IT'S YOU
Really it is...
A brand new week, a brand new month, a brand new artist, a brand new sound…
This post is dedicated to Bairn.
Soz if the title misled you. This post isn’t literally about you personally. But that is the title of their EP. And it is something I hope you’ll like.
It’s an absolutely beautiful body of work. A deep, emotional and totally beguiling weave of ambient, deep tech and progressive breaks, it’s a deeply personal release for Bairn, which they describe as a symphony of self-love and explain how “the tracks are movements in a journey through grief, shame, forgiveness and growth.”
That’s the type of art we’re here for! Check and support it right here on Spotify and Juno Download.
Also check this amazing animation they made…
Skills.
Bairn is a highly talented artist across multiple formats. In fact music is one of the more recent skills they’ve developed, as revealed in this interview we’ve just published. Featuring gems like this.
“I feel so much I’m not sure how to process. One feeling prickles my cheekbones and fizzes in my chest. I think it might be pride? Or self-assuredness? Happiness? It’s amazing to think that just over three years ago I had never opened a DAW, and now I am releasing an EP I am very proud of.
Making music has made me feel very grown-up. I love the feeling I get right after I shut down my computer, the lights on my midi controllers turn off, and I’m still hearing the music I made in my head. The pure joy of knowing the world has another piece of art that was thin air, an addition to humanity’s tapestry.”
If that last paragraph doesn’t capture the essence and magic of creativity and kick you right in your own tapesty then maybe nothing will. And we’re super proud to be helping that art into the world.
Of course there’s balance. Immediately, for their next answer, Bairn captures the reality of putting art into the world. Adding to humanity’s tapestry can often come at the expense of anxiety, doubt and worry.
“That said, sometimes I am overwhelmed with fear. Making the music was the easy part, but as I put it into the world, it is no longer mine. Suddenly, it’s not just about me anymore. I spend a lot of time wondering, will this resonate with people? Will anyone listen?”
Both that quote and the EP resonate with us powerfully. That moment when your creation becomes complete and you decide it’s ready to share with the world, the transition of ownership does switch.
Not just commercially, but in terms of how it now creates its own story for anyone who connects with it. Whether that’s right now on release week, or if someone comes across the EP in5, 50 or 100 years time. It’s out now, doing it’s thing, ready and waiting to grab the right souls by the short and curlies.
This is something I regularly tell new artists or students in talks in universities or courses. Our new-found insistence for immediate results and gratification has blinded us to the true extent of time.
The legendary Krust gave me this little time flipper. We had a meeting on the day Three Generations Deep was released. The book DJ Phantasy and I co-wrote. My first book, I’d been so excited to see it out into the world but the day was such an anti climax. Any promotion I’d tried to do just felt like screaming into the void. There was no way of knowing if the book we’d spent 18 months collaborating on was going to be read by, or resonate with, anyone.
I felt empty on the day I thought I’d feel the most accomplished. I told this to K when he called. He laughed a long deep Bristolian chuckle and told me to stop thinking about the now and think about the person who picks it up in three years time and gets so inspired by it. He explained that once your creation is out there - be it a book, an EP, an article, a poem, a film, a short video about making a blancmange, whatever - it’s out there.
You never know when you’ll get feedback from it or what impact it will have. The universe will let you know that when it’s good and ready. It’ll happen, in time. And you won’t see it coming when it happens. Or words to that extent.
Essentially if you’re putting your art out commercially and looking for a quick dopamine hit, you’re on a cruise for the blues. Sure, the way of the world means most people expect, or hope for, some success or impact rather quickly. If only to pay a bill or two. But we should always be mindful of the slow burners that ripple over a much longer perspective
I hold onto that quite a lot. I have to, or 1 More Thing would not exist. Developing a platform with zero budget during a time of global, social and economic turbulence is a daily stress-fest and constant punch to the confidence. But there’s nothing else I’d rather do. So I continue and will persist until my wheels fall off. In the meantime the universe spits out super random things that I could never see coming or forecast. Working on Vision Radio came out of the blue. Literally thin air during a conversation where I was actually asking for help and advice and was considering quitting my career (long story)
I also had the belief that I was no longer a DJ. For over 10 years! I’m now back on the decks, enjoying mixing more than ever before. I never expected to become a mentor. Didn’t think I’ve have the patience or enough to teach anyone. But 1 More Thing has multiple success stories with our mentorship students, both past and present. They’ve changed my perspective of my own work entirely.
