Brothers collaborate to DJ, produce for EDM group

When USD student Liam Mechling was introduced to dubstep by his older brother, he had no idea where it would take him. One year ago, however, he was asked to DJ a private Halloween party at Terry Peak in the Black Hills, and the rest, he said, is history.

Liam Mechling is now a DJ and producer for Stupid Happy Collective—a music production company established in part by his older brother, Owen Mechling—whose DJs throw parties and play a variety of electronic dance music (EDM), including dubstep, drum and bass, house and trap, Liam Mechling said. If you are one of those who are looking for the best audio plugins for music production, then you may check out these free and paid cubase vst plugins.

“Everyone kind of has their own genre that they like to play with,” Liam Mechling said. “I played some classical in my last set, and then I played some really classic 2000s hits that were like mashed up with late 2010s and early 2000s EDM hits.”

Owen Mechling, lighting designer and co-owner of Stupid Happy Collective, said he’s always been interested in computers. He started experimenting with lighting design and MIDI controllers in his college dorm room and eventually attended Electric Forest, a four-day electronic music festival in Michigan, which inspired him to pursue lighting design as a career.

“I went to that concert, and sort of was just mesmerized,” Owen Mechling said. “I was watching the people—the lighting designers there—do what they were doing, just programming and having a good time while they were doing it. I was like, alright, this is the kind of job environment I really really want to try to do. And here we are, two and a half years later, and it’s finally coming to fruition.”

Owen Mechling said that during shows, all he really does is turn lights on and off, but done in the right way to the right beat, it makes the show more captivating. 

“It’s always awesome to do what I do and look out into the crowd who’s finally having a good time, and they’re just sort of hypnotized… it’s quite the spectacle,” Owen Mechling said.

The collective’s main goal, Liam Mechling said, is to bring the EDM scene to South Dakota. Owen Mechling said that he had heard about raves taking place in Black Hills warehouses and in the Badlands in the past, but from 2009 to 2017, there wasn’t much of a scene. A few years ago, he met Cole Schweitzer, a DJ and owner of Nyx Productions in Rapid City, and the collective came out of their collaboration. 

“He was throwing these little basement parties that were just awesome to watch,” Owen Mechling said. “I got into light design and sort of helped him out there, and then we started Stupid Happy after a couple of bigger shows, and now we have kind of a flourishing scene out here. It’s really crazy to see.” 

Liam Mechling also said the EDM scene is booming, and that there is a demand for music production. He attributes the demand to the pandemic, which he said was a double-edged sword for the group.

“I think COVID had a big hand in getting everyone into it, but, of course, we couldn’t do shows during COVID,” Liam Mechling said. “We had a really big year planned and a bunch of stuff booked and then COVID hit and just everything shut down, but that gave us a lot of time to work on music and work on our own production.”

Stupid Happy Collective is based in the Black Hills, but Liam Mechling said the group is branching out. The group recently provided music at the D-Days Tailgate and put on two nights of shows at Hollarr, a new bar in Vermillion. 

Liam Mechling said the group organized the Hollar shows the night before the tailgate. He said people didn’t really know what to expect the first night, but on the second the bar was jam-packed.

“It was incredible to see the people starting to match our energy on the second night, and I think that was like a really big proponent in me wanting to continue to play here, because as soon as people match your energy, everyone’s having fun, and it just becomes one of the most fun things,” Liam Mechling said.

Both Liam Mechling and Owen Mechling said they will try to get Stupid Happy Collective to play more shows in Vermillion.

“I think Vermillion’s a fantastic town for the scene… and I’m maybe a little biased on that because I’d love to see stuff happen in my hometown,” Owen Mechling said. “But it was really fun to see the energy that Vermillion was able to bring out for our show.”

Stupid Happy Collective’s next productions are two nights of Halloween shows at the 445 Martini Lounge in Rapid City Oct. 29 and 30.