Khallee Ft. Joey Desktop • "Black Car"
Khallee is a Crown Heights based vocalist, who originally performed out of Chicago as part of the group JODY. Joey Desktop is a vocalist and producer out of Palace Palace Sound, the Chicago / NY crew consisting of Martian Peace Child, Joey Desktop, Trousseaux and LA Based TJ Simmons. "Black Car" is one hell of a visual that These Days couldn't be happier to premiere featuring the vocals of Khallee, Joey Desktop and the production of TJ Simmons. These three minds have come together to make something as much visual art as it is music video.
The song sees the artists dance with expressive movement throughout an old building in NYC, becoming part of the background. Joey Desktop sings out the rooftops, and as they flow about the video Khallee brings out flows of his own. The production from TJ Simmons organically mixes into the trumpet playing of Jaime Branch and it's a tale of two cities, Chicagoans finding beauty in New York City. The song is something special, a piece of last springs stand out 'Troll' EP and already remixed by the infallible Teklife collective. If you want something different to listen and watch, "Black Car" is it. Check out our Q/A below, and see what went into this
For new listeners, can you introduce yourselves as Khallee and Palace Sound? What should they know about you?
For this project yes, that's what it was - me collabing with this unit of people from Chicago who had also formed a new home in NYC. There wont be any projects after this but it serves as a nice lil time capsule.
As a group of New York and Chicago artists, how did you cross paths?
We crossed paths through mutual friends and helping do this sound curation that a friend was doibg for this art museum in Chicago, Dinca org I believe it was called. Also, one of the members in the group actually booked JODY in NY back in 2014 at Knockdown Center (where the video was filmed), That was my first time in the city. After working in the studio together on our own sound segments Me and Jermaine (aka Martian Peace Child) just banged out like 4 songs in like 2 days and everyone came together and added to the missing links. Production, engineering and little switch ups.
Coming from these two separate cities, what did you discover musically once you began creating together? And can you tell us about the Chicago sounds that inspired "Black Car" and 'Troll EP'?
No one is from New York but the sound just came from being in a somber mood first fall living in a new city. Kind of like remeniscent but jazzy and industrial. Lot of people coming and going throughout life so the idea was to grab sounds that had a classic and distinct feel. Sonething that would and could actually stand the test of time in a way. Certain songs sound very ancient like (Cruise ruff) produced by polish producer miko. Then you had like hip hop inspired jazz bangers that added this industrial element coming from producer (TSRJ5) with songs like Control. Black Car just formed out of nowhere, Joe hit a crazy stride and I just finished it off. The concept is really cool even though there isnt a single black car in the video. It wasnt hard to get a momentum but one thing in the process of making this you realize is the music is the easy part, lol I spent a lot of time facilitating communication just making sure this would come out. The music is the easy part, thats what I learned.
There's an incredible synergy between Khallee and Palace Sound. What made do you think makes "Black Car" click so well?
Soon as you hear it it puts you in a mood of going on a voyage or hearing a story. It just has a crazy movement and before the mixing it was so many different elements. It was pretty difficult to mix but the song came out so good after trimming. All the elements pay homage to a mood we all can get familiar with and the trumpet solo just took everything over the edge, shout out to Jaime Branch.
This is a beautiful video visually. What story did you want to convey with it?
The story is kind of in the context. Knowing that I was in this same building years ago when i was in a group and seeing this city as something that was so new to me, to now being a lot more familiar with the city and still keeping those Chicago tithes but serving a different sound. I guess you can say its a performance video about transformation.
