Austrian electronic producer Filous, born Matthias Oldofredi in Vienna in 1997, adopted his alias from the French term for “rascal,” though his sound leans bright, melodic, and expansive rather than playful. He refined that airy approach through sunlit reworkings of songs by Kodaline, José González, Selena Gomez, Milky Chance, Troye Sivan, Tove Lo, and Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. A self-taught multi-instrumentalist proficient on mandolin, guitar, piano, accordion, flute, bass, and drums, Filous began posting remixes online in 2014, opening with Damien Jurado’s “Ohio.” In 2015 he unveiled his first original track, “How Hard I Try,” which featured vocals from James Hersey. Shortly after finishing high school the song surpassed ten million streams and appeared on his debut EP, Dawn. Issued that summer, Dawn also showcased work from R.O.B.B., Josh Roa, Bishøp, and Jordan Leser, the last of whom sang on “Shaded In,” later issued as its own remix single. The EP climbed into the Top 25 on both the Dance and Heatseekers charts, and Filous closed the year touring alongside RAC and Big Data. In 2016 he delivered a cover of the Gorillaz/De La Soul hit “Feel Good Inc.” with vocalist LissA. The next year brought his second EP, For Love, containing “Goodbye” with Mat Kearney and “Knots” with klei. Further singles followed in 2018, among them a second pairing with klei titled “Bicycle” and a remix of Kiiara’s “Messy.”
