ISOKnock ‘4EVR’: From San Diego’s County Fair To Coachella

When Julian Isorena (ISOxo) and Richard Nakhonethap (Knock2) met each other for the first time in 2015, they were hoping to be able to DJ at the San Diego County Fair — a long way from ISOKnock, massive sets at Coachella, New York City and beyond. Both of them were only 14 years old, connecting on Instagram and Snapchat. Sometimes they would run into each other in the local DJ scene, Isorena asking Nakhonethap for help breaking into the local clubs.

“Julian was definitely one of the best producers I’ve heard out of San Diego,” Nakhonethap tells Pollstar. “And what I brought to the table was my DJ skills. Even at the time, I wasn’t really focused on being an electronic artist. I just loved DJing. At the same time, I still wanted to make music and was making remixes. As we hung out more, Julian brought out the artist in me and we tried to pursue it together.”

This year, both ISOxo and Knock2 have broken into dance music’s mainstream. ISOxo’s first headline tour, “kidsgonemad,” sold out. They teamed up for several ISOKnock4 dates, marking the fourth time they’ve done a series of shows together, including sets during both weekends of this year’s Coachella and on May 18 in front of 7,500 fans at Brooklyn’s hot new venue, Under the K Bridge. The show grossed $542,250, according to Pollstar’s Boxoffice Reports. Previous to that, they played two shows at WAMU Theater in Seattle on May 3 and 4, grossing $920,270. Both are managed by Rare Breed Artists’ Daniel Goudie, Sam Casucci and Emma Nuttall and booked by Wasserman Music President Lee Anderson along with agents Cody Chapman and Len Chenfeld.

In San Diego, Nakhonethap would play at Firehouse in Pacific Beach while Isorena would play at Bassment in downtown throughout the late 2010s, joining the circuit around when they were 16 years old.

“I never climbed up to play direct support [at Bassment],” Isorena says. “I really only played opening or second on. It didn’t fulfill that dream I was trying to pursue. So I really started to focus on music production more than trying to be a local DJ. I tried to hang out with Richard as much as I could because he was really the only person that knew how to make music.”

The two bounced ideas off each other while working on their own projects and posting their productions to SoundCloud. They were tapped by RL Grime’s Sable Valley label. In 2019, they opted to throw a warehouse rave to see if they could get more of a draw than their respective gigs. For other venues, they would sell $500 worth of tickets, and get paid $25 two months later.

“I was like, ‘this is not what I want to do. Yo, Richard, we should throw our own show? I feel like we could find some venue then invite all our friends,’” Isorena says.

Isorena found an empty church with a stage. All they needed to bring was a table, sound, CDJs, speakers, lights and people. They created the graphic design for marketing and called the event “Warehouse One,” since they thought they’d eventually follow it up with a second edition. They threw local artists and friends on the lineup with a range of hip-hop and dubstep. With a capacity of 600, the day of the show only 30 people showed up.

“It was all our close friends and family members,” Nakhonethap says. “I think it really showed us how determined and how delusional we were to believe we could do something like that. It’s always the backbone of our story, because we really did that. Fast forward, we’re doing what we’re doing now.”

At their ISOKnock4 Under the K Bridge gig before 7,500, the energy was high octane with both Isorena and Nakhonethap jumping around the stage and climbing lighting rigs. Rather than use traditional visuals, the duo kept to their DIY roots with drone footage and cameras projecting what was going on onstage so that fans could see a birds-eye view of how many were crammed under the bridge connecting Brooklyn and Queens.

Midway through their set, they slowed down the tempo and played ISOxo’s “fragile,” and projected a video of their journey from smaller shows to headline performances and previous ISOKnock sets on a building behind the stage, including footage of their enduring friendship and journey from San Diego to Coachella and far beyond.

“If we play something on the screens, it’s got to mean something,” Nakhonethap says. “If I’m going to show people something on these screens, I want them to actually watch it and feel what’s going on. It’s a fast forward of our times in our bedrooms making music all the way to us walking off the stage in Coachella. It’s a moment to express how grateful we are to be where we are, and to show we made it here. It takes us away from what’s going on, too. It reminds us why we are where we are and how we got here. It moves me every single time. People start crying, that’s how invested they are in this. We present ourselves in such a chaotic, high-energy way, but there’s also a moment where we take a step back and show our fans how human we are.”

In the last half hour of the show, Isorena and Nakhonethap introduced their “sing along” section, where they played their biggest hits (including Knock2’s “Dashstar”).

On Aug. 1, the two surprise-released a collaborative album, 4EVR, featuring collaborations with Bantu, RL Grime, London Mars, Araya, Sur Back and cade clair. They started working on the LP once they were booked for Coachella, realizing they needed to do something special to celebrate the milestone. While they’ve worked together since 2019, 4EVR marks the first time the pair have truly collaborated. In the past, they’ve done remixes of one another’s songs, but never before did they make something together from start to finish. With 2024 marking their biggest shows to date, they felt it fitting to finally do so.