American pop duo Timeflies is going to be finishing up the “Too Much to Dream” tour later this month with not only one, but two stops in Iowa. On April 11, Timeflies will perform at Wooly’s in Des Moines and again on April 13 in Iowa City at the Blue Moose Tap House.

Cal Shapiro (vocals) and Rob Resnick (beats), like many college friendships here at Iowa State, bonded at a party at Tufts University in 2007. Freestyling and beat-boxing at a jungle juice party would soon lead Shapiro and Resnick down a long and successful road. 

Just starting out, the duo released weekly YouTube videos, known as “Timeflies Tuesday.” Here, Timeflies remixed, performed live covers, released new songs and freestyles over original beats for fans. These weekly videos became more popular than anyone predicted, gaining over 555,000 subscribers and counting.

Since 2010, Timeflies has released four full length albums. In just 8 years, they have sold over 150,000 albums, achieved over 175 million video views and gained 261 million Spotify streams worldwide.

Quite the unique teenager, Resnick built his own recording studio in his parent’s basement for his high school bands, Inevitable and After Tonight. It wasn’t until sophomore year in college that Resnick started to use audio production software and DJ regularly. It was here that Resnick and a few others started the band The Ride, later adding Shapiro on vocals.

“The gear I have now is almost exactly the same as I had in high school” said Resnick. “You can do a lot with it”.

As most high school teenagers can’t afford to pay for recording time, Resnick took the matter into his own hands and started to produce his own music.

Shapiro first emerged at a freestyle battle in Hampshire when he was a teenager. Growing up in New York, Shapiro later moved to Boston to attend Tufts University. Here Shapiro joined Resnick’s band The Ride sophomore year of college. Later they would come to form Timeflies.

Timeflies released their first album together, “The Scotch Tape,” in 2011. Wasting no time at all, the pop duo created their own label, Forty8Fifty just two years later. The label works with Island Def Jam Music Group, which is known for working with artists like Alessia Cara, Justin Bieber and Logic.

As one of the new and upcoming duos, Timeflies managed to secure a spot in the 2013 Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago.  

Their first major label offering, “After Hours,” was released in 2014. It debuted at #8 on Billboard’s “Top 200,” earning over 50 million Spotify streams. The two albums to follow, “Just for Fun” (2015) and “To Dream” (2018), were also released on the band’s label, Forty8Fifty.

The duo managed to climb the charts early on with other pop duos like The Chainsmokers, Twenty One Pilots and Sylvan Esso. Seeing pop duos take the stage in place of typical four or five member bands is increasing.  But Timeflies has no problem distinguishing themselves from others.

“We [create] the whole project without leaving our camp” said Resnick. “We produce our whole songs”.

Timeflies isn’t hesitant from collaborations and working with other artists, but often prefer to work internally.  

Timeflies’ latest album “To Dream” was just released on March 23. Fresh off the press, fans have no problem singing along on the “Too Much To Dream” tour.

“In Boston, we played a song that we hadn’t played on tour yet that was on the new album and we held out the mic and [the fans] know every word,” said Shapiro. 

The band is very comfortable with performing on college campuses, including Iowa State. Originally supposed to perform in 2014’s VEISHA’s concert series before it’s ultimate cancelation, the band played later that year at the Memorial Union.

The duo had no problem connecting with students during the 2014 performance. Shapiro freestyled verses about the characteristics of Iowa State, including the Hilton Coliseum and The Superdog stand. 

“It feels like we rolled out of the pre-game with you” said Shapiro, referring to the difference in performing on a college campus versus a standard venue. “Something about a college show, everyone kind of rolls together”.

The group will finish up their tour later this month and is considering adding some European and South American dates. 

The show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online via Ticketfly.

Doors open at 6 p.m.