BY AUGUST BROWN via The Los Angeles Times
Months ago, when the experimental R&B duo Closegood was working on its first singles, the pair recorded scores of demos trying to lock down its sound. Often, the two concluded that those vocal takes didn’t feel like their true selves.
Plenty of new artists go through similar doubts. But that self-discovery process had extra weight for Closegood. The duo, two trans producer-songwriters, were still figuring out the practical aspects of transitioning. One was matching your singing voice to your identity.
They’d have days where they’d come in and say, “I am dysphoric about my voice today. I don’t think I can sing, I don’t think I can record this,” producer Amada said. “But that’s another way that this is experimental music. I said, ‘OK, we’ll manipulate your voice, pitch it down, we’ll give you a completely different voice. It’s still you.’”
That process — using art and aesthetics to become more yourself — shows up in “Omen,” an autumnal soul-pop single where vocalist-producer Nyfe describes EQ’ing a track to “cut the treble from my voice ‘til boyhood feel close.”
“Choosing the way you present yourself, to be able to make those choices that ‘today we’re not going to be this,’” Amada added, “it’s still very real.”
With just a handful of singles and a new record, “Graven,” out next week, the L.A.-based Closegood has already found a compelling new voice in underground R&B. Their trans-ness does inform their writing, as does their experience with race, religion and outsider statuses of all kinds. But the music is so warm and generous that their search for meaning feels welcoming to anyone who wants to come along.
The 22-year-olds met at Pacific Union College, a small Adventist school in Napa Valley that, while isolating and often stultifying to them, was a crucible for finding and asserting themselves through music.
While they’d each been raised in the strict faith, music and literature gave them the language to push back against it.