Felix Cartal’s ‘Expensive Sounds For Nice People’ is out today. The 16-song album is the follow up to 2018’s ‘Next Season’ which has surpassed 100M streams, received acclaim from prominent outlets like Billboard and Paper Mag, led to a Las Vegas residency, 2 x #1 on SiriusXM Chill, and Felix Cartal’s first top 10 hit and Platinum single.
By all indications ‘Expensive Sounds For Nice People’ is Felix Cartal’s biggest and best album to date. So far it has yielded 2 x top 10 certified Platinum hits with “Love Me” and “Mine”, a North American tour, a SiriusXM radio show, acclaim from Billboard, CLASH Magazine, etc. The next step is the release of “Happy Hour”, a top 40 focused dance/pop track with Kiiara, before leading into a comprehensive album roll out throughout the spring into summer 2021.
Listen to 'Expensive Sounds For Nice People' here
Felix Cartal built his career on pushing the boundaries of preordained limits. As the music project of Taelor Deitcher, the Vancouver-based and JUNO-nominated “Producer of the Year” is perched on the intersection of indie and electronica, distilling the emotional details that contemporary producers often overlook. Though endorsed by Billboard as one of "13 Dance Artists Who Dominated 2017”, it’s Cartal’s history of dabbling in DIY punk bands that capitalizes on his talent as a lyricist, and elevates his production into the pop realm. Embracing the unapologetic vulnerability of songwriting, Cartal forges personal narratives and cinematic soundscapes from a genre that shies away from the heartfelt.
Although Cartal has no interest in being a vocalist, his ability to manipulate unlikely phrases into potent hooks leaves him oscillating between the dual role of writing lyrics for his songs while also producing their soundscapes. Cartal began weaving words in basement bands during his childhood, where he spent afternoons writing songs with friends. Stumbling upon Radiohead’s KID A signaled validation for the producer to fuse his singer-songwriter roots with an electronic palette, and matured into a novel approach to electronic dance production. These experiences paved the foundation for a producer who can not only cull an anthem from the quirky play on words that underlies a track like 'Stop Being Yourself', but also produce a radio hit from the simple idea of 'Mood'.
The release of his third studio album, 'Next Season', comes as a moment of clarity for the producer. Written over the course of 3 years, the record sees Cartal exercising his uncanny ability to amplify the intimacy of a poignant lyric with accessible melodies. Despite that the record is crafted with an arsenal of hand- selected vocalists—including Daniela Andrade, Coeur De Pirate, and Iselin - it comes together with an agile pop sensibility that’s as nostalgic as it is invigorating. With 'Get What You Give' certified Gold in Canada, it’s clear that Next Season’s unparalleled emotional depth doesn’t abandon the commercial viability that continues to propel Cartal into radio airplay—instead, it embraces the sincerity and optimism that underwrites self-reflection, and marks a coming of age for the sonic identity of Felix Cartal.
It took a series of immersive studio sessions for Cartal to craft a record that brims with the sort of lush instrumentals that mark a milestone in a producer’s career. Where 'Something to Live For' and 'With You' found the producer feeling detached from his music, Next Season is a technical feat—though mounting success doesn’t harden Cartal’s humble and lighthearted nature. Getting his start on Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak Records, the producer has collaborated with industry heavyweights like Kaskade and R3hab, and pads his chameleonic discography with official remixes of Zedd, Selena Gomez, Galantis, Dillon Francis and more. With over 160 million streams on Spotify, it’s still a surreal surprise for the Canadian artist to stumble upon his own music on the radio. Citing international performances at festivals like Tomorrowland and EDC, Felix Cartal stands as one of Canada’s most dynamic exports, continuously evolving within a space that’s hinged on predictability.
