- When we started thinking about our second LP, we talked a lot about “scenes”.
- From ‘73 - ‘79, with no recorded hip-hop music in existence, Hip-Hop was a scene, and being a hip-hop fan meant something much different than just listening to rap records.
- Same goes for House, where as late as 1992 folks in Chicago were still listing obscure Disco tracks as the best “House” tracks of all time.
- As far as Massive Attack was concerned at the time of their debut Blue Lines, it was a pure hip-hop record (no Trip!).
- Foul Play was still technically making Hardcore while laying the blueprints for Jungle, and El-B was making “dark garage” before Dubstep & Grime fully took shape.
- These in-between spaces have been essential throughout recorded music history, even if most discussion about these scenes happened retrospectively rather than at their creative peak.
- The new sounds pop up from rented-out Rec Centers, cheap Loft apartments, “alternative” after-hours clubs, or one lone independent record store pushing a sound—that’s the space where we thrive musically.
- Down in the Gulf Coast of Florida, far away from any music industry (or proper music venues, for that matter), we carved our own little lane and helped birth a new scene.
- Heads thrive on internet radio and vinyl open deck events, geek out on forgotten once-mainstream sounds, start folk bands & make tracks in living rooms doing their best Eno & DJ Rashad & Raphael Saadiq impressions.
- This scene is the real underground; no psyop journalist hype, no buzzy “scene reports”, no attention or opinion from the outside world at all besides “y’all listen to music down there?”.
- “Disco” is the primordial soup of that scene—the space in-between.
The Making Of:
- Burnt as hell from road life and general industry bullshit, we took our sweet time on this one.
- During our down time from proper production, we took it upon ourselves to close some technical gaps we had
- Most of our prior work consisted of a lot of outboard gear usage; hardware synths, samplers, etc...
- Once we starting living on tour, our work rate slowed way down—we realized we didn’t have the same intuitive relationship with our software as we did with our studio gear.
- Aiming to no longer rely on pure intuition and be able to work solely “in the box”, we dived deep into a few different resources to re-educate ourselves.
- John Chowning & Dave Bristow’s book “FM Theory & Applications” gave us a mathmatical understanding of FM Synthesis, complete with logarithmic diagrams & Bessel function tables
- Anthony Thogmartin’s “Seed to Stage” Youtube channel showed us what half the Ableton parameters we used to noodle around with actually meant...
- Once we decided to “get serious” about putting together the record, we traveled to an undisclosed location in Europe
- We spent two weeks knocking out tracks non-stop, applying our new knowledge as well as exercising our old muscles
- These tracks would be the first that we sent to our key collaborator to put the “finishing touches” on.
Collaboration
- We collaborated on this record with Dave Cerminara, who mixed the album and added production on almost every song.
- Dave learned about us through our mutual friend + collaborator Bartees Strange, but the part of his resumé that most intrigued us was his work with Father John Misty.
- Bringing his perspective into the fold was always gonna be way more interesting than running to get [insert any buzzy “LA-based” hip-hop producer].
- The first time we met, Dave said “I don’t make beats. But I know what a song needs”. Hired.
- Loraine James appears on the record because she’s one of the realest living!
- Aside from her 2023 record “Gentle Confrontation” lighting a fire under us to make a new record, she’s also one of the first people we met in our early UK travels
- We’ve had homies overseas since before Brexit, plus our label has an office in London, so when we came to perform for the first time, our guest list was slammed (we probably even bled into the headliner’s list. Sorry y’all!).
- We’d met Loraine only a few days prior, and she was the only friend to show up and watch us shut it down. Like we said, the realest.
- Afterwards she took us to Morley’s and we split a bottle of champagne courtesy of our touring partners The Avalanches.
- During our two week European Isolation Period, we heard Joseph Shabason’s 2024 record with Matthew Sage and Nicholas Krgovich for the first time.
- We immediately reached out to our A&R Eric (that’s who’s hounding us about the album, on the album) to see if he knew Joseph, in case we needed to clear a sample.
- Eric was deeply familar, which we later found out was due to Joseph’s involvement in one of our old indie rock favorites, DIANA
- Once connected, we eventually landed on proper collaboration rather than sampling, and began sending Joseph some of our ideas from the Isolation.
- He sent back a searing, sweeping performance for “New Answers”, capturing using an Akai EWI (you’ll have to ask him what model).
- We sent each other Lord of the Rings GIFs after our first listens.
- SARGE is still ahead of the game—the Best Kept Secret.
- His verse on Ciani started elsewhere, but we asked nicely and he came through to lace our lil weird shit alongside working on his debut EP.
-
We started a Radio Station in the Gulf Coast
- During our ‘22 tours we were lucky enough to pass through a gang of online radio stations in other cities + countries.
- We saw strong communities built around Refuge Worldwide, Noods Radio, Subcity, The Lot Radio, Foundation.FM, & NTS.
- We got it in our heads that this was exactly what the Gulf Coast needed to bring the scene back, so we got to work.
- After some spitballing backstage at the Button Factory in Dublin, Dre landed on the name: Sector.
- Each time we visted a studio, we asked as many questions as possible.
- The producers showed us hella live production tools & schooled us on the backend work that directly inspired Sector’s style.
- We did a couple practice runs back at the crib (literally, in the living room) and launched officially on December 24th, 2023.
- As of this writing, there are over 40 recurring Resident shows & 1100+ shows in the archive. Go listen!
- Special Thanks to Rose & Tehmeena from Noods, Frankie & Knox from Foundation, and Giulia & Sigourney at NTS.
The Last Few Years
- We put out our debut LP “Finally, New” on Jagjaguar.
- We followed that with an EP called “Wish You Were Here...” (because we love Pink Floyd and because it’s funny).
- From 2021 - 2024 we did this:
- Oct ‘21 * Machinedrum FL Tour
- March ‘22 * SXSW (R.I.P)
- April ‘22 * NY Weekender
- Baby’s All Right
- The Lot Radio
- Rough Trade
- Lichen NYC
- Rolo’s & Xian’s Famous Food (for Dinner)
- May ‘22 * “Finally, New” Listening Party & Trunk Sale @ Bandit (St. Petersburg, FL)
- June ‘22 * European Tour
- The Avalanches UK/EU Support
- A Gang of Festivals (send a photo and remind us which ones)
- July ‘22
- Toro y Moi East Coast Tour
- “Finally, New” Release Show w/ Barely Legal, in partnership with Daddy Kool Records (St. Petersburg, FL)
- Mitski - “Laurel Hell” at Radio City Music Hall (in the audience)