[SONG OF THE DAY] Chris Ayer - "Need Somebody"

Last week Cali crooner Chris Ayer shared his latest single, “Need Somebody”, which will promptly deliver a swift hit right in the feels so prepare yourself. The song details the feeling in your gut when you know that you’re in a relationship that’s bad for you but you don’t want to break up because you’ve gotten so attached to them.

Been there, bro. It fucking sucks.

I really admire the amount of vulnerability that’s been coming through with the last few singles he’s released. If you haven’t peeped “Ringing In My Ears”, “11:59”, and “Stranger” definitely love yourself enough to go have a listen to those as well.

NY fam mark your calendars: Chris Ayer will be opening for Matt Simons at Mercury Lounge this Thursday (11/15) which means you have more than enough time to learn all of these new songs. 😎

[SONG OF THE DAY] Bay Ledges - "Electric Dream"

Photographer credit Meddy Hurd

It’s been a minute since I checked in on LA’s Bay Ledges. Like many who’ve come to love the band, my gateway drug into their lush melodies with synths and punchy beats scattered throughout was “Hearts”. Last year the band released two EPs, The EP and Fountain Tropical. Yesterday they unveiled their latest single, “Electric Dream”, which comes from their forthcoming In Waves EP, which will be dropping at the end of the month on November 30th. The single follows songs “Whenever You Sleep” and “I Remember”, which will also be included on the EP.

On Thursday singer and mastermind behind Bay Ledges Zach Hurd spoke to PopMatters about the song, where he explained,

“It's about going out and dancing. The whole scene - standing in line at some club, hoping you might meet someone that night and trying to break out of your self-awareness. For me, there's always been this hump I have to get over of forgetting about what I look like to other people when I'm dancing. The song observes that conflict of not wanting to be judged but also really wanting to move and be free.”

Bay Ledges is currently on tour with Magic City Hippies in the southeast. Make sure you go check them out if you’re able. Dates below!

BAY LEDGES LIVE

November 10—The Southern—Charlottesville, VA*

November 11—Metro Gallery—Baltimore, MD

November 14—Aisle 5—Atlanta, GA

November 15—Jack Rabbits—Jacksonville, FL

November 16—The Social—Orlando, FL

November 17—The Orpheum—Tampa Bay, FL

*with Magic City Hippies

[Interview] FEMMEHOUSE DJ LP Giobbi On Empowering Women Through Production, Going 'Tits First' Into Her Career

Los Angeles FEMMEHOUSE producer and DJ LP Giobbi (born Leah Chisholm) is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to her trajectory into present day and without a doubt Some Kind of Awesome. Raised by a couple of Deadheads in New York, she started playing piano when she was in 2nd grade and experimented playing in bands as she grew up. "I was always the music kid. I played in the bands," LP explains, "I was that person." When it came time for college, her supportive parents encouraged her to pursue her passions, and she found herself taking all music classes at UC Berkeley in Los Angeles, California. She graduated with a degree in jazz piano and, drawing inspiration from her upbringing, sought out a job at Another Planet Entertainment, home of Outside Lands Festival, Treasure Island Music Festival, and more. After reading the biography of legendary rock promoter Bill Graham, who worked with the likes of The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and The Rolling Stones, she decided to write a letter to president Gregg Perloff, who had worked directly under Graham for many years.

"I wrote a letter as to why they should hire me and I literally walked down to their office, found their address, rang the buzzer and asked for Gregg Perloff," she recounted. "They assumed because I had so much ignorant confidence that I did have a meeting with him and they let me in." As luck would have it, Perloff actually stepped out of his office around the same time that the APE staff were trying to assess what the then-nineteen year old's intentions were. "I think at that moment they were like, 'There's a stalker in the office'", she said, "but I walked over to him and I said, 'You know, you would really benefit by hiring me and here's a letter as to why'." Completely blown away by her go-getter attitude, Perloff read her letter while she stood in of him and then hired her on the spot.

This is one of the many stories that LP would share with me during our conversation the evening before her set at Brooklyn nightclub Output, alongside Animal Talk labelmates Crush Club and label founders better known as electro pop sensations Sofi Tukker. While her attitude towards life is often more of a "Tits First" policy, leaping into everything assuming that a safety net will appear, it took a while for her to be honest with herself about wanting to pursue music full-time.. "After a lot of soul searching and conversations with the best pals, I learned it was actually fear of not being able to make it as a musician [that] was putting me on the industry side of things," she explained.

