RAC - BOY (2020)

Grammy-winning producer and songwriter André Allen Anjos, known as RAC, has announced the upcoming release of his new album BOY. He has also shared the first single from the record, “Stuck On You (ft. Phil Good).” “The core of the song felt so honest and relatable,” writes RAC. “No matter where you are in life, I think it rings true. Phil is so good at capturing big ideas in concise ways and I wanted the musical side to mirror that.”

BOY will be released on 8th May via Counter Records and is available digitally & physically, including a standard 2LP gatefold on pink glass coloured vinyl as well as a very limited 2LP deluxe edition on pink & white splattered vinyl.

This news comes just less than a month after his Valentine's Day collaboration with Matthew Koma & Hilary Duff, a cover & stand-alone single of the early 2000s hit "Never Let You Go" by Third Eye Blind. Listen here.

“This album is about growing up,” writes Anjos. “I was tapping into melodies that remind me of that period of my life. Rooted in a sense of nostalgia, growing pains and coming of age. It’s an elusive feeling but I tried to capture it and ultimately re-interpret it through a modern lens.” Looking forward to his North American headline tour, in support of BOY this summer, Anjos writes “Having toured in nearly every format possible, I really wanted to change it up and do something new. It'll be a more heavily visual show based around the album art. It felt in line with the new musical direction and I couldn’t be more excited to get out on the road.”

BOY is a melody-driven indie-electronica record that sees Anjos push his artistic limits by thematically exploring his complex childhood. Anjos was raised overseas to parents who both worked as missionaries. His mother is American, and he always felt torn between worlds in terms of nationality, first language, even the concept of home itself. He struggles to distil it all in person, but the music he's made ruminating on it runs the gamut of emotions that come up for him. “I didn't feel a part of any specific world, it was a bit alienating,” he recalls. Anjos worried his family when he was younger because he didn't talk to adults until he was around eight-years-old. “I was confused about language,” he explains. He could speak, but he wasn't comfortable, so he didn't. “I didn't feel Portuguese, I didn't feel American. In the midst of that, I found music and it became my voice.”

Through music, he also soon discovered his skills as a master collaborator, and the wealth of guest talent on BOY is a testament to RAC’s creative magnetism. “It's conversational,” he says of his working style with the artists he features. “We find shared experiences and I give them space to tell their story through my lens.” For BOY, his choice vocalists include LA rocker Gothic Tropic, British soul singer Jamie Lidell, alt popstar St. Lucia, and upcoming singer LeyeT.

Over his 10 year career, RAC has proven himself as one of this decade’s most prolific remix artists with over 200 remixes to his name, including reworks of Lana Del Rey, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Weezer, Foster the People, Phoenix, Bob Marley, Imagine Dragons, New Order, Two Door Cinema Club and The Shins.

Anjos’ 2017 album, EGO, featured collaborations with Rivers Cuomo, Rostam, MNDR, K.Flay and St. Lucia. His debut album Strangers, released in 2014, featured Tegan and Sara, Tokyo Police Club and Kele from Bloc Party. Following the 2016 Grammy nomination for RAC’s remix of label-mates ODESZA’s “Say My Name (feat. Zyra)”, Anjos won a Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording of Bob Moses’ “Tearing Me Up” in 2017.