salute found an unlikely source of inspiration for his new album ‘TRUE MAGIC’ – the “colourful and bizarre” TV ads of the 1980s and 1990s.
The Austria-born, Manchester-based electronic music star has assembled a heavy-hitting line-up of collaborators – including Rina Sawayama, Karma Kid, Disclosure and LEILAH – for the project, which arrives this Friday (July 12) on Ninja Tune.
A concept record centred on the idea of driving an old JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) car in a race called TRUE MAGIC, they opened up on the project in an exclusive playback and Q&A session in London, hosted by Apple Music.
“I used to have this weird obsession with ads,” laughs the hitmaker. “Old ’80s and ’90s ads, because they were so in your face and quite colourful and bizarre.
“I used to watch compilations of the strangest ads on YouTube, then I started playing racing games and I became obsessed with cars.”
The era not only led to the overarching narrative of the LP, but also influenced salute’s choice of collaborators, as they explain: “My music is so steeped in an ’80s and ’90s R&B influence, so I’m always looking for people that are quite soulful or have a lot of character in their voices.”
Many of those featured on the record are friends; salute previously remixed Sawayama’s 2016 song Where U Are is planning to produce more tracks for the singer-songwriter on her upcoming third album, after she lent her voice to recent single saving flowers. “I want to start doing more production for other people and work with more pop artists,” they add.
Others, such as Japanese rapper Nakamura Minami – who performs on go! – the musician discovered as a fan and reached out to work together. “I found out about her via another tune she featured on,” they share, “and when I was on tour in Japan last summer, I was playing it my set.
“She found out and hit me up, and it turns out we have a bunch of mutual friends, so I asked if she wanted to do something for the album. She recorded the vocal over completely different beats – but I actually hated the beat that I’d made, because the vocal is so good and I didn’t feel like I’d done it justice, so I scrapped it and made something completely new.”
lift off!, the track with Disclosure isn’t the first tune they’ve worked on together – but it’s the first to make it out. “Me and Guy had been chatting for a few years. He reached out to me to ask if I wanted to remix Waterfall with RAYE. I did it and they were like, ‘This is not good enough’,” the producer laughs.
“But we carried on chatting after that and when I was in America, he DM’d me and was like, ‘Do you want to come to the studio?’ We didn’t go in with the intention of making anything for the album, but we made a couple of beats – I think we did three or four tracks in total – and I picked the best one for the album.”
There are more songs that didn’t make the final cut of the album – which is available in Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, offering an immersive, 360-degree listening experience – but may still see the light of day eventually. “We’re doing a deluxe,” salute lets slip. “There’s one track that’s coming out exclusively on the Japanese edition that will then go on the deluxe, and we’ll add one or two more…”
As for what the future holds, they tease: “We’re playing some festivals in the UK and Europe, then the ‘TRUE MAGIC’ tour stars in the States in October. That comes to Europe and the UK in November and December, and will go to Australia and Asia next year.”
