Stream the first single, Swimming, here.
British Columbia producer Jamison Isaak aka Teen Daze didn’t anticipate an adulthood of globe-trotting song craft, but teenage exposure to iconic French house music videos cast a spell on him that still holds: “I knew then – this is what I wanted to do.”
Catalyzed by synthetic sights and sounds from oceans away, he patiently taught himself primitive software and recording programs, reverse engineering the heady, swooning horizons of the dance music that had permanently bewitched him. A decade later, having amassed an expansive discography of soft-focus synth pop and romantic electronica – crisscrossing the planet many times in the process – the subtext of his project’s journey rings clear: “Teen Daze is dream fulfillment.”
Enter Interior, announced today for a December 10th release via Cascine. Mixed by Joel Ford and mastered by Dave Cooley, it's an ode to electric futures glimpsed in ecstatic heights, from bedrooms to big rooms, it’s an album of first loves refracted through prisms of wisdom, wounds, and wonder. Filter house and flashing lights; soft acid and vaporous neon; bumping clubs in spiral towers: “Like what the teenagers in Akira might be listening to.”
Listen to the soft-focus rhythms of "Swimming", with a Nicole Ginelli-directed video out today alongside the track available on all digital services. The new album can be pre-ordered here.
"This is one of the first songs I made for this record, some three years ago," Jamison describes. "It benefited so much from Joel’s guidance. When I first sent him the original demos he said he could hear slivers of “early 2000s French house music”, even though I was hearing was colder, more modular-based synth sounds. Anyways, that note sent me down a rabbit hole which resulted in the record you’re hearing today, and Swimming is one of the songs that benefitted most from that note. This track is truly meant for a dancefloor. I’ve spent a lot of the last few years trying to craft “ambient music that you could dance to”, but this one is about as close as I get to a DJ tool."
"For me, the song is a celebration of dancing together again and the anticipation of those moments," director Ginelli says about "Swimming." "It feels like being in your brain and excited about something forthcoming, an active dreaming forward. Using an abstract avatar of myself - my movements and dances trigger reactive animations and cue the interactive space around me. Made in VR using real-time motion capture."
Collaborative cameos by multi-instrumentalist Joseph Shabason (on sublime fantasia opener “Last Time In This Place”) and vocalist Cecile Believe (on the glitch-glamorous anthem “2AM (Real Love)”) evocatively expand the record’s palette but otherwise Interior is Isaak’s love letter to his own artistic awakening, to the paradigm shifts inherent in youthful discovery and remote dreaming – your world exploded, your life forever changed. Years of devotion and divergence have honed his craft radically; tracks like “Nite Run,” “Nowhere,” and “Translation” are among the most supreme bangers in the entire Teen Daze canon, a delirious fusion of textural finesse and emotional transcendence. It’s music of skylines, escape, and sensual energy, forever cresting through nights that never end.
To celebrate the release of the first single, Teen Daze will be doing a live DJ set on Blast Radio today 2pm PST / 5pm EST. Teen Daze has been using Blast Radio to host recurring radio shows under the name 'Interior Club Radio.' In honor of the release of "Swimming", he is dedicating his next episode to the song; a deep dive into the influences, both musical and otherwise, as well as an in-depth look into the production and arrangement. All Blast Radio broadcasts can be heard while live and then expire after 24 hours. Listeners can follow and tune in to Teen Daze by searching for his username (@teendaze) in the app. Download iOS and Android versions.
Lastly, Teen Daze has also announced a handful of Album Release shows, where he will be doing live dj sets in Vancouver, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Palm Springs in support of the Interior release.