New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Having supported the likes of M83 and Lily Allen, showcases at SXSW, and collaborations with Holy Holy and Charli XCX, the sought after producer and songwriter Gab Strum (aka Japanese Wallpaper) returns to North America with friends and collaborators Mallrat and Allday. Full dates below.
Having spent the three years since his 2016 debut experimenting with new sounds and honing his craft as a songwriter and producer, Japanese Wallpaper returns with the promise of exciting things to come with the dream-pop single "Imaginary Friends" from his forthcoming album Glow (out October 18 via Nettwerk Records).
Exploring the tender emotions of late teendom and early 20s turmoil, Strum validates the mundane, no emotion is wasted. "None of the things are about massive changes or massive terrible things that happened, or big breakups," he says. "It's all songs about little things and it's also fine to be affected by little things." Whimsical, yet wistful, textured but not overwhelming, Strum fuses acoustic and electronic instrumentation, rife with electric guitar riffs which nestle into synth loops. Glow is a purposeful arrangement and a slight divergence from Japanese Wallpaper's prior strictly electronic base. Another artistic choice employed onGlow is the absence of featured singers - or rather, the emergence of Strum's own voice.
Japanese Wallpaper originated after Strum first composed a string of songs in Garageband at the age of 15. After one of the tracks won triple j's 2014 Unearthed High competition, geared toward Australian emerging artists, Strum's career was cemented: music was his destiny. While finishing high school, Strum worked on his 2016 self-titled debut EP. On it, a pensive track called "Breathe In," caught the attention of Zach Braffwho included the song on the soundtrack for Wish I Was Here. Since then he has produced music for the likes of Mallrat, Holy Holy, Wafia, Eilish Gilligan, swim good now, Bec Sandridge, Allday and gathered fans such as Flume, Gotye, Lily Allen, Nick Murphy, Rostam Batmangjil and Charli XCX who he remixed "Need Ur Luv".
Armed with a defining new sound and more confidence than the teen that emerged from his debut EP, Strum continues to prove himself as one of Australia's most promising talents. Listen to "Imaginary Friends" below:
Tour Dates:
9/18 Chicago, IL // Subterranean
9/19 Pontiac, MI // The Pike Room
9/20 Toronto, ON // Velvet Underground
9/22 Montreal, QB // Le Ministere
9/24 Philadelphia, PA // Voltage Lounge
9/26 Washington, DC // DC9
9/27 Cambridge, MA // Middle East Upstairs
9/28 Brooklyn, NY // Baby's All Right
10/3 Vancouver, BC // Fox Cabaret
10/4 Seattle, WA // Barboza
10/5 Portland, OR // Holocene
10/9 Los Angeles, CA // The Echo
10/11 San Francisco, CA // Rickshaw Stop
Track List:
Ready
Imaginary Friends
Cocoon
Float
Caving In
Tell Me What You Mean By That
Tongue Tied
Fooling Around
Wearing You Out
Glow
