Lunice Breaks Down Every Track on His New Album 'CCCLX'

Behind the scenes of a long-awaited solo project.

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Direct from Artist

Photo by Mathieu Fortin

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After a lengthy absence, Lunice returned to music last week with CCCLX. It's an album full of mind-bending electronic thuds, whirrs, and booms that made Lunice's work with Hudson Mohawke so thrilling, but there's a new sparseness that suits the Canadian producer. He's also showcasing some incredible collaborations—"Distrust" with Denzel Curry, JK the Reaper, and Nell is an easy standout, as are the freaky SOPHIE and Le1f features on "Drop Down."

With an album this anticipated, there are sure to be a few stories behind its making. So we asked Lunice to walk us through the tracklist, and he was kind enough to oblige. Here's how CCCLX came to be, in the words of its creator. 

"I wanted to start the album off with a beat that sits on a different tempo. That's when the whole idea of doing a track on 3/4 time rather than 4/4 came to mind.

It was an interesting one to get vocals on, because most vocalist are used to jumping on a 4/4 beat. So me and CJ Flemings sat in my studio and we figured out a way to rap over that tempo. It was also my first time writing lyrics too (I only wrote the first verse where he starts with, "About that"), and I also experimented with vocal tonality where I'd almost conduct CJ's tonal flows while he raps. Almost how a conductor works an orchestra."

"This was actually the second song I started five years ago in Montreal. Whenever I'm in the studio, I like setting up a challenge to see what I can come up with. This challenge was to just simply use one 808 kick throughout the whole song and it turned out great."

"Drop Down" ft. SOPHIE & Le1f

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"I've always a wanted to make a club banger for the voguers and dancers. Being in the whole bboy scene back in the days, I've always kept a dancing element to all of my work, but I haven't had the chance to fully compose something just for the dancers to have fun and jam with. With 'Drop Down,' I can totally envision a cypher with people introducing the wildest styles possible."

"I collaborated heavily with S-Type on this track in my Montreal studio. He did the amazing solo synth part at 1:46. As for the features, I placed them right at the outro to almost make it seem like the scene has dramatically changed to a new location, all while making the whole song not feel like it's dependent on vocalists.

It's more like the features are the actors in the scene. I first showed the outro of the song to King Mez while I was in LA when he invited me to Dr. Dre's studio. He loved the sounds coming from it and so we recorded it then."

"This is the first song I started for the album, and was produced while I was in Hawaii. What's interesting is that this final version doesn't sound remotely close to the first version. It's all thanks to Kanye West for the suggestion of focusing on the main synth melody you hear throughout the whole song. So I did what he told me and the whole track ended up sounding like what you hear today.

Sometimes it's best to take a step back and take in other people's opinions in order to have a fresh take on your work."

"We recorded this in Montreal. This was right at the time when I dropped by CJ's studio to continue working on 'Freeman' and that's when he introduced me to his homie Speng Squire. Upon hearing his mixtape I knew that he needed to be part of this track.

So I asked him if he can drop a verse. He accepted and I went outside to smoke a joint for 10-15 minutes, before I got into the recording mode. But as I'm coming back down studio I can hear a full verse being played back on the monitors. I was completely baffled that Speng Squire already recorded that exact verse you hear in one take in under 10 minutes. Montreal is out here man."

"This one's a more scenic soundtrack. I've studied film and have always been involved in creative arts in general. So this is my way of fully getting back to creating cinematic moods."

"Distrust" ft. Denzel Curry, JK the Reaper & Nell

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"This turned out to be one of the last songs to be completed on the album. It was originally supposed to be an instrumental, until I sent it to Denzel and he got back at me with the most amazing vocal performance. After that was recorded he suggested to bring in J.K. the Reaper and Nell.

I'm a firm believer in talented like-minded people being friends with other talented like-minded people. And this was exactly that case."

"This came about while I was working on the album in NYC but I initially had started it in New Zealand. I normally just talk to Mike about sensimilla stuff but one day I decided to ask if he'd be down to do a guitar solo for the album because I loved the performance he did at the Yeezus show.

He hits me back with, 'Sure! when are you in NYC?' Turns out I already was in town, so I went straight to his studio to record it. It was a great experience. As for the sonics of this track, a lot of it has been influenced by the film A Clockwork Orange from the synths to the general texture of the soundtrack."

"This track right here is all in from every idea and concept I've accumulated over the years. This is the closest idea to what my next sound may evolve into. I recorded this in various places—New York, Los Angeles & Montreal."

"This was recorded in NYC and Montreal. I've been friends with Syv De Blare a long time—when I first heard her sing, I felt so intimidated because I knew my music wasn't up to par to the quality and style of her vocals.

So decided to hold off working with her until I felt confident enough to make a good song with her. The day I knew I was ready this was the result of the wait. If there's one thing I know, is that patience brings the best out of everything and everyone."

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