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Premiere: Meet AKA Lui, who unveils the video for his latest song, Pushing Me Aside
The New South Wales musician pairs an indie-dance charm with the cold blue lights of supermarket aisles.
Posted By Hayden Davies
4 years ago
New South Wales-based musician AKA Lui is someone we've been keeping our eyes on for a while now, emerging at the tail-end of last year with a debut single that really showcased the musician's wind-swept, indie-dance sound. Hey! I Don't Want That Anyway was near-three-minutes of indie, disco, funk, electronica and lo-fi pop squeezed into this summer-lit lens; a wash of melodies and rhythms that quickly captured the attention of many (including us) and put himself forward as someone worth paying attention to in the years ahead.
Even though things may not have exactly gone to plan thanks to the dumpster fire that has been this year, AKA Lui's 2020 has lived up to its desire to further push the musician and his sound out there, furthering introducing his indie shine and everything that goes into making that happen. His second track Pushing Me Aside came out last month, and it makes it two-from-two for AKA Lui, bringing together these cascading melodies with a washed-out pop sound that moves things into a more dreamy, lo-fi take on indie and its intersection with dance; this pop core emphasised by his songwriting and lyricism that forms the track's backbone.
"Pushing Me Aside is lyrically very direct. Writing the song was my way of coming to terms with what was going on around me. It’s like therapy, music is powerful like that," he wrote with the single's release last month. "I like to think people can relate to this song in their own way based on whatever may be happening in their life. There really isn’t any 'light at the end of the tunnel' moment on this record, I'm simply recounting a moment in time."
Today, we're stoked to be premiering the single's official video clip, which takes the warm haze of the single's original sound and contrasts it against the bright blue lights of supermarket aisles, all while doubling-down on the idea of being pushed aside - in a more literal sense, that is. "My housemate (Zac Devine) is a filmmaker & naturally we've been spending a lot of time together since COVID," he explains. "I was preparing to release this new single and so we sat out the back with a bottle of wine & started brainstorming film clip concepts. We knew it had to be simple but effective given the circumstances with COVID."
As it turns out, Byron Bay IGA proved the perfect backdrop. "The supermarket seemed like the perfect place to shoot... it has consistent lighting, is open to the public, & the shopping trolley stands as the perfect metaphor for Pushing Me Aside," he says. "The initial idea was to do a one take through the store and get the hell out of there before we got kicked out, we even did multiple run throughs in the car park to make sure we could nail it, but the staff ended up tolerating us with a lot more patience & understanding than we expected. Big ups Byron Bay IGA!"
You can take a dive into the video below, and underneath that, introduce yourself further to AKA Lui - there's a lot of brilliant music in the pipeline, so get on top of it now before you're left catching up:
Tell us about yourself?
I’m AKA Lui & I love long walks on the beach ;)
What’s the ‘vibe’ music-wise?
I call it Op-Shop-Pop. Recycled, low budget, DIY pop. It doesn’t happen consciously, but my music pulls from different era’s of pop music, anywhere from the 60’s to now, things i’ve listened to & loved. Sounds that fill me with nostalgia. When you throw it all together you have AKA Lui.
What are your production and writing processes usually like?
It’s so random and forever changing, I think the only constant in my process is that it’s always changing. Recently i’ve enjoyed starting from a voice recorded melody, a moment of pure inspiration that can happen anywhere at anytime, and then trying to build a world around that spark.
Can you tell us a bit about this new single, Pushing Me Aside, and its video clip?
Pushing Me Aside is my second single & delves into some more psychey-dream-pop elements of my sound.
The film clip for me really encapsulates the energy around the track, & if that makes you feel slightly uncomfortable at times then that’s okay. I can’t explain where the idea came from or why I knew it would work, it was just one of those moments. I took inspiration in the edit & cuts from 90’s tv shows like Barney & Power Rangers. We went in just before close on a friday night, so I’m stoked we could get all the shots we needed before getting kicked out of there.
What do you want people to take away from the project?
It’s such early days, i’m really just saying hello at this point. But I hope that people can interact with this project however they need to. If people happen to feel a connection to the music & enjoy the vibe then that’s all I can ask for.
Where can we find more of your music?
I’m on all of your classic streaming platforms, wherever you consume music you’ll find AKA Lui.
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