Louis the Child have spent the better part of 2018 tearing up stages while sprinkling new music throughout—most notably "Better Not" with Wafia. They look to keep that momentum going with "The City," an electronic bop that finds the Chicago-based duo connecting with Detroit singer/songwriter Quinn XCII.
According to members Robert Hauldren and Frederic Kennett, "The City" "represents a place that seems appealing, but ultimately will leave you unsatisfied. You'll get momentary pleasure, but you won't find love or happiness. Your real love is at home."
The song's creation spans a handful of years and showcases a commitment to not letting up until being satisfied with the end product. "Quinn came on tour with us about two years ago and that's where we started the song. We had most of the instrumental done and had been talking with Quinn a bunch about wanting to do a song together. We had a show in Boston and were staying at the Phoenix house at Harvard on some days off. Quinn spent most of the time with headphones in just listening to the instrumental and coming up with ideas," Louis the Child said. "A few days later we had a show in Montreal and Quinn came into our green room after the show and sang us the vocal idea he had. We all sat in the green room and reworked pieces until the venue had to kick us out."
While that particular session wrapped up, the trio of artists weren't quite done. "We linked up in a studio in Chicago later and got some verses written and recorded a demo of it. We kinda left it alone for a bit, but we knew it was a really great song that we needed to come back to. We finally got back around to finishing it and it feels really great. The song has been worked on in so many different places and has had a long journey."
As far as if "The City" is a preview of what's to come, Louis the Child explained, "It's very synth-heavy and feels like an updated and refreshed version of our signature sound which is definitely what our future songs will be like, but we're always trying new things so who knows. It's exciting."
Check out "The City" up top and grab the song when it arrives on streaming services Friday (July 13).