By chance, she was approached to be part of an all-female electronic project, LEX (later known as LJ Laboratory), despite not knowing the first thing about making electronic music. "I did not even know what a synthesizer was or how to turn it on," she admitted. In true Tits First fashion, she would spend the next three years familiarizing herself with DAW systems, ProTools, Abelton, and sound design, which helped bring her to her present-day production prowess.

During that time a friend invited her out to catch house legend Tornado Wallace. Entirely unaware of the inner workings of electronic music, the experience blew her away almost instantaneously. She recounted, "I was like, 'Is there a piano up there? Where's all the music coming from? Like how is there one guy playing all this music?'" For the reminder of the set her friend would proceed to break down everything that Wallace was accomplishing on his own on stage, going so far as to pounding on her shoulder during the 2/4 time signatures.

Beyond being impressed by Tornado Wallace's technical ability, LP was wholly captivated by the sophisticated yet simple nature of house music. "What was so interesting about it was that I had spent the last 4 years in college intellectualizing music," she recalled. "When I was at this club listening to this music it was all about the body. It was like meditative almost. It was the first time in a long time that I had a connection with music on a non-intellectual level."

After that encounter she knew that was the kind of music experience that she wanted to curate for her listeners. She explained, "I wanted to understand it. I wanted to know how to make people tick with it. That's what I wanted to be a part of."

LP admits that her "inner music major" can get in the way as she works on new music: she occasionally struggles with over-intellectualizing. "[In college] it was like 'Let me show off and show you how much I can say really quickly'" she said. After graduating college, however, she was challenged by some sage advice from a songwriting partner. "The very first thing she did," she recalls, "was rip up all my music and said, 'I don't wanna hear how many things you can say, I wanna know WHAT you're saying.'

It's something she still battles with in present day. She detailed,

"The note that I get back from Tucker [Halpern (Sofi Tukker)] every time I send him a track that I think is ready to be released, is 'DO LESS'. 'Take things out'. 'Say more by saying less'. My motto in life is 'More is more' so that's been really challenging for me, *laughs* but ultimately it has benefited [me], I think, for like focusing in on what I'm trying to say. It's been a really good challenge for me."

When she's able to achieve the perfect balance of doing less and saying more, the result has been nothing short of deeply impactful. An easy example of this is her debut single, "Amber Rose", which features Hermixalot reciting lines from a poem she wrote 10 years ago about then-girlfriend of rapper Kanye West and present day feminist icon, Amber Rose. When she's not making songs about women reclaiming their agency you can find her making more clever club-filling music. In "These Are Your Children" she pays homage to the history of New York City nightlife by sampling former club kid king Michael Alig’s 1990 interview from the Geraldo Rivera show. Her latest single, "Kupsa Kupsa" features a collaboration with French rapper H3RY LÜCK and is a playful song entirely in French about how making music is akin to cooking and is simply a blend of all the best ingredients.

One of the most admirable things about LP is that despite being involved in the electronic music scene for a somewhat short amount of time that she's already making a point to pour her heart into the community that helped her connect to music on an emotional level. She specifically makes it a point to leverage her white privilege and opportunities to provide a platform for other women, specifically women of color, in addition to the LGBTQ+ community.

Earlier this month, she partnered with Live Nation and launched the first of a series of events in San Francisco at their new August Hall venue under the name FEMMEHOUSE. The events give women the opportunities to take DJing and sound design classes prior to a series of performances of which there will be a few spots kept open for the women to practice the skills they've learned. "I think our whole goal in all of this is to be gatekeepers where, you know, the gatekeepers have normally been white men, she explained, "We wanna give them a stage and we wanna give them a voice and we wanna give them tools to use those things."

For LP, teaching women music production is a way to empower women in music, specifically vocalists, who are often at the mercy of their male producers."I feel very passionately about having women control that narrative and having them control their own voices," she says, "Or at least be able to speak the language when they do get into the room with a producer. That to me is what FEMMEHOUSE is all about."

