Toronto duo Bad Channels—who recently helped produce Antwon's "Girl, Flex"—have an album due out this Fall on TO label Buzz Records. Premiering today is "Stars," the first single from the upcoming record. It's seriously lush, complexly layered with sci-fi sounds between Jess Gierusz's magically subdued vocals as she sings, I know I've seen your face before/ on these same streets before/ I lived before/ but I died for your creation.
Her other half, Nick Grottick told The FADER about the creation of "Stars":
"Stars" was one of the first songs written for the band. I was becoming disillusioned with the process of making beats and pitching them out to rappers, so I started collaborating with Jess to try make weird pop music instead. At the time I was obsessed with super maximal Japanese stuff like Yellow Magic Orchestra, Two-Mix, Yoko Kanno and various '80s idol singers.
With "Stars" we were really just trying to make a [Mobile Suit] Gundam Wing style theme for our own boring lives. Since most anime we're into seems to be about ridiculously well-dressed teenagers that drive cool motorcycles and/or giant robots, it made sense to write about our own lives as if we were badass teenagers living in a futuristic dystopian sprawl. When we wrote the song we were living a bit outside the city in Scarborough, so most of our weekends consisted of us meeting up on the subway to go get drunk downtown. "Stars" became a hyper akira-styled theme song to this ritual and ended up setting the tone for the entire record.
Bad Channels Canada Tour Dates:
05/06 London, ON, Foam Dome w/ Zones
05/07 Windsor, ON, Pho w/ Zones
05/08 Waterloo, ON, Open Space w/ Zones
05/09 Toronto, ON, Smiling Buddha w/ Nicole Dollanganger
06/08 Ottawa, ON, K-Hole