Chez Discusses The “Platter” EP, Snowta, Releasing Music & More
Written by: Dan Warren
To kick off 2025, we’ve been shining the spotlight on the next great wave of bass music artists that are shaping the scene right before our eyes. These artists are bringing something new and fresh to the table and have us excited for what the future has in store. Andrew Cariola, better known in the underground bass scene as Chez, is one of those promising talents that is making bass music fun again.
The Chicago-based artist has been landing on the radars of bass music enthusiasts nationwide year after year with his unique blend of nostalgic sampling and modern glitch hop. In 2023, he wowed audiences with his sets at events like Sound Haven and Submersion. He also released his three-track Mr. Nibbles EP, which included fan-favorites like “Do It” and “Yahoo.”
Last year, he kept the momentum rolling by embarking on his first official tour—the 3 Of A Kind Tour—with fellow rising talents, crawdad sniper and Charles Nimbus. Chez followed this up with even more upbeat, energetic performances at Infrasound, multiple Nocturnal Nights events in Alabama and Denver, multiple Cool Customer tour stops, and other well-curated events across the country.
Towards the end of 2024, he released Chez Touch Vol. 3 (Unreleased WIPs & Flips) on The Rust Music, which gave fans a glimpse into his ever-expanding vault of unreleased heat. This 32-minute mix also previewed music that would eventually be coming out in the early stages of this year and beyond.
Earlier this month, Chez released the Platter EP on Colony Productions. This three-track project features tracks from the aforementioned mix, including “Hit Me,” which has been sending crowds into a frenzy for the last few years. The opening and closing tracks, “Bippity Bop” and “Shmingus,” perfectly encapsulate Chez’s signature style of spine-tingling grooves and frenetic energy. The Platter EP is a three-course meal that serves up a hefty amount of bass.
The release of the Platter EP was the latest milestone in what has been a very busy start to the year for Chez. In January, he played to his biggest crowd yet at Snowta, announced a merch drop in collaboration with Wobble Factory and released an additional flip on SoundCloud.
We had a chance to chat with Chez about all of the exciting moments that have come his way over the last year as well as preview what fans can look forward to from him later this year. Check out the full conversation below and be sure to give Chez a follow across socials to stay up to date on all of the latest news surrounding his project!
NS: Congratulations on your new EP release with Colony Productions! Tell us a little bit about the Platter EP and how it came together.
AC: Thank you! I’m really excited to have this out. To be honest, the story of how this EP came together is kind of funny. Mike Wallis — the label boss of Colony Productions — had hit me up a couple times to send him music. I kept thinking it was for him to play in his sets, which made me nervous because I know what artists Mike likes to play, and in my head it was hard to imagine my songs getting played out against those.
He was actually playing in Chicago with Zac (crawdad sniper) one weekend, but I was in Denver at Mission Ballroom for a show with my now girlfriend. I remember Brett, my manager and agent at the time, called me and was like, “Dude, send Mike Wallis your music” and I told him the same thing about why I was nervous and he went, “he wants to release your music” and I thought to myself “Oh we should definitely do that…”
I sent Mike eight songs and he picked four from that bunch. One of the songs was a collaboration with Sagz, which we ended up deciding would be better off as a single, so we settled on three for the EP. I enjoyed the order that the three songs are in and how they increase in energy throughout the three. I also like that there is a solid mixture of a couple newer tunes I’ve made with one of my older IDs in “Hit Me.”
The name of the EP is trying to keep consistent with the color palette and general theme that I’m going for heading into this year. I knew I wanted to come out swinging and that meant I was going to have to start releasing more music and honing in on the project. I released my latest mixtape with The Rust a few months ago, and then to start the year, I played to a massive crowd at Snowta, released my “Steppin’ on the Beach” Flip, announced my merch collab with Wobble Factory, and now we’re at the EP release with Colony.
It was important to me that everything tied together nicely and I feel like there has been a lot of really good momentum leading up to this release. And you can kind of see the progression, too, with how the mixtape artwork flows into the flip release art as well as the Colony EP art, which also has similarities to the merch drop with those earthy green and yellow color combinations.
NS: That’s a great back story and yes, it definitely looked like you were ready to make a big splash as soon as the new year started. How long have you known Mike? And what made Colony Productions feel like the right home for these songs?
AC: Mike [Wallis] is definitely one of my favorite people that I’ve met since entering the scene. Mike was at the first real show I played. We walked past each other after I was done playing and I was thinking, “Oh God, that’s Mike Wallis” and assuming he was this super serious guy because he’d been doing this music stuff for so long. Like, he is involved with so much in our scene from being a member of K.L.O., his project with Tipper called “Crunch” as well as his solo projects, and then, of course, he’s the headman of the label Colony Productions.
The first real time I met him and got to know him was when I played in New Orleans. I didn’t really know anyone while I was down there and I ended up at Mike's hotel. I remember we were there and he asked me if I wanted to get food and I was kind of anxious and responded “No, I think I’m good.” Even after, when he returned, he asked if I wanted to go take a walk around town to see some sites, which this time I said yes. He was so welcoming and really made me feel like I belonged.
As we walked around the French Quarter, he told me about how he used to be a breakdancer and then proceeded to start busting a move in the middle of the street. I’m a pretty socially-anxious guy until I feel comfortable around you, but Mike was just really easy to talk to. Both he and Ben [Lone Drum] are just such great guys and I feel really fortunate to be able to call them homies.
Another big reason that I’m happy about this EP being on Colony is because Mike allows you to post the EP on your own SoundCloud, which to me was huge. SoundCloud can be pretty weird sometimes and won’t let you “collab” on a release so to speak, so it’s great to be able to host the EP on my own page. It’s also just a huge honor to have someone like Mike believe in my project and to see my name alongside a bunch of friends and inspirations.
NS: Wow, what a great guy! It’s always good to have someone like that in your corner that makes you feel welcomed in a space that can often feel very lonely. So, when you were deciding what to send Mike for consideration, did you have any specific criteria? For example, did you want to send more newer tunes or were there some songs that had been sitting in the vault for a while?
AC: I wouldn’t say there was really any criteria for the songs I sent him or for the songs that ended up on this EP. I mainly put out what I thought were my favorite tunes at the time and once we nailed down the three songs, I felt like the order that they were in flowed nicely. When I knew that Mike wanted to release some of my songs on his label, that motivated me to pick out some music that I was really proud of.
But yeah, I’ve always been anxious about releasing music. In the past, I usually just released a mix once a year and was like “There ya go” and that would be it. I’m sure many other artists feel the same way, but oftentimes I find myself asking “Is this good enough to release?” and then I’ll start something new that I like more without revisiting what I was just working on. Getting in that type of headspace is not very good if you want to release music consistently. Zac (crawdad sniper) has been a huge inspiration when it comes to releasing music — not only does he make really good music, but he is also consistent with his releases.
NS: That makes sense. I’ve heard of that being a big roadblock for releasing music for a lot of artists. How do you think artists can get over that hump and start releasing more music?
AC: This is obviously way easier said than done, but getting out of the “This needs to be 100% perfect” mindset is super important if you want to release music more consistently. This is especially true if you’re just starting out with producing because you’ll find that you’re spending all of your time fine tuning stuff that the listener won’t even notice instead of just releasing the music. I think focusing on writing a good song is the most important thing. The sound design stuff can and will always get better too.
You don’t need to be a Tipper or a Resonant Language or a Mickman right out of the gate. Those guys have perfected their craft over several years—or in Tipper’s case, decades! Pressure can be good, but you don’t have to overburden yourself with so much pressure when you’re just starting out. I also think a lot of bass music producers can put a lot on themselves to go super big and complex. You don’t always need to be complicated for the sake of being complicated or proving to yourself that you can do it. Some of my favorite Tipper tracks are pretty basic in the sense of having a continuous bass line or motif for the entirety of the song. Sometimes it is really about pushing simple ideas to their maximum. I feel like the song “Knee Pads” is a perfect example of that.
There’s also the point I mentioned where I’ll start something new and be like “This is way better than the older stuff I’ve made!” and then I won’t think about revisiting the older stuff. While I haven’t always been great at doing this, I think finishing tunes and not letting good ideas die is important. If anything, it’s a good benchmark to see how far you’ve come as an artist. It’s still good to have it up on some platform where you can go back later and compare how your newer stuff sounds to the older stuff. It takes a lot of time and commitment to get to where you want to be.
In this half time/glitch hop pocket of bass music, you can start out by making simple hip hop or boom bap beats. Trying to make the coolest hip hop beats you can and from there adding a little more each time and making things “bass-ier” is a good start. That’s pretty much how I got started. At the end of the day, if you’re not having fun at some point in the process of making music then it’s harder to make “good” music in my opinion. Having fun is so important to me when creating. Yes, it can be very frustrating at times, but it’s so rewarding when you learn something new and apply that to what you’re making and it ends up sounding good. Make sure you have fun with the process.
NS: That’s great advice—it’s important to remember that this stuff takes a lot of time! Enjoy the journey and don’t stop creating! Switching gears a bit, you played arguably your biggest set to date at Snowta to start the year. Tell us about your experience from that weekend and what it was like to be paired up with the legend, Johnathan Singer, on visuals.
AC: Yes, the weekend at Snowta was crazy! It was insane to have Johnathan Singer doing the visuals for the set. When we were at the venue in the green room, he noticed that I was wearing my Chez hoodie and then he introduced himself.
He told me he doesn't usually do many uptempo sets, which made me a little nervous, but I told him that it should be fun and bubbly, which I felt would make it a good fit. And then when I saw the videos from my set afterwards, I was like damn, this guy absolutely crushed it. It was so well done and it was an honor to have someone like him do the visuals.
There were a lot of cool moments from the set. There is a really cool photo from behind me looking out into the crowd—huge shoutout to Joel Potter for capturing so many amazing shots that night. I had a lot of hometown friends there for the set, too, which meant so much to me. Also, I waited about three months to play that JG Wentworth song and the reaction to that was more than I could have hoped for.
In terms of the music, I like to play mostly originals in my sets, but for this one I actually played more tracks from other artists than I usually do. I was really just going for what would sound the best in that type of setting. Huge shoutout to Phil (pheel.) as well for coming out to scratch over the set!
NS: The videos I saw from your set looked spectacular, I wish I could have been there as both nights looked incredible. So, obviously this was a huge moment to kick off your 2025. Looking back at 2024, what were some of your favorite moments? Was there a particular show or set you played that really stuck out?
AC: Honestly, my favorite moment of 2024 was going on my first official tour — the 3 Of A Kind Tour — with two of my best friends, Zac (crawdad sniper) and Charlie (Charles Nimbus). They are really great guys and both make incredible music that keeps me inspired. I was good friends with Zac well before the tour, but didn’t really know Charlie all that well. But now I can confidently say that Charlie is one of my favorite people that I’ve met through music.
The tour was awesome because we had a lot of shows that did well and most of them were shows where we were the headliner. Those people paid money to come see the three of us play a show, which was a really special feeling.
NS: That’s awesome! There’s no better feeling than doing what you love with the people you love. And now that your marathon January has concluded and the Platter EP is now out, what else are you looking forward to for the rest of this year (that you’re able to share)?
AC: In terms of upcoming releases, I’m wrapping up an EP with Sqonk that will be coming out in the next month or two. I also have an EP in the works with Wolf’d, who’s another talented artist based here in the Chicago area. This is going to be a cool project because we’re showcasing both of our styles in a few different genres—we have a drum & bass song, a UKG song, a half time song and dub song . That one should be coming out closer to the end of the summer.
I’m also going to be moving to D.C. to live with Zac (crawdad sniper) as well as with his current roommates and the homies, Togeki and Dhananjaya. I’m really excited to be making this move to the east coast. I’ve been living at home here in the Chicago area for pretty much my entire life, so it’ll be a really nice fresh start for me. I’m looking forward to hanging out with those guys and it will be a great environment to create new music.
NS: That’s super exciting! We’re looking forward to hearing the new tunes and best of luck with the big move. Thanks a ton for chatting with us!