Meg and I set out to make something that combined some of our favorite influences like, The Breeders, The Cure, Siouxsie And The Banshees, and Blur. We tried a bunch of different things for the chorus, but once we landed on the “I really want your poison love” idea, I knew we’d found it. I love the combination of the big guitars with Meg’s voice being morphed by a pitch-shifting effect.
Kay and I have done a few songs together, but “Hot” is definitely one of my favorites. I love how Kay confidently delivers the verse lyrics, which are seemingly whimsical, over a menacing bass-heavy beat. Those opposing forces coming together make this song special.
“Sex Ed” pays tribute to some of my favorite 80s female artists. I like to think of the song as a hybrid of Taylor Dayne’s “Tell It To My Heart” and Madonna’s “Like A Virgin” updated for 2011. Anjulie and I had a lot of fun writing the lyrics for this track. We tried to keep them clever and playful but also sexy, which I think is a quality found in a lot of my favorite 80s tracks.
“Five O’Clock” is the first song Jessie & The Toy Boys and I made together. Around that time, I was listening to a lot of the 80s girls groups that were produced by Prince (Vanity 6, Sheila E, Appolonia), which inspired the punchy Linndrum-sample-heavy beat of the song. A day before our session, I started the track and came up with the pre-chorus “Hello Hello Hello.” I was nervous to show her the idea because she was one of the first artists I worked with in Los Angeles, but she was in to it and we quickly wrote the rest of the song together. One of the things I love about working with Jessie, is that her lyrics are always engaging and paint a vivid story… in this case “you’ve got till five o’clock to get your shit out.”
another sample from GIRLS coming 8/15/11
Here’s the first track off GIRLS: VOLUME 1 (which comes out 8/15/11) The song is called “Five O’Clock” and features Jessie & The Toy Boys
download a free mp3 here
I’m excited to announce a series of EPs, that I will be putting out this year called GIRLS. Each EP will feature four original collaborations between myself and a different guest vocalist on each track. Volume 1 of the series comes out 8/15/11 and features Jessie & The Toy Boys, Kay, Anjulie, and Meg.
