Rei Brown is intrigued by pop at its most alien. An outsider voice, he’s drawn to cinema’s moments of pores and skin-crawling futurism, the points the place the existing cracks aside in get for opportunity to seep by way of.
The New York centered auteur spins a world-wide-web of his individual, a sequence of divine alt-pop moments that drawn Worldwide focus.
A short while ago collaborating with Joji for the amazing ‘Thinking Bout You’, Rei is now prepared to aim on the launch of his debut album.
Out now, ‘Xeno’ taps into his identification as a queer artist, using features of entire body horror to talk about sexuality, gender, and his discomfort inside of heteronormative culture. It’s a intriguing, multi-faceted undertaking, a person that touches on glossy Millennial pop tropes and sci-fi themes.
Right here, Rei Brown touches on a couple of his important influences…
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There have been a lot of gems in 90s/2000s video match soundtracks. A great deal of it was definitely ahead of its time and most sci-fi/futuristic games would source underground and choice genres to be the soundtracks of the potential.
It’s ironic because a lot of them are dated and nostalgic to me, but I assume they continue to seize this futuristic electricity that I required to faucet into for the album.
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The Matrix was these a substantial inspiration to me developing up. This particular scene with the mirror was anything I referenced around and about during the producing of the album, most notably when creating ‘Could I Be Somebody’.
It’s this sort of a persuasive scene of questioning your reality and achieving into the unidentified.
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I simply cannot talk about the Matrix with out mentioning the soundtrack.
There were being so lots of incredible excursion hop and nu-metallic music that come to feel critical to the film. ‘Clubbed To Death’ by Rob Dougan has surely influenced some of the production of the album but I feel a lot more so was a indicates of reconnecting with the collective consciousness of that era.
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There’s a song on the album identified as ‘When I Fall Asleep’ which talks about alienation and making an attempt to make feeling of a ridiculous planet.
The total twist in the tune is the principal character realises that they are actually an alien. Not all of it is explicitly in the lyrics but I normally pictured this scene of them in the lavatory peeling off their pores and skin to see the alien human body underneath. There were being many videos that inspired this scene but I come to feel like this a person in distinct does a fantastic career of capturing the essence.
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Fantastic sci-fi and earth developing lets you to problem latest realities, paint utopias, and re-offer old thoughts and metaphors in an updated placing.
The story of Sonmi-451 is so stunning and does a terrific occupation of talking about capitalism, individuality, and reincarnation. This tale alongside with a large amount of other sci-fi performed a major purpose in inspiring me to establish larger and much more intricate worlds with my new music.
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This was a tune a good friend showed to me a though back again. It truly produced me fall again in enjoy with nu-metal.
Despite the fact that it’s refined, I consider nu-metal music encouraged the album a great deal the two sonically and in spirit as nicely. I had seriously distanced myself from guitar sounds for a even though so I was thrilled to be able to reincorporate into my songs in a way that felt genuine and organic and natural.
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I grew up with the Backstreet Boys, N*SYNC, and Britney Spears and I felt myself truly reconnecting with that era of pop music a few decades back.
I consider in basic there’s been a enormous Y2K revival. When I re-uncovered this music movie I could not think it, it was just what I wished to make — intergalactic pop new music.
