Imogene von Barron
In September, _Put Your Head Above The Parakeets_ entered the world. Behind the four-track EP is Australian, London-based DJ and producer HAAi also known as Teneil Throssell.
The last track on the EP, “Bass Is The Place” is the newest to be accompanied by a groovy music video. The bass-heavy track’s video is decked out with cool visuals of race cars and is “an homage to my stepdad who repairs and restores old muscle cars. He also used to take me to the drags in my hometown when I was little. We would push the race cars out onto the track."
Check out the new music video and read our conversation about the track below!
**“Bass Is The Place” is the last song off your newest EP to get a music video. Did you save the best for last?**
Yeah, I just kind of had the idea pretty late on but I mean, I did. I did finish it a while ago, but I also felt like it didn't make sense having one track that didn't have a video. And I was like, well, while we're in this kind of limbo place and I have a bit more time on my hands, I just wanted to do something that kind of finished off the whole release, I guess.
**What was the inspiration behind both the song and the video?**
I've always had a bit of an ongoing race-car thing, or car theme in most of my releases. So this one there's this kind of bass-y sound I thought sounded like a revving engine kind of thing. So it just kind of made sense to do something that fulfilled my love of cars, I guess. It stems from a childhood thing.
**How important is it to you to be involved in the creative process of creating the visuals to accompany your music?**
I realized once I started, well previously when I've been working with people that I just have... once you get a bit of an eye, I guess it's the same as with making music once you get a bit of an idea in your head about what you want and it can sometimes become quite uncompromising. So I've always played around with visual stuff myself, but my skills with it are quite limited to what you can see in the videos, I guess. But yeah, I think the more that I was working on it, and now especially having a little bit more time in a minute, I just sort of wanted to explore that a little bit more. I found it a really fun and interesting thing to get into, that had a bit less pressure than making music for me because the only person that was sort of adding any pressure was myself. And it wasn't like it was something I really had to do. Creatively, it was kind of a nice thing to have done myself.
**Is that something that you think you're going to continue on in the future?**
I'd like to. I'd like to learn more as well and collaborate with people. And in fact, because there was one video that I didn't do for the EP... I thought, you know, it was very much like, he just sort of did all the editing and all the work and stuff, but it was really nice to converse with someone about it. But I would like to, it's just a matter of having the time in the future, you know? But you know, it is something that I really enjoy doing, I'm sure I'll be keeping it up. I'd like to do something a little bit more involved. And maybe something like, I like to use images, sporadically, but I'd like to do something that had maybe...that was filmed by myself or a friend and who knows, you know?
**Hopefully maybe after Corona is over productions can be more full-on.**
Yeah, absolutely.
**Talking about Corona, I wanted to ask you how much you miss performing live and in front of big crowds?**
Yeah, a lot. I actually was having this conversation with a friend of mine that does the same job or did the same job that I am thinking although it's been great having time to kind of just slow down and be in the studio and stuff like that, I mean I just miss interacting with people a lot and just having…I found it to be a really social thing as well. If I was playing on a bill with a few other artists, quite often I’d just go down and dance and meet people in the crowd. And yeah, I miss the traveling and the just being in the booth sort of so much. And there's not really anything that you can feel like, creatively fulfilled by like making music that certainly does a lot. And that's one, you know, very solid half of my life. I think there's something that's kind of unparalleled, you can't really sort of get that same feeling from streaming or anything like that. And then there’s something about the energy of having people in the room.
**If you could perform to a crowd right now, do you think you'd have a favorite track off your EP to perform?**
I mean, it would definitely be like one of the happy ones, I guess. Actually, I had before I played like in different incarnations, I played “Bass Is The Place” before. And I really enjoyed it, because I guess because of the heaviness of it. Yeah, so because of that, it would probably be it would probably be that one. Now that is mastered and probably sounds better.
**How would you describe your EP to someone who hasn't listened to it yet?**
Ah, that's a good question. I would say that it's kind of like, light and dark in its own right. The first half is definitely written to be listened to and the second half to be danced to. And I would say, it's, you know, essentially, it's kind of like emotional breakbeat. If that makes sense. I don't think I've ever said that before. But that's what I think today.
**I asked you what the inspiration was behind “Bass Is The Place” and the music video, but what was the inspiration behind the EP as a whole?**
Yeah, the bulk of it I made once we kind of went into lockdown. The heavier stuff I was sort of already playing around with when I was touring a lot. But I think I just kind of wanted to. Just because of life slowing down and kind of wanting to make something that didn't need to just be listened to in a club, or didn't only serve being in the club, something that texturally sounded really warm and nice and kind of made you feel good. Because my previous EP I wrote a lot of it fully on the road just in Ableton on planes and stuff. When I tried to put anything that I was working on that was kind of heavier at the time, especially around March and April, it kind of bummed me out too much.
_Put Your Head Above The Parakeets EP_ Tracklist
1. Head Above The Parakeets
2. Rotating the Unison
3. Bon Viveur
4. Bass Is The Place
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