FFO: Charlie Floyd – 2000

Newcastle’s Charlie Floyd rounds off a strong run of singles with 2000—a self-produced slice of sharp indie-pop that pairs punchy hooks, groovy riffs and effortlessly smooth vocals with a personal mantra. The track lands ahead of his debut EP in August and marks a step into more reflective territory, touching on ambition, mindset, and growing through the mess.

Here, Charlie tries to encapsulate the feels of their new single using three tracks…

Tyler, The Creator – I’ll Take Care Of You

Even though this song has only been out a week from when I’m sitting writing this, it quickly became one of my favourite songs of all time because it encapsulates the gut-wrenching emotions I strive to inflict from not just melody, but the sonics of a song. The synth Tyler uses specifically on this song paired with the 2 chord arpeggio, just makes me reflect on the best moments of my life as if I’m about to die on the spot. If I’m driving around and there’s a sunset with this on and I allow myself down the road (pun intended) of the song’s whimsical emotion, it’s a top 5 feelings of all time. And considering there’s only been eight sunsets since its release, is a testament to how sound design and choices in music production mean just as much to me as songwriting. This song is inspirational for that producer element in me.

Darwin Deez – Up In The Cloud

Darwin Deeeeeeeeez. I love Darwin Deez for many reasons, one being that I discovered his music at a house party with a lot of really alt people from neighbouring school so I didn’t really know many people but there was a lot to observe, and I woke up the following day with a picture of the tv from two or three in the morning, and it was of the ‘Darwin Deez’ album being played. I had obviously had the very smart idea in whatever state I was in that I’d take the photo so I would remember I enjoyed it.

This song choice could’ve easily been any of four or five on this album that I absolutely idolise. I love the songwriting on this album because it shows you don’t need to search for some mad vocabulary to paint a picture. There’s a lot of metaphors which are super simple but there is no one as west as Darwin Deez to come up with them. This song is a perfect example, a heartbreak love song about DNA, genes and chromosomes to talk about how excruciating it was. His super DIY self-production makes it so, so endearing, I love that thick, gated Strat tone over the drum machine he uses. It’s really really cool. And then with the signature janky percussion of a Tambo or shaker, chefs kiss. A great example of DIY being cool.

Steve Lacy – Dark Red

If there had to be a soundtrack to a film of my life as a musician or a biopic, if things go well, there could NOT be a better fitting opening title track than this song. For a multitude of reasons that I’m about to tell you. Steve Lacy is one of my all-time biggest inspirations and I would argue one of the greatest pioneers in recent music history. The very first songs that I ever wrote and the path I went down as a producer songwriter, all lead back to Steve Lacy’s ‘The Bare Maximum’ TED Talk. I am not really intelligent enough to have a huge list of pivotal moments in educational formats either, this TED talk was just that special and important to me I will always remember and cherish it. In short, he shows that you are able to create and produce music on your iPhone, anywhere in the world as long as you have an iRig and an instrument with you. The iRig was what started my journey as a producer and a songwriter. I did my first-ever demos for BALTIC on GarageBand and that was what gained us a decent following at that starting point in 2017, because for free I was able to produce a demo decent enough to show people the songs. 

And specifically for this song I have chosen, the sound of GarageBand guitar amps and the sound of an abrupt ending and restart of an 8-bar guitar loop are embedded in my DNA and my music to this day, because of this Steve Lacy EP. Perfectly DIY, purely efficient with the equipment and budget available for young musicians beginning a journey into the world of songwriting and production. My whole production and therefore songwriting process is forever in debt to this ideology and I still use it to this day. Beautifully written song also. My takeaway from this and my line that I always repeat is that if you can make a weakness in your production budget/setup into a stylistic compromise, then you can make songs that are as good as any studio in the world could.