LP Giobbi at the inaugural FEMMEHOUSE event on November 1st at August Hall in San Francisco, CA. photo credit: FEMMEHOUSE instagram

“I feel very passionately about having women control that narrative and having them control their own voices, or at least be able to speak the language when they do get into the room with a producer. That to me is what FEMMEHOUSE is all about.”

— LP Giobbi

In addition to FEMMEHOUSE, LP is also responsible for being the driving force behind the Santa Barbara Girls Rock camp being able to expand their course offerings to also have a music production class. Upon leveraging a recently made relationship with Native Instruments, she pressed the company to donate the necessary gear, and then even taught at the inaugural music production camp. "We taught [10 year old girls] how to make a song in Abelton," she gushed, "They used a bunch of like the Native Instruments keyboards and DJ controllers and it was SO FUN." The experience actually ended up inspiring to flesh out her then-initial stage idea for FEMMEHOUSE.

It is no surprise given how excited she was while we talked about her experience at the Santa Barbara Girls Rock camp that she has found a happy home within the artist collective Animal Talk, born from Sofi Tukker members Sofi Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern. According to LP, "Animal Talk is more than a language *laughs* Animal Talk is the best place on earth in my humble opinion."

Born around the idea of tapping into your child or animal, she explained the importance of being a member of the collective,

"Sofi [Hawley-Weld] always talks about how as an adult you go and meet with one of your friends, you sit down and have a beer, and you're like, 'This is what I'm doing with my life', you catch up, and that's it. But as children, we would play. We would build sandcastles. We would play dress up. We would play make believe. We would create things together. That was such a natural state of being and in adulthood that gets killed, so we wanted to make Animal Talk a place, like a physical/spiritual place. Physical in the parties and spiritual, you know, offline. In that reminding people that we can still play, we can still create, we can still be children. A place where they can free themselves and where they can tap into their inner child or inner animal and, you know, remember what it's like to play and to create. I think that that is the key to joy in life."

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Dan D'Lion - "Give What You Take"

Oooo y’all I just found a brank spanking new baby band for you!

Fresh out of the box with his debut single only a few hours old, please meet London newcomer Dan D’Lion. His debut single, “Give What You Take” is a vibey blend of electro-pop and nu-funk that deals with the idea of capturing polarizing aspects of your personality. Over the past few years he’s been writing/producing for artists like Salen, Punctual, Delilah Montagu, Zilo, and Feder, all the while working on his debut release.

Drawing inspiration from his time working with artists, writers and producers, both in London and internationally, the music for his personal project is written, produced and performed in full by himself. "This was the first track I wrote for myself where everything started to make sense,” he noted, “As it all came together it felt like a real turning point, and the lyrics actually ended up becoming motivational to myself in a way, taking away the daunting aspect of crafting something for myself."

This is one hell of a first impression. Very anxious to hear what else this Dan D’Dude has up his sleeves.

[SONG OF THE DAY] + [INTERVIEW] Too Many T's - "Patterns"

photo credit: Phoebe Montague

The loveliest London lads known as Too Many T’s are some of the most creative people I’ve had the pleasure of coming in contact with. When they’re not releasing cheeky videos rapping about bees to the tune of Destiny’s Child’s “Jumpin’ Jumpin’” or enlisting Alexa (yes THAT Alexa) to rap with them, the duo have been working tirelessly on visuals to accompany their debut full-length, South City, which was released last year. I delightedly tuned in for the debut of “Hang Tight”, the first ever one-take video shot on Facebook live and have been consistently inspired by their persistence in taking their innovation to new heights with the release of every video.

Their creation to accompany “Patterns” is their latest tour de force, which will be premiering live on YouTube Premier, a feature that allows the creator set its upload like a premiere and watch together with their viewers when the video goes live, and like a live stream on YouTube, both the creator and viewers will be able to engage in a discussion at the comments section. 

Yours truly got a sneak peek of the stunning video, which is the first time that gaming hardware has been used to both capture and render a music video. Get this, y’all: it was painstakingly put together over the course of over 600 hours of production and rendering with the help of triff (born Stuart Trevor), a video game artist who had been exploring motion capture using an Xbox Kinect camera, more conventionally seen attached to a games console. His work repurposes the camera to capture both movement and depth, which he then places within CGI environments created using visual effects software such as 3ds Max, Redshift and After Effects – which is then output through two powerful gaming-orientated graphics cards.

