The Los Angeles duo have been smoking the scenes with their popular tunes over the past couple of the years and stay on our radar with their continued streak of music heat with punk-rock record Daddy's Little Lawyer. The song which will appear on their new EP out later this year explores their sonic range and is a step away from their usual electro-pop lane.
With a musical muse and influence from artists like ROZES, JoJo and PAVIS the lush duo KTJ and Carly who have given big tunes like Gift Me To You, Reckless and also featured on Oli Harper's club hit Taboo just a mention a few and now they get gritty and wild with their signature stark songwriting, electric guitars and punchy drum patterns. The new song Daddy's Little Lawyer as described by the group tells " the story of an egomaniac whose sense of entitlement extends into every aspect of their relationships " It's a fine job the group have done on this track as well as providing amazing productions as always and also had time to release the official music video directed themselves with DOP work by Joseph Lee. In the middle of their live show tour, they had time to discuss more.
Stream the official track available on multiple platforms
1. Wheeew! goodness, gracious. KTJ and Carly y’all took it there on this one. Daddy’s Little Lawyer. What made you both write this ice-cold banger?
KTJ: Thank you! We were inspired by a punk rock vibe, we felt like writing a very angst song that day.
Carly: Ah thank you! I had recently had a situationship (that’s what they are calling it these days?) with someone who is in law school. It was on my mind when we went into our session. We wrote a DLL with the wonderful Stefan PVDS. He is a killer on the guitar - I had this progression in mind and he busted it out like that. It had the beginnings of a really cool punk rock vibe. We thought it would be perfect to write about the whole thing over this progression and then formed our song!
2. This song right here??? We love it. It’s edgy, it’s rough giving no-nonsense energy haha. Did you both enjoy the production side of things? Tell us how did that go down?
KTJ: It just started off with a simple guitar progression and it filled itself out after we added drums. We typically start with melody or chords and then go in with lyrics
Carly: It was really fun to produce this song. We did not want to add a lot of electronic stuff to it, we wanted to keep it strictly instruments. There is so much you can do these days on MIDI that sound like real instruments but are not. Almost 90% of the guitars on Daddy’s Little Lawyer are MIDI instruments, not actual guitars which is insane. We had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted before we started producing, so that made it easier to replicate our vision for the song.
3. Now you’ve been whipping up jam after jam, with Reckless, Taboo and Hidden and it’s so sick. What’s your favourite part of creating music. You can talk from both perspectives as songwriters and producers?
Carly: My favourite part about making music is being able to connect. Collaborating with other people is so refreshing because when you find a topic that everyone connects to, it's such a wonderful feeling to know that you aren’t alone in it. Then of course, when you release it, other people can listen and feel that they aren’t alone too - whether the storyline of the song is real or not. As a consumer of music myself, that is what I find the most appealing. Connecting to it lyrically AND musically. Even without words, one strike of a chord can say a lot.
KTJ: I’m lucky to be a songwriter, as I have an outlet that I turn sadness/pain into something to celebrate. Producing a song and finding that one sound that shows a completely different side of a song really helps me to get to know the song. Those are my favourite things about it.
4. Do you two have a favourite Top 4 list of songs that you have released?
KTJ: Right now, I’m thinking of Holding On, Hidden, Distractions, Taboo, and DLL.
Carly: I’d have to say my top four favs would be Cherry Coke, Holding On, Daddy’s Little Lawyer, & Sell Your Soul!
5. Now shifting back to your new track, Daddy’s Little Lawyer’ you both really turned up the heat with the scorching punk rock pop genre choice and it’s very exciting. Can we expect more music from this set up? KTJ: Totally! I can’t tell you how fun it was making a song like this. I don’t think it will be the last. Carly: When we write music, we don’t typically think of the genre. However, we love this style so much and often find ourselves writing in the pop-punk style, so I am sure there will be some more of this in the future! Especially because I have been focusing a lot on honing my guitar skills and writing more on the guitar instead of the piano - when I write on the guitar the songs are more like this! We wrote Cherry Coke and this one over guitar so I feel like those tend to lean towards punk/pop/rock-ish!
6. To finish it all. You just had another live show this year. How has the touring season been for you both, and we look forward to a new EP anytime soon? KTJ: We love performing live and I’m excited to step outside of the city and experience an audience from many different locations and communities. Carly: Performing live has been a BLAST! We have been working really hard to make our live show better each time and we cannot wait to kick off our EP tour later this year. We are both super proud of it and excited to share it with the world. The EP will be coming out this summer so everyone can stay tuned for that