Looking fine, looking good, looking great—looking for a funky flex with satiated storytelling that'll stimulate the senses? Well, then we've got you, but most importantly, Squid The Kid has got you on this musically tasty track, First Glance, featuring Dann Dib.

The Kid has been cooking with First Glance, slapping listeners with a whole lot of indie sleaze and a cup full of coolness. Squid The Kid continuously connects the audience to his music through his hyper-spirited artistry, down-to-earth delivery, and a mouthful of Hip-Hop references that the 90s babies won't glaze over. Think Big Pun, Big Sean, and a Breezy crossover, then add a sprinkle of Purple Rain tones, and base it on the streets of Melbourne; that's a snippet of the Squid The Kid recipie.

Inject Dann Dib into the mix, and you become the spectator to an old Hollywood movie that pays homage to the jazzy cool cat aesthetic. First Glance takes you on a first-player trip when you come into contact with a PYT (pretty young thing). The hormones start pumping into the curiousity of lust, and questions of love arise.

"First Glance is a song about a first date type of scenario. First dates and spending time with someone who has caught your attention are situations that are always hard to gauge, especially with the limited amount of time spent. Generally, the best-case scenario is that you fall in love with the person opposite you from the jump; for others, it could be the worst time of your lives and you will probably never see one another again, but for some, it honestly could just be a bit of work in progress, but there is just an underlying feeling between both parties that keeps bringing them back together for another date. Stated above is essentially the main story line of this new single, ‘First Glance’, with of course a hint of humour and playfulness, which both me and Dann Dib bring to the forefront with our light-hearted lyrics." - Squid The Kid

The outro presents an opportunity for instrumental appreciation, a space where listeners can indulge in the Jazzy, Hip-Hop-Funk. 

"After the release of ‘Getaway, which was a more dancy electronic song, I really wanted to bring it back to my roots a bit and have that more jazzy feel. People are probably bored of hearing this specific man's name come out of my mouth, but ‘Jewelz’ by Anderson Paak was a song me and the guys were playing constantly, so naturally that influenced the making of ‘First Glance." - Squid The Kid

Squid The Kid and Dann Dib are constantly on the move, with The Kid wrapping up a recent show at the Bergy Bandroom with max Melbourne, Kid Drest, and Mizuki, as well as his set at the Yours and Owls event in Wollongong, and Dann making moves in the UK—the drops won't stop. The Kid is back in the studio as we speak, with more music, otw!
With that being said, jump into the rotation with us and run up First Glance until your last blink (link below!).

Take a minute to slow down while J.B.T subtly steams up as he reminisces about an ex-now-muse. She’s a baddie; she’s fine, and J.B.T serves a reminder that good things are hard to find while singing on his eurythmic track Thanks2U.
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From the beat drop, J.B.T lets an eruption of thoughts loose, accompanied by all those intimate feels, letting listeners take a peek into his personal life. Thanks2U exudes vulnerability, uncovers J.B.T’s gentle side when it comes to relationships, and unveils his duality in music.

Expressing missing her scent, her smile, and memories of smoking up in the clouds, J.B.T is haunted and hypnotised by his past lover, yet finds grounding in the second verse as he sings about using your mind and heart while navigating the end of a connection.

"What inspired me to write this song was unfortunately a breakup caused by long distance; I wrote this shortly after it in November. We didn’t end on bad terms; it’s just that our circumstances made it hard, so I wanted to show her that I appreciated her and everything she had done, even though we decided not to stay together. This was my way to express that there’s no bad blood; it's an ode to her, a thank you. It shows another side to me; when I really care about someone, I’ll express it through my music and my lyrics." - J.B.T

Producer Somnia and J.B.T served up the instrumentals, using enough textures to create an enjoyable listening experience that avoided overpowering the lyrics. Their ability of simplicity carries this track into a sunset of resonance, pulling in the audience and immersing them into J.B.T's previous reality. It's undeniably heartfelt with a dash of spice.
 
"I was in my homie’s room and we were making beats, and he came across the sample you hear in Thanks2U, and essentially we decided to use that. We then added the drum pattern to give it a 90s-2000s RNB Soul vibe. Usually, I would write and record on the spot after hearing a beat, but due to time constraints, I ended up writing to the beat the day after, which turned into a five-day process—a lot of starts and stops because of my schedule at the time, but overall, if I subtracted the disruptions, it only took twenty minutes to create." - J.B.T

Since the release of Thanks2U, J.B.T has dropped a handful of tracks that should be on your listening list. Our particular favourites are Whants, which is a straight flex and sonical switch up from Thanks2U, and his latest release featuring Clariyah Boss titled Rivers, which pays homage to Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me a River.
Stay connected with J.B.T on Instagram and jump back into the IYCM rotation through the link below.

Sydney Miller breaks through her mould, breathing a swift moment of acapella that transforms into a pop-electronica showpiece on this treasure of a track, ‘Behind Closed Doors’. 

Where does one even start with the listening experience! Should it be Sydney Miller’s holy melody that uplifts you into the energetic arms of another dimension? Or the minimalistic percussion loop, bringing forth a moment of aural focus rather than overstimulation? Or the enigmatical verses creating space for the audience to form their own narrative? You're bound to drift into the curious plane of existence or into a pleasant dissociation; either way, it’s welcomed.

Behind Closed Doors feels vocally lunary, dipped in a sweetly plated innocence. However, a closer listen starts to unveil a noticeable resistance in her pitch, which lingers for a split second in her delivery; projecting itself as fear. Her tone then does a 180 and a push of strength is felt in the synths, following echos of resilience. Sydney Miller creates depth with vocal stacks, and each pause resembles a slight temperance found behind those same closed doors.

"This song started from a university project I made in 2018 in three hours. It had roughly 20 vocal lines, a recording of me patting my leg to the beat, and that was it. No processing, just raw audio stacked on top of each other. It was before I really had confidence in production, which is why there is such a strong focus on the (very minimal) lyrics and vocals and a lack of any structure that resembles a typical pop format. I finally went back to it last year to fix it up with my newfound production skills. Writing the song itself was a significant turning point for my self-confidence, and I felt like I owed it to myself to fix it up and finally share it. 

I always gather a collection of object recordings specific to the song I’m writing before I begin fleshing out the production. I’ll make sure I have a solid variety of sounds that cover a range of textures, harmonic/melodic qualities, and lengths to somewhat replace traditional instrumental sounds you would expect in a song, like drums and synth lines." - Sydney Miller

Her ability to bring lyrics to life with faint inflections is what separates Sydney Miller from the current bandwagon; she takes pride in her craft, experimenting with sound and not limiting her skills to singing and songwriting; she’s on pure fire when it comes to production, specifically on Behind Closed Doors, which is also mixed and mastered by Robert Downie.

As she travels across sun-drenched Europe, her current music hiatus means we can expect a vault full of inspiration and an earful of heaven once she locks in a headline tour upon her return. Jump back into the world of Sydney Miller by following our rotation, and while you’re at it, journey through her current catalogue before her next season of releases drops!