newest production with the Chainsmokers, “Until You Were Gone” featured Emily Warren.
Cisneros described working with other artists in different scenarios, sometimes hands on with the writers or getting lyrics from them.
“Emily had actually started the idea of, ‘Until You Were Gone’ two years ago and it was like a 115 beats per minute and a totally different pre-chorus and even chorus, and we got a really raw demo of that and completely restructured the chord progression,” said Cisneros. “So there is no right or wrong way to write a song it’s just how you get inspired.”
Reed encouraged that starting artists focus on their lyrics and meaning behind their writing. “You can take massive steps over so many people on your ideas alone instead of just being out there to DJ, to DJ other people’s music,” said Reed. “There is no better feeling than having your music as your foundation, it’s really motivating.”
Finishing off their performance at Toad’s, they were joined by artist “Cash Cash” who had played prior. The duo incorporated the other artists into a lively and interactive performance with the crowd. They concluded with an encore and a race to the front of the stage waving a flag with ‘Tritonal’ labeled on the front; an up close interaction with the audience.
“We feel like our music means more than just turning up,” said Cisneros. “So we try to make songs that we feel like we could [listen to in] 20 or 30 years and be proud of as artists and as adults.”
Photo Credit: Dylan Haviland – Arts & Entertainment Editor
HEADER PHOTO: Chad Cisneros (left) and David Reed (right)
