Westend and Local Singles Produced a Bootleg Flume Edit that Every DJ Wanted

New York-born DJ and producer Westend is no stranger to collaboration. Whether it’s his new track “Push to Start” with Noizu or the slew of genre-defying tracks he’s co-produced over the last few years, like “Aguila” with Hugel or “Jumpin” with fellow New Yorker CID, whenever Westend links with another artist, magic happens in the studio.

Although it wasn’t an official release or an original production, the Westend and Local Singles edit of Flume’s 2013 remix of Disclosure’s “You & Me” was easily one of 2022’s most sought-after IDs, and a signature moment in the career of Westend.

“Local Singles are a duo from New York, they were sending me demos and edits to play out and sent an early idea of an edit of ‘You & Me’ Flume Remix. I immediately loved it and messaged them back asking to work on it together,” Westend told Gray Area. “Credit to them, they had the original idea and the layout to the track, I came in and made it sound bigger, and more stage ready. We ended up with something we were happy with. We sent it to some artists like John Summit and we began to hear it more and more across the DJ circuit.”

Throughout the summer of 2022 and well into the new year it was heard bumping from the speakers of festival stages, club gigs, and even on radio worldwide. 1001 Tracklists clocked support from SiriusXM, BBC Radio 1, Solomun, ACRAZE, Oliver Heldens, and Dillon Francis at Tomorrowland, Lollapalooza, and EDC.

“We tried to get it cleared by Disclosure and Flume but ultimately we got shut down… we decided to drop it on Soundcloud in August and [it] took off in a way we could never have expected… Everyone from Zedd to Martin Garrix to Diplo was playing it. It did wonders for both of our careers and definitely gave me a boost in the younger generation of fans.”

The edit was huge for Westend and Local Singles, it was the first of Westend's Soundcloud uploads to reach over one million plays. It also introduced a new generation of fans to a rave classic, likely spurring Gen Z to explore the early catalog of both Flume and Disclosure. Although it’s hard to believe, the original remix is a decade old, and Flume’s sound has evolved massively since. Westend and Local Singles revitalized the remix and gave it new life.