It seems even at the slight age of 21, Steve Lacy has already come into his own. Remarkably, he doesn’t share the same popular esteem in R&B as peers like Frank Ocean, SZA, or The Weeknd- an aspect that confounds my sense of decent music taste while also making me question whether I’m deluded in believing he has transcended his indie bona fides to a greater regard. Maybe his lo-fi leanings make him not quite right for the spotlight – not distilled enough to make it into the “charts” (if those sorts of things are still relevant). Maybe I’m in the minority when I believe he has elevated his musicianship to a point worthy of a larger platform, or just maybe I’m being impatient for popular embrace. Either way, I usually pacify myself by concluding he might just be a musician’s musician; one of those supremely gifted individuals whose personal music is not accessible enough for mainstream listeners, but is known by all the mainstream musicians, and their respective music circles, as belonging to an unique talent.
No matter the reality, it appears the musicians’ circles, both mainstream and indie alike, have taken notice. Lacy is one of the eminent producers in R&B and Soul music today. Once you find out how many artists he’s produced, along with himself, you will realize the man is more than talented. He’s worked with Kali Uchis, Solange, Kendrick Lamar, Denzel Curry, Isaiah Rashad, Blood Orange, YG, Mac Miller, and Ravyn Lenae to name just a portion. This isn’t even mentioning his indispensable contributions to The Internet, whom we recently found to be in fact a supergroup with Matt Martian’s solo debut The Drum Chord Theory (2017) and Syd’s solo debut Fin (2017), not to mention Steve Lacy’s solo work. The band is bursting with talented individuals who have managed to come together consistently to release brilliant group albums- all emanating with good vibes and a spirit of collaboration. Hive Mind (2018) and Ego Death (2015) are two of the greatest modern R&B records produced…..and produced is an apt word when discussing Steve Lacy. He produced eight of Ego Death‘s twelve songs and either wrote, co-wrote, or produced eleven of Hive Mind‘s thirteen songs. Whether he stays behind the scenes as a master producer and essential part of The Internet, or does allow his own solo music take the spotlight, Lacy’s current trajectory means continued individual success as well as more and more established musicians tapping him for studio and writing work.
As I mentioned in my previous post, which was a discussion on the new wave of Lo-Fi Soul music burgeoning now under the boundless umbrella of the R&B genre (I also shared the playlist Tunnelgazing Vol. 01 within the post), Steve Lacy’s nascent solo career places him as one of my favorite musicians. No matter what the music critics and sounding-board pundits may say, I think his debut full-length album, Apollo XXI (2019), is excellent, as well as a perfect follow-up to the first EP Steve Lacy’s Demo (2017). Steve Lacy’s Demo, which undoubtedly earned more praise than his LP (and deservedly so), is one of the more important Lo-Fi Funk and Neo-Soul albums to come out this decade. Its impact, hopefully like his standing in mainstream music, is in a slow-build, and the EP has most assuredly influenced or spawned hundreds of other guitarists/musicians coming up right now.
What sets Steve Lacy apart can be extracted and placed into three areas of discussion: 1) A Signature Divergent Style 2) His Contradictory Influences 3) His Contradictory Production
1) A Signature Divergent Style
The flittering guitars present on all of his tracks (both in Lacy’s production work and solo work) give voice to his unique style. There’s nostalgia and reminiscence in the guitar sound, which is remarkable for such a young musician. I try to describe the dichotomy, or rather the divergence in the sound, and can only say it’s the simultaneous feeling of the guitars being both sterling and tinged with a bit of the Lo-Fi muddle. Take the tracks “Ryd” and “Dark Red”, constructed as a sort of medley in the video below:
The sun-soaked wash of guitars in “Ryd” come naturally for the Compton, CA native. His sound has often made gestures to the classic 70’s Funk and “California Soul” he was certainly exposed to growing up in Los Angeles, whether directly by the old 70’s records or indirectly by the West Coast Hip-Hop records that sampled that R&B sound. “Dark Red” is a more sterling and accessible track, and less lo-fi than “Ryd”, yet the thread between the two is pretty obvious – the signature guitars ingrained into the penchant style.
Steve Lacy has been most frequently described as a musician with Rock n’ Roll sprinkled Soul, but the Neo-Soul and California Funk are the most charming qualities to the sound. The laid-back, leisurely stroll of a song like “Some”, also from the Steve Lacy’s Demo (trust me, every song on the ever so short EP is a gem) epitomizes this aspect of his sound and also hints at some of the unexpected influences. The meandering bass guitar with brief flashes of glittering Funk guitar are coupled with indie production, simple DIY vocals, and Soul harmony overdub that are equal parts the classic R&B and Soul you’d expect, along with some Indie Rock you wouldn’t.
