"can't imagine what it's like"
New Orleans based producer and musician, MoPodna creates a cagey Casio-fied (like), yet funky guitar vibed electronic dance track with the artistically alluring Claire Givens on Hide My Light. Given's who MoPodna worked on previously on their collab "What It Was To Be Me" where she lent her singing and lyricist skills on, did the same here. MoPodna must thankfully subscribe to the age old rule - if it's not broke, don't fix it. Given's who writes in response to MoPodna's instrumental versions of their collabs has an affinity to spin her lyrical melodies perfectly within the producer's shiny sometimes bent but always deeply groovy visions. Of Hide My Light, Mo Podna offers:
"Before I left for tour, I sampled my Casio MT-68 keyboard and downloaded a folder of somebody's Yamaha PortaSound keyboard that they had sampled. These are extremely cheap keyboards that I call 'bedroom synths' because growing up in the 90s, if you had a keyboard, it was likely one of these Casio or Yamaha keyboards with a ton of hilarious, nostalgic, wavy sounds. The main bass you hear is the PortaSound, and there are sprinkles of Casio throughout the song as well. I sent the instrumental to Claire and told her to think 'gritty, attitude, but flawed'. Like GRIMES, MIA, and Miley Cyrus had a threesome. As always, Claire delivered, and I added some extremely wacky distorted vocals on the verses. Her lyrics and melodies are so perfect. She has such a strong grasp of her voice (in an artistic sense) and how to deliver that on any given track. She focuses on making her voice a part of the song rather than standing out or projecting any ego through singing, and it's extremely special to hear. After that, I played a guitar solo, which is very unlike me, but it's so strange and not typical-guitar-sounding that I thought it fit perfectly with the rest of the song."
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
spotify
New Orleans based producer and musician. Melancholy dance and electronic to get you through your life and be the best version of your worst self.
WHAT THE SONG MEANS TO ME:
New Orleans based producer and musician. Melancholy dance and electronic to get you through your life and be the best version of your worst self.
WHAT THE SONG MEANS TO ME:
All in all, I wanted this song to sound like when you're in your bedroom as a kid, and you're full of anger and passion like nobody believes in you but you want to take over the world and prove them wrong. So you have all this grit and raw emotion, but ultimately you're too scared to jump the hurdles in real life, still shy and humble, singing in a play microphone and smashing on a Casio keyboard. You even throw in a strange air guitar solo and you feel so cool, but then your mom yells at you to come and finish your ham sandwich. Claire's lyrics are kind of perfect for this. She sings the verses with a playfulness, but the lyrics are all about not being able to imagine what it would be like to go through falling in love again or going back out into the world and trying. So inevitably, she has a burning light inside, but she ends up hiding it.
HOW IT WAS MADE/PRODUCED:
HOW IT WAS MADE/PRODUCED:
I was on tour with GIVERS in July of last year. I had just released a song with Claire called "What It Was To Be Me", and it was extremely well-received. It was my debut single as my producer-artist project collaborating with singers, and I had so much fun making the song with Claire, I sat down in a small cafe in Madison, Wisconsin and began working on a new track for her. Before I left for tour, I sampled my Casio MT-68 keyboard and downloaded a folder of somebody's Yamaha PortaSound keyboard that they had sampled. These are extremely cheap keyboards that I call "bedroom synths" because growing up in the 90s, if you had a keyboard, it was likely one of these Casio or Yamaha keyboards with a ton of hilarious, nostalgic, wavy sounds. The main bass you hear is the PortaSound, and there are sprinkles of Casio throughout the song as well. I sent the instrumental to Claire and told her to think "gritty, attitude, but flawed". Like GRIMES, MIA, and Miley Cyrus had a threesome. As always, Claire delivered, and I added some extremely wacky distorted vocals on the verses. Her lyrics and melodies are so perfect. She has such a strong grasp of her voice (in an artistic sense) and how to deliver that on any given track. She focuses on making her voice a part of the song rather than standing out or projecting any ego through singing, and it's extremely special to hear. After that, I played a guitar solo, which is very unlike me, but it's so strange and not typical-guitar-sounding that I thought it fit perfectly with the rest of the song.
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