Written by: Nick Lamoureux
Photo From: ARIUS
Today we take a deeper look inside a Dance Music duo that has the challenge of not only managing work-life balance, but being responsible for a child at home as well. Meet our favorite husband and wife DJ duo, Mr. and Mrs. Nguyen. Fun fact about how their artist name originated – Matt is an Aries and Tessa is a Sagittarius, so together, they make ARIUS!
Their career started simply, just DJing and having fun with their time on stage. “We get to be creative and make music for people to dance,” the duo said. ARIUS enjoys watching people dancing around at shows to their music, and they continue to do so because “it’s fun, it’s even better when you get to travel and do what you love together as a couple. It’s a lot of work but we wouldn’t trade this for anything else.”
They shared some of their biggest musical influences, “bass music, anything heavy, deep, complex, melodic.” They identified Pendulum, Knife Party, Porter Robinson, Zedd, Flume, Kygo, Excision, Skrillex and Illenium as their most influential artists.
While I think most people can agree that having to deal with a normal work-life balance is stressful enough, imagine what it’s like being a national touring act and having a child to care for.
Prior to having their daughter, Baesline, the couple recalls “it was just us, dance, music. Now we basically have a full time job on top of what we already have.” One of the biggest challenges for them is that they no longer have enough time in a day to achieve their normal routines. “We basically cut out watching tv, sleeping in, cut down on going out, it was a big change and we had to adapt.” For ARIUS, the first two years were the hardest, having to make sure that all of their attention was on their daughter 24/7. “A lot of diaper sessions, feeding, and spending time learning about her,” the couple says. They did however joke about Baesline already being potty trained by the age of 22 months, which for them was amazing because it removed the diapers from their lives altogether! This was a major milestone as parents because they no longer had to constantly check up on her at every waking moment, aside from normal mommy and daddy duties.
Photo From: ARIUS
Their daughter doesn’t travel with them when they are performing at shows though, which allows ARIUS to do what they’ve always done at shows. They said it’s a good balance because Baesline gets to enjoy a mini vacation with her grandmothers, and they always spoil her!
ARIUS has been fortunate because for them, they haven’t had to give up anything that they were doing prior to having Baesline. “We’ve done everything we wanted when we were in our early 20s, we thought it was a perfect time, having a child in our late 20s was our goal, we didn’t plan it, we just let it naturally happen,” they said. With just a little bit of compromise, they’re still able to do pretty much whatever they want!
ARIUS has always been a favorite of mine, because of their genuine personalities and their interaction with their fans.
Before signing off, they had this to say:
“A lot of people say when a child comes in the picture things change, your dreams and goals are going to take a hit, you won’t b able to do a lot of things. It is true but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Balance is the key, you just have to be productive and be smart with how you spend your time. We wake up at 9am and go to sleep around 1-2am. That’s about 14hours we get to spend each day. A normal person spends 8hrs at work and relax the rest of the day. For us, we don’t have time to relax, we’d rather be a boss doing what we love 14hrs a day than a 9-5. So don’t be afraid if you have a child, it’s a beautiful thing, work hard and go after your goals. If we can do it, you can do it :).” Keep up with the couple as they keep making waves through the dance music community. Twitter: @AriusOfficial
Facebook: facebook.com/ariusofficial
Photo From: ARIUS
