Rising Artist: Chris Gavino AKA Manila Killa/Hotel Garuda

    Chris Gavino is a 22 year old melodic future house/bass producer currently living in Washington DC. Aside from a humble personality and a great outlook on the future of electronic music, Chris has racked up tens of thousands of followers under his aliases Manila Killa and Hotel Garuda. Now I know these names may be very familiar to you, but I’d be willing to bet that not many of you knew that both of these names are a product of Chris’s unlimited musical intelligence. Under Manila Killa, Chris’s remix of Dawn Golden’s “All I Want” has already racked up over 3 million plays, defining the melodic sound he’s looking to capture perfectly. With such a smooth lead and clean drop, it might be hard to believe that the entire song was created with the buttons on a laptop. Without any prior musical training, it’s hard to believe that songs like Hotel Garuda’s “Rythym of the Night” are coming straight from some of the most dedicated intrinsic motivation that I’ve seen to date. 

    Chris’s music collective Moving Castle hosts some of the largest grossing names in EDM, with producers like Jai Wolf, AOBeats. Dirty Chocolate, and Mark Johns making a huge impact in the upcoming future generation of the electronic music scene. Recently releasing the massive “Helix 2.0” with AOBeats and Robokid, it’s quite obvious that all these rising producers know is gold. Debuting some new tracks at an upcoming back to back show case with Mark Johns in Denver, Colorado just a week from now, Moving Castle is currently making a name for themselves at a faster rate than ever before. If this is all new information to you, head on over to the Moving Castle Soundcloud page linked below. You can find a wide plethora of sounds supported on each of the 4 volumes that have been released to date. This collective entices every angle of musical interests, and I’m sure any track featuring Manila Killa will be sliding it’s way into your likes tab after just one listen.

Moving Castle's Soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/movingcastle

    After his set at Firefly Muisc Festival a few weeks back, I was blessed with some time to chat about Chris’s original inspirations along with where things were heading in the future. After talking about artists ranging from Daft Punk, Justice, and Bon Iver to Klingande, Basenji, and even growing names like Kidswaste, it’s safe to say that Chris keeps himself up to date with the entire spectrum of electronic music. With such a wide outlook, new captivating influences are being noted day in and day out, a sure sign of adaptability and future stardom.  Regardless of where Chris’s music goes in the future, I can assure you that this dude has a great head on his shoulders, and that “success” in his mind is so much more than just monetary worth. He hopes to buy his parents a house someday, an aspiration that I’m sure many other bedroom producers dream of fulfilling as well. Moral of the story, take some time to step into Chris’s mind. Music is the purest translation of one’s true self, and with the sounds that manifest in this guys' mind, things are definitely only going to get brighter and brighter from here.  If you took the time to read this, let this be a lesson to never give up on your wildest dreams. Hotel Garuda started out as a fun side project between Chris and an old friend from middle school, and has already turned into so much more than 60k Soundcloud followers and a coveted set at EDC Las Vegas. To those who are passionate about it, music is life, and that life just so happens to be one of the craziest that you could possibly fathom experiencing.

Manila Killa's Soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/manilakilla

Hotel Garuda's Souncloud page: https://soundcloud.com/hotelgarudamusic

      As Chris pointed out, there’s a huge surge of bedroom producers looking to make a name for themselves right now, and if anything, he deserves a huge round of applause for all the inspiration he’s offered to date. Here’s to making the most of what the future has in store, putting a deserving producer on your radar, and to wishing Manila Killa, Hotel Garuda, and the rest of Moving Castle the absolute utmost success in every aspect imaginable. 

Written By : Cooper Turley