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Introducing our latest emerging artist highlight, zleephouse. We were lucky enough to have him earlier this year as one of our performers in the isolated sounds Digital Music Festival, and now we get to share with you all the announcement of his release “thru the night” (with JCONN), which comes out this Friday, December 4th.
zleephouse (aka Andrew Bensley) was born in Los Angeles, but was raised in Dallas, Texas. Four years ago, the artist moved back to LA to pursue what became his passion, music. Though he is first-and-foremost a singer-songwriter, zleephouse has always allowed his creativity to run wild and experiment with the various sides that exist in the overarching umbrella of music. zleephouse especially dove straight into the art of production, which he took to new heights with the music he fabricates today. Much of his musical inspiration comes as a result of the traumatic experiences he has endured during his lifetime. He hopes that by putting those episodes out into the world, in the form of these melodic and catchy tunes, he can help others who relate to the lyrics and come to terms with their demons. As he sees it, music for him is a diary that isn’t a secret. Instead he wants you to flip through the pages—read through and relate to the passages—he wants to be an open book to you.
In the new single, “thru the night”, zleephouse and JCONN offer a cocktail of their own to the listener. It includes a soft melody, energetic electric undertone, and a dark post-funk vibe. As you listen, zleephouse takes you down the spiraling thoughts of his mind as he recalls the instances pushing himself through blissful ignorance, avoiding his past and future and zoning out of the present. The song itself is a like a hype-song: fun and emphatic, puzzle-piecing together elements of rap, electronic, and funk into one. However, with the lyrics, zleephouse casts a shadow that symbolize the feelings of “going through the motions” of life and lust, thus adding a sprinkle of sad-boy pop to the mix that we’re drinking.
We’re excited to share our interview with him here and can’t wait for the song to drop.
Here is our interview:
Neelu Mohaghegh [NM]: What inspired the single "thru the night”
zleephouse [z]: “this track is connected to simbo vice and red lines (tracks that haven’t come out yet). it’s the embodiment of vice as it relates to sex and time with women. on the surface, it’s that feel-good live-in-the-moment energy, but you’re secretly avoiding your problems and using dating as an escape, as opposed to just having a good time. the underlying storyline of this track is more of running away as opposed to slowing down and have a good time. you’re avoiding the issue.”
[NM]: What made you gravitate towards more funk-pop centric music?
[z]: “this is more of a one-off collaboration with JCONN in terms of genre. he and i have a lot of other stuff in the works, which is a TOTALLY different sound.”
[NM]: How has music served as your way of expressing yourself? (Your channel per se)
[z]: “my ultimate goal is to create conceptual art and finding my identity in my sound. it’s a long process and i haven’t even scratched the surface, but i look forward to fully diving into creating multiple layers.”
[NM]: How did the collaboration between you and JCONN come about and what was the song writing process like?
[z]: “i was with jordan (JCONN) and we hadn’t been in a the studio together for a few weeks. so he pitched this crazy g-funk rnb/pop track to me out of nowhere and i just did a a bunch of crazy freestyle melodies on it. next thing you know we have this Dr. Dre/Timberlake type track in our hands and we’re like “we gotta drop this”. it was harmless at first in terms of lyrics, but i realized i was writing another track about something that is actually a real problem for me. that caused me to look inside and figure out what’s going on.”
[NM]: What projects do you have coming up to the end of this year / start of next year that you are excited for and that people should be hyped about?
[z]: “simbo vice and red lines. those two tracks take a small dip into the pool of my issues with vices with women, and my identity crisis as it relates to traumatic experiences, specifically child abuse. sometimes i feel that i lack an overall sense of stability in terms of who the fuck i am based off what i went through for most of my childhood and adolescence. i look forward to getting that out.”
[NM]: What's your detour? (what's something you do outside of music -- a passion project, a hobby, a fun fact, etc.)
[z]: “im a sports fanatic. im from dallas originally, so it’s the cowboys, mavs, rangers, and stars. but i was born in LA and all my family was originally from here, so when i moved back four years ago i chose to also root for the lakers, dodgers, and then rams when they came back.”
[NM]: Who is your current favorite new found artist?
[z]: “peggy gou. she’s so dope. you gotta check her out.”
[NM]: If you had to describe yourself in 1 word, what would that be? And if you had to describe your music, how would you introduce it to someone?
[z]: “resilient.” and “my sound is an alternative blend of frank ocean, the weeknd, and twenty one pilots.”
——————————————— Thank you, zleephouse for chatting with us, and we’re excited for the song’s release this Friday and for the rest of the projects ahead!