New Zealand's Introverted Dancefloor Traces The Scattered Influences Behind His Debut Album

Kiwis have a curious knack for avant-suffixed concoctions, and the debut album from Introverted Dancefloor is no exception. The solo project from Bevan Smith (formerly of Ruby Suns) channels a unique vision informed by various strains of dance and indulging in heavy pop flourishes at times. Still, the vision never comes across as erratic. Listen to the exclusive stream of the self-titled album below, then read Smith's annotated insights into a few select cuts from the album, along with a few disparate flashpoints of inspiration.

01. "Happiness Is Such a Mess" / 02. "Pipedream"
One Sunday afternoon in 2010m I had a long jam on the Nord G2 over a simple disco drum loop. The part that became the verse chords kept popping in and out of my mind in the following weeks, but it took a while longer to get a vocal melody that I liked. I eventually made a breakthrough a few weeks later as I drove through my neighborhood. The melody came about when I played around trying to make the vocal as rhythmically simple as possible. In the initial jam, I always had Morgan Geist/Metro Area in mind. I wanted a mix of Detroit Techno, Italo disco, and pop, and his stuff was my go=to reference for this. His production is the perfect amalgam of clear/powerful/modern and vintage/dusty/vibey.

03. "Take it High"
Deep at Night was on a random vocal house compilation that I had a love affair with while on tour in the States with the Ruby Suns in 2009. Ryan and I went out into the Mojave desert to visit his sister who was surveying desert tortoises. I'd gone rock climbing with Ryan and got near the top of a massive boulder, when I started to slip off. Ryan grabbed my arm and dragged me over the top. I was freaking out for hours afterwards. I remember wandering through the desert later on, with my arms and legs all grazed up and bleeding. I was listening to these house tracks, trying to calm down and reminding myself how good it was to be alive.

05. "Even if You Try"
When I wrote the melody for "Even If You Try," there was only one thought in my mind—"make something like Arthur Russell." It feels a little shameful to be so obvious in an influence. World of Echo is an album so good I can barely stand to listen to it. It fills me in equal amounts with wonder and self loathing.

09. "Giving up on summer" / 10. "Staking The Ground"
I was asked to compose music for a theater and dance show here in Wellington called Ecology. The show was directed and designed by Sam Trubridge. We'd had a few meetings about the direction of the music and I'd bought in some pieces I thought were nice. Everything seemed to be cruising along well in regards to getting all the music done. Then, one afternoon, I sat down to mess around with some more ideas for the show and, strangely, ended up composing about six pieces one after the other, without stopping. Piece after piece all came pouring out in almost perfect form until I'd done the entire show, which was about 45 minutes long.

I took the pieces to rehearsal and they all worked so well. Sam liked them, the dancers liked them—it kind of freaked me out because it was too easy. I ended up playing Dungeon Crawler on my laptop during most of the rehearsals because the music was basically perfect from day one. I also wrote "Giving up on the summer" in that same session. I spent ages and ages during the mixing process getting the bassline right. I went through a phase when mixing the album where I tried to put "funky" basslines on every track. Some never worked out. This was one of the better ones. I wanted the vocals to be sung in this kind of naive/pure tone. I thought of this band Fields that my friend Nathan had introduced me to. I ran my vocals through the Eventide to bring them up an octave and get the sound of a female backing vocal.

11. "Feeling Unsound"

Sometime in the early '80s I was sitting alone in my parent's Honda outside my sister's ballet class and the only cassette mum had was a Cliff Richard compilation. I really liked the vibe of "Devil Woman," especially the verses. They're heavy, thick, moody and supernatural. "Feeling Unsound" actually came as an off-shoot of "Giving up on summer." It's also one of the few times on the album I change key from minor to major (in the "Things could turn out right" bit). I wanted the gloom to lift off the song for a bit before descending again into moodiness.

13. "Tiger Bones"
I saw this band Tiger Tones play in Christchurch, before the earthquakes, when I was down there playing with the Ruby Suns. They were so awesome live, and when I got back to Wellington, I set about trying to rip them off. The track "Tiger Bones" is the best I could come up with. This video I've linked to is made by Daniel Batkin-Smith, who coincidently directed the "Take it high" video for me. Awesome.

Introverted Dancefloor is out September 25 on Carpark Records.

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