Q&A: Embracing Maximalism and Community, dba James Releases “Birthday Smoke”

Q&AMusic

Nov 8

☆ By Gomi Zhou☆

ALTHOUGH EVERY SINGLE FROM — dba James’ Spotify releases and SoundCloud drops has been explosive and unexpectedly innovative, his newest song, “Birthday Smoke,” challenges all your senses with its glittery vividness.

Something about the metallic quality of the track draws out an overwhelmingly dreading nostalgia when you listen to it. As James narrates the settings of his 11th birthday, the track builds and crawls like rising smoke until it explodes into an industrial-inspired outpour leading up to the chorus.

But like his other releases thus far, James is existential in a matter-of-fact way, descriptive with his lyrics but giving plenty of space to ponder your own past and future. “Birthday Smoke” pushes the boundaries of maximalism, but does the most with simple two-note chords. Listening to the track, along with any of James’ singles, shuts your thoughts off, but by the time a track finishes you just might find the solution you’ve been searching for.

We caught up with dba James on the new single, perfecting the art of maximalism, and the not-so-secret corners of SoundCloud. Read our conversation down below.

LUNA: How are you? What’s the weather like where you’re at?

DBA JAMES: Hey :) I’m at my apartment in New York right now, where it’s finally starting to get cold. I’m about to go to my friend’s party. She’s visiting from LA and it’s been almost two years since I saw her, so I’m feeling excited.

LUNA: Is “Birthday Smoke” part of any mini projects of yours? It sounds a bit different from the previous singles, a bit more glittery, if that makes any sense (laughs).

DBA JAMES: That makes total sense! “Glitter[y]” is one of my favorite adjectives to describe sounds. It’s shiny and unstable. Reflective but not in the way metal is — more like water but not fluid. Great adjective — I can tell you listen to a lot of music. “Birthday Smoke” isn’t part of any larger compilation, but it’s one of my favorites. I’ve been zeroing in on this sound for a long time and it’s the first of the batch to achieve the vibe. It’s unique because it’s one of the few songs I’ve had in my back pocket for a while ;) It’s been given lots of time to mature, which is unusual for me, as I like to write and release as quickly as possible, even if that means I end up hating something. It HAS to be hot.

LUNA: Your musical style is somewhat a combination of maximalism and minimalism. When you decided to start the dba James project, what did you end up keeping from previous projects in terms of production and songwriting? What did you end up changing?

DBA JAMES: Great take, it almost feels like you talked to my manager before asking these questions because they’re pretty spot on (laughs). I love maximalism for its sheer size. I’m inspired by brutalist municipal structures, like city halls and public hospitals. I love huge sounds. Something I’ve come to learn though is that things only sound big if there are very few of them happening at any given time. For instance, I love writing songs with only three or four instruments. This gives me so much space to blow them waaayyy out of proportion and make them sound larger than life. If I were composing for an orchestra and trying to achieve maximalism in a classic sense, the individual parts of the song would have to be much smaller in order for them all to fit together. Minimalism is fun if each of the few components takes up a ton of space.

LUNA: I love how the New York indie scene is driving me back to SoundCloud — when did you first decide to just keep dropping new music on SoundCloud? Tell me more about releasing music on the platform during this very oversaturated era for music.

DBA JAMES: I’m glad you’re already there with SoundCloud because I try (and fail) every day to get kids to upload to that platform. SoundCloud is for true practitioners of music. It’s for those who write too much material to be released on Spotify, in a way that gives each track its deserved time in the spotlight. Second, it’s the community there. I’ve met some of my best friends and closest collaborators in music on that platform. No other app with a substantial user base allows you to send DMs and comment on tracks. SoundCloud has also claimed entire pockets of our culture. Most people think of the “SoundCloud rapper” but whole scenes of drum and bass and other genres of dance music congregate on that app. I’ve never heard of a “YouTube rapper.”

LUNA: I want to bring up “Trad Future.” Why was it the first “official” single for dba James? What does the title mean? What does the song mean to you? Instagram handle?

DBA JAMES: “Trad Future” outside of music is a lifestyle I’ve been developing for myself since 2020. It kind of spawned from the “return to tradition” meme that’s been floating around for a few years. It’s also informed by my first real encounter with mortality. I don’t want to give COVID too much credit, but it forced me to protect my body in a way I never have and got me thinking about survival. I’m no misanthrope, but I don’t want to grow old in an urban social scene (NYC) completely focused on aesthetic and cultural hierarchy, hundreds of miles away from my family. I want to live in a way that allows me to sustain myself from the earth in a small community of family and people I love. I want my parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, sister, lover, etc. all in one place. Our modern lifestyle requires us to branch out and atomize, own or rent property from a stranger, and spread as far as possible so we can say we “made it” without anyone. That’s a lie plastic and material companies spun to encourage us to move out at 18 so we buy six microwaves instead of one. If I lived with my family, we’d all use the same oven, share a car, cook for each other instead of eating out, etc. It’s so unsexy but I don’t really care anymore. I don’t need a studio apartment downtown with the sickest mid-century bookcase and proper Negroni glasses under my bar cart. “Trad Future” is about spreading the message of unity over consumerism, even if you have to pick your own garlic and blow an afternoon fixing your roof — at least you get to do it with someone you love.

LUNA: You’ve been practically releasing music nonstop all year. What’s the thought process behind that approach? With all the songs you have in store, how do you keep them organized into different projects, singles, etc.?

DBA JAMES: If I stop writing, I stop existing (but that’s something I’m working with and hopefully won’t be a problem forever). The ways in which I organize music is totally dependent on what God and my subconsciousness allow me to see at the time. I love naming projects — it’s, like, my favorite thing to do. I have a notes app and several marble notebooks of just song names and banger one-liners that eventually make their way to an album/single EP title (or a T-shirt if it's flagrant or silly enough). The reason I’m hell-bent on releasing a song every month is because I have so many and I can’t stand to look at them just sitting on my hard drive.

LUNA: Every song from dba James sounds so different — if you can use a color palette to describe the musical spectrum, what colors would be included in that palette?

DBA JAMES:

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We couldn’t be more stoked to have Suriel Hess as our new headliner for our upcoming LA show 🤩 🫶 Not gonna lie, us & Notorious Noise kinda went OFF with this line up & you’re not gonna wanna miss it - ticket link in bio 🎫