Fusilier officially joins the team at Ba Da Bing with the announcement of Treason. The first single from the record, ‘No Words’ was released on July 27. In the accompanying video, dancers twirl and swivel around Fusilier, clutching at him desperately as the punchy song turns mesmeric. It was directed by Nathan Bajar and choreographed by J. Bouey.
Mixing genres and styles into a pastiche of emotionally gripping songs, Fusilier hypothesizes that the only road to true freedom of the spirit is through radicalization and reimagining. He questions the complexities of the self and the realities of race & sexuality alongside the expectations of the artist, asking: “How can I exist given that the size of my imagination of me doesn’t yet fit into the ways I am seen?” It fits in today somewhere between TV On The Radio, Perfume Genius, and Radiohead with its precise yet opaque lyrics, guitar riffs, classical motifs and sometimes-soaring, sometimes-crooning melodies.
Prior to working with Ba Da Bing, multi-instrumentalist Blake Fusilier released his first single ‘The Moment’ in 2016, and his notable recent single, ‘Upstream.’ Raised in Atlanta and based in Brooklyn, Fusilier uses the record as a sort of blank slate on which to explore a myriad of concepts varying from race and sexuality to the internalized pressure and expectations of an artist. Inspired by artists that serve as inspiration to Fusilier, the record contains notes of Bill Withers, Nine Inch Nails, and Fela Kuti.
Buy the CD and digital album here