They say when you enjoy what you do, you will never work a day in your life

For up ‘n coming artist Riley Legaspi, better known as Feelionics he is not working. In fact, he is having fun, enjoying life, and creating some magical moments along the way. Being a LA local has its benefits as every major artist comes through here, and Riley has not missed a beat in learning as much as he can. Being a sponge and absorbing everything, he has progressed quickly and is starting to make his name known on the larger scale.  Do not blink with this one; he will be a household name faster than you think.

Last year was a big year which you had many first including playing the main room for Avalon. How did it feel? 

It was terrifying. But it was really fun. Honestly, I think as soon as I started pressing play and vibing with the music, it became a lot easier. Every now and then, I would look up and see all my friends that came out, even complete strangers going bananas. That made me feel really nice.

You are still a new comer in the scene, did you think it would happen this fast?

No not at all. I do this for fun, that being said, because I do it for fun I would like to see how far I can go before it stops becoming fun. Once it stops becoming fun, I would try to find another aspect of it, that makes it fun, or just stop it all together.

You have a big psy trance influence. What is it about the genre that appeals to you?

Psy…honestly, I really like the beat of it. The driving force of the four-to-the-floor beat.  hat alone helps me move forward with just about everything.

In the past year you have really broaden your depth when it comes to your sets. Was this important for your career and why?

Yeah, I mean outside of music in my line of work, I have to be very adaptable to everything. So in a sense, you have to be good at everything in order to be good at one thing.  So that has translated a lot into music. After a while, I would kind of get board of one particular genre, so I’ll switch genres.

What does the name Feelionics mean? How does having an alias help you in your creativity?

Originally, I asked my dad if there was like a man-made version of creating and manipulating feelings. Similar to how the term “bionic” is the man-made biology. So this would be the man-made feelings. The whole point of me being Feelionics is for me to make someone feel a certain way.

As for helping me in creativity, I don’t honestly know really. I came up with alias Feelionics, because I needed a name but in order for me to create something for someone, it has to serve a purpose. So if I want someone to feel happy, then I have to go through some amount of things for them to feel happy. So by having Feelionics, it allows me to create multiple feelings for people no matter what I do.

You have a fun live stream called “Drunk Trance”. How did that concept come about? Where would you like it to go?

Drunk Trance, I started it obviously in my bedroom. I came home pretty lit, and I wanted to play music, and as I continued to play music, I continued to become sober, so I just continued to drink, and by the end of the set the bottle was gone. And everyone who was watching was like “WOW, how are you alive.” In terms of where I want drunk trance to go. In 2018, I will be focusing a lot more on really fine-tuning what the subject matter of drunk trance will be. On top of that, it won’t just be me, but I will be inviting a lot of LA locals and some of the artists I meet along the way. I would say by the end of 2018 I would like it to have a pretty consistent following for it.

You are starting to produce, how has that gone so far?  When can fans start to hear your own stuff?

It is very hard. It’s like all of the creativity is there, but in terms of technically putting it on to the time line I hardly know what I am doing. So in terms of when can someone hear something that I would allow to be on there probably earliest is like July or so.  Even then, it would probably be a small amount of people would be able to hear it, so I can get criticism and it fuck me up and stuff so I can fix it.

You recently went to Trance Retreat in Germany. How was that experience?

So I was invited to attend Trance Retreat. I came across that program from a fellow Trance Family LA buddy, Anthony Arellano. I went into applying for the program thinking I wouldn’t get in and sure enough I found myself buying a plane ticket, taking 2 weeks off of work and well, freezing my ass off in Germany. The program itself though, my God. It was incredible!

I was staying at the Schloss Blankensee, which is a castle about an hour southwest of Berlin. I roomed with another LA native, Brian Code and spent the preceding week learning the ins and outs’ do’s and don’ts of the trance industry and subsequent trance music production tips from Dennis Sheperd, Menno De Jong, Adam Ellis, and Bjorn Akesson. On top of that, I was surrounded by eight other aspiring producers, each with their own set goals and strengths. Being around them was really constructive in learning about what others have been through, and what are still going through to reach their absolute best.

I’d say my favorite parts aside from the seminars and one-on-one sessions was the midnight crew. Since we were at a production retreat secluded in a castle in the middle of woods surrounded by scary statues everywhere, the only thing to do was…just produce.  A few of us (a lot of us really) would just sit together in the main seminar room, drink a bunch of beer (I think my record was 17 in a night) and grind it out until about 2-3am only to do it all again the next day. Coming out of the retreat, I learned that organization is key, “gel the kick and sub-bass” as Adam would say, and try to work on several new tracks at the same time so you can pull new tricks and put them into all tracks thus creating that signature sound we all reach for as producers.

All in all, I think Trance Retreat was pretty cool and moving forward I’ll be waiting for the opportune time to scrape together $5000 USD and another monstrous lineup of producers to do it all again.

If you could live by one motto only, what would it be?

Everything serves a purpose, but just try to enjoy it along the way.