As social distancing has kept more of us in the solitude of our homes, artists have come up with innovative ways to entertain viewers around the world.
Music has the power to bring us closer to each other, to help us come together as a community, which Big Beat Virtual Showcase, hosted by Paige Rosoff and Libby Kober, proved. The virtual showcase was held on Thursday, March 22 via Zoom, and featured both Elderbrook and WHIPPED CREAM live from their homes, which lent an intimate air to the show; it felt like overhearing friends in conversation. Both artists enjoyed the opportunity to play their music, to talk about their upcoming unreleased albums, and to share how they’re staying creative and inspired during this time.
Paige Rosoff: This is the very first of its kind. We’re kicking it off with Big Beat but we plan to do this with more artists and genres across Atlantic Records as well. During this very strange time where we can’t physically be together, we’re very grateful to have the opportunity to share these artists and their music with you guys in this way. So Libby is going to begin by chatting with Elderbrook.
Libby Kober: Thank you all so much for being here. Last month Elderbrook (Alexander Kotz) put out a song called ‘Numb’ which I know many of you have heard. It’s the first song off of his upcoming debut album which will be out later this year, and it came with a really awesome video which I would encourage you to check out if you haven’t already. So he’s going to be playing ‘Numb’ as well as another unreleased track on the album. To start Alex, do you want to tell us where you are right now and how you’re doing?
Alex: Yeah, so at the moment I’m in my house just outside of London. I’ve got a little setup in the back of my garden, a little cabin of sorts, pretty much a shed, but it’s a little music studio so I’ve been here basically the whole time putting the finishing touches on the album. So this is kind of a best case scenario in many ways.
Libby Kober: Yeah, it’s interesting because we obviously put out ‘Numb’ before all of this happened, but it seems a little bit more timely now than maybe even intended. Before you kick things off do you want to talk a bit about ‘Numb?’
Alex: Yeah, so I wrote it while I was on tour in America. I was away for six weeks, which was the longest I had been away, and I’m engaged and I was really missing my fiancé. And the whole song is about loneliness, there’s a lyric that goes ‘reaching in the dark, there’s nothing there to touch,’ which kind of really sums up the whole song. And I think everyone feels lonely at points but in a weird way, everyone feeling lonely kind of brings people together. So it was based around that idea.
Libby Kober: Alright well I’m going to let you play the two songs that you’re gonna do and then we’ll come back and talk again after. Here is Elderbrook.
Alex: Sweet, I’m gonna start out with ‘Numb’ first, a bit of a stripped back version. Let’s do it.
Numb Music Video:
Libby Kober: Can you tell us a little bit about the album as a whole and what the process was like recording it?
Alex: So with this album,‘cause it is my first album, it’s a collection of songs I’ve been writing for the last three years, written everywhere, and it’s just taken so long to come together. I think this album is a lot more on the indie side than my music has been in the past because obviously I’ve done a lot of house and electronic stuff. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a lot of that in the album but it definitely has more of an indie vibe to it, which I’m really excited about, because that’s where I come from. My first ever musical adventure was being in an indie band so it’s been nice to get back to my roots.
Libby Kober: Awesome, I love it. Before you go, can you tell us some things you are listening to right now or watching? Anything you’re doing to stay creative?
Alex: Yeah, well I mean I think just having to be at home and having to spend time in this little musical cabin with all my instruments keeps me quite busy and creative. But what am I watching? Hmm, I mean to be honest I watched Pocahontas today (laughs).
Libby Kober: Thank you so much Alex. I really appreciate you sharing that. We’re gonna pass things over to Paige and WHIPPED CREAM now.
Paige Rosoff: We have WHIPPED CREAM (Caroline Cecil) here. Super excited for you guys to hear from her about her new single coming out tomorrow. It’s called, ‘I Do The Most’ featuring Lil Keed. We’ll also chat about some new projects she has in the works and see a preview of her music video that’s coming out tomorrow. I’m very very excited to introduce you guys to Caroline.
WHIPPED CREAM: Hi everyone, hope you are all doing well during this crazy time!
Paige Rosoff: How are you, and where are you in the world right now?
