It’s morning in Chicago. Luke Alexander sits in the back of an Uber headed to the airport. The sky is still that flat, early gray, and the city slides past the window in a blur of wet pavement and half-lit storefronts. Luke hasn’t really slept. He’s coming off a festival, his ears still ringing a little, his bag wedged between his feet.
On his phone is a track he’s only been working on for a quick second. He thinks it might be something, but he wants another set of ears on it, and there’s no studio anywhere in reach. This Uber is the closest thing to one he’s had all weekend.
So he plays what he has. The demo comes through the car’s speakers. It’s rough around the edges, a sketch more than a song, but it fills the car anyway as the Uber merges onto the expressway. Luke turns to the guy next to him and asks what he thinks.
That guy is Nate Rathbun. Most people know him as Audien.
That Uber ride became “7 Miles High.” Out now via Enhanced, the single pairs the melodic instincts behind Audien’s GRAMMY-nominated career and his Progressive House Never Died (PHND) movement with the grittier,
