Canadian R&B singer and producer Chris LaRocca just released his dreamy sophomore EP Saudade, out today on his own Little Italy imprint, viaBelieve. The album includes summer-ready singles "Salt," premiered viaFlaunt Magazine and "Heated Up," shared with Complex Canada, plus "Yard Sale" and "Dice Out." The Saudade EP takes its name from an untranslatable word only existing in the Portuguese language, describing a melancholic nostalgia and longing for a moment that never actually occurred.
A self-taught musician with soaring natural falsetto and punk rock past, Chris started producing in 2014 after years in Toronto's DIY scene as part of math rock/indie band Elos Arma. Working on a combination of synths and drum machines running into one another with no computer, he released a trio of humor-tinted EPs under the moniker SEXTAPE before diving deeper into his vision for expansive pop music made with real emotion and an incredible attention to detail.
Chris self-released his first single "
Closer" in 2017, championed by the likes ofZane Lowe, before putting out his debut EP, Voila with standout tracks "
Roses" and the Xavier Omar-remixed "
Wild." Chris did all this while working 12-hour days at three jobs - tutoring, serving at an old age home and as in-home support for an elderly woman - to fund the project.
Saudade explores memories & nostalgia, the cover art even featuring his dad in the 1990s at the age he is now. Chris also identifies with the EP title's ironic meaning of yearning for a time that was never there, "a vague and constant desire for something that does not and most likely cannot exist. This is a feeling that is not only very familiar to me, but a feeling that heavily inspired this body of work."
Stay tuned for more to come from Chris LaRocca!
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