NYS Music 202​0

Tag: Electropop

  • Brooklyn Duo Bottler Capture Natural Beauty with “Soft Winds”

    Brooklyn’s electronic music duo Bottler released “Soft Winds,” their first single off their newest EP Grow, set to release on October 9. The collaboration with Samurai Velvet captures the mesmerizing beauty of the tropics’ ambiance with lyrics about reclaiming power in relationships.

    Bottler
    Photo by Rick Perez

    After working on different projects for years, lifelong friends Pat Butler and Phil Shore founded Bottler in 2017. Their strong emotional bond has allowed them to make musical discoveries together and explore their creative chemistry. The two break the boundaries of conventional music and represent true creative freedom. They don’t limit themselves to a single genre or form, and experiment with indie, dance, and electropop with acoustic, digital, and analog instrumentation. Their unique style is inspired by the vibrant Brooklyn music scene. Bottler’s artistic inspiration combines the past, present, and future of music.

    This blending of style is truly present in “Soft Winds,” which captures the feeling and sounds of nature’s beauty. Bottler says that “the song materialized in a day” on a trip to the tropics. “The goal was to capture the feeling of being in awe at the beauty of nature around us.” “Soft Winds” transports you to a place of tranquility with its blend of the electronic and the natural.

    bottler

    The track shows all the wonder of Bottler’s personality blended together with vocals from Samurai Velvet’s Saige Smith. As good friends with Bottler, Samurai Velvet “were moved and eager to collaborate” after hearing the track. Smith’s voice and lyrics stand out in the track, as she sings about reclaiming personal power after infidelity. The message of inner strength matches perfectly with the everyday quality of Bottler’s instrumentals. Surrounded by nothing but nature’s beauty, Smith sings, “I have the power to make myself free.”

    Grow follows Bottler’s previous EP, Clementine, and describes Bottler’s personal and creative growth. Bottler recorded the EP in their home studio with their analog synths, guitars, pianos, samples, and drum machines. The homemade quality contributes to the individual message of the album for Butler and Shore. Grow is Bottler’s debut with French electronic label InFiné, who quickly discovered them after the release of Clementine.

    “Soft Winds” is available to stream now. Stay tuned for Grow‘s release on October 9.

  • Harry Nichols’ First Release Since 2014 Doesn’t Disappoint

    Alternative Ithaca musician Harry Nichols released a new solo EP, A Spoonful of Sugar, on September 4. Nichols has been influenced by various styles–beachy, punk-pop, folk, indie, and rock, to name a few–but this EP has its roots in electro-pop.

    Harry Nichols

    Harry Nichols started writing music at fourteen. He has been releasing music as an independent artist since 2010, and has several albums and EPs out on Bandcamp, which draw inspiration from Blink 182, The Beach Boys, and Bob Dylan. He has made a name for himself in Ithaca’s concert scene, and has been playing live for years. Many of his concert videos are on the Finger Lakes Music Press YouTube channel. 

    Since his last nerd-life inspired record This Isn’t the Album you’re Looking For…, Nichols focused on contributing to his bands Noon Fifteen and Julia Felice and the Whiskey Crisis. He released a few demos and solo EPs since, but this September, Nichols finally releases his latest solo EP. Nichols considers this easy listening track, A Spoonful of Sugar, his first major release in six years.

    Harry Nichols

    ASoS was written and recorded entirely during the COVID-19 quarantine. The track is much poppier than Nichols’ other work, and the razor sharp melodies match the emotions behind the lyrics. Nichols takes pop punk and soul and blends them into synth and digital drums, as those were the tools he could work with by himself during quarantine.

    Although the lyrics are a reflection on the loneliness of social distancing, the music is upbeat and energetic. Nichols lets the listener momentarily escape from the current sadness and stress and live in this poppy world he makes with A Spoonful of Sugar. ASoS is available for purchase on Bandcamp now.

  • Interview: Brooklyn’s Francis Aud Releases FONKY Single

    Brooklyn electro-pop funk artist Francis Aud recently released his newest single “Take Me Home,” blending bittersweet lyrics with an upbeat and unique electric funk. 

