‘Hayop’ is the exciting debut from American-Pinay artist Kelady and multi-instrumentalist-producer Danyo. Challenging the contemporary urban sound by injecting a Los Angeles blend of cumbia, reggaeton, and favela funk with a sweet late-night Manila treat, ‘Hayop’, translated to beast, is a triumphant introduction to this up and coming artist. Stringing together a balanced concoction of sound and culture, the single offers a unique insight into the internal struggles and thoughts of an admirer, asking “anoangginagawa mo dito? halikadito, ano bang problema mo sabi ko? mahirapito / what are you doing here? come here, what’s your problem? this is hard”. Complete with a playfully vibrant, self-produced video accompanied by singer Lo, ‘Hayop’ will take listeners of M.I.A., Little Dragon, and SBTRKT by surprise.
“’Hayop’ is a song about letting your internal thoughts collide with yourself, whether this be longing for something, someone or the self. Going back to how we started, we began with the medium itself –– dance music and what rhythm does to your body. At that level, the control it has [rhythm] was an ultimate theme and it’s pretty wild. That’s where “Hayop” arose from, engaging with the sounds that hypnotize you. The music video is self-produced with a combination of selfie recordings and Danyo shooting me perform. I directed, edited and animated it. We both have an interest in creating a kind of control over the image and how the editing translates to the viewer.” ~ Kelady
“The phenomenon of hypnotic sounds in music really hit me when I found my love for Sérgio Mendes and will.i.am’s album Timeless (2006) which also reflects artists producing an integration of culture across music. We started ‘Hayop’ spontaneously and wrote it over a couple nights. Kelady isn’t fluent in Tagalog which made the writing process more challenging and interesting to approach, but it fit with the idea of feeling caught between cultures. ‘Hayop’ gives a sense of familiarity charged with something new like a hard chaser after a smooth shot.” ~ Danyo
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Photos by Jon Pham
