Electronica twosome Bleum has just released their debut single, “‘Lose You.” The duo of Daniel James and Brittany McQuinn, both based in Fredericton, have been collaborating for two years, and this is their first time releasing music as Bleum.
“We’ve worked on over 30 songs together including those on an EP called “Bold” [which] Daniel produced that I released as a solo artist last September,” said McQuinn.
“After that came out we decided to make music as a duo. We both love chill electronic music and this ethereal, sort of dark pop sound, so the songs we’ve been making as Bleum fall somewhere within those two.”
Their shared love for such sounds are abundant in “Lose You.” Starting as low, sporadic piano notes alongside a bell-like, ambient sound, the track quickly comes to include gentle but sharp percussion instruments and soothing vocals. As the percussion becomes more progressive, it eventually drops into a relaxed, almost bass-boosted version of the opening alongside a series of new, deep vocoder-like notes. A steady beat and drowsy instruments make ‘Lose You’ a wonderful tune to put your feet up to.
Bleum is just the surface of it all, though. “Daniel works as a producer with lots of artists and bands all over the East Coast and has other projects in the works. I collaborate with DJ/producers from several countries, I’m doing a multi-collaboration project with one of them, and have my solo project as well,” McQuinn said. “We won a Toronto Independent Music Award under my solo name for a song I wrote and Daniel produced Fall 2016.”
“As for plans with Bleum, really it’s giving a name to something we’ve been doing under the radar for a while. We make music together because we value each other and we grow with each song. I think creatively we inspire the other person to try new things and chase the sounds we love and nothing but good can come from that – we hope you enjoy the music as much as we enjoy making it.”