Baauer Talks Debut Album 'Aa' in New Interview w/ The Fader

Music producer Harry Bauer Rodrigues, aka Baauer, at the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve in the United Arab Emirates on April 22, 2014.

Baauer is normally shy and withdrawn, but this bedroom producer is finally leaving the safe confines of communicating via the internet, to promote what will surpass the viral video ghosts that haunt him, to become his best release yet. Aa, the debut full-length album from Harry Rodrigues aka Baauer, is slotted to drop 3.18 (March 18). We have been following the creation of this album since before its existence, although unbeknownst to us at the time. All these years with this album in the making, arguably the entire lifetime of this musical marvel whose life work thematically serves the purpose of curating precisely what the whole of this great world actually sounds like.

Intentional or not, Baauers sound has always been aptly represented in every piece of music he has made. Even the track that both made and almost broke him before he broke out, Harlem Shake, was years ahead of its time and became wildly accepted by the masses. An early statement exemplary of the ways of this modern world in the misrepresentation and manipulation of this work, stripping it of originality with the overexposure the led to unwanted and misguided fame for Harlem Shake, the background noise on those viral videos.

Fame seems to matter very little to this musical prodigy, but his integrity as an artist quite obviously means everything. The releases that followed his unexpected rise to glory, the Dum Dum EP and β were nowhere near viral, but Baauer was linked up with Lucky Me Records by now, and starting to come into his own as an artist. The documentary Searching for Sound with the help of Red Bull, fellow producer and withdrawn weirdo and longtime friend to Harry, Nick Hook, and samples of sounds from each corner of the Earth. They recorded these sounds of the world, and retreated to Baauers bedroom in typical fashion. Magic happened in the form an EP and sample pack so unique and packed with so much potential.

A buzz generated from these productions, and the entire project solidifies Baauer in a league of OG. This documentary earns him the title of legend, showcasing his natural talent and ability to produce music from instruments and electronics alike. Wielding different sounds into some wholly represented composition, the entire world coming through our ears in this intrinsic language that helps us to understand the complexities of this globe, spinning and spinning on its axis. The genius of Baauer and Nick Hook on display in the film as these two create something larger than life in a connected, cohesive mix of these worldly sounds.

Baauer makes music in his bedroom on his laptop, and his quiet demeanor might suggest him to be shy and withdrawn. There was no way he had been ready for the onslaught of stress, responsibility, and legality issue a result of the infamous Harlem Shake incident. In the end, that track may have been more stress than it was worth, also begging the question would we even know the name Baauer had it never gone viral? It would not have been the same climb up the ranks, that is certain. Harry shot straight up as Baauer, reaching the height of his success before even producing anything further. His name was not associated with the viral craze coined in the track, but he is still living down its memory years later.

His introduction into this world may have something to do with the sporadic nature in which he has released music over these years. Now a grown man and no less brilliant, he has been working on this album guaranteed to be so epic, it will be epic and forever memorialize Baauer for all the right reasons. He may never need to speak again, needing only the first letter of the alphabet, the second two in his name, and Aa might just say all there is to say about the world and this incredible artists understanding of it, but also the imprint his music will leave on the whole wide world from whence it came.

The obsession and need for Aa grows as the PR campaign teases as the label Lucky Me Records and the Baauer camp continue to reveal exciting details such as a tracklist boasting massive collaborations from the likes of Pusha T, Future, and the one that feels the hugest: M.I.A. Paper planes part deux, and it is Harrys turn to change the game and flip the script. Photos of the physical album and its art have also been spotted on socials, with the illest artwork from artist Jonathan Zawada. In a rare interview with the Fader, Baauer himself talks about Aa. It is becoming more apparent as the countdown dwindles further, that this is album is going to be epic.

It is an uncanny feeling, knowing you are right about something that is not yet known. Soon the world will know the truth, and finally be impressed and in awe at the next level genius of this artist.

Aa drops 3.18 on Lucky Me Records.