Seniors Francesco Blandino and Adrian Baez are not only close friends and roommates; they’re also the front men of their own electronic dance music collaboration, HammerHeadz.

Blandino, an applied psychology and human relations major, and Baez, a marketing major, began playing around with programs and turntables on their own before ultimately combining their talents to produce and DJ together.

“About two and a half years ago I started messing around with the programs, and after a year I was able to actually make songs,” Baez said. “So, when Cesco [Blandino] started to DJ, we just joined forces, [which was easy] considering we were already roommates.”

In the summer of 2013, the duo adopted the name HammerHeadz and continued to practice together, each teaching the other what went into their portion of the act.

“[Baez] started to create his own electronic dance music (EDM),” Blandino said. “This style of music is produced on a computer…every single beat, sound, and effect is created, arranged, and composed by us.”

This duo’s love of EDM, and music in general, goes farther back than even their friendship. Both Blandino and Baez have backgrounds in music, which provided the foundation for them to further explore different genres.

“I started playing guitar in sophomore year of high school, and then I got into the EDM scene last year,” Blandino said.

The DJ admitted that his push to begin making this style of music began after seeing DJs Sunnery James and Ryan Marciano at the Life in Color event at New York City nightclub Pacha.

“It changed my life; that’s when I realized I wanted to do what those guys were doing. They are my inspiration,” Blandino said.

Baez had a similar story.

“I used to sing and play the piano as a child, so I felt I understood music enough to give it a try,” he said.  “I started getting into EDM about four or five years ago when I heard Avicii and other artists of that nature, and as I learned more about EDM, I realized it was for me.”

While their act is still young, HammerHeadz has already gone on to perform at Pacha twice in the last three months, on July 25 and Sep. 5.

As for the future, Blandino and Baez don’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.

“Personally, I plan on getting my masters, but that won’t stop me from also being a DJ,” Blandino said. “We really hope to make it big, so hard work is the only way to go.”

“I want this to go as far as it possibly can,” Baez said. “It started as a hobby, but now I feel that with hard work and commitment, anything can happen.”

The two are currently working on their first album and have previewed their music on both Instagram and Soundcloud.