Meet Cheat Codes: Five Things to Know About Demi Lovato's 'No Promises' Collaborators

The deejay trio is now on tour

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Photo: Jared Thomas Kocka. Inset: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

Cheat Codes always promises their fans a good time!

The Los Angeles based EDM group consisting of Trevor Dahl, Kevin Ford and Matthew Russell are convinced they have found the ‘cheat code’ to life — loving what you do. The producer trio broke out last year with their hit single “Sex” — which samples the chorus from the 1991 Salt-n-Pepa classic “Let’s Talk About Sex” — they recently dropped their latest single “No Promises,” a song of the summer contender featuring Demi Lovato.

Below, five things to know about the group.

1. They are major Lovatics at heart.

Once a Camp Rock fan, always a Camp Rock fan! The band first saw Lovato last November in São Paulo, Brazil, when both they and the “Confident” singer performed at Z Festival. But they didn’t actually meet her until they collaborated on “No Promises.”

“We were kind of brainstorming on who could be good and Demi was the one in our minds who would be the one person who could really kill it,” Dahl told PEOPLE of pitching the Grammy-nominated singer to their label to lead the vocals for the single.

Upon finding out she was onboard, Dahl says he and his bandmates were “shocked and taken aback because we had never had a feature on a song like that before — we had never worked with a female vocalist before — and to go from not having any female vocals to having somebody like Demi Lovato be the first one was pretty crazy for us.”

2. They bonded over living in a laundry room — and a lawsuit!

“We all met in L.A., and I had actually met Trevor in Missouri, where I’m from,” Russell says about the beginning stages of forming their band. “We had played a show together and we both were in different projects — I was in a rock band, and he was in a singer/songwriter acoustic project.”

Turns out, teaming up was meant to be.

“A couple years later we had mutual friends in L.A., and Trevor was looking for a place to live, so I had to spare a laundry room, and I told him he could live in the laundry room if he paid me $300 a month,” Russell says. “I thought I was getting a really good deal out of him, and then he turned it into this crazy nice studio like laid down wood floors and made a vocal booth.”

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And while run-ins with the law aren’t necessarily the best situations to make friends in, a sticky situation with a shared former producer introduced Russell and Ford to their future.

“I had met Kevy through a lawsuit, actually, because we had worked with the same producer, and he swindled us out of some money. We decided to take him to court, and that was how we became friends,” Russell shares of the bonding moment.

“I went back and told Trevor I had just met this guy named Kevy, and that he was super cool and he had to meet him,” he adds. “We started a project and decided to collaborate with Trevor, who I was sharing a room with at the time, and we did a couple songs and just never stopped after that.”

3. Their cheat code for getting cultured while on tour? Get out and explore.

The trio has already embarked on their worldwide No Promises Tour, which spans the U.S., Europe and the Middle East through August. And there are certain countries they cannot wait to frolic around whenever some time frees up.

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“I’ve visited Croatia a few times and have played a small show there, but I’m really excited about going to the beaches there,” says Dahl about playing in his favorite country. “It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. We’re playing at this crazy venue [Pag Island] that’s surrounded by water — it’s a mini island — so I can’t wait for that.”

Their U.S. dates will also feature sets at a slew of high profile music festivals this summer, including the Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama, on May 20 and Lollapalooza in Chicago on Aug. 3.

“We’re playing Lollapalooza this year, and I’m from St. Louis, so my family is going to come to the show. It’s going to be a really big moment for us, so I’m really excited about that,” says Russell.

4. They’re very ‘zen.’

Dahl likes to consider Russell a “health freak,” while he, himself, is a vegetarian who can cook a mean meal.

“I meditate almost every single day because it’s really important for me, and it’s fun,” Russell says.

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Adds Dahl: “He drinks all this crazy green stuff to keep him healthy, too… I don’t even know what it is.” Cold-press green juices, that is…

While Dahl says he “dropped out of high school to pursue music and I’ve just always done that — never had a real job,” Russell affirms his band member would definitely have a job in the culinary field if music ever fell through.

“Trevor is being modest,” he jokes. “He makes a really mean Brussels sprouts.”

5. Their dream collaboration would be…

We would love to work with Calvin Harris,” says Dahl. “We really look up to him with how consistent he is with creating great songs.”

He adds of another that comes to this top of his mind, “I think all of us would agree on Drake, for sure.”

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