NEONAUTICA on Genre-Bending Electronic Music
🎙️NOLA EDM UNPLUGGED: NEONAUTICA
From contemporary classical music to dubstep, New Orleans electronic duo NEONAUTICA is building a live show where vocals, saxophone, synths, heavy bass, and a decade of musical collaboration collide.
Long before NEONAUTICA became an electronic project, Megan and Alan were already making music together.
Their partnership began about ten years ago as a contemporary classical duo for voice and saxophone. Even then, the pair were interested in pulling different musical influences into their work. But after attending GRiZ’s Space Camp in December 2021, that approach flipped. Instead of bringing other genres into classical music, they began imagining what could happen if they made EDM and brought everything else they loved into it.
Dubstep became their primary playground, but NEONAUTICA was never meant to fit neatly inside one genre.
Their music pulls from funk, electro-funk, cinematic music, art rock, hyperpop, classical music, and other influences, all shaped by decades of musical training and a shared interest in finding connections between sounds that might otherwise seem unrelated.
That experimentation extends to the stage.
Over the past year, NEONAUTICA has developed an hour-long original set combining DJing with live vocals, saxophone, keys, and other performance elements. Rather than developing everything entirely in the studio, Megan and Alan have used their live shows to learn what connects with an audience and bring those discoveries back into the music.
For this episode of NOLA EDM Unplugged, we sat down with NEONAUTICA to talk about their journey from classical music to EDM, building a genre-bending live show, creating as musical and romantic partners, finding community in New Orleans, and their vision for bringing different sounds, artists, and audiences together.
Neonautica 
🎙️Inside This Episode
From Classical Music to the Dubstep
Before NEONAUTICA became an electronic project, Megan and Alan had already spent years making music together.
Their partnership began about a decade ago as a contemporary classical duo built around voice and saxophone. Even then, they were interested in crossing musical boundaries, bringing influences from outside classical music into their work.
Then came GRiZ’s Space Camp in December 2021.
The experience flipped the idea around.
Instead of bringing other genres into classical music, Megan and Alan began asking what would happen if they made EDM and brought everything else they loved into it.
That became NEONAUTICA.
Dubstep became their primary playground, but their music pulls from funk, electro-funk, cinematic music, art rock, hyperpop, classical music, and other influences.
One of the things we pride ourselves on is coming up with the absolute weirdest shit imaginable that will still make people dance and smile.
That approach can lead them into unexpected territory. “Ritual Fire Dub,” for example, reworks music from an early twentieth-century Spanish ballet with breakbeats, a Subtronics-style drop, and samples from NBA Jam.
Building NEONAUTICA Live
Over the past year, NEONAUTICA has transformed from a collection of five or six songs into an hour-long original electronic set.
Megan DJs while the duo incorporates live vocals, saxophone, keys, and other performance elements.
But instead of finishing every track before bringing it to the stage, Megan and Alan have been developing much of their music in front of audiences.
Nothing tells you what a track is really like quite like an audience.
They watch whether people keep dancing, where the energy changes, and whether a crowd starts singing along to something they have never heard before.
Those reactions become part of the creative process.
The same philosophy is shaping what they want NEONAUTICA to become beyond individual performances. Through their Howlin’ Wolf Den residency, Megan and Alan envision electronic music sharing space with visual artists, comedians, performers, and other corners of New Orleans creativity.
It’s an extension of what they are already doing musically: bringing together things that might seem unrelated and finding the connection between them.
NOLA EDM Unplugged documents the artists, DJs, promoters, organizers, festivals, venues, and people shaping New Orleans and Gulf South electronic music, past and present.
Interview: NOLA EDM
Guest:NEONAUTICA
Audio: Art Yves
Series: NOLA EDM Unplugged
Location: Louisiana
Published: September 29, 2026
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