Today, Shallou and ayokay have united to deliver their eloquently-teased and highly-anticipated new single “Us”, on FADER Label.
“Us” brings together the two preeminent indie-electronic producers for the first time, despite their years of friendship and a mutual respect for each others’ sound. As the first original from Shallou in 2022, “Us” stuns with its lush and dreamlike soundscape; Shallou’s warm vocal delivery and signature falsetto seamlessly transitions to an endearing hook, while a continuous kick and energizing percussion push the track towards a larger-than-life chorus. Accompanying the track is a long-awaited addition to Shallou’s revered Nomad series, filmed by Jamie TK.
Connecting with ayokay for the first time, “Us” was born of the two creatives seeing eye-to-eye, as Shallou explains,
“Ayokay and I met up in the studio after many years of having parallel styles to try and make some music. Alex played this simple synth line on his Prophet and immediately a melody popped into my head. From there, the rest of the production flowed effortlessly. It was one of the quickest and easiest songs I’ve made because me and Alex have so many common influences, and we weren’t trying to make a hit or force something.
Lyrically, it’s a slight continuation of the themes from my last EP – sometimes you feel like you need to break away from this world completely and just be alone in a new place with someone you love.”
-Shallou via press release
Shallou’s year-to-date includes the April release of the official remix pack for his The Long Way Home EP, featuring reimaginings from Sultan + Shepard, Jerro, and more, and official remixes for Forester and Vance Joy. The prolific producer will close out the summer at Louis the Child’s highly anticipated Alter-Ego event on August 20th at Brooklyn Mirage, Good Vibes Weekender Festival in Malaysia, and back-to-back nights opening for Zedd’s 10-year anniversary show for Clarity at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. For tickets to any of these events, click here.
Meanwhile, ayokay continues riding high from the release of his immersive full-length release Digital Dreamscape, featuring collabs with slenderbodies, close collaborator Quinn XCII, and more, and his epic North America tour with producer and multi-instrumentalist Emmit Fenn.
While this is the first original from Shallou in 2022, we hear the Los Angeles-based has plenty more to come a la new music. Check out the new single below and stay tuned for more Shallou soon!
Featured photo courtesy of artist
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