Australian pop traveler Sophie Payten, who records under the name Gordi, was a Stereogum Artist To Watch back in 2016. Since then, she's become a prolific collaborator, and she's also released plenty of her own records. Right now, she's got another one on the way. Gordi will release her new LP Like Plasticine next month, and we've posted the early singles "Alien Cowboy" and "Peripheral Lover." Today, she's got a new one that really shimmers.
I mostly think of Gordi as a synthpop artist, but she goes in a very different direction on her new song "Cutting Room Floor." This one is a driving, strummy old-school adult-contempo banger, and it recalls Fleetwood Mac in the same way that most of the best Haim songs do. Gordi recorded "Not Anymore" in North Carolina, and she co-produced it the the Megafaun member and Bon Iver collaborator Brad Cook, who she met when she was working on Justin Vernon's Big Red Machine project. Here's what Gordi says about the track:
"Cutting Room Floor" is a song about growing pains, about the slow splintering that happens between people. I took the song to Durham in North Carolina to work on with my friend Brad Cook. Matt McCaughan came over and played drums, and Brad and I filled in the rest.
It was one of those songs that seemed to expand to fit any idea, and it was a real joy to work on. Jared Frieder and I shot the video in a carpark in Dallas as the sun was setting in the middle of a sweltering heatwave. I ate a whole pack of Twizzlers when we finished in an effort to abate my delirium.
Matt McCaughan, by the way, is the drummer from Bon Iver. She didn't say Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan's name wrong, even though he is also based in Durham. I had to check that and make sure. It's confusing! Anyway, check the song out below.
Like Plasticine is out 5/30 on Mushroom Music.