The final result is nothing short of insanely impressive. “Patterns” is a song about overcoming mental health issues and the struggle to escape patterns of bad habits which the band fell into on tour. The scenes throughout the video are meant to showcase how dark and isolating this uphill battle can be. I’d say they absolutely nailed that aesthetic. As if this wasn’t already mind blowing enough, the jaw dropper of a video is set premiere at the prestigious BBC Amplify event at The Rattle in Tobacco Dock with three daily screenings on November 8th - 10th. The screening will include a presentation by the duo on how new artists should innovate and collaborate with emerging technology, and will also include a demonstration by Play On Player - a new interactive app allowing users to immerse themselves within the song by experimenting with the stems of the track, creating their own fan versions. 

As can be expected I had too many Qs for Too Many Ts about all of this but managed to contain myself enough to only shoot over a few to these dope ass dudes. Peep our convo below!

still from “Patterns” video courtesy of Too Many T’s

How did you manage to link up with triff?

Standaloft: On the information highway.

Leon Rhymes: We knew we wanted to create something special for the “Patterns” video - something we’d not seen before. So from the start we knew we needed more brains than just our own.

Standaloft: We began by reaching out to our extended community to see what and who people knew. One of those people was the legend that is Stuart Trevor or as we like to call him, Triff.

In the past you guys have rapped with Alexa, now with Triff's help you've essentially hacked a Kinect to shoot mo-cap for "Patterns", what inspires you to tinker with new technologies in unconventional ways? 

S: Creativity and limitations. 

LR: And the desire to explore opportunity. 

S: We always want to create something that we’re proud of musically and visually and by incorporating new technologies it forces us to think outside of convention.

LR: Couple this with financial limitations of an unsigned band and you get to a special place of creative innovation. 

“We always want to create something that we’re proud of musically and visually and by incorporating new technologies it forces us to think outside of convention. ”

— Standaloft, Too Many T's

How does video extend the narrative of your music? 

S: With the rise of affordable professional camera equipment the accompanying music video to the track has become almost expected.

LR: And the a visual is such a powerful tool - just take a walk down the street or a train across town to see the amount of adverts everywhere. Not only is the visual expected we’re also fighting against more visuals than ever to stand out. 

S: So it’s important to do try and make something different or something only you can do. 

LR: I think the idea of a story is important - it’s why stories are still read and will survive all digital technology. So if you can create a storyline to run alongside the song I think that’s really strong. 

S: That’s something we did with the music video for “Panther”. 

LR: For “Patterns” the video enhances the mood and feeling within the song. For “Panther” it was more of a simultaneous (and different) storyline running alongside the track. 

still from “Patterns” video courtesy of Too Many T’s

What's the symbolism behind the different scenes depicted in "Patterns"? 

LR: This was very much led by Triff. We’d always seen the song as a whole but he broke the track up into  6 scenes + an epic intro. 

S: What this did though was treat all the scenes and characters in isolation which really works in the world of the song and that feeling of being alone with no one to turn to but your demons. 

LR: It enhances the overall feeling throughout the song.

How do you manage life on tour so you don't fall into the same patterns that inspired the song?  

LR: Honestly!? Not gonna lie, it’s difficult - can resist anything but temptation! 

S: Late nights can help you lose the days and we’ve had to be professional when on tour this year. We’ve grown up (slightly) and learnt to know our limits. 

LR: You need to make mistakes sometime to learn about yourself. 

What's next for you guys? 

LR: We’re certainly not stopping here and really excited about the next 12 months!

S: We’ve had a really successful year in France so we’re working on a French connection project with our label Banzai Lab and all the artist we’ve met out there - stay tuned for that cos its gonna be sick! We’ve recently started writing some new tunes for the second album as well. Watch out 2019, you’re getting had!

LR: More immediately we’re going on tour in Australia and South East Asia for three months January to March with gigs in Melbourne, Sydney, Bangkok, Chang Mai, Hanoi, Phnom Pehn, Tokyo and more TBC.

UPDATE: “Patterns” premiered LIVE today (11/6) on YouTube at 7:30PM GMT (2:30PM EST). Check out the video below!

