Label: Understated Recordings
Artist: Grensta
Title: Tha Girl (ft. Hannah Monica)
Catalogue number: USR006
Release date: 22 Feb 2018 (Traxsource, Spotify & Apple Music) / 08 Mar 2018 (all)
Format: digital
Grensta sent us this track back in August 2017 and we fell in love with its groove instantly. He’d mentioned the female vocal sample needed to be re-recorded, so we had the idea to enlist one of our residents, Hannah Monica, to record them in order to keep things in the family. They had never met before, but Grensta was down to give her a shot. We finally got Hannah in the studio in Los Angeles, shot the files up to Grensta in San Francisco, and he went to work on them. During this process, we had already been discussing booking him for one of our parties, so we flew him down for our 1-year anniversary party in DTLA in November. From using the track in our event promo video, to watching him and Hannah jump around while he played it out at our party, seeing the whole thing come full circle was nothing short of satisfying.
“I had a blast playing the Understated party in Los Angeles. It was such a vibe, and I feel stoked to have been a part of it. I had a bunch of friends come out and that made it extra special. Great crew, location, and party.
For the track, it was a bit of a journey. One day after work, I went record digging over at Amoeba on Haight in San Francisco and as I was flipping through my purchases at home, I came up with a loose idea for Tha Girl on my MPC. I tried my best to dirty it on up when recording it into Ableton for that Lo-Fi sound. We then re-recorded some vocals I found in the vinyls to spice up the track and I recorded the bass line with one of my analog synths. I really loved and appreciated working with Hannah and I think the results speak for themselves.”
Launched in October 2016, Understated is the event series founded by LA natives and resident DJs, Micah Smith and Monsieur (Mike) Frazier, and manager, Zach Piehl. The team also consists of Andrew Conde, Mekenna Ball, and Menglin Ruan. Understated Recordings is the label fueled and curated by *Understated, focusing on house, techno, and everything in between that’s coming out of LA’s underground scene. The brand was established with the intent of creating a gathering of like-minded creatives seeking to connect via the power of music and satisfy the soul by dancing the night away. Past artists booked by Understated include Amtrac, Astronomar, Mahalo, Ciszak, Durante, Grensta, Masha, Fritz Carlton, Strange Club, PILO, and resident DJs, Monsieur Frazier, Micah Smith, and Hannah Monica.
