The project finds a home on Tom Windish & Future Classic's new singles label Wilder.
Here you are on day “what is a day?” of quarantine, and you’re starting to feel real creeped. The doctor ordered you to put some groove on that social distance and turn your living room into a personal disco. Surreal moments such as now are best soothed with energetic psychedelia, and Kunzite — a new project from Ratatat’s Mike Stroud and White Flight’s Agustin White — has the interstellar inspiration your cooped-up cells crave.
The project makes its debut with “Novas.” Press play on its rocket-powered rainbows and blast off into a galactic dream. “Novas” blends synth twinkles and guitar melodies over driving drums and slightly tropical flavors.
You may not be able to go outside, but with Kunzite, you’ll travel to distant lands and upbeat emotions.
Stoud and White met in their early 20s, before Ratatat or White Flight were glimmers in the guitarists’ eyes. The pair quickly became friends and stayed inspired by each other’s work for 15 years. They crossed paths at Coachella in 2015 and decided in that moment to “start collaborating in earnest.”
“It started low key,” White tells Billboard Dance, “just sending tracks back and forth between upstate New York where Mike lives, and myself recording in Hawaii. From there, things started to snowball. At this point, we’ve created a couple of albums worth of material. Kunzite is the project that ideally represents the best of what we both have to offer as musicians, songwriters, and producers. We also move fluidly between vocal-driven songs, and pure instrumentals, which I think gives us both a creative freedom that we were missing in previous projects.”
Kunzite finds a home in Wilder, a new singles label collaboration from Windish Agency founder Tom Windish (now with Paradigm) and Australian taste-maker label Future Classic. “Novas” is the label’s second release to date, and it’s just the beginning for Kunzite at large.
“We are having a total blast making music together,” White says, “and continue to churn out new songs from our home studios, meeting in various parts of the world multiple times a year to set up our own studio and create.”
“Novas” is out everywhere today, but we’ve got the exclusive on the video below.