New Heat: Far East Movement feat. Elijah Blake – ‘Church’ + ‘Fighter’ Visual
Koreatown EDM pioneers Far East Movement released the brand new awe-inspiring song entitled “Church” this week. The song is off their new album ‘Identity‘ via Transparent Music/Entertainment One/Bugs/Universal/Spinnin. With production by Far East Movement, Autolaser, Rik Annema, Cimo Fränkel and Thomas Helsloot, the hypnotizingly soulful “Church” features the smooth vocal stylings of R&B crooner and songwriter Elijah Blake.
Far East Movement explains, “It’s a beautiful thing to have something you can believe in that’s bigger than yourself, and if society won’t let you in, create your own. Elijah is a master in the studio. We’ve been fans of his writings and personal work for a while so it’s a real honor to put something out together.”
The group’s third studio album Identity is available now. The 11 track project includes collaborations with both renown American artists and Asian superstars including Macy Gray, Big K.R.I.T., Chanyeol from EXO, Jay Park, Soulja Boy, Hyolin from Sistar, Yoonmirae, Tinashe, Tiffany from Girls Generation among others.
Along with the album release, Far East Movement are commemorating the occasion with a second music video release off the Identity project for “Fighter” featuring the mesmerizing South Korean emcee and songstress Yoonmirae. With production by Far East Movement and Autolaser, the transcendent awe-inspiring track takes you on a journey that pays homage to the honorable plight of immigrants and through these realizations comes a newfound strength and deeper sense of self.
Billboard proclaimed that “Far East Movement are out to conquer every territory and genre with their upcoming album Identity [and how] it’s appropriate that the record is introduced by its most ambitious cut, “Freal Luv.” Far East Movement recently premiered the sensual banger “Freal Luv” along with chart-topping producer Marshmello. The hotly anticipated international collaboration features R&B pop songstress Tinashe and rapper Chanyeol of K-pop boy band phenom EXO.
Before there was the music, there was KTown. It’s where Far East Movement formed: sneaking into bars as underage LA rap friends and kicking freestyles in parking lots until the sun rose. Korea town is where they hosted their first open mic, rocked their first show, and honed the sound that made them international superstars.
“The KTown community was a huge inspiration for us to make Far East Movement. They had our back when no one else did,” says Kev Nish, one third of the group, alongside Prohgress and DJ Virman.
Those apathetic days vanished long ago. The platinum-selling group that SPIN called “EDM pioneers” boast an unrivaled resume at getting girls (and guys) on the dance floor.
Far East Movement has always had dance music in their DNA: their early breakout hit “Like A G6” established the LA trio as major dance commodities around the world. Their ever growing catalog of music (“Rocketeer,” “Girls On The Dance Floor,” “If I Was You (OMG),” just to name a few) has been supported by celebrated artists such as Skrillex, Diplo, and Afrojack. They have also performed at some of the most prestigious festivals including Ultra Music Festival, Electric Daisy Carnival, Spectrum Dance Music Festival, & Storm Festival continually showcasing Far East Movement was one of the most exciting touring acts in dance music.
Their last album, Dirty Bass, spawned four singles that reached the top 10 of pop charts across the globe: “Turn Up The Love,” “Live My Life,” “Dirty Bass,” and “The Illest.” The group has stayed busy with a slew of collaborations on reputable labels such as Ministry of Sound, Dim Mak, and Ultra.
Meanwhile, Far East Movement have also expanded their scope as businessmen, managing eight artists under their company Transparent Agency. Their artists have garnered millions of social media plays and scored releases on reputable labels like OWSLA, Spinnin’, Armada, and Dim Mak. Furthermore, Far East Movement founded a new joint label with Trap City, one of the largest dance music channels in the world (over 5 million subscribers), named BredNButter with a myriad of releases having amassed over 7 million plays in its one year of existence. But at the core of it all, Far East Movement are creative artists and along with their newfound purpose to bridge the gap between East and West, they are most thrilled to present you with their latest journey in discovering this long sought after Identity.
FAR EAST MOVEMENT – MESSAGE ABOUT IDENTITY ALBUM:
As L.A. Asian Americans, there is always a feeling of pride in being American, but also a sense of disconnect from not being fully accepted as 100 percent full blooded American as well. What results from this is a sense of “homelessness” or lost identity, sometimes even frustration towards the culture and traditions that make you beautiful and uniquely YOU.
We’ve always been right in the middle of this cultural identity crisis and experienced extremely polarizing perspectives of Asian Americans in entertainment. These views have ranged from love and positivity towards diversity, to record label executives telling us to change our name because its “too Asian” and others simply dismissing us to “go back to Asia.” The funny thing is, we had never visited Asia until our musical success brought us there.
After releasing our second album, we struggled with making music for a while as we were feeling very uninspired, without any purpose or direction. Months in the studio felt like years, so we decided to take some time off from creating and instead, we travel around the Far East motivated to learn about the cultures that subconsciously shaped our lives. We made life long friends, learned from different cultures, tried different foods, soaked in changing skylines, and discovered music and artists from all over Asia. This journey through the Far East opened our perspective and