[SONG OF THE DAY] Crush Club - "Trust"

The boys are back in town! The boys are back in town! The boys are back in town! The boys are back in town! Of course I’m talking about the dopest disco dudes to roam the New York City streets in a minute, Crush Club. The delightful duo are back home from their tour with SOFI TUKKER and LP GIOBBI, but of course when you’re as high energy as they are there’s no slowing down. Yesterday my new favorite humans dropped another single, “Trust”, a song about the complexities of feeling like you can’t be 💯 with a partner due to lack of trust. As vocalist TC Milan explained, “‘Trust' is about how sometimes the hardest thing to do is say what you need. Love can blind and confuse you, and when I was recently in this emotional state the thing I needed the most was trust. I didn’t get it. So we wrote this song.”

Been there, TC bb. It sucks.

NY fam I wasn’t exaggerating about the fellas slowing down at all. They’ve got a set tonight at Brooklyn Bowl + a couple more this week so make sure you go dance and hug it out with them.

CRUSH CLUB LIVE IN NYC

1/3 @ Brooklyn Bowl w/ Escort

11/8 @ Ted Talk Salon (Private)

11/9 @ Club Cumming (DJ Set)

side note: do we think I could sneak into a private Ted Talk event? I feel like that would be the most *me* thing I could ever do in my life (Ted Talks + electro pop). 😂

[SONG OF THE DAY] DAVID44 - "Truth"

photo credit: Samy Khabthani

IT

IS

FRI-YAYYYYYYY!

We know how much I love leaving you with some feel good dance vibes to start your weekend off on the right foot and today is no exception. In fact, this very much so leans into the feel good aesthetic on multiple levels.

Today sees the release of Denmark-based electro-pop artist DAVID44 (born David Olafsson)’s latest single, “Truth”, a song about the universal struggles we all have with self-image. It can be incredibly frustrating to see someone not love themselves as much as we love them and Olafsson perfectly articulates the perspective of desperately trying to get someone to see their self-worth. “It’s about speaking the truth but also how reality and words can be twisted by the one hearing it,” Olafsson explains, “It’s about having a misunderstood self-image, not believing in yourself or accepting your true self. These can be very dangerous thoughts and I wrote ‘Truth’ to boost the missing self-esteem.”

“Truth” is the first single from his forthcoming debut full-length album which is due in 2019.

Here’s to dancing your way to loving yourself this Friday, fam. I hope y’all know that you’re some kind of awesome. 💖

[SONG OF THE DAY] Sakima - "Apps"

Yooooo London’s Sakima is out here raging against the hookup culture machine and I am HERE THE FUCK FOR IT, Y’ALL. His latest single, “Apps”, from his forthcoming debut full length, Project Peach, speaks to the overall disillusionment from the current state of modern dating. Although he’s speaking to Grindr related careless hookup culture, yer girl knows first hand what it’s like to come back from a bathroom break on a date and see a dude swiping away on Tinder to kill time. App dating is garrrbbbbaaaaaggggeee fam please for the love of everything in your being just go meet people at shows ffs.

As Sakima told Highsnobiety about the inspiration behind “Apps”,

“I was dating someone in particular and it was going really well but by the end of it, it transpired that even though this guy really liked me he just wasn’t ready to give one person his attention. Not because he wanted to sleep around or anything like that, but because there’s just so many endless opportunities to meet someone new 24/7, how can I compete with that? I’m the kind of person where if I like someone I get rid of all the hook up and dating apps on my phone and give whoever it may be my full attention to see where things go, and I don’t think it’s too much to ask for the same in return. So through the frustration and psychological stress that comes with feeling like you’re not good enough to compete with an entire world of new possibilities through an app, I sort of found this inner voice in me that was much stronger and self-knowing than before all this dating apps shit that’s ruining potentially meaningful relationships.”

“Apps” is a departure for Sakima, who typically relies on his angelic voice to be the central focus for his songs. Instead, he enlisted the production stylings of Robokid, who also contributed a verse on the song about dudes being “glued to [their] phone looking to get [their] dick sucked.”I especially appreciated Sakima’s jab at the end of the song about people being too disillusioned to vote. Impeccable timing considering we’re a week out from Election Day here in the US.

Suffice it to say if I didn’t already hardcore stan for Sakima I sure as shit do now.