He’s been very visible on Las Vegas’ vast megaclub scene in recent months, but that doesn’t mean folks get the same sounds over and over from Party Favor. Quite the opposite, actually.
The DJ and producer born Dylan Ragland collaborated with indie dance singer and songwriter K.Flay for his first single of 2022, “Superhuman,” a catchy but hard-to-define track with a bouncy, buzzy beat. It’s a prominent next step for a musician who has always strayed from formulaic EDM.
“I have felt like I was not always aligned with the more Euro-centric version of dance music that was very prevalent early on,” the native New Yorker says. “I love that music, but my music lends itself more to an American audience with a little more hip-hop influence and other styles rather than straight house.”
“Superhuman” has obvious alt-rock and punk undertones, probably why K.Flay’s inimitable voice is a perfect fit.
“I’ve been wanting to work with her for a while. She’s so insanely talented,” Ragland says. “She wrote this demo on guitar and sent it over, and I was driving home from a session when I heard it and was just floored. I pulled the car over to the side of the road.”
The next track from his coming-soon album, a collabo with Marc E. Bassy called “I See You,” just dropped on March 4.
Party Favor has been practically ubiquitous on the Las Vegas Strip since nightclubs came back big last year, spinning at Hakkasan or Omnia seemingly every week. He’s had a residency here since 2018 and says he considers Vegas a second home, “a wonderful place, because it’s this destination for people to get away from what they’re going through,” he says. “The crowds have been very positive and had a great energy in response to the music.”
After his next Omnia gig, he’ll be back at another familiar hot spot, Wet Republic at MGM Grand, on March 20 and April 10. Pool season is here, and last year’s merger of Tao Group and Hakkasan Group could find him playing some different venues this summer. “It sounds like that might be a thing,” he teases.
But the focus is the album, and showcasing the different musical directions he’s been exploring during the downtime every DJ had to endure. For Ragland, the pandemic was partially a reminder to be conscious about maintaining a healthy state of mind.
“In our world, the majority of our income is from traveling nonstop and playing all the time, and it’s not sustainable,” he says. “A lot of us were forced into chilling out for a second, and I kind of re-evaluated who do I want to be as an artist and a person, and what do I want to represent. It was a bad thing in so many ways, but it was also kind of a big blessing for me.”
PARTY FAVOR March 15, 10:30 p.m., $30-$50. Omnia Nightclub, 702-785-6200, events.taogroup.com
