Long Beach, California-based singer-songwriter Emily Yacina has returned with a new song, ‘Nothing Lasts’. It’s one-half of a 7″ that’s set to arrive on January 26. Both tracks were co-produced by Rostam Batmanglij and mark the first music released by another artist on his own label, Matsor Projects. Listen to ‘Nothing Lasts’, which also features Danielle Haim on drums, below.
“‘Nothing Lasts’ was written after I read Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, inspired by Butler’s idea of God being change,” Yacina explained in a statement. “The song started out as a demo written and produced by me, and then brought it to Rostam. Together, we built the song up to its fullest potential; adding live drums by Danielle Haim, piano by Elise Goldberg, and upright bass by Gabe Noel.”
Speaking about the release, Rostam reflected:
The Matsor Projects label started as a means to releasing my own projects as well as projects I was involved with. It’s had various names over the years, one of them being NXTLVLSHT— I secured nxtlvlsht.com in 2007 and somehow still keep it alive to this day. The name NXTLVLSHT feels silly to my 39-year-old self, but it makes sense that 23-year-old Rostam was obsessed by the idea that the music I produced would, always be, in some way, “next-level”.
Kris Chen was our American A+R for the first three Vampire Weekend records and the ‘Discovery’ LP; ‘Half-Light’, and ‘Changephobia’. He has always believed in the projects we have done together, even before they were fully formed; and I’m happy to have him as my co-pilot on the label.
I met Emily Yacina through my partner, a mutual friend passed him a demo of a song; I instantly loved it, and wanted to help Emily realize her vision for the production.
Emily and I produced two songs together. “Nothing Lasts” is the second song we did actually. The first was “Trick of the Light” which is coming out next year. They are both coming out together on a vinyl 7-inch early in the new the year. This is the first release for Matsor Projects from an artist that’s not Rostam or Discovery. I’m excited about what the label might one day become but happy to let things happen organically, something which I’ve learned over the years, is how the most “next-level” things seem to come about.
Check out our interview with Emily Yacina.