Run and founded by CU Boulder students and alumni, Coat Check is a rapidly growing EDM collective dedicated to the idea that everyone is equal on the dancefloor. Started two years ago, Coat Check may have its roots in Boulder, but they have since branched out and have grown to receive international attention, quite the feat for a group of college kids. Coat Check is now preparing for the third edition of their annual festival, Junkyard Music and Arts Festival, which will be held at Little Horse Vintage on April 26th. It’s an event celebrating all that’s beautiful in EDM, from the artists to the fans and everything in between.
303 Magazine spoke with Coat Check members Will Levy, Owen Hudgins and Blake Bair about the Festival, Coat Check’s origins and goals, their own individual experiences with EDM and much more.
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Hello! I usually like to start these out by offering you the opportunity to tell me a little bit about who you are and what you do in your own words.
Will Levy: Hi, I’m Will Levy and I am a senior at CU Boulder studying Business with an emphasis in marketing and I am also the CEO and a co-founder of Coat Check. I oversee everything in the collective to ensure that we are achieving our brand goals and contributing to the dance music community. I am also one of our in-house artists with my friend, and fellow Coat Check team member, under the name Witness Protection.
Owen Hudgins: I’m Owen Hudgins and I am also a senior at CU studying Media Production. I have been part of Coat Check a few months after it started back in 2023 and was brought on as a lead graphic designer. I assist our creative director with visual media on our socials and website to make sure Coat Check has an aesthetically appealing online presence.
Blake Bair: Hey, I am Blake Bair and I’m a senior at Boulder studying Business with a focus on entrepreneurship. I joined the Coat Check team a year after it started. I handle the operational back-end tasks that help inform our audience about what we are up to as a collective such as updating our website, uploading content to our music streaming platforms, sending texts through our hotline and a variety of communications tasks.
Before we get into talking about Coat Check proper, I’d like to ask each of you about your history with EDM music. When did you first become interested in the genre? What is it about EDM that means so much to you?
WL: I am from Alabama originally and there is not much of an EDM scene at all because it’s not widely accepted the way it is here in Colorado. So, when I got to Boulder, a friend of mine took me to my first show, which was at Club Vinyl to see Cloone. I instantly fell in love with the music and the environment. The feelings I had were truly special and I thought to myself, “I wanna do this every weekend.” It developed into me wanting to mix my own music and give others the experience I had. My co-founders and I recognized there’s a gap in underground dance music versus more commercialized music here in Boulder. We wanted to fill that gap with Coat Check.
OH: My older brothers were the ones who introduced me to dance music. I vividly remember when I was in about 4th or 5th grade, I was sitting in the backseat of my grandma’s car and my brother was driving. He played Disclosure’s album “Settle,” which had just come out. My elementary school brain had never heard any sort of dance music like that; it really registered and resonated with me ever since. I started mixing in high school and I kind of always put producing my own music on the back burner because I never really thought I could do it. When I got to CU, that’s where it kicked into gear, where I found the confidence to start making the music I like. For the last two years, I’ve been steadily putting out music as Trader O. I’ve had a release on a label which I’m extremely proud of, looking back at my history with the genre. It kind of goes hand-in-hand with what Coat Check is all about, finding the perfect way to express ourselves and have the collective drive on creativity.
BB: I grew up pretty much all of my life in Boulder, but didn’t discover electronic music until I got to university. I fell in love with the idea that people go out dancing to music that they have never heard before. I was used to people going to concerts to listen to the music that they were expecting to hear and sing along to. The exploration aspect of the dance music community is what made me fall in love with the genre. I also grew up very musical. I played the drums, saxophone, guitar, and piano, so when I discovered electronic music, I was really interested in learning how to use a DJ mixer. A few years after just DJing for fun to share music with friends, my passion for dance music evolved into creating my own music and sharing my own style. I now do a lot of production in collaboration with Owen, and it’s so awesome to see that what we make is getting people dancing.
Tell me about how y’all came together. How did y’all meet?
OH: We all met at different times, but essentially, Will and I had mutual friends who were also part of Coat Check, and they told me that I would mesh really well with everyone. So, they kind of just recruited me to be part of the team. I met Blake through his roommate, and when I first saw this seven-foot-tall dude in person, he was in the same situation I was in, where his vibes would just fit. It really was our network of friends bringing us together. Next thing you know, we’re all just running around and living out what we have always wanted to do, which is so cool. We’ve got the rest of our lives to do it together.
WL: I actually remember when I first met Blake, he told me his parents had a barn on their property, and we just spitballed ideas back and forth on how to use this cool space for Coat Check. His passion for wanting to make this happen was an instant indicator that he needed to be on the team. We spent two months planning Blake’s vision to come to life, and for some reason, God knows why, his parents gave us permission to do it. I honestly would say it was one of our coolest events, and it really strengthened our friendship.
