A message from a mutual friend in 2019 introduced Chicago’s Casey Fitzpatrick to Two Friends, a Los Angeles-based American DJ/producer duo that was looking for a saxophonist.

That connection has been a life changer for the saxophonist, a graduate of Millikin University’s School of Music who has toured the U.S. and abroad extensively while also working as a woodwind and brass repair technician.

Now he’s a rock star, too.

“I’ve been full-time with Two Friends since right after the pandemic and when everything opened up it just kind of fell into place,” he says. “I was just playing for them when they came through Milwaukee and Chicago. Eventually they asked me to do it full-time, and it opened all these doors and everything. I haven’t done too much else around Chicago other than taking on that commitment to play once a month at Andy’s Jazz Club. That’s the only thing I have been doing here consistently and heading to the airport every weekend.”

Last August at Grant Park in Chicago, Best Friends headlined Perry’s Stage at Lollapalooza. On May 16, Fitzpatrick will be at it again as “Two Friends Present Big Bootie Land Chicago” at Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago. Best Friends have had residencies at some of the top nightclubs in the world and sold out iconic venues like Huntington Bank Pavillion and Red Rocks in Denver. Huge stages, big audiences.

“My lifestyle hasn’t changed drastically,” he says. “It’s easier in some ways and more difficult in some ways. It’s been really cool to be a part of something scaling up and growing since I started with it, and I get to claim a little bit of ownership, but I’m mostly happy that I got to hitch a ride with guys who are really serious about doing it at the highest level and are not afraid.”

By his sophomore year in high school, Fitzpatrick knew he was destined for a career in music, he just didn’t know where.

“At that point I didn’t see myself not being involved in music, but I guess more or less knew that I was going to major in music,” he says. “I was taking lessons from the sax professor at Millikin as a high school student, so I went straight to Millikin and then continued to study at the University of Illinois in Champaign for grad school and did a jazz master’s program and then set off after that.”