WHIPPED CREAM: I am on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. It’s very beautiful and very cold outside.
Paige Rosoff: Is there anything in particular that’s been helping you keep inspired and creative during this time?
WHIPPED CREAM: Man, I’m just trying to find things to be grateful for right now and I am finding those. Everything is a shock right now, I think for everyone in the world. We don’t really know how long this is gonna last, so the first few weeks of this, I was down in my spirits and down creatively. And just this past week I have really turned a corner and found my gratitude in the little things. I’m almost handling it as if I was a kid again, just being able to simply enjoy music for all the gifts it’s given to me, and it’s almost like I can breathe again and really feel music again. I’ve been listening to a lot of Missy Elliot’s first album and just hiking around where I live and it’s been great for me. I’m feeling very creatively inspired because I’m finally feeling the weight of everything being lifted off my shoulders. I’ve let go of the deep sadness of not really knowing what’s going on in the next six months. You know, we just lost Coachella, Ultra Miami, we were supposed to put our project out in April, and you realize you cannot hold onto anything in life. You have to just be able to let it go. And I’m just really coming to terms with accepting all of that.
Paige Rosoff: I think that sounds like a really great outlook and I know you’re also working on your upcoming EP, ‘Who Is WHIPPED CREAM’, so I’m sure that’s keeping you pretty busy too. What are you most excited about for this body of work and what do you think sets it apart from the music you’ve released into the world thus far?
WHIPPED CREAM: ‘Who Is WHIPPED CREAM’ is so special to me because it’s finally this body of work that showcases all of who I am at this moment in time. It includes pieces of work from my early cinematic days, which I still love doing, to the base records, to now my crossover stuff with hip hop artists. I find it’s all been super exciting, going into studios with other artists and learning the process of collaboration. It’s been a really interesting learning experience for me, but also this project of work fully showcases who I am as a producer. And it’s just kind of the start of where I’m going. It has electronic music, heavier music with builds and drops, cinematic music, it has heavy-ass hip hop mixed with screamo records, it has sexy, get down low in the club, hip hop records, and a singing crossover radio record. So I don’t know, I just smile when I talk about it because finally I have a body of work that is exactly who I am. Here you go, it’s me.
Paige Rosoff: Super stoked for that. And in a moment I’ll share your new music video and song that’s dropping tomorrow, ‘I Do The Most,’ but first I just wanted to hear about what it was like creating that video and being featured in one for the very first time.
WHIPPED CREAM: It’s so exciting! I love visuals and in the next 10 to 20 years, I would love to make movies with my music. I find it so powerful when you put a visual on top of a body of music. And that still leaves the listener with questions. You never want to give away your whole idea, you want the listener to enjoy it in their own way, but when you put visuals to a body of work, it can be a complete juxtaposition. Maybe the person was thinking, “oh it’s a light and fluffy song,” but then they watch the video and it’s completely different than what they expected. So as an artist that’s exciting for me. This song to me, well first of all Lil Keed is one of the next upcoming rappers. I’ve been following his shit for a couple years now and I recently just saw an interview of Drake shouting him out, and you know, he’s like Young Thug’s prodigy. He works so hard, he’s a very genuine and smart human being, and he has a beautiful heart. When I sat down with him and showed him my beats, the beat I wanted him to take he wanted right away so we had that immediate connection. And he is a musical genius so when he laid out for me what he was planning to do on the record, I felt that the record was almost complete. I hardly had to go back into production. Back to the music video, I had a vision to do this theme of valentines. I envisioned this red room, think Amsterdam, very sexy, but classy and Keed likes to flex money and ice and all that shit, so I wanted to incorporate his lifestyle into my music video. So essentially it’s him serenading the girl who is me in the music video. I handed my ideas over the director and she killed my ideas to a T. When I saw the first cut of the music video, my jaw dropped because it was so perfect.
Paige Rosoff: On that note, let’s watch the video.
Paige Rosoff: That was dope, thanks for sharing Caroline. And thanks for hanging with us. I can’t wait for ‘I Do The Most’ to officially drop tomorrow.
WHIPPED CREAM: Thanks everyone, it was great sharing with you all!
