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Music

Head On a Track By Track 'Vacation' with Paces

The Gold Coast producer runs us through his debut album, which includes a GUY FREAKIN' SEBASTIAN collab!

Gold Coast producer Paces has been crushing it with collabs in the past few years, and now he steps out with his debut LP Vacation. Get the scoop on each track, including a lit collab with none other than Guy Sebastian.

"God Mode"

The only instrumental track on the album (I love vocals!). I felt like I found a new style when I wrote this, which is why I wanted to open the album with it. No guest vocals, just an introduction to my current sound. Initially I played the piano parts through Logic, but I later recorded my friend (and music teacher) Jess on a grand piano and swapped them in. None of us knew how to record piano so it was a bit of an experiment. I ended up doing that for all the piano throughout the album.

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Also, that's my dog Chilli at the start. And me telling her "Drop, good girl!"

"Loop"
I worked with Alexander Burnett quite a lot during the second half of the album-writing process. Alexander is part of Sparkadia and is a genius songwriter. I'd sent him a bunch of tracks which he wrote toplines for, and he had sent me some toplines that he thought might suit my vibe. This one was initially a song he wrote for a session with Major Lazer that never took place. Since I'm on a similar tropical / club-party vibe he thought it might be a good fit. I loved it and wrote the instrumental straight away.

Alexander recommended that we get Kenzie to sing it, which was a great call. I love her voice on this, so #emotional and raw.

1993 (No Chill) feat Jess Kent

I first heard Jess Kent via her track 'Get Down' on Triple J Unearthed. I could tell right away that it was the feelgood hit of the summer and that Jess and I were on a very similar musical vibe.

I'd been writing some summery instrumentals, inspired by early M.I.A. tunes, which i thought would be a good fit for Jess' sound. So I sent them over, not realising that Jess was currently being hit up by just about every musician on the internet. Luckily the timing was right and everything else just fell into place!

"Hard For Me" feat Xavier Dunn and Friendless

When the album was almost finished I attended a writing camp run by Ministry Of Sound. I was paired up with different topliners and producers each day (usually strangers) with the challenge of making a song in eight hours. This one literally happened in that one day with Xavier Dunn and Friendless. None of us had ever met before but we just clicked musically. Those guys are great singers, writers, and both very musical. It was a real learning experience working with them. At the end I was like "do you guys mind if I put this on my album please?"

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"Work Me Out" feat Rye Rye
I've loved Rye Rye's tunes since wayyyyy back! 'Shake It To The Ground' helped bring Baltimore Club music to the world. It was such a club anthem and a real favourite of mine. I never thought I'd get to work with her on something but hey, the internet is a crazy place! I just wrote to Rye Rye out of the blue with this instrumental. It turned out she was keen to work and the next thing I knew she was on my album. Dreams really do come true!

Nothing's Forever feat KUCKA

This is the only track on Vacation that had already been released. KUCKA is such a talented singer/songwriter, I love everything she does. And she really sounds like that in real life too! I played some shows with her while I was touring this song and it blew my mind to hear her sing live. No hiding behind studio tricks, just a supremely unique voice and talented person.

Playback feat Reija Lee

Last year I released a song featuring Reija Lee called 'Hold It Down'. When we were making that tune, we also worked on some other stuff. This one was actually my favourite but since it's more of a lullabye than a banger, I decided to save it for the album.

I've been a huge fan of Reija ever since her 'Sweet Talk' EP. It turns out that she's Shockone's sister. I was showing Shockone some song ideas and he offered to put me in touch with Reija. Life is crazy!

Sometimes feat Esther Sparkes

This track was such a journey to make. Originally it sounded completely different and was one of a handful of beats that I wrote for Tkay Maidza. I didn't think she was using it so I started looking for someone to feature on it. Once Esther sent me these dreamy vocals I found out that Tkay was in fact keen to use it. So I totally rewrote the instrumental and changed the vibe of the song entirely.

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Esther is one of the most talented singers I know. Usually when you're working with vocals there's a lot of tuning and tidying up to do. Not with Esther. I swear she's from another planet!

"Cafucu" feat Bonde Do Role
I used to play the shit out of "Solta O Frango" when it first came out. I loved the production and the party vibe, I think Diplo produced that track actually. I never thought that I'd get to work with these guys. I'd written a bunch of these type of instrumentals, inspired by early MIA tunes. When the opportunity arose to collaborate I was v excited! They're such pros. Gorky sent me a demo vocal which was good enough to have been a finished product, I approved it, then Laura sang her part and it was done. One of the easiest tracks in the whole album-writing process. I'm hoping that this is a good enough excuse for me to go to Brazil and meet them now.

"Blue" feat Oliver Tank
I listen to Oliver Tank's EPs every week at some point. They're timeless! I call them bedtime-anthems because it's perfect music to unwind to at the end of the day. I've wanted to do something with Oliver for ages and thankfully he was up for it too. Normally I do all the vocal processing myself, but Oliver has a whole bunch of analog gear that he runs his vocals through, it's part of his signature sound and I didn't want to mess with that. So for this track he pretty much just sent me finished vocals and I dropped them into place. There was a small amount of arranging to do but I didn't add any effects to his vocals, it was all done on his end.

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"Until" feat Aubergine Machine
This was originally going to be an instrumental. I really liked the chords in the chorus but felt like it wasn't reaching it's full potential without a singer on there. Maybe I'm addicted to having vocalists on my tracks, I need to go to rehab for producers! Anyways, around that same time I'd been shown some music by Aubergine Machine and was loving it. What I heard reminded me of a super-dreamy version of a Santigold song, which I thought would be a pretty sweet fit for Vacation.

"Payday" feat Maurice Moore
This was the first track I wrote for the album. I initially wanted it to just be a single but then the idea arose to write an album so I hung onto it and spent the next six months writing everything else. I like how it feels like a lullaby during the verses and then has that wonky drop. My favourite thing in music is contrast, and I think you can hear that in this song.

Maurice Moore is a singer out of Canada and the guy is a freak of nature. He's got one of those really angelic voices which I thought would contrast nicely against the heavy-ish drops. I first heard Maurice when Djemba Djemba shared his song 'Girlfriend' on Soundcloud. You should check it out, it's incredible.

"Desert" feat Guy Sebastian
Life can be a crazy thing sometimes. I've been working with Guy on some tracks for his album. He's an actual musical genius, he definitely doesn't need my help, he could do everything himself but I think he just doesn't have the time. I learnt so much while working in his studio. Anyways I had this beautiful topline from Alexander Burnett and I'd written the instrumental for it, I just needed to find the right singer. I never in a million years thought I'd get Guy Sebastian on there but like I said, life can be crazy sometimes! And he absolutely crushed it!

Vacation is out now via etcetc.

Paces on SoundCloud // Facebook