Hook N Sling Talks Collaborations With Galantis and His Favorite Things About New York in Exclusive iEDM Interview

Sunday at Electric Zoo saw clearer skies and warmer weather than Saturday. The weather wasn't the only thing that was hot on Sunday, all of the stages were lit up with huge talent and some of the biggest and the best names in EDM.

Hook N Sling took the main stage on Sunday to play a bold and feel-good set. Hook played some of his new hits and famous collaboration with Galantis during the hour long set, and iEDM had a chance to sit down with Anthony after his set and chat.

Hook shared with us how it feels to have "Love on Me" become so popular, the origin of his name, and what he loves about New York City. 

iEDM: I was really happy that I caught your set, I loved it. Your electro-house sound reminds me of Galantis, and your collaboration with them 'Love on Me' was one of the most popular songs I heard at EDC this year. 

Hook N Sling: Oh really? That's so cool. 

iEDM: Yeah, I heard it at least twice a night, every night. How does it feel having the track be so popular? Having everyone sing along to it? 

Hook N Sling: It feels really good. Like today I played the acapella early on in my set and the full version at the end, I was just watching people singing it and jumping around, it just felt really good. When you write music, you don't really know how it connects with people, so it felt really good to see people react that way. 

iEDM: Definitely, I'd say you connected really well  with all the people out there. You've played in New York quite a few times before, what do you love the most about our city? 

Hook N Sling: I've made some good friends in this city, the people here are really open. New Yorkers are my kind of people. One of my really good friends is from New York. And the food. I love the food. Always trying to find good places to eat out here. 

iEDM: I was waiting for that, everyone always says the food, and the food out here is pretty good and pretty cheap if you know where to go. 

Hook N Sling: Yeah definitely. And what else? I can always walk, everything is really easy to get to. In LA I get kinda sick of driving everywhere. 

iEDM: That's true, most people are like "oh New Yorkers are really rude" and I'm like "no once you get to know them, they're really nice. Just don't get in their way." 

Hook N Sling: Don't drive slow. 

iEDM: Your newest track 'Arms Around Me' sounds like something I could hear at Ultra or EDC. It has all the makings of a festival anthem that everyone would drop. Did you face any particular challenges while making it? 

Hook N Sling: That record happened pretty quickly. I was working on it at the same time as 'Love on Me' so it has a lot of similar vibes. I worked on the piano, the breakdown and the vocal was the part I wrote first. Normally I start writing with drums, that's the part I do first, same with 'Love on Me', if you notice on the record, the piano in the beginning is very similar to the piano in the beginning of 'Arms Around Me'. They're not similar chords, totally different but same piano sounds. 

iEDM: I'm sure you get asked this a lot, but your stage name. How did you come up with it? 

Hook N Sling: Oh yeah? Well I haven't been asked that in awhile. It's the name of an old funk song in the 60's and when I started reading an article about The Chemical Brothers and when they started producing, and where they drew their inspiration from. And they were like "don't ever use sample packed, don't use the same sounds as everyone else. Find your own sound." So I found this song called Hook N Sling that had these beats in them that were chopped up and I thought I was super original *laughs* and it just kinda stuck. 

iEDM: I like that! Last question, do you have any final words for your fans or any special projects you're working on? 

Hook N Sling: Yeah, I just finished a new remix. I know a lot of my fans like hearing my remixes, so I just finished one for Halsey which is coming out at the end of September and I'm working on one new remix right now and I have three new originals ready to come out. 

iEDM: Awesome, is it gonna be scattered, or one big drop date? 

Hook N Sling: No, they're all spaced one. One song every two months, so look out for another song in about 8 weeks. 

Thanks Anthony for taking the time to sit and talk with us. Your set was awesome and it was great getting to talk with you. We're looking forward to all your new music, keep an eye on Hook N Sling's SoundCloud to be the first to hear his new tracks! 

Check out more iEDM Exclusive Interviews HERE.