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Mar 15, 2021 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Jessy Gonzalez

Today singer, writer, songwriter, and rapper Dessa has shared her newest single “Life On Land.” The newest track is the latest in Dessa’s ongoing IDES singles series, which sees her dropping a new track on the fifteenth of each month. Each track is the product of collaboration between artists across the country, created by sharing sound files, snapshots, and voice memos.

“Life On Land” leans into Dessa’s pop credentials, even more so than the previous IDES releases, filling the track with indelible hooks and an emotive lead vocal. Though Dessa’s vocal show a sense for earworm pop melody, the instrumental goes in more adventurous directions. Like “Rome” and “Bombs Away,” “Life On Land” is a collaboration with producers Lazerbeak and Andy Thompson and the trio of artists bring a palpable sense of atmosphere to the track, guided by moody percussion and a subdued piano line. In turn, that atmosphere melts away with the chorus, offering Dessa the song’s expressive centerpiece moment.

Dessa says of the track, “I started writing ‘Life on Land’ sitting at my Casio keyboard wearing a green sweater and with my hair still wet from the shower. I know because I filmed a little video of myself playing the key line to make sure I didn’t forget it. The first lyrics came easily: ‘Flip a coin, flip a car / I don’t care where we are / the picture and the sound won’t sync / some things time can’t fix’. Almost every other line resisted being written. I walk a lot to try and solve that problem, muttering for a mile or two and coming home with another viable four bars.”

“Like the other songs in the IDES series, this track is a collaboration between me and producers Lazerbeak and Andy Thompson. All three of us thought the song needed an epic pop chorus…but those are easier to talk about than they are to write. When we finally had words and music for each section, we tried several sequences before landing at the structure on record. In the end, we built with pop bricks, but decided to ditch the pop floorpan and go rogue.” Check out the song below and watch for the next installment in the IDES series, coming April 15th.