Now 3 years since the release of his last record Half of Where You Live, today UK producer Gold Panda has announced the release of his upcoming album ‘Good Luck And Do Your Best’ on May 27th of this year. Though initially the record was meant to be an experimentation between Gold Panda, realname Derwin, and his photographer friend Laura Lewis, out of their times spent in Japan, it ended up evolving into a new album. We’ll let Derwin explain the process here himself:
“Halfway through the first trip we bought rail tickets and rode across the country and went to Hiroshima. One afternoon we had taken a taxi and as we got out, the Japanese taxi driver’s parting words to us as we left, were ‘good luck and do your best’. It was [the driver] speaking in English. He didn’t know English that well, but there’s a Japanese phrase called ‘ganbatte, kudasai’. And roughly translated, it basically means ‘do your best’, or it can also mean ‘good luck’. Once you have a title, for me, things come together a lot easier for what it’s going to be.
The album was recorded at home in Chelmsford, but I had that visual inspiration or documentation from Japan. So it was a look back. If you go in those months, Japan has this light that we don’t get here. It’s hard to explain. You know how LA has this dusk feeling? – That orange light that makes the place glow, and the neon signs? Well, Japan has this.. at certain times of the year; it has this filter on stuff. So when we went the first time, there were a lot of pink and green colours. Mainly the buildings and cars and the people, and I think Laura captured those colours really well.”
‘Good Luck And Do Your Best’ as a visual and musical experience is made even more clear with the release of ‘Time Eater’, the first single and video from the record. Created by Derwin’s friend Ronni Shendar – who has previously created visuals for Panda’s live shows and videos for ‘Snow and Taxis’ and ‘Marriage’ – it’s got some beautiful shots of lesser seen and appreciated city life from all over the world.
‘Good Luck And Do Your Best’ will no doubt be an amazing audio and visual experience, taking us as an audience to places that Gold Panda could never have done with either individually. Keep it locked here for all news until the album drops May 27th.
Photo: Inertia
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