    Francis Aud

    Francis Aud started out as a retro-soul artist and released his debut EP Tender Things in July 2017. Since then, his music has evolved into what he calls ‘FONK,’ his own original blend of electro-pop and funk. This refreshing mix gives his music personality and makes his sound memorable. Francis tells NYS Music:

    My biggest inspirations are Al Green, Marvin Gaye, and Sam Cooke. From listening to those guys, I then found Jackie Wilson, James Brown, and then followed the thread of musicians they influenced all the way up to contemporary pop artists like Bruno Mars and Parcels.

    Francis Aud

    What he listened to as a child has been “carried in his psyche,” and he says that listening to “super romantic Spanish crooner music or The Commodores” all the time as a kid still influences his own writing style today. “I almost exclusively write about love, relationships, and desire and I still try to phrase the lines I sing like how a crooner would…old habits die hard I guess!” He’s been releasing several FONKY singles since 2018 in preparation for a bigger release in the future.

    “Take Me Home” looks back on a past relationship with bittersweet nostalgia. “When it comes to lyric-writing,” Francis says, “I’m always trying my best not to write lyrics that aren’t devoid of meaning (if that makes sense.) I think lots of the time when people hear the words ‘pop music’ their mind immediately jumps to this idea of extremely surface level and superficial lyrics that come from lazily relying on overused tropes and clichés. I think good pop music doesn’t have to be devoid of a deeper meaning and there’s lots of proof around me of that.” 

    Francis Aud
    Photo courtesy of Amanda Blide

    Despite its somewhat sad message, the single is in no way a downer. It’s upbeat and dancey. “That comes from my shameless love of 80’s music,” the artist admits. “I seriously, positively, TRULY, love music from the 80’s, especially the movie soundtracks where the arrangements were super over the top and used cheesy keyboard sounds on everything. Because that music makes me happy, I think it’d be worth exploring the juxtaposition between that music and the lyrics and I’m just lucky to call it a success!” The 80’s vibes in “Take Me Home” are clear, but with an original and modern spin that is lacking in some other “cheesy” pop. 

    Francis Aud’s music and website both shine with his positivity and humor. “I don’t think I can ever remember a time where I wasn’t blatantly making terrible dad jokes and puns,” he says about his ever-present humor. “In terms of positivity,” he notes, “I think it comes from both my parents and also comes with the territory of being a musician. With my parents being immigrants and coming to this NYC during the really rough 80s’-90’s, they had to work their asses off to make things happen and they had to have an optimism that things would work out. I think I naturally picked up on that. ALSO, when it comes to being an artist, you almost have to force train yourself to become more positive on a daily basis because there really is no guarantee that your art will be heard or even enjoyed.”

    Despite the global halt brought by the Coronavirus, Francis has been keeping busy working on music: “I’ve been spending most of the quarantine teaching myself more about music production and trying my best to ‘level up’ my home recording set-up,” and “I’ve been working with more getting more comfortable using synthesizers and more of the electronic aspects of music production,” he says, as he can’t record in a full studio with a band right now due to the quarantine. “Aside from that, I’m always trying to hone my writing and working to finding that distinct balance between saying something meaningful and being catchy.” 

    Stream or buy “Take Me Home,” and check out Francis Aud’s other music on his website, Soundcloud, or Spotify. Francis also has a side project where he releases original indie-folk music under the name “stella.”

  • Hearing Aide: Palm Suede’s latest single “Fight or Flight” remains relevant amidst global crisis

    New York-based electro-pop duo, Palm Suede, is delighted to share their new single “​ Fight or Flight​” that premiered May 15. The song continues the two’s exploration of battling anxiety while dealing with everyday situations

    Palm Suede renders the duos new single “Fight or Flight” balanced in vibrational techno-pop frequency lining a rapture of uptempo synth-balladry. The anthem unclenches the tightly knitted anxieties of windswept dispatches to find symphonic solace in the eye of the storm. The duo dares the frame that social distancing entails disconnection. In primal chemistry of intimacy, mindfulness, and allure the cadence breaks from expectation to fight gravity in every breath of Ellen Hodges’ aerial vocal register.

    In the trial between two poles stretched across oceans, the sound transcends the current with an international claim. Crossing over Palm Suede splices lyrical expressions from geometric cadence to take flight in the indulgence of the song’s entrancing backbeat. The duo specially produced Fight or Flight to be able to seductively lure escapism in being centered in one’s own energy. 

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B99lS75Fyon/

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