2020 lockdown impacted everyone’s productivity hard and it was both an opportunity and a restriction on people’s creativity. I was determined to produce a new EP and release it independently in June in time for Summer, and see how I could push myself to complete something like this while staying in quarantine.
The result was Once You Pass The Light You’ll Reach The Spire. The EP consists of 4 summery tracks designed to uplift. The first single, Ultraslick Ultrahuman, was released a week before and was showcased on Spotify’s UK House Music playlist. The EP was released on Bandcamp and following the Black Lives Matter protests I made a decision to donate 100% profits to worthy causes of the current US protests and injustice towards black people in the UK. To date I have been lucky to have donated just under £500 across a number of grassroots charities.
Opening track Apricot Autumn Glo had received a great response with it being added to New UK Garage and Dance Tent Spotify Playlists. It was featured on Jaguar’s show on BBC Radio 1 and Jamz Supernova’s BBC Radio 1Xtra show.
The artwork was produced by myself and was split between two concepts. The 4 symbols in peach tones each represented one of the 4 tracks, like the tracklisting in ancient glyphs. The imagery across the release featured hazy images of the indoors, reflecting our current situation with the 2020 lockdown and the loneliness and isolation it had created. The typeface used in the design is Royal, designed by Type Designer My-Lan Thuong.
With the social media promotion for the release I wanted to try a more meme-style approach; using footage from the incredible Chicago Bulls documentary The Last Dance as well as characters from Nintendo video game Smash Bros, depicted holding the record. It allowed for a more engaging and light-hearted promo campaign that worked strongly.
I also recorded a short interview with Mo on his Reprezent Radio show, talking through both the musical and visual influences of the record which you can listen back to here.
