NYC-based artists John Barera and Will Martin link up for their second collaborative album Proceed To The Root, released 22 September. Sharing with us ‘Polaris’, the first track from the album. Listen below!
John Barera and Will Martin’s musical partnership grew out of a close friendship. Their chemistry with production and DJ’ing has been honed through many years of working, and sometimes living, together.
The recording process for Proceed to the Root started almost immediately after their first album Graceless came out. There was a lot of momentum after Graceless and they knew they wanted to do another and started writing for the next one right away. Although they’ve released a couple EPs since the album, all of those records had been recorded before it came out.
There was a lot of transition in their lives going on during the writing of the record: chiefly being Martin moved to New York and got married, so they were never going to be roommates again and each session was very deliberate, or was happening where they could fit it in. This included doing edits at Gatwick airport, writing synth pads on a night train to Germany and spending a blackout day in Berlin producing by candlelight. Thus, each track on Proceed to the Root was born under a different sign, bottling moments across the course of many years and settings, yet the pair manage to combine it all into a cohesive whole.
