Red Bull Sound Select: Race Banyon Mini Documentary

27 October, 2015
-For Immediate Release-

Red Bull Sound Select: Race Banyon Mini Documentary.

Last year, Wellington-based live electronica performer Race Banyon (aka Eddie Johnston) hit the New Zealand summer festival circuit heavy. In the process, the Red Bull Sound Select artist found an appreciative audience for his imaginative and emotional bootleg remixes of songs from the likes of Drake, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj and 2Chainz. The shows went well, but something wasn't quite right. As he explains, "I was taking a lot from other people. I started feeling quite weird about being a middle class white guy taking vocal samples from all these black RnB artists. It felt quite inappropriate." Something had to change.

This year he has been mostly focused on his Lontalius live band project. He's been writing and recording melodic indie rock songs, and performing them to appreciative audiences in New Zealand and America. In focusing intently on original music, Eddie has achieved new perspective on how to approach Race Banyon. "At the moment I'm more interested in creating things myself and writing vocal hooks myself. So what I'd like to do with Race Banyon is bring beautiful melodies to these genres of music I really like that don't really have that kind of emotional depth that RnB has. I'm interested in working out exactly what Race Banyon is."

With this focused philosophy in place, he's currently busy putting it into practice in recording sessions in Los Angeles with Red Bull Sound Select, and soon in Paris, where he will attend the storied Red Bull Music Academy in November. This summer at Northern Bass and Rhythm and Vines, Eddie will be giving the audience a first peak at what could be for Race Banyon.

For a more in-depth look into his musical mindset and how it's been changing, check out Red Bull Sound Select's Race Banyon video documentary above. Filmed between Wellington and Auckland, the documentary walks us through Eddie's background, helps us understand his song writing process and interest, and includes additional commentary from some of his friends and peers.

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