Up-and-coming local musician Feng Vue said producing music in a city unfamiliar with the genre he focuses on makes him go boldly against the norm.

“It’s dangerous and risky around these parts,” Vue said. “People around here aren’t really familiar with really fast polyrhythmic rhythms and weird time signatures.”

Vue is a 30-year-old recording artist known as Sloslylove who creates songs heavily influenced by Chicago Footwork as electronic music or what he describes as “nostalgia.”

Growing up in a household that had a variety of instruments on hand, Vue said he was constantly around music and eventually picked up piano. Taking lessons when he was younger, Vue said after a few years he decided to quit to create his own sound.

“I didn’t like the idea of playing other people’s music,” Vue said.

As the years went on, he began picking up synthesizer techniques and compiling works of his own. Originally creating dance music at 120 beats per minute (bpm), double the average resting heart rate, Vue has now sped up his tempos and added additional hardware, creating a more complex, multi-layered sound.

He continued to improve his skills, and when it came time for Vue to decide on a stage name, he looked back to his high school days, when he and his best friend at the time jokingly thought about starting a cover band similar to *NSYNC.

“My friend came up with the name,” Vue said. “And over the years, the name just stuck with me, and I just kept it.”

First releasing his music online about five years ago, Vue said after a while other artists started to take notice. One of the first people to reach out to Vue and express his admiration for his work was drummer and Eau Claire native Dave Powers.

Vue said he never intended to perform his work live for an audience; however, one day everything changed with a simple phone call.

The idea of performing became a real possibility when Wiping Out Thousands, a group based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, reached out to Vue after hearing his work and asked him to be an opener for their show at the 7th St Entry at First Avenue in Minneapolis, a venue made famous by Prince in the ‘80s.

“I had never played before. I was kind of put in a situation where … I had to consider it, and I did it and I have been doing it ever since,” Vue said. “But, it was for sure the scariest thing I’ve ever done.”

Each device he uses during a show has its own purpose. He has a sequencer, which orders all of his synth modules and drum machines that get their beats from bits of songs either he created or soul rhythm and blues funk from the ‘80s.

The process starts when he takes parts of his already published works and adds them on his sampler. From there, the instrument sounds incorporated in the original works are translated onto his other synthesizers and he alters the levels of each sound by turning the knobs on each machine.

“You still get the song itself,” Vue said, “but it is always different.”

All of his performances are live and each time he plays his works differently. Vue said when he is done performing a show, he leaves his knobs set the way they were at the end of the set and at the next performance, he picks up where he left off and starts out with the same settings and adjusts from there.

Reflecting on his music career thus far, Vue said he enjoys performing now because he is able to try new things live for an audience. His sound is always changing and although he has not released any new music to the public, he has been playing new music every performance, varying his already-released songs and creating new compilations.

“People kind of go to the show expecting to hear something they are familiar with,” Vue said. “But I don’t give it to them. I give them something new.”

Sloslylove has performed at a wide range of venues since his first performance from the Ice House in Minneapolis, Minnesota opening for Marijuana Deathsquads and Boys Noize to playing his own show in the 2016 Eaux Claires fest.

Overall, Vue said he feels like he has already met his goals of creating music and wants to continue to compose more and share the daring genre with the community.

Sloslylove’s music is available on SoundCloud, Bandcamp and YouTube.