DROP OF THE MONTH: #01
“Feel” - Eastern Bloc (ft. Tom Young & Dende the Sensei)
Congrats on the new track team! Where did you get the initial idea and inspiration for it?
Eastern Bloc: Thank you! The backbone of the beat was actually made all the way back in 2013 when I was playing around with producing Kendrick sounding beats. After that, it sat there for a few years, and I forgot about it. Last year, while I was digging through some old work to resample, I rediscovered it and thought it was worthy of a re-up.
Dende the Sensei: I was sent the beat and fell in love with it straight away. The thing that really got me interested was hearing Tom’s vocals. Both Artur (Eastern Bloc) and Tom Young are people that I’ve looked up to and respected in the music scene for a while now so I really wanted to try my best at adapting my style to compliment theirs as much as possible. They had already laid out the foundations, and the inspiration was kind of already there for me to interpret so I just did my best at adding a little bit of my flavour with hopes to create a different angle or dimension without taking anything away from an already beautiful sounding demo.
Can you tell us a little bit about the meaning behind the single, and what do you want the main takeaway to be for listeners?
Dende: For me personally I feel like if a listener takes anything away from it at all or feels like they can relate in some way shape or form, even if they interpret it in a completely different way, then that’s my job done. Songs can mean different things for everybody.
What was the process like for writing, producing and recording this track?
EB: After I polished the beat and added more detail and body, I sent it to Tom to write the hook. Tom came back with some amazing lines and we decided it needed more energy from a rapper. I reached out to Fynn (Dende The Sensei) and sent him the track. Fynn came back with 2 incredible verses that slotted in really well. After a couple more sessions, we had it. S/O to Ben Lawson for the amazing mix and master.
Dende: I had written parts of the first verse a while ago for a track that I stopped pursuing. It was really weird but after hearing this beat I just felt like it belonged there and deserved to be worked on and added to again, so that’s what I did. After recording that at home, I quickly took to the second verse which kind of just came straight out of my head and down onto my page. That’s when I know that I vibe with a track. Everything is seamless. The boys were great and really easy to work with, we just sent things back and forth until everyone was happy with it.
What were some of the main highlights working on the track together?
EB: For me, the biggest highlight was moulding artists that represent 3 different styles together so elegantly. The track is a great testament to the power of cross genre collaboration.
Dende: I have to agree with Artur. Being able to bring together a piece of music written by artists that come from a realm of completely different sonics was very cool. As I said before I’m also big fans of both of their work respectively so getting to create something with them in the first place for me was pretty damn cool.
Lastly, would you rather always “feel” refreshed and well rested after only one hour of sleep each day or have a million dollars?
EB: Being a terrible morning person I would definitely opt for the hour of sleep. Plus, in this housing climate, a million barely gets you a garden shed in Auckland.
Dende: Well I’m an insomniac and I barely sleep as it is so definitely the one hour of sleep. Plus, if I could sleep for an hour and feel well rested then I would have much more time to write, record and perform my music with NO COMPLY (shameless plug frickin sue me) and possibly make that milly one day. I also couldn’t give two f**ks about money so yes, bring on the sleep please.
