Nate Mercereau may not be a household name, but he’s worked with some of the biggest artists in the music industry – Lizzo, Jay-Z and Leon Bridges are just a few names. Recently, he released a new album called Joy Techniques and we’re excited to premiere the latest single, “Righteous Energy.” The album was released on the artist’s own label How So Records, which he created in a partnership with Grammy-winning producer Ricky Reed. Joy Techniques was recorded in his Los Angeles studio in Echo Park.

Like all of the songs on Joy Techniques, “Righteous Energy” was made by Mercereau without the use of any keyboards, instead using rare guitar synthesizers from the ’70s and ’80s, such as the Roland GR300 paired with the Roland G303 guitar, Roland GR500 and GR700s and the Korg X911. On “Righteous Energy,” the sound is warm, comforting but also daring and experimental. The guitar synthesizers create a sound that finds a middle ground between jazz and soul with the bass burbling out a hypnotically sound that recalls some of the guitar and horn leads from NYC neo-soul groups like The Budos Band. The transforming cityscapes of the video are the perfect visual accompaniment to the song with the windows and shapes of the buildings folding into psychedelic patterns that dazzle the eye.

“‘Righteous Energy’ is the feeling you get with someone when your collective synapses are firing and you reach a moment of transcendence together,” said Mercereau. “It’s conversational, rhythmic, synergistic. ‘Righteous Energy’ is the light sizzle of synchronicity. I collaborated with the incredible Maria Constanza Ferreira on this video that reflects this feeling. The idea with all the visuals for Joy Techniques is to allow the director to create their own interpretation of what it means to create and find joy. For Maria, it was the story of light illuminating and reflecting through a day in New York City.”

Constanza Ferreira is a Portuguese citizen born in the country of Venezuala. An interdisciplinary artist, she works in the mediums of digital video, photography and interactive installation. She’s an artist-in-residence at New York University’s Department of Chemistry, where she is working in the field of chemical crystallography.