Okay, how did Coat check originate? Was it a while after y’all first met? What was the impetus that spurred you to start the collective?
WL: Yeah, one of my best friends and co-founder, Hugo, was a huge influence on me by showing me the ropes of quality dance music. So I had slowly been immersed in the dance music scene, but it wasn’t until my time abroad that I felt that I needed to be part of this movement of music in a more impactful way. Something that goes beyond being an attendee. I saw a bunch of awesome artists at iconic venues like Michael Bibi at Printworks in London and PAWSA with Solid Grooves in London. I was completely floored by the energy that the music creates in these environments. There is a strong sense of community bonded over by a love of the music a DJ plays. I told myself that I need to emulate this experience for people in Boulder and that’s when Coat Check was born and we began hosting events around town and have been ever since.
The collective’s tagline is “We are not special. We’re just checking coats.” Can you please elaborate on what this means?
BB: It’s not about us. It’s not about the DJ. It’s not about who’s throwing the party. It’s about who’s on the dance floor and the interactions that are happening. In today’s world, people are obsessed with status in terms of social media and followers, all the extra stuff that doesn’t really involve the music. And the slogan emphasizes that we’re not special. We’re not above anyone. We’re just here to craft these great times that people have been having for decades as a way to unite people on the dance floor and appreciate the music.
What is Coat Check’s ultimate goal? What do you seek to accomplish?
WL: Whether you’re an artist or an avid listener, no matter your background, every individual is welcomed and accepted on the dance floor. Our ultimate goal is to keep growing across the world and really build a global community that’s solidified on that point at our in-person events and online. Our events are a really fun way to do that and seeing people live out our mission is so gratifying. Our community built online also drives our goals in educating people about underground dance music by giving artists a platform to showcase their individuality.
In the two years since Coat Check’s inception, y’all have grown quite exponentially. How did this happen, and can you tell me what that looks like? Maybe a better way to put it would be, how has the Coat Check of today changed and grown since it first started?
OH: Simply put, we started kind of just your typical college town party in the Boulder area. It was always in the back of everyone’s minds to grow to other cities. As we grew, we kind of realized that people liked the events we were throwing and the music being played. It dawned on us that as more Coat Check people begin to graduate, we are gonna spread across the U.S. That was the basis of our expansion to other cities like Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam and Chicago by having our team move around after their time at CU. We have definitely evolved from the stereotypical college party and more so to a dedication to the dance music experiences the culture was founded upon from underground dance clubs of the 80s.
You will be throwing your third annual Junkyard Music and Arts Festival on April 26th. Tell me about how the first iterations of the festival came together.
WL: Venue is an important part of our events and we strive to find unique spaces. One of the guys on the team was driving in Boulder and he saw this giant playground of huge art installations and a jungle gym. We wanted to build off the playful aspect of the venue, combine it with all the sensory aspects of our events from light shows to quality sound systems, and transform it into this open-air, multifaceted dance floor. We brought in art vendors for attendees to purchase their creations and had local talent, in-house artists, and a DJ for the evening. It was magic.
What can festival attendees expect this year? Any major changes from previous years? What should they be excited about?
BB: One major change we have is that we are switching the venue to Little Horse Vintage on Pearl Street in Boulder. People can still expect to have the same energy from the previous years of Junkyard, where people can appreciate and purchase art from our vendors and get their hips moving to the music the DJs play. People should be excited to experience a classic Coat Check experience.
WL: Although it didn’t logistically make sense for us to do it at the original venue, we were presented with the opportunity to adjust and find a new place for people to explore. I think what we do best is come into spaces and transform them to make them our own. So I don’t see that being any different this year, and I think it’s definitely going to be something people will remember.
OH: I think people should be excited to hear the music they probably haven’t heard before and have it be a night of musical discovery.
What else is next for Coat Check?
WL: We’re planning on starting our own label soon with the overall goal of bringing a bunch of new artists to our roster and joining the family. We want to spread their creativity with the world and be the outlet that can provide for artists. We want to make sure we are doing it right and making the artist feel prioritized by making sure their track is properly distributed. So that’s something artists should keep in mind in the future.
Finally, is there anything else you’d like to mention or anyone you’d like to shout out?
BB: A crucial piece of who we are is that every member of Coat Check has different tastes in EDM genres. Sure, there is some overlap, but we all have very unique individual styles in the music we play and create. This is one of the biggest contributors to how we built this brand. We’re not just into tech house. We’re not just into afro music. We’re not just into disco. We revolve around all of those genres, and more, to curate an experience and showcase music that will resonate for someone to connect with us and be part of our community. People can discover what music we are loving by checking out our Spotify playlists, listening to our radio mixes and live sets on SoundCloud. They can also learn about dance music culture, hear about our upcoming events and so much more by following us on our Instagram @coatcheck.us.
All photography courtesy of Anthony Andre.
