Even in the darkest of times, we must never lose our ability to spread positivity and love. That is the message of DIY dance duo, producers, and real-life couple, Dance Loud, who just released their debut album The Moment along with the visual for fourth single “Hear Me Out.”
The Moment offers an 8-track collection of mesmerizing dance music that not only evokes emotion but grounds listeners in the here and now through live instrumentation. Their music has been dubbed dance music that you can dance and cry to. At its core, The Moment embodies duality in every sense of the word, fusing elements of light and dark sonically. Stream it here.
What does “Hear Me Out” represent to you both?
“Hear Me Out” is a real-life story between the 2 of us. It is about compromise within relationships. There are a lot of songs that deal with love and heartache. Not many songs focus on how you may want to spend the rest of your life with someone but there are times you need to be alone. Understanding your boundaries and healing process is vital to keeping a loving relationship as emotional beings. It’s a lot like mediation, you have to turn off all your senses and thoughts to be able to think and see clearly.
How does it feel to release your debut album The Moment during a time when the world needs love more than ever?
We are feeling the same way a lot of people are feeling right now. Lots of confusion and hope for the future. Our heart goes out to the family and friends of the victims of police brutality, racism and everyone impacted by COVID-19. It’s been very draining emotionally, feeling the pain of others during the Black Lives Matters protests as we march and not knowing if we can create income with our recent album release expenses. We can’t mail our vinyl out of the country and not many record stores feel comfortable carrying new indie releases. Feels like we are just here playing our tunes in hopes to spread words as weapons which was the plan before the world turned upside down. We only use lyrics when we feel there is something that needs to be said. This surreal reality can hopefully heal as we attempt to direct our musical energy to either calm the emotions or ignite the change needed in our world right now.
What do you want fans/listeners to take away from The Moment?
The Moment is a concept album that very much talks about social needs. From “Dimes” confronting employment inequality, “Why Lie” discussing why people feel the need to be dishonest which does not help themselves or anyone and “Hollow” talking about the hollowness inside each of us all that can be perceived as good or bad. Don’t judge or assume. Just be kind and try to walk in their shoes to understand. Side A is the up-tempo side of the album which presents frustrations with society norms while Side B, the downtempo vibe (still at 128 BPM) starts to find peace and acceptance with it. We as humans struggle and feel pain. This album is to help heal the frustrations best when shared alongside others or alone in your own space. Either way, we see it as a healing frequency bath that you can dance or cry to. Duality is one of the consistent themes within this dark but bright album.
What advice do you have for aspiring female-producers?
Female producers make up 2% of the entire industry. It’s unfortunate but I feel we have to be that much more educated and driven because we have everything going against us. We are often immediately being perceived/assumed as the vocalist that can’t produce and engineer who knows nothing about music and business. Accept that you need to have a well-rounded understanding of the entire industry, mix engineering, equipment, and recording methods to be taken seriously. It’s unfortunate it’s this way but it makes us stronger in the end that the only person we need to count on is ourselves!
Dance Loud is comprised of Kristin Sanchez [DJ, producer, engineer] and Desereé Fawn Zimmerman [drums, guitar, vocals]. The Chicago duo co-mingles Fawn’s live instrumentation with Sanchez’s electronic production.
The Moment Track List:
1) Travel
2) Shady Beach
3) Dimes
4) Hollow
5) Hear Me Out
6) Why Lie
7) One Verse
8) Time
