Influential trap, pop and electronic music producer Diplo has kept busy with a multitude of side projects including LSD, with Sia and Labyrinth, and Jack U with fellow electronic music producer Skrillex. This time, he’s now throwing his hat into the country music ring, with the release of a new song entitled “So Long,” featuring the singer Cam.
“So Long,” is part of a new musical project that the producer is creating entitled Thomas Wesley, which is taken from his birth name Thomas Wesley Pentz, Jr. This song joins another track entitled “Old Town Road,” by rapper Lil Nas X, which features legendary country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, in a new trend of pop artists outside of the typical country mold blending their genres with country music.
Diplo announced that the song was a new song on his new social media, which was joined with a short preview of the new track. “This is the first song from a new project called: Thomas Wesley,” Diplo wrote, meaning that further tracks off of this new project are highly likely.
The track itself blends Cam’s typical country vocals, with electronic beats and production, that sound extremely clean and polished like a typical pop song. Strings that were programmed to imitate a country fiddle make up a large part of the song’s instrumentals, giving it that added country feel, in a similar manner to Avicii’s classic track “Wake Me Up,” which blended folk/country with electronic music, and landed atop the charts back in 2013.
Earlier this month Diplo announced the inaugural Super Mega Ultra Giant Mad Decent Block Party Festival, which will take place on July 20 and July 21 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA. This announcement was made a bit after Diplo announced that Major Lazer, his fame electronic themed dancehall project would be wrapping up their final album, so he could focus on more projects.
“I don’t want to force it anymore. And I’m into leaving on a high note. We did our show in Cuba, we did the cartoon, and everything else. And we’re making a really awesome record, the best we’ve ever done, right now,” Diplo explained in an interview with Esquire. “It’s diverse as hell. But I don’t want to just keep touring it until people don’t want to listen to dancehall and reggae anymore. So I think I want to concentrate on something new, whether it’s Silk City or my new Diplo pop project, or country music. That’s what motivates me: starting from scratch to try and build something.”
Despite helping launch many prominent artists such as MIA, Mø, and Dua Lipa prior to their launch into superstardom, Diplo has always preferred to work with up-and-coming artists and projects, in addition to his star studded work.
“I’d rather work with somebody amazing that’s unproven than be a sit-at-home producer and just wait for my manager to set up a session with a big artist,” Diplo elaborated in the Esquire interview. ” Sometimes you might have to do more work, because they may not be ready, but I don’t care.”
Photo Credit: Mehreen Rizvi
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