Kessler announces LIGHTSPEED on Company Records

Elijah Kessler has had a connection to rap music since the day he was born. His actual first name, Mason, was given to him by his mother in tribute to the 90s superstar rapper Mase. This auspicious beginning may have foretold his future, and Elijah started rapping at the age of 8, after absorbing some of the sounds that he heard on his mother’s car stereo. As his childhood became his teenage years, Elijah continued to find a sense of personal expression in music, but he mostly kept this hobby private, and he almost quit rapping altogether when a teammate on his high school football team exposed him as the talent behind an anonymous YouTube channel. Elijah’s creative spark wasn’t reignited until he was sent off to boarding school and befriended Aidan Peterson. Peterson had his own project–he released electronic music as Instupendo and had been garnering some acclaim. Through the remainder of their high school years, Elijah and Instupendo spent much of their time collaborating and putting track after track on Soundcloud. It was at this point that Elijah’s career experienced a true turning point – Chaz Bear of Toro y Moi found one of his songs and immediately reached out to see if Elijah would be interested in working together.

“Elijah’s voice and taste caught my attention immediately and I knew I wanted to make an album together,” says Bear. “We recorded this album in Oakland at my studio within multiple sessions over the course of 4 years. His ability to channel multiple genres at once is something I’m constantly baffled and motivated by.”

That initial exchange between Bear and a teenaged Elijah would turn out to be the beginning of a collaboration that would unfold over the course of the next 5 years. During that time, Elijah graduated high school and moved to Miami for college. His day-to-day life at this time was largely occupied by classes, relationships, soccer, video games, and anime. But between college semesters, Elijah would make trips to meet up and work with Bear in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, or New York. On each of these respective trips, Elijah found himself feeling a new spark of inspiration, as the cities themselves unlocked his sense of wide eyed imagination. During these sessions, Elijah’s constant practice would make itself evident, as his knack for improvisationally writing hooks in the studio became abundantly clear. Along the way, several other producers became involved in the project, including Nosaj Thing and Elijah’s early collaborator Instupendo. These intermittent sessions would eventually coalesce into Elijah’s debut album, LIGHTSPEED, which has been announced today and will be released on Toro y Moi’s Company Records imprint on April 14th.

LISTEN
to Elijah Kessler’s “ZEISS” feat. Toro y Moi
HERE

Zeiss, which was produced by Chaz Bear and Nosaj Thing and features a verse from Bear, is the first single from the album, and was the product of one of Kessler’s first ever experiences in a recording studio, as he explains.

“‘ZEISS’ was one of the first songs me and Chaz ever made, sometime around 2017. I remember going to some studio in LA and it was Chaz and his friend Jason, AKA Nosaj Thing. I was really excited because he had produced one of my favorite Chance the Rapper songs of all time called ‘Paranoia.’ Jason was playing an amazing beat that wowed me as soon as I heard it, but I didn’t feel comfortable getting on it. I didn’t feel comfortable because I didn’t really know why I was there, and if I was even allowed to try. Thankfully, Chaz was having some trouble writing some lyrics and he asked me if I wanted to try. I just started writing some flashy rap lyrics without much content, but I started to go on a roll. Eventually I had enough to hop in the booth. I rapped it with some monotone cadence and melody three times, and no one in the studio really liked it, they told me to do it with more flare. When they said that, I rapped the verse and completely created a new melody and sound, and when they pressed the button to talk to me in the studio they were all freaking out. It was one of the best feelings in my life.”