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Fantom Island
FRIDAY FUNK: OutKast's "Funky Ride" inspired "The HereNow"
Yup, this site is slowly turning into OutKast central. But for real, if there was going to be any other influential artists that we post every 3 days, who else would you rather prefer? What? Did I hear someone say Reh Dogg? That’s right. Didn’t think so.
This episode of Friday Funk comes at the heals of yesterday’s release of our very second single ever, “The HereNow.” And true, it’s a very smooooooth contrast from “Gentleman’s Kool-Aid,” which we pushed first because we wanted you to be able to enjoy it while there was at least a morsel of sun left in the season. But as the fireplaces start lighting up and couples start matching their Old Navy performance fleeces, we’ve noticed a great and overwhelming response from you all to the more autumn-friendly HereNow cut.
So where did the inspiration for our laidback love session with the present moment come about? Late night in an In-N-Out parking lot.
Okay, that didn’t sound right.
But it’s true. It was a cold February evening at the Boondocks (can you believe we did our first draft that long ago guys????) and I had just dug up my copy of Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, which had steadily found a spot as my winter soundtrack. We were taking a break from the studio at the In-N-Out drive-thru in Natomas, deciding what to eat out of the 3-item menu (pfff, geminis). At this point, all of our tracks that we had created for the album were high-energy dancefloor cuts, and we were toiling with the fact that we needed something smoother, but didn’t feel like making a love-rap. Then “Funky Ride” came on. For an album so hard and rugged, this track was a welcome break placed right in the middle of the record, allowing some space to breathe.
If you’re a fan of OutKast then it makes sense how this duo of 19-year-olds at the time could create such a rich and melodic soul classic. If you’re mostly familiar with the group’s singles, this will be a pleasant change of scenery for you. Just don’t listen to it with your mom, because it gets really awkward at the end.
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