Back to the focus of this post, I never expected to be releasing quite as much interesting, exciting and varied music as I have this year. Since Lakeway’s album in March we’ve explored so many different corners and crannies, niches and nooks of truly artistic, underground, forward-thinking music from ambient to techno via a whole of drum & bass flavours.
We’ve had the chance to represent, introduce and hopefully boost some amazing talents to the world. Artists I hope will mark major ripples across the long game and resonate with many many people.
Artists like Bairn. They exude creativity and are armed with a vision and determined drive to create. From this quote alone it’s clear they’re going to be adding to humanity’s tapestry for a long time to come.
“Honestly? I’m a bit of a control freak. I’m only half-kidding- by creating everything myself it can be exactly how I envisioned. Though really it’s because I am passionate about art and music performance. I like anything which allows me to tell a story, writing, art and music.
Since I was little I wanted to do everything. I was stubborn in trying my hand at any skill I could. I’ve wanted, and still want, to be an animator, a comic artist, a musician, a songwriter. At one point I wanted to be a curator. A true jack of all trades, master of none. For a long time I thought it was a bad thing. Life was slipping me by as I was figuring out what I wanted to do. Whatever I picked I felt some doubt. I still doubt if I am doing the right thing. Should I not just get a safe job and put my degree to good use? As it happens, doubt doesn’t mean you’re on the wrong path, it just means you’ve got your head screwed on. No other path in life for me could fulfil so many of my passions at once. This project ticks every box for me.”
It ticks a lot of boxes for us, too!
It’s You is an exciting moment for all concerned. From a 1 More Thing perspective, the release reflects at a much wider musical menu we have planned for the future. The deepest, slowest and perhaps moodiest piece we’ve put out so far, the slow rolling thunder of Bairn’s breaks, those gentle, unhurried moments of beatless floatation, the unapologetically long soundscapes and powerful contrasts of dark and light… All these types of feels are the perfect tonic to some of the much sharper, intense chaotic and rampant dance pieces we’ve also been adding to humanity’s tapestry. They work together to create a much bigger picture and join dots that not even I can see coming.
In essence, Bairn and their music are a massive missing piece in the never-ending, always-mutating puzzle that is 1 More Thing. They’ve helped me understand where I want, and need, 1 More Thing to be as a brand and I’m so proud to have helped them to get their art out into the world. What’s best is that we weren’t even connected before June. We were introduced by Fireworks Factory who I’ve only just connected with because I randomly decided to launch a DJ competition last December and he won it.
Then consider Max Fireworks Factory’s 1 More Thing story, which is just as random and unpredictable, too… No one could possibly have forecast us releasing his debut EP off the back of that competition! I hope these random encounters and unpredictable moments of fusion continue and get more and more exciting as we build and build together as a collective who’ve come together in the most randomised, yet natural way.
Who knows what will happen? One thing I do know is that we have five more releases to drop this year. All of them ear-poppingly different, unusual and coming from a place of raw creativity and emotion. Starting with Deerhill’s album Sporeprints on September 22. We’ve been teasing it for the last few weeks on social media with mini anonymous clips. If you want something more substantial, check out the very last tune on this B2B I did with Sonnet. It includes me on vocals. My first ever spoken word release. Never saw that coming, either.
Hit me up if you’ve read this far and gone to the effort of checking the last track. I’d like to thank you for doing that and giving me the time. I’d also like to know your thoughts. I’m terrified of it going out into the universe and feel very vulnerable. I find it easy to host a podcast or radio show or anything when I’m announcing - that’s just another mask - but when I’m hammering my head open and revealing just how messed up the circuit board is, that’s much more acute level of exposure. It took me months to play it to any of my friends.
I know I’m not alone. I know every creative will resonate with that feeling. Bairn captures that feeling better than I can describe…
“I worry that even those I care about may not view my work the way I do. It’s incredibly intimate, to share the inside of my head with the world. I don’t think the fear is a bad thing. It shows how much I care.”
Ooof. That quote hasn’t just kicked me in the tapestry. It’s torn it apart, resewn it together into a balaclava and glued itself onto my head. Backwards.
Big up Bairn. Big up all artists we release music from. Big up all mentees working with me on 1 More Thing. Big up YOU for reading and supporting. Please stick around for more unpredictable moves.
Something new, fresh, different and untypical every time. No limitations or stipulations. Pure creative freedom as far as it can be pushed. There’s too much stagnancy and conservativsm in the culture to operate in any other way.
Peace
Dave