In mid-August New Jersey-based artist, SAAKB, released his new single Move Until You're Numb. It's pretty hot.
They've has worked with Toronto-based artists like Yassin and Rizzla on the tracks Shame and Summer the remix, boosting the artist's Spotify streams to close a million. Move Until You're Numb is a decidedly more pop/R&B mix than previous tracks, but I'm not complaining.
The track was co-produced by the artist/producer and Seoul, Korea-based producer Noden of Mixtape Seoul. It's a magical mix of energetic and positive vibes that really makes you want to get up and dance. The animated lyric video was created by Melinda Mouzannar who is based out of Beirut, Lebanon.
SAAKB & Mixtape Seoul - Move Until You're Numb (Official)
Thanks to SAAKB for taking the time to answer and put together this awesome 5 Quick Questions video for us. I have to say, this is one of the best artist recorded submissions we've received to date.
5 Quick Questions with SAAKB
Q&A
Q) Your social profiles don't give a lot of information about you. Are you comfortable sharing some background information with us?
A) Being an artist is a blessing and a curse, and I'm humbly blessed and proudly cursed. It's a privilege to be able to tap into my artistic sensitivity to create music that I enjoy and I think other people who have a similar taste in music will also enjoy.
Q) How would you describe your music?
A) I write love songs because love can be excruciating, but it's also super important. I'm unafraid to be vulnerable enough to have been in love and stayed in love, regardless of how many times I've been broken or have done the breaking.
Also, is it just me, or are people afraid to love each other? I've definitely noticed the decline in songs about love and loss, and music has a way of influencing society. Could it be that the decline in loving relationships and marriage is due to a decline in love songs? Is it cyclical? Regardless, I'd like to do my part in filling the gaps left by mainstream artists in the last decade. Our world would definitely be better if more people loved each other.
Can you talk about the writing and recording process for Move Until You're Numb?
A) "Move Until You're Numb" is the song I've been waiting to write my entire life, and when I heard the amazing, funky instrumental by Mixtape Seoul (@MixtapeSeoul), I started writing to it immediately. I had collaborated with Mixtape Seoul on a few different songs up until that point (such as my first single,Try), and I'm lucky to have developed a relationship with them (and to have tools like BeatStars and Instagram to facilitate building those relationships). They were gracious enough to send me the stems for the instrumental, and within a few days I recorded the first and second verse of the song. Then Noden of Mixtape Seoul added this amazing synth solo for the bridge. He's truly a one of a kind artist.
The song took about a week to write and record, and then another week for the brilliant engineer Eric Scholz (@eascholz) to mix and master. Then it took about a week for the artwork artist, Doyo (@doyo_95) to complete the artwork.
Q) What can you tell us about the single cover art and the video?
A) I've always been fascinated by contemporary dance, especially when choreographed to pop music, and "Move Until You're Numb" is definitely a song that makes me want to dance.
To my detriment:
- I cannot dance...anymore; I used to have a killer moonwalk.
- I'm incredibly impatient.
I envisioned a choreographed contemporary dance for this song, but I didn't want to let this song sit on my hard drive or in the cloud until after COVID restrictions were loosened, I wanted the world to hear the song! So I went the animated route for both the single cover and the lyric video.
The video was animated by Melinda Mouzannar (@MelindaMouzannar), an amazing artist based in Beirut, Lebanon. She had worked on a song that I collaborated on with another artist, Mayila (@mayilamusic), and I loved what she did for that project, so I asked her to animate the video and she started working on it almost immediately. Then, a couple of days later, the warehouse on the port of Beirut exploded. I was worried for Melinda, her family and her friends, and was also okay with us delaying the video release to give her time to comfortably complete it without the cloud of a national tragedy hovering. But she's an amazing person and she finished animating the video in order for us to release it as scheduled. She claimed that working on the video was cathartic to her at the time. She's another one of a kind artist.
Q) We know that the pandemic has changed everything about making music and the plans around releases - how has it been for you and your team working through everything and getting music ready and keeping fans engaged?
A) Well, at the start of quarantine, I made the semi-conscious decision to take my foot off the gas a bit when it came to making music. For the first two months of 2020, I was writing and recording songs like my life depended on it. The pandemic, aside from being an international tragedy, was a sign that I needed to slow down and re-evaluate what I want in life, as life is precious and delicate.
I'm blessed enough that I have my own space, equipment and skills to write and record music, and my peers are blessed with the same also, so we've still been able to work together and create. I'm certainly sharing content less frequently now than I was pre-COVID, but that's because I intend to release an album in early 2021. I've never released an album before, and I think it's about 15 years overdue.
Q) Are there any plans or ideas for things in the near future to keep yourself moving forward and engaging your fans with your new music?
A) Call me old fashioned, but I believe that music is valuable. Yet, we live in an era where independent artists such as myself do not see an equal monetary distribution of that value from DSPs such as Spotify. This is why I intend on releasing my album exclusively on Bandcamp, a place where I can distribute my music at true value.
Q) How are you keeping busy outside of music?
A) I'm enjoying every moment I can with my family and trying not to take it for granted.
SAAKB's Links