Mt Eden steps up to Coachella

Auckland musician Jesse Cooper - one half of musical duo Mt Eden - likes to think he's up with the play when it comes to music. But the 23-year-old admits he felt lost when told by manager Tim Youngson that Mt Eden had been invited to play at target="_blank">Coachella.

The famous Californian music festival has featured some big name artists - Madonna, Jay-Z and the Beastie Boys. This year frontline acts include Radiohead, The Black Keys, Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg.

But Cooper didn't know what the fuss was all about. Now that he and music partner Harley Rayner, also 23, are in the line-up, he's learned fast.

"I didn't know it was that big," says Cooper. "Harley was like: 'Bro, we're playing at Coachella!'. I started realising when people around me were getting excited. A lot of bands pay to play there but we were asked."

Formally known as Mt Eden Dubstep but simply called Mt Eden or MEDS, the duo stumbled into fame after posting their music online in 2010. With more than 50 million views on YouTube and around 40 international concerts booked in the next few months, MEDS are going down well. The Aucklander first met the pair last year when they were touring the US. Then, they were determined to make their mark after copping some flak locally. They now have more than 222,000 fans on Facebook, but are still unsigned.

Dubstep is a style of electronic dance music - Mt Eden's version is drum and bass - and the duo say they take inspiration from Kiwi drum and bass artists such as Concord Dawn and Shapeshifter.

Despite their growing fame, Cooper and Rayner, who live in Mt Eden as you might expect, have a laidback outlook on their whirling careers.

Even faced with the idea of a 100,000-strong audience at each Coachella performance - which runs in the California Desert over two weekends in April - the pair seem unfazed.

"Once I play my first two tracks and get into things, I'm on fire," says Cooper. "The adrenalin rush kicks in. We want to smash sets up, make the people happy and give them their money's worth."

Both attended Auckland Normal Intermediate then Auckland Grammar - and have been friends since the age of 11. Rayner is the son of keyboardist and music producer Eddie Rayner, of Split Enz fame, but you wouldn't know it from his music collection.

"All my vinyl collection is hop-hop," he says. "Dr Dre, Jay-Z, Nas, all of it."

Cooper was mixing music at age 11. But it's not about remixing so much these days - Cooper described Mt Eden's music to the NZ Herald as "trancey and ... something with a riff, a nice melody, that's vocal-driven, and when you dance to it you dance because you feel good".

He says he was encouraged through his older brother's love of church music. "We shared a room. At night he would play his guitar and I would listen to him sing."

Rayner, an architecture student at Auckland University, says his father's experience in the industry motivated him to pursue his own music career. "I don't think I would have done it if I hadn't seen him do it all before."

The duo's quick success resulted in a bit of a backlash from other musicians and music critics. "Doing our last tour fixed a lot of problems. No one had seen us play; they had only heard us on YouTube so we were able to earn some respect.

"Getting the Coachella gig has shut the haters up."

Mt Eden website

Mt Eden on YouTube

Mt Eden on Facebook

Coachella April 13-15 and 20-22