By Mimi Chen, AsAmNews Music Writer
As a producer, Blake Shimoda has quietly worked behind the scenes working with young artists such as Rezlo and Larry Furlow, but he recently decided to step out of the production room shadow with the release of his debut album as an artist.
The album Waiting for Tomorrow, said Shimoda, “is about change. The album is a journey through many different kinds of change…Sometimes I try to fight against change and cling to what I have but ultimately Waiting for Tomorrow is a story about accepting that nothing stays the same forever, for better or worse.” He notes that the two artists he had worked with also appear on several tracks of his debut release.
The lead track Waiting for Tomorrow is full of stylish accents with a touch of jazz and elegance not found in most pop tracks.
Shimoda moved to Los Angeles after residing in Denver for 7 years, but his hometown is Springfield, Missouri. When asked about the lack of a southern accent, he chuckled that his speech is “like a mix of Southern and Midwestern. So I have a weird mix of an accent. It comes out every once in a while.” And moving from Missouri to Denver to Los Angeles, he said, “was a big shock for me. I had never lived in a big city like this before, I love it but there’s just a lot of lifestyle changes I have to get used to.”
Shimoda describes his music as being electronic, pop r&b, and alternative rap. “I come from a background of, I used to make electronic music when I was younger,” he said. “And then I sort of worked with rappers for a while and incorporated a lot of that stuff. So it’s a mix of all these different things that I’ve got experience with. And I try to pull from all of it at once to make something new.”
Shimoda describes his music more as a mix of artists than a mix of genres. “So I take a lot of influence from artists like Frank Ocean, and James Blake in the Japanese house. And some rap artists like Kendrick Lamar, and Tyler the Creator. And I tried to take things that I think are really interesting, and other people’s art and combine them to make something new. And I am very proud of the influences I have, I don’t want to try and be, you know, saying that I’m doing something completely unique because nobody is. But I think I have found a unique combination of other things that already exist to make something new.”
With the new move to Los Angeles, Shimoda is eager to step deeper into the Los Angeles music scene saying he is looking forward to performing if the pandemic allows and is also planning to work on and release a music video.
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