How Disco Lines Went From Boulder Party DJ to Selling Out Red Rocks

Denver is known as the bass capital of the country, thanks to the work of events such as Sub.mission* and a massive underground DIY scene that first brought dubstep to the U.S. in the early 2000s. By 2011, the scene was in full swell, and a fourteen-year-old Thadeus Labuszewski dove head-first into its waves, soaking up the new sounds at raves in Denver and Boulder.

It was just the beginning of a colorful journey: Now 27, as the producer Disco Lines, Labuszewski is one of house music's reigning kings. We catch up with him as he's preparing to play Lollapalooza in Brazil, then Chile. Not long after that, he'll have his first headlining show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on April 5, which is completely sold out.

He's opened for other EDM acts at the legendary venue before, but selling out his first headliner there is a significant milestone. Performing at Red Rocks is "obviously surreal," he says. "I always felt like I was home there. It felt very true to me to play there."

Disco Lines isn't just a hit at Red Rocks; he's become a fan favorite at such festivals as EDC, Electric Forest, Shambhala and other major rave destinations, and will be at Coachella this year. "It's easy to become jaded," Labuszewski admits, reflecting on the whirlwind of touring and traveling to perform at sold-out crowds. "But to play an iconic venue for the first time...you get that 'first time' feeling again. It's like I'm a virgin."
While Red Rocks is considered a bucket-list venue by musicians around the world, it's that and more for artists from the Front Range. Labuszewski grew up in Centennial, where he attended Arapahoe High School and was first exposed to EDM. He looked up how to produce music, downloaded Ableton and began to play around with compositions. "I would spend a majority of my afternoons home from school just working on music," he says.

After graduating from high school, he attended Gonzaga for a semester before quickly transferring to the University of Colorado Boulder. "I would come home and visit. I'd want to go to Boulder and see my friends. I'm like, 'If I have this feeling, why don't I just fucking transfer? Like, what am I doing?'" he recalls. "We have all this gold in our backyard, but sometimes you don't even realize it's there, because it's your backyard."

He planned to major in computer engineering, thinking he'd follow the path of his father and, later, his younger brothers. Like many college students, he was simply trying to choose a major that would land him a good job. But creativity remained his passion, and Labuszewski wrote about music for the blog thatdrop.com, reviewing festivals and new releases in hopes of expanding his network. "But that wasn't the case at all," he recalls with a laugh.

Meanwhile, he was polishing up his production. He changed his DJ name, which used to be "Shady Nasty," he admits, almost embarrassed. "I used to make tropical house. It didn't align. There's nothing shady. There's nothing nasty."

Then at a party one night, a friend offered him a disco line (a mix of molly and cocaine). "I didn't know what it was, and I was like, 'This is the most Boulder thing ever,'" he says. "So I thought it would be a cool homage to this small city. And as a freshman in college, you think drugs are cool — you don't realize how bad they can actually be.

"I thought it had to do with disco. I thought it was a cool reference to party," he continues. And he walked out of that party and told his roommate he had a new name. "He was like, 'Are you sure you want to commit to that?' And I was like, 'Yeah dude!'" As Disco Lines, Labuszewski started playing more shows, making a big effort to break into the circuit and become known to promoters. "There were showcases of college kids at the Fox Theater every semester because they knew that these kids can sell tickets," he says. "And I'd try to sell as many tickets as possible, just market the fuck out of that. And the first one I did, I sold, like, 300 tickets."

That was enough to open the door to a scene where he was once only an audience member. He began getting requests to open for artists at the Fox, the first big venue he got to play. "I remember bringing my friends into the green room and I'd never had that feeling before, of being backstage," he says with a wide grin. "You're like, 'I'm the sickest motherfucker in here!' I remember I was under 21, and we had to sneak wine backstage in a box."

Back then, his sets were "college-frat-party-based. They were pretty shit, to be honest," he admits. "But then I started playing festivals, and it rotated towards just my own music, that organic, funky house."

That sound caused Labuszewski to go viral during the pandemic, when his deep-house remix of Taylor Swift's "Love Story" launched a massive TikTok trend. But through it all, Colorado itself remained one of the biggest influences in establishing his own style of house music production and mixing. "Colorado has so many cool sounds. Like the Sponges, for example, you can tell are from Colorado. ... We're so lucky to have Red Rocks in our backyard," he reflects. "I think growing up in that scene, too, is huge training for musicians. That's why you see so many talented people coming out of Colorado: We have such a coveted and beautiful music scene that not many other states have. Like, I've toured all through the U.S., and it's pretty depressing when you go to some of these states. You're like, 'Damn, this is all you got?'"

The Disco Lines sound is certainly unique and, as the name implies, made to hype people up. It's almost addictive: The glossy, repetitive house beats quicken and climb, hypnotizing and teasing the crowd while building anticipation for a drop into future bass that begins to transition back into a heightened BPM. And throughout the set, ravers are jumping higher than Michael Jordan: Who needs a gym membership when you can go to a Disco Lines show? It's a thrill to both see and hear, and his crowds today are a far cry from the audiences he was playing to around CU Boulder just five years ago.

With millions of streams, dozens of sold-out shows and a solid amount of globe-trotting under his belt, you'd think Labuszewski would be the most confident person in the world. He's solidified a sleek, identifiable discography completely distinct to him — something that most producers can only dream of achieving. Still, "I'm self-conscious about it," Labuszewski says of his growth as a musician. "I just like it for what it is. I think it's beautiful. I mean, I didn't want to be a college DJ forever, so I think doing Red Rocks and Coachella is a good way to get out of that mindset."

It's also, simply put, a dream come true. He remembers his first Red Rocks show was Pretty Lights, when he was a high school freshman. "It was crazy. It was eye-opening," he recalls.

"I didn't think back then that it would be my career, but I remember looking around and thinking, 'I want to live here. I want my life to revolve around this whole world.'"

Mission accomplished.

Disco Lines plays Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 West Alameda Parkway, Morrison, 7 p.m. Saturday, April 5. The show is sold out.

*Editor's note: The original copy stated a venue brought dubstep to the U.S.; we have replaced it with the correct event.