2) His Contradictory Influences
You might have heard Lo-Fi Indie Rock darlings like Mac DeMarco, Best Coast, or even the way back influence of Pavement in the Steve Lacy’s Demo, and you would be correct. Some of the best R&B musicians, from earlier Kanye West (and I stress earlier) to the Knowles sisters, have celebrated a myriad of influences not only from R&B, but also the arena of Rock music. Steve Lacy, being a prodigy, is more apt to take the best elements of Indie Rock and Pop Rock to meld into his style. Along with Prince, Lacy has acknowledged an artist like Mac DeMarco as having a more significant influence on his production techniques. Lacy’s guitar sound often contains the same peculiar guitar tunings, treble-heavy strummings, and occasional introspective melancholy, of DeMarco’s guitar-work and production. Here is a good example:
Apollo XXI expands on the divergent musical influences of Lacy’s EP and brings an impressive cohesion to the eclecticism. His debut LP feels like a hodgepodge of outtakes, interludes, and medleys made whole. The ability to take so many disparate sounds and find common ground through links like his soulful voice, penchant guitars, and (paradoxically) his contradictory influences, is resoundingly brilliant. One of my favorite songs off of Apollo XXI is “Hate CD” because it’s the perfect amalgam I speak of; the drums and background synths are 80’s Pop and the guitars have that strange off-tune Indie Rock glitter while the vocals are an equally provocative concoction of sunny Steely Dan (flashes of Donald Fagen in the middle?) and Prince-style Soul.
“Playground” is similar in the sense that Lacy sounds at times oriented in the West Coast Soul / R&B sound, then the vocals take-on an un-hinged characteristic you would hear in 80’s Rock or Synth Pop. The nature of these vocals contradict the smooth, luxuriating, and “in-control” quality of “California Soul” but work really well on this track:
Even Apollo XXI‘s cover art celebrates those divergent styles: modern abstract art fuses with 70’s bellbottoms, glitter-stained Prince Funk guitars, and a 50’s-60’s era Funk signature (in the top-right corner) akin to Booker T, Chuck Berry, or any one of The Meters’ records. Maybe the music critics’ didn’t care for the strange assemblage of songs replete with many different influences and styles composed as a blend of (I’ll say it again) interludes, outtakes, and medleys without “anchor” singles or big “radio-friendly” songs. Regardless of whether my conjecture is correct or not, I disagree with any sentiment that the album is truly disjointed.
The epitome of the album’s format is the second track “Like Me”, a 9-minute song made as a medley of several different sections. The first is a Funky sing-song transitioning into a second section with strong lyrical heft, wherein Lacy sings of his sexual nature, and asks for us to accept him and his bisexual identity as well as embrace all the other conflicted adolescents out in the world.
Whether or not the critics thought both sonically and lyrically the album was erratic, I found the style not unlike Steve Lacy, as well as a great showcase of his contrarian style. In truth, I will bring up the paradox again: the cohesion comes in its eclecticism.
“N-Side”, probably the most popular and tacitly “accessible” or “radio-friendly” song, comes towards the end of this remarkable record. The song can be viewed up at the top of the post. It’s a sultry, completely intoxicating West Coast Soul song, possibly a harbinger of a future LP stringing together more radio-type songs. However, if the collab-release he made with Vampire Weekend (after the entry of Apollo XXI) is any indicator, it would appear he’s still stubbornly committed to making genre-defying songs displaying his many divergent influences. See below for some goodness:
3) His Contradictory Production
“Sunflower” ft. Steve Lacy (above), is the exemplar of this point. Sure, Lacy has produced for many different types of acts, from Blood Orange to J. Cole to Vampire Weekend. Nevertheless, there is a cohesion brought to all of his production credits, and the common thread is once more the guitars Lacy likes to employ, along with a willingness to mash divergent genres and styles, yet never forgetting the warm soulful inflection all his work exudes. It’s worth celebrating all of the many great songs he has collaborated and produced, starting with one of the greater successes both commercially and critically: “Pride”, from Kendrick Lamar’s immaculate album DAMN. (2017).
You can see from “Pride” that Lacy has an ability to mold his lo-fi credentials and reverb-speckled guitars to any style or form of popular music. The sound transcends indie vs. popular music to become quite simply a great song with an intractable feeling of warm Soul. The jangly stilted nature of the guitars comes out the other end somehow “flowing”. It’s a great example of Lacy’s prowess as a producer. However, one of my favorite producer/collaborations of Lacy’s is this track with GoldLink, off of the latter’s underrated album At What Cost (2017). If you haven’t looked into GoldLink, take a gander. This is a producer/rapper to look out for as well. His music could very well be a future post. Link to his latest gold (sorry, that was terrible) is here
The second side of the coin is evidenced with the above track. In other words, Lacy can produce tracks, when juxtaposed, that are antithetical. “Some Girls” uses sparse beats and a simple bass line with just the subtlest backdrop of guitars (reminding us who produced), but Lacy can also contribute on big sweeping Hip-Hop songs like “Pride”. Whether its a little gem like “Some Girl” with the simplest formula and backroom lounge feel (although the transition at around 3:36 is another showcase of the seamless sound-switching) or an album or track from an R&B starlet like Ravyn Lenae or Kali Uchis, or even Vampire Weekend, Steve Lacy can nimbly adapt his style and collaborate with other stellar musicians to make great music.
The other aspect of Lacy’s “Contradictory Production”, one that supplements the other point about his prowess and range as a producer of many different musicians and styles, is the ability to produce high-quality sounds within the largest of sound studios or an iPhone from his pocket. Steve Lacy famously records much of his solo work using plug-ins for an iPhone. The sound, albeit lo-fi and DIY, is still crystal clear and impressively documented using this modern technology. Therein lies the final contradiction of Steve Lacy, and maybe one of the more fascinating ones: a young man of 21 years with a mature sound and retro/vintage influences, reminds us that just a short while ago he was a kid in high school band class playing bedroom guitar songs into his iPhone.
Regardless of the path and the youth behind the sound – we are looking at one of the emerging musical visionaries in the game today.
