Western Australian producer Brayden Sibbald recently released ‘Thin Air’ his most polished single yet following the success of 'Float' which racked up almost 400k hits on Spotify and more recently 'Compass' under the eye of The Kite String Tangle's Exist Recordings. “’Thin Air’ is a track about letting go of the self-created things that hold you back, and prevent you from moving forward. I find it really easy to create things or situations in my head which hold me back from further development. I think writing about it is my way to make myself really aware of that, and try and catch myself doing it,” says Sibbald
‘Thin Air’ track melds butter smooth vocals with highly textured production and yet the track maintains a certain natural resonance with its acoustic guitar. “We went through a number of versions of the song, and I re-wrote the lyrics three or four times. In the end we settled on a more simple sound, and scrapped a lot of the unnecessary parts, which fits with the theme of the song. It’s a bit of a return to more organic elements, with acoustic guitar. The final version of the beat was influenced by Childish Gambino’s ‘California’.”
It's clear Brayden Sibbald has captured the attention of listeners with his earnest lyricism, tight production flavoured by a lingering tinge of his folk roots. Brayden took the time to share with us the records that guided his genre shift from folk to electronic
Bon Iver - 22 a million
"Bon Iver has always inspired me musically - the arrangements of his earlier folky stuff I always found really cool and drew me in to being interested in production elements. His self-titled album is one of my favourites of all time - and when 22, A Million came out it was so awesome and interesting I was getting really into working out how he made some of the sounds an used them in the way he did - and some of it was so weird but still catchy. 715 - CREEKS is one of my favourite all time tracks I remember hearing it like - what WAS that - it just blew me away".
James Blake - James Blake
"In a huge James Blake fan. I remember hearing Retrograde for the first time well after Overgrown came out and was stunned I played it 10 times in a row. I went back and listened to all his other stuff and I was super inspired by all of his production but was especially drawn to his self-titled album - how simple and spacious the elements were but it was just so different and unique to me at the time. Tracks like I Never Learnt To Share featuring one line of vocals but saying everything the song needed to say (plus being a sucker for a great build the ending is amazing). Or The Wilhelm Scream or Limit To Your Love. Such a good record".
Foals - Total Life Forever
"This record features my favourite song of all time (Spanish Sahara) - which is the epitome of how I’d like my music to feel. I love the space across this record, it really takes you on a journey through its soundscapes".
Alt J - An Awesome Wave
"I love how the album feels and flows so well despite having quite a bit of variation. I had it on repeat as soon as it came out - it’s got these really interesting catchy melodies and filled with quirky hooks. I love the folk elements and the blend between that and the electronic elements; the sparsity of the guitars - nothing feels too full on".
Glass Animals - How To Be A Human Being
"My old car had a broken radio and you could only play music through the (6 stack!) CD player, and I do a lot of driving so I used to make these mixtape CDs. I put Life Itself on one and was instantly hooked - it was so quirky and cool but super catchy. I had the whole album on repeat. I love the percussion stuff and just the production as a whole is great".
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