EP PREMIERE: Camikaze

Emergent WA-bred producer Camikaze is all ready to unveil his debut EP, Thousands, next week — but with a few days still to get through between now and then, The Music is proud to be premiering the release in full ahead of its release.

The extended player arrives hot on the heels of his recent clip for certifiable ~jam~ This Burden, but Camikaze has been keeping a full calendar pretty much all year, kicking off 2016 — and seriously turning heads — with debut single Shadows (ft. Zoe A'dore), which scored a high-profile YouTube premiere and racked up more than 100,000 plays less than 24 hours later, a frankly frightening amount of time. (It's since shot past the 1 million mark.)

This success itself followed early achievements such as his (unofficial) remix of Flume's Some Minds (ft. Andrew Wyatt) and subsequent (official) remix of Peking Duk's Say My Name (ft. Benjamin Joseph). Now, with a four-track release all his own, Camikaze is set to finish the year with a bang and get 2017 under way on the right foot.

Nothing official has been announced for the moment, but with fresh tunes and a fresh EP out in the world, it's not unreasonable to expect to see Camikaze on the road in the near future — be sure to follow him on Facebook to stay on top of his future projects and movements.

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Thousands is available for pre-order now; give it a spin above and get to know the release — and its artist — with an exclusive track-by-track reflection straight from the man himself below.

Camikaze — Thousands EP: Track-by-track

THOUSANDS, ft. maya payne

The concept for Thousands came from imagining two friends rupturing a forest's edge and meeting a road, only to overlook a bright city they are trying to reach which is still many hours away. The road for me is reminiscent of the Canyon Duels from Need For Speed: Carbon. I can imagine cars drifting across distant roads in the mountains and that's pretty much where my lyrics derived from as well.

It was funny how Maya came to be on the record. I received a very brief message on SoundCloud from her earlier this year, asking if I wanted to collaborate on a song. I really liked the interesting tone & vocal style she had, so I was like, "Yeah, that sounds nice," and about two days later my manager called me up at some point saying, "Maya Payne is flying over from NZ to work on a track with you." I thought to myself, "Shit, this girl is keen AF!" So Maya gets to Melbourne and whilst tinkering away on writing ideas for her song, I played her my song, Thousands, and asked if she wanted to give it a crack, as I felt she might suit what I had envisioned. I think she nailed it.

THIS BURDEN, ft. Airospace & Luna May

Originally, This Burden had no specific meaning to me whatsoever, but I wrote it based mainly upon the insidious feeling it gives you leading into the drop. I had recently moved to Melbourne and was sleeping on the floor of my friend's hostel room at the time, so maybe it was self-pity I wrote about. Who knows? My management linked me up with Luna May, and she straight-up thought it was a sick track, and was also keen to sing what I had written! As she was back in Perth, I sent her my really, REALLY terrible singing voice as a guideline to how I wanted it sung (this is still a reference point of hilarity for all of us), but she ended up singing it exactly how I imagined it.

I wanted some poetic rap on the track to fill in the verses. Most of the artists I thought might be down for it weren't sure about it, then Airospace popped up via a deep SoundCloud-following tangent one night. I immediately hit him up with just a little compliment on his music, but it was then I thought to myself, "This is the fucking guy." I prayed to the internet that he would understand the track direction and want to jump on board. When he got back to me and said he was down for it, I was so excited! We sent it to him with the lyrical directive being, "A stab at anyone who believes they are superior to another human being." When he came back with the incredible verses and so much emotion and meaning behind them, it completely changed my own feelings and it led to me imagining the dark feelings of somebody who has lost a friendship, comrade or somebody close to them, but in the end they see that light at the end of the tunnel and the world becomes beautiful for them again.

COLD CLOCKWORK, ft. Duchess

The origin of Cold Clockwork actually came from a dream I had. It was very vivid and strange. A girl I loved was stranded as wolves scurried into a house where she is sleeping. What made it strange was that the wolves could only take you away if the moonlight was shining on you, and it was shining only in one place; on her. I ran through a hallway of shoes to save her only to find that she was already gone; everyone was gone. All of a sudden it instantly becomes morning and she reappears before me with a huge frozen clock, asking me how to get home. That's when I cried, "Take my hand, take my only hand, I'll show you." It lowers in pitch in the song like my subconscious falling away as I awoke.

My good friend from high school, Sarah (aka Duchess) graciously lent her amazing voice to this song. She is a big future talent as you can hear, and I am so glad to have her as part of it.

AN EVENING PARADIGM

The earliest song I started that made it onto the EP is An Evening Paradigm. I wrote most of the basis of this song back in 2014 but shelved it, not thinking I could do much with it. I opened it up in April earlier this year just for kicks and started messing around, which led me down the rabbit hole, so to speak. The vocal is not actually anything intentional, it's a half-second sample that I have stretched and re-pitch in certain parts. When I write a song that I'm really proud of, I usually can't stand hearing it after maybe like 200 plays. There's something about this one, however, that still feels so alien to me. I love it. If I had to say I have a personal favourite song on the EP, it would be this one.

EP PREMIERE: Camikaze - Thousands

Camikaze — Thousands EP: Track-by-track

THOUSANDS, ft. maya payne

THIS BURDEN, ft. Airospace & Luna May

COLD CLOCKWORK, ft. Duchess

AN EVENING PARADIGM

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