Boombox Blitz: Ferris Pier & Abby Cates bask in city’s glow with ‘Lift Me Up’
The pop producer links up with one of The Voice’s finest performers in a new video.
Welcome to Boombox Blitz, an artist spotlight series showcasing overlooked singers, songwriters and musicians who are quietly taking over the world.
There’s something about a concrete jungle that can reinvigorate your bones. Whether it’s traipsing down Hollywood Boulevard or breaking for the coast to bathe on sun-bleached beaches, you can get your fill with whatever kind of elixir you so desire. Electro-pop producer Ferris Pier (real name Jonathan Pasma) culls such thrills with his new video, “Lift Me Up,” featuring bright synth-y elastics stretching across Abby Cates‘ euphoria-cooked voice. “I want to feel the city / The lights, the neon fame,” sings Cates, most known for her work on The Voice‘s Season 15. Prancing along a springboard of shiny musical fibers, Cates vaults through every emotional state, from chest-pounding aches to gripping heavenly bliss as the cityscape opens as a vast fantastical world before her.
“I’d rather feel it all,” she later admits. “Lift Me Up” configures not only the physical sensations of arriving in a new city, feeling the orb-like lights bouncing off your skin, but it configures the liberation in unearthing fresh creative territory. “[This song] is about being creatively constrained by people who are afraid of change. People who are afraid to explore and be brave. I want the song to inspire people to follow their passion despite the obstacles,” says Pasma, who was once a full-time practicing physician. Once a student of Whitworth University, he also earned a degree in jazz performance, so his sensibilities lie predominantly in the organic, but the synthetic shimmer of “Lift Me Up” is altogether enticing.
Pasma (who’s also worked with Chris Jamison and Claire DeJean) strives to impress the listener with an unruly sense of independence with the visual, as well. Violently penetrating neons are distorted through rapt camera work as an unnamed dancer zigs and zags through Francisco Street, imposing structures flittering as newborn butterflies, and the adrenaline quickly rises and seems to consume the entire piece. But that’s the point: it’s about reveling in the moment and feeling it ever-so deeply.
“Lift Me Up” anchors Pasma’s forthcoming EP, expected in 2020.
Watch below:
