Cheat Codes x Kris Kross Amsterdam have delivered one of the summer’s biggest hits with the single “Sex” rapidly rising and reaching the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Chart. Revamping and revitalizing Salt-n-Pepa’s “Let’s Talk About Sex” for a new generation, they’ve seduced listeners worldwide. “SEX” has been streamed over 235 million times on Spotify, reaching #11 on the Spotify Global Chart. It’s currently holding strong in the Top 10 of Apple Music’s Top Dance Songs Chart. Climbing the charts now at Top 40 radio, the guys are just getting started.
Hitting all the major festivals this summer, we sat down with Cheat Codes in New York before playing Billboard’s Hot 100 Festival on August 20.
How did you all begin working together?
Trevor Dahl: [Gestures to Matthew Russel] Go for it.
Matthew Russel: Me and Trevor moved to LA like five years ago, separately, but we had met randomly in St. Louis because we had played a show together, when he was like 16 years old or something. So when we moved out to LA, I was like: “Ah, I know you”, and we actually ended up living together, on and off, for however many years. And then me and Kevi met a couple years ago, because we both sued the same person.
Kevin Ford: Yeah.
Matthew: And then we took him to Small Claims court, which was really good fun, and we won! That was fun!
Kevin: Yeah we did!
Matthew: And we were like, you know what? If we could win this court case –
Trevor: We could do anything in this industry! Wahoo!
Matthew: So then me and him, we started a company called ‘Cheat Codes’, and Trevor was my roommate at the time, and we decided to colab on some songs. And one song turned into three, turned to –
Trevor: Forty.
Matthew: Forty.
Trevor: To 100.
Matthew: We’d done a bunch, and then never stopped. So that’s how we started.
Trevor: And the first song we did together, we ended up putting out as the first Cheat Codes song, called ‘Visions’. After that we just kind of kept going with it, and making more songs, and feeling really good about it. It’s been cool; it’s been about a year and a half since we started. It’s been quick, but it’s been fun.
So can I ask, what was the lawsuit? Are you allowed to say?
Kevin: Um, yeah.
Matthew: Yeah, it’s fine. Its doesn’t matter, it small claims so … We almost got on Judge Judy, which would have been cool…
Best fame yet.
Matthew: I know right.
Trevor: We would have been so famous.
Kevin: Ah, man.
Matthew: So yeah, actually, Kevi was doing rap music at the time, and I was like, trying to hype him up. I was showing him all these cool beats I made.
Kevin: Yeah, some sick beats man.
Matthew: And he was like – “I want to work with Matt”. And I was working with this guy named Michael Wilson; I’m going to put them on blast real quick.
Kevin: Yeah, fuck Michael Wilson.
[They all laugh]Matthew: I was working with him in his studio, and he was like: he would bring me clients, and then he would pay me for working, making tracks, and beats for him, whatever. So he owed me for like three different clients, and I was like: “Yeah, I want to work with Kevi, but you got to pay me for these other ones. You owe me.” And he was like: [in a very humorous stoner-type voice] “Well in that case, then I’ll find somebody else”. Kicked me off.
[Kevin laughs]Matthew: Kicked me off, and then Kevi was like –
Kevin: What the fuck?
Matthew: “Oh, I wanted to work with Matt”, so give me my money back. And then Michael didn’t want to give him his money back. So we both were like, ahh, screw this guy.
Kevin: Fuck this guy.
Matthew: Whatever, honestly it’s just fine.
And you almost Judge Judied his ass.
Matthew: Yeah, yeah.
Kevin: Almost.
Matthew: They called, the producers of Judge Judy called us, and they were like: “We want you guys to do your case, but the other guy has to agree”. And I don’t think he agreed. Because they end up paying.
Kevin: Michael said no, that son of a bitch.
Matthew: And then what happens is: they’ll actually pay the settlement for us, if he would have agreed.
Kevin: So screw that guy even more for that.
Matthew: Yeah, we would have been on Judge Judy.
So who are your musical inspirations?
Trevor: Everything honestly, I know its kind of a dorky answer, but honestly we listen to everything. We love rap, we love pop, we love acoustic music; we love everything, well indie music, whatever. I’m from Portland, so I know a lot of bands from there – like The Shins – people like that, like indie, more sort of chill indie rock. I like that stuff a lot. Yeah, what about you guys?
Matthew: The Beatles, Drake –
Kevin: Drake, yeah.
Matthew: I went through a punk phase back in the day. Fall Out Boy.
Trevor: Punk was like the first thing that got me into –
Matthew: Blink 182 –
Trevor: Yeah, Blink 182 is the reason I got into music, back in the day.
Matthew: It’s great. After that, I was really into pop music. I would just listen to pop radio all the time, and try to understand why they were big songs. I was like, why?
Trevor: Because it’s a good song.
Matthew: So, yeah.
You sample a few other songs in your songs. What is the inspiration behind that?
Trevor: Honestly, it just kind of happened on accident one day. We’ve only done that with two songs, but they ended up being our biggest songs so far, which is cool. But that was one of those things where we were spending all this time writing a song – we spent like six hours writing another song that we ended up not really liking – and near the end of it, Matt started humming the melody to ‘Sex’, and we were like: “Oh, that would be cool”. You know, like that’s kind of a cool idea. And then an hour later, me and Kevi just sat down, and were just like: “Hey, let’s mess around with that idea for a minute”, and we busted it out really quick, honestly. We just wrote the first verse, and got that real fast, we recorded the vocal right there, and it just felt really good. Then we all got together, and finished the second verse, and just kind of went from there. Once we had it finished though, we felt like: “Oh, this could be really cool. This could actually do something”. So yeah, it was never forced actually, it just kind of happened, and we never really thought about it until it just kind of come into our laps one day.
Matthew: Yeah, the funny thing is, right when we started the project, our manager was like: “It’s cool that you guys sing, and you guys DJ. You guys should do some sort of cover, almost, where you guys are singing instead, and make the track”. And we were like: “No. That sounds like a stupid idea.
Trevor: We were like: “Nah, maybe some other time, you know”.
Matthew: And then maybe like a year later, we did it on our own – it’s like when your parents ask you to do something, and you’re like: “No”.
Trevor: “No mom, that’s not cool”.
Matthew: But it was cool, and he was right about it.
So let’s talk about ‘Sex’.
Trevor: Let’s do it.
Were you ready for it to blow up that big?
Trevor: Yeah.
Kevin: Yeah.
Matthew: We were ready.
Trevor: We were really ready. We definitely hoped that it would get as big as it did, and it would get bigger.
Matthew: Trevor has been ready to have sex for a while.
[They all laugh]Matthew: He just lost his virginity.
I’m so proud of him.
Trevor: Yeah, I feel real stoked about that.
Kevin: Yeah.
Matthew: He’s been building up, building up for this moment.
Trevor: Real long process.
Nice climax.
Trevor: Yeah. No, but yeah, it’s been awesome. When the song was coming out, and we did the video, we definitely set goals for ourselves. We were like: “Oh, it would be cool if we got this many plays”, or if it did this, and it’s honestly exceeded all of those expectations that we kind of set for ourselves. And we aimed high, we were like: “Oh, it would be cool if we got 100 million plays”. And that at the time was like, oh, shit, that’s a lot of plays. But now it’s getting close to 300, so we’re pretty stoked, and it’s been really cool. We’re super grateful for everything.
If you could perform any place, any building, any landmark in the world, what would it be?
Trevor: Madison Square Garden. It’s right down the street, you know what I mean?
Adventurous.
Matthew: We’d like to go to Australia one day.
Trevor: Red Rock was really cool. It was amazing, crazy.
Matthew: I’d like to do a cruise ship thing. Which I’m sure we’ll do.
Kevin: Oh, like a boat.
Matthew: A cruise line.
Trevor: A carnival.
Kevin: Oh, yeah!
Matthew: You know, they have, like, Holy Ship!, or like a Groove Cruise type, you know what I mean?
Kevin: Yeah, yeah I feel you.
Trevor: I want to play somewhere super exotic though.
Matthew: like Richard Branson’s island or something.
Trevor: Yeah, I want to play on Richard Branson’s island. Edgar Island.
Matthew: Maybe one day.
We’ll make it happen.
Trevor: Yeah.
Matthew: Yeah, exactly.
What has been your favorite performance so far?
Trevor: A festival called ‘Firefly’. That was my favorite. It was in Delaware, and it was a couple months ago, or a month ago, or something like that. But it was awesome; it was the coolest crowd we’ve ever had. We didn’t know what to expect, because there were other bands playing, obviously, and the people that played before us – it was a cool crowd, but it wasn’t as big as ours, honestly. And we were like: “Hopefully people will show up”. We didn’t know if they were all going to leave, and we would only have, like, ten people when we go up.
Kevin: Yeah.
Trevor: And it was like: “Oh no, it might be awful”.
Matthew: [Imitating the way Trevor said “oh no”] Oh, no.
Trevor: It was amazing. It was way bigger than we could have asked for, and it definitely stuck out in my mind as one of the best shows. What about you guys?
Trevor: Firefly.
Matthew: Um, there is a show we play in Chicago, that Kevi got arrested afterwards, so that was just funny to me.
[Trevor and Kevin laugh and clap]Matthew: And I love laughing at people, so…
Trevor: Matt loves that detail.
Kevin: He loves it.
Matthew: Well, we did another show, in LA.
Trevor: It’s your favorite show?
Matthew: We played a show that was on Kevi’s birthday, in Orlando, and that was super fun, because Kevi just got wasted.
[Kevin laughs]Matthew: And everybody was like: he is just trying to get on our level, you know. Because we knew it was Kevi’s birthday. It was like, an intimate show.
Trevor: I love how Matt’s favorite shows are based off of what Kevi does.
[Everyone laughs]So why did Kevi get arrested?
Kevin: Oh man, I got a little too turnt, and I was spraying a fire-hydrant in our hotel –
Matthew: Fire extinguisher –
Kevin: Fire extinguisher, yeah. All over the hotel.
Matthew: The whole hotel was evacuated. At four in the morning.
Kevin: The fire alarm went off. I ran.
Matthew: Me and Trevor almost died.
Trevor: We thought it was a real fire. We came out of the hotel room, and Kevi was gone, so I’m thinking Kevi is downstairs smoking a cigarette, or whatever. And I opened the door, and the fire alarm was going off, and I was like: ‘Oh my god, what’s happening?” And there’s just smoke everywhere in the hallway. Little did I know, that was just fire extinguisher stuff. And I was like: “Matt! We have to go! Get up! Get up!”
Matthew: I was asleep.
Trevor: He was asleep, I was like: “Forget everything!” He didn’t have a shirt on, and we start booking it out of the hotel. Everyone’s evacuated. And we find Kevi, and Kevi’s just like: “What’s up guys?”
Kevin: Got ‘em.
Matthew: “What are you guys doing?”
How did they work out it was you?
Kevin: I don’t know!
Trevor: Kevi didn’t –
Kevin: I didn’t even do it.
Trevor: So we all get evacuated, and Kevi still doesn’t tell us that it was him. He’s just acts like: “What’s up? We’re all hanging out, can we all go back?”
Kevin: Laying low.
Trevor: So they finally let everyone back in the hotel, but there was no fire, it was just the extinguisher. We go back to sleep. Two hours later, the cops come and knock on the door. I opened the door, I’m like: “What?”
Matthew: “What’s going on?”
Trevor: “What’s going on? Good morning.” And then they come in, and walk right past me, and went for Kevi.
Kevin: I was like, okay, so they got me on camera.
Matthew: Kevi was kind of like: “What did I do?”
[They all laugh]Trevor: “What did I do wrong?”
Kevin: I didn’t remember.
Matthew: I could hear you in the hallway being like: “What am I being arrested for? Please tell me. Tell me. Please.”
How long were you in jail?
Kevin: It wasn’t that bad, it was probably like, a couple hours.
Trevor: We ended up meeting up at the airport before our flight.
Matthew: He didn’t even miss his flight.
Kevin: The cop even took me to the airport, in the cop car after.
Matthew: Super nice.
Kevin: He got my bags out for me, opened the door.
It’s more like a trip with a chauffer than a jail sentence.
Kevin: Yeah.
Trevor: Yeah.
Matthew: Yeah, its sort of a weird story. Good cop, bad cop.
Kevin: Crazy.
Are you all excited for the Billboard Hot 100?
Kevin: Yeah.
Matthew: We cannot wait for that.
Trevor: Yeah, very excited. We love Billboard.
Matthew: We love Wale, we love Skizzy Mars.
Trevor: Calvin Harris is playing, all sorts of stuff, so it’s going to be really cool. And we get to play at the Beach stage – I don’t know what it looks like, but it sounds cool.
Matthew: This is the biggest festival, or the only festival, near New York that we’ve played.
Trevor: No, no, Delaware’s not too far.
Matthew: No, I know that, but I’m saying that it’s actually in New York. We have a lot of friends that live here, and fans, so I hope that a lot of people will come out.
