Everyone deserves to have friends who build them up, the kind who bring positive energy into their lives and make them better. Just the kind of buddy that Verzache is to Ford..
The 20-year-old producer and recording artist’s latest track, “In My Eyes,” features vocals from his friend and rising Toronto talent Verzache. The song, which was produced during quarantine, is from label Odesza’s Foreign Family Collective. We’ve got the exclusive premier of it right here. Watch the video above and then call your best bud and tell them you love ‘em.
Illustrator Mitch Pond places Ford. at a piano on the edge of a koi pond for the video, capturing the song’s nostalgic, lo-fi vibes perfectly.
Inspired by his international upbringing and travels, Ford.’s music is hypnotic and raw—the kind of stuff to nod your head to while cruising back alleys on your bike or board on a Sunday morning. It will lead you down a lo-fi manhole with wavy synth melodies and evocative hip-hop lyrics, and then spit you out on the banks of a serene river.
It’s chill stuff, and original, too (perfect for writing, actually). In fact, his remix of Mild Mind’s “Swim” has already resulted in a Grammy nomination and his music has received over 35 million streams so far. That and the boy still isn’t legally allowed to have a beer in his home state.
"I began writing this one back in February of 2019,” says Ford., chronicling the creation of the latest track. “A year later, I finally had a finished demo. Quarantine had gone into full effect and one of the things keeping me grounded was FaceTiming my friends. I would check in with Zach (Verzache) and we would have these long conversations about mental health, missing touring, and how quarantine was affecting our writing processes, etc. I remember sending the demo to Zach on one of our calls and he sent back a full finished verse the next day. Immensely grateful for dudes like Zach and every opportunity I get to make music with close friends; nothing quite like it.”
The “opportunities” to make music look different during a pandemic, though. For ford., it involves less face time and more FaceTime. Verzache, on the other hand, is missing out on a tour with Mxmtoon this year. Yet even when the show can’t, the music must go on.
"Luc and I have been trying to get a song together for a while,” says Verzache. “I heard the song at a pretty vulnerable time and it just hit me like a boulder in the feels. Something about it got me crazy nostalgic. I ended up reflecting a lot on my childhood and the person I’ve grown to be. That definitely made the writing process very natural and therapeutic for me, it’s a great feeling.”
Ford.’s upcoming sophomore album The Color of Nothing is due out Oct 16.
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