Two Friends Are Keeping Fans “On Their Toes” With New Music

Two Friends are pulling out all the stops before their Breakaway Arizona set. The electronic DJ duo, composed of longtime besties Matt Halper, 32, and Eli Sones, 31, is in Phoenix to headline Night 1 of the festival on April 18. They’re preparing like any chronically online person would in 2025: by dunking their faces into an ice bath filled with Saratoga water.

If you’re lost, a TikTok search for “Saratoga water guy” will direct you to viral videos from content creator Ashton Hall, who’s been spoofed by SNL for his over-the-top morning routine. Halper and Sones have re-created this setup in their artist suite to shoot a video (still to come on their socials). Now, water dripping off Sones’ beard, we’re sitting down to chat about their set.

They’ve been performing at Breakaway since 2021. “It’s always a good time,” Sones says of the touring music festival, which hosts multiple dates in cities throughout the U.S. "We just saw Koastle and Daniel Allan rip it on the main stage, then we saw Sidequest. Of any festival we've done, this has the highest percentage of other artists we’re friendly with, so it’s been fun hanging out.”

Halper says the duo is planning to “go hard” on stage — a promise they delivered on, even on an unseasonably rainy Friday evening in the desert. To warm up, the night before Breakaway, Two Friends and Jake Shane hosted a pop-up show with CELSIUS, playing their hit mixes out of an Airstream near the festival grounds. The location changed a few times due to logistics, but they weren’t deterred. “We were in our hotel room just waiting for them to tell us where to go,” Sones jokes. “But we showed up, and it was great.”

Here, the duo shares their festival must-haves and the secret to creating an earworm remix.

Elite Daily: You guys play a lot of festivals. What are the essential items you’d tell people to bring?

Matt Halper: During the day, I'm all about the sunscreen.

Eli Sones: I'm going to sound like an old man, but maybe some earplug protection. We've heard too many horror stories.

MH: Both of our answers are super—

ES: Yeah, we need some fun.

MH: Maybe a fully charged phone on low-battery mode.

ED: These are very mindful answers.

ES: What about a non-physical thing? Bring a willingness to explore and check out new artists.

ED: I like that. You closed the pop-up with your new “Sweet Caroline” mix, which is the first official remix of this famous song. What was it like to work with Neil Diamond on that track?

ES: It was very, very cool. That's obviously such an iconic song for more than 50 years.

MH: For the past two years, we’ve been playing the original version for our encore, and it goes off so hard. When we had the opportunity to remix it, we were like, "This is going to be even better." We've been playing it in the exact same spot in our set.

ED: Do you have any other dream collaborators?

MH: Too many. Maybe some of the people we grew up on, like Eminem or Blink-182.

ED: At this point, you’ve released 25 of your mega-viral Big Bootie Mixes. Do you have a favorite?

ES: No. 26, which is in the works and almost done. We always make it a challenge for ourselves that it’s not finished until we think it’s our best one yet. We're premiering it at Big Bootie Land, which is our own mini-festival on May 31 in Seattle. By the time everyone hears it, hopefully, it’ll be the new favorite.

MH: If we don't love it, then they won't love it.

ES: But it's hard because there’s a nostalgia element. People might say 11 or 15 is their favorite because they were in college when it came out, and no matter how hard we work, we'll never beat it. But we try.

ED: What’s the art of the perfect mix?

ES: We try to find stuff that's familiar to people, but present it in an exciting, surprising new way. Sometimes when we're making the mixes or thinking about what to play at our shows, it's not necessarily just the things that sound good. You might take a famous EDM vocal over a famous EDM instrumental, and it sounds good, but to us that’s a little, I guess—

MH: Vanilla.

ES: Yeah. So instead, we’ll take a country song and put it with a dance instrumental. We want people to sing along and feel that nostalgia, but put our twist of injecting some danciness into it.

MH: Got to keep the people on their toes.

ED: What else is coming up for you this year?

ES: With Big Bootie Land and any show we do, we try to make it more than just a concert. We bring out all the surprises and make it an experience for everyone.

MS: We have a drum line, hopefully some surprise guests. We'll premiere a lot of new music there, too.

ES: I can confidently say we've never been sitting on more stuff, because we’re trying to prep it all and figure out what songs are next. Sometimes you have one song ready and don't know what's going to happen afterward, but now we have so much music that we're about to start rolling out. I know a lot of artists say this, but it feels like a new chapter is starting for us soon. It's an exciting time.

ED: Are you manifesting anything?

ES: The dream collabs, like Blink-182 and Eminem.

MH: Both on the same song?

ES: No, no. Different songs. One with Eminem, one with Blink-182. I don't want to rush us. Can I say it'll happen—

MH: In the next three years?

ES: By 2046.

MH: That's a really loose manifestation.

ES: You can't rush a manifestation.

MH: That's true, but I feel you have to be working toward it.

ES: I will work on it for 21 years. These things take time.

ED: When this eventually drops, I'm going to be like, “We talked about this.”

ES: We manifested that.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.