“Into The Blue is the clearest portrait of who I am as an artist. It’s me through and through,” says
multi-instrumentalist Aaron Frazer. A daring blend of soul, psychedelia, spaghetti western,
disco, gospel and hip-hop, Into the Blue represents the impressive range of Frazer’s sonic
talents. Frazer maintains the unmistakable falsetto and classic songwriting he’s known for, but
plants Into the Blue firmly in the now with a hip-hop mentality at its core, weaving together
genres and production techniques to form something new.
Into The Blue was conceived, like so many classic records, out of heartbreak. Frazer moved
cross-country from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and embarked on a journey that’s reflected in the
album’s themes of grief, loneliness, and searching for healing. “Into The Blue really means
heading into the unknown. That has been the last year of my life and I’m still in the blue,” Frazer
explains. “But there are also songs here that celebrate love and the giddiness of a new
relationship and all that. That’s part of a breakup to me, processing the whole thing,
remembering the things that were right as much as the things that were wrong.”
Frazer wrote on every track and played several live instruments on the album. The title track,
“Into The Blue”, is a haunting, resolute anthem, combining cinematic strings and tough-as-nails
breakbeats as Frazer heads west. “Here I go, to a place where the broken heart knows,” he
sings. “It’s all I can do. Back into the blue.” “Payback” is an explosive dancefloor heater,
featuring shimmering tambourines and driving bass lines. Northern soul drums meet snarling
fuzz guitar, hurdling towards its epic conclusion.
The album features moments of towering arrangements, recalling David Axelrod and Ennio
Merricone, balanced by rawness, incorporating iPhone recordings and one-take vocals. For Into
the Blue, Frazer enlisted Grammy-winner Alex Goose as co-producer, known for his
crate-digging samples and collaborations with hip-hop artists like Freddie Gibbs, Madlib and
Brockhampton. Frazer also experimented with samples for the first time on a record, drawing
from unexpected sources like 90s R&B group Hi-Five.
Though Into the Blue is born out of heartbreak, Frazer hopes it leaves listeners with a sense of
optimism. “You know, you can still laugh on a day when you’re grieving,” he says, “there’s no
peaks without valleys,” he says, but Into The Blue sees Aaron Frazer at new heights.
