Today we’d like to introduce you to LODIS Cody Savonen & Jack McCafferty.
Cody and Jack, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
It’s a pretty unique story actually. So we met back in Austin in 2018 after both relocating from different parts of the country. Jack had moved down from Michigan where he’s from and I had moved from Boston (Cody). We both moved down here to pursue sales jobs and happened to choose the same apartment complex to live in. Although we would see each other in the dog park, we didn’t really get to know one another until we found ourselves at a San Holo set during Austin City Limits festival. After a day of bouncing around from stage to stage together, it was clear we shared a common interest in all things music-related. After weeks of getting to know each other, the idea of learning how to create and produce music together was proposed. We knew we wanted to pursue this interest together but both had full-time jobs and knew how time-consuming it would be.
Shortly after, I (Cody) decided to move back to Boston for a year to be close to family with the intention of coming back down to Austin. We made a commitment that during the time I was gone, we would both spend our free time learning and developing our production so when I returned, we could launch what is now known as LODIS. After moving back down to Austin in early 2020, the pandemic hit. We spent the next six months developing our brand, starting to work on music together, and in summer 2020, released our first handful of unofficial remixes on SoundCloud. We were blown away by the support we were receiving and shortly after released our first Spotify official remix. Although we knew remixes were important, we were eager to develop our own sound and showcase the production and sound design we had been working on the past few years. Over the second half of 2020 and first part of 2021, we released four originals, two of which were signed to labels (Adept Records and Subsidia Records), and played our first live show at Vulcan Gas Company. If there’s one thing we can agree on, it’s that there is never enough time in the day to accomplish what you want to. You have to be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice and put music above everything else.
There were weeks where we would be up for multiple days straight in a row perfecting tracks, working on production, and strategizing marketing for the brand and really finding ways to connect with our audience on a deeper level. It’s truly incredible to see how far we’ve come in just our first year and were thrilled to see our music surpass 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. It’s an incredible feeling. One thing that has helped us more than you could imagine is our age difference. Jack is 28 and Cody is 25 so it gives us a good balance across the board in terms of different perspectives, experience, maturity, and also respect level for one another. We both can also agree that pursuing a dream like this in a city like Austin is next to none. It’s truly an incredible city that has provided a huge chunk of our inspiration and support. It’s been a family and a home to both of us and we’re not sure if we’d be where we are without it.
Another thing we wanted to mention and shed light on is the team we have developed while we’re here. First and foremost, our manager Tarek El Sehrawey has truly been a gift for LODIS collectively, as well as both of us individually. Not only is he an incredible friend, but to find a manager who is as bought into your success as you are, personally, is extremely rare to find. I’m not sure where we would be without him. He has been a staple for us on the business side as well as put our well-being above all throughout and we are extremely grateful to have him on board.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not. I think the one misconception about the music industry is that people only see the glory of it all, the social media posts, and numbers, the shows, etc. They don’t see how taxing it can be on the backend and what it takes to have a fighting chance, let alone the personal sacrifices that need to be made along the way. We’ve always said that it’s important to be real with our fans and supporters and everyone involved and celebrate when we hit milestones but also show the raw side of things and be real with them. If we’re being honest, it’s been one of the biggest rollercoasters of a year, bigger than we could have possibly imagined. For starters, the financial setback from pursuing something like this is unimaginable and although it’s necessary, it definitely puts stress on us as a unit. You know some weeks deciding if you’d rather spend your money on getting groceries or if you can coast on ramen and milk and eggs and use that money to go towards the project.
These are real decisions that we were making for months at a time. Another is just the impact it has on our social lives collectively and individually. Although we are like brothers at this point, we both have felt the weight of not being able to do a lot of stuff with our friends when we want to and feeling like you’re always letting them down. That’s a really crappy feeling but luckily, we’ve got an incredibly supportive group who have been understanding throughout. What we’ve realized throughout this process though is that sometimes you do have to find time to put yourself first and put your dreams on the front end because if you aren’t doing what makes you happy, you won’t be able to be there for your friends and family and supporters like you want to. The sacrifices we made early on in this project have definitely paid off though and right now, we couldn’t be in a better place both individually and collectively,
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Musically, we’ve drawn influences from guys like Illenium, Said the Sky, Dabin, Slander and Mitis just to name a few. Everyday the world sees waves of new artists releasing music and one of the most difficult things to accomplish is really standing out with your sound design and production. In the beginning when you’re learning, you find yourself imitating the people you look up to, but as you start to get more comfortable, you begin to create your own sound and what makes you unique. It’s a really cool process because you see different elements from the collection of artists you look up to all combined into one with your own spin. I think we’ve been drawn most to creating an emotional and melodic sound with very lyrically driven tracks. It’s a pretty cool experience when people start to recognize the similarities in the different songs you create.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
We put a lot of importance on being responsive when people connect with us and also connecting with fans, other artists, collaborators, etc. We try to respond to each and every person who reaches out to us whether it’s via email, social media, or other outlet. When we started developing our brand, we wanted it to be as authentic as possible. We had met during a time of personal angst and when we were both in a new city, without many friends, trying to figure our ways out. It’s scary and sometimes difficult to manage when you feel like you are isolated and alone, and we’ve worked to create a brand build around the idea that people are not alone. LODIS is made up of Jack and Cody but it’s much bigger than just us or the music we create. It’s a community of people leaning on one another for support and finding light during some of those darker times. We welcome anyone to connect with us who wants to work with us, or support us, or even just develop a new relationship because we know how hard it can be when you’re starting out to even get a response from someone. Please reach out to us on our Instagram page or via email (music@lodisofficial.com) because we’d love to hear from you!
Contact Info:
- Email: music@lodisofficial.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lodisofficial
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lodisofficial
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lodisofficial_
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LODIS
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/lodisofficial
Image Credits
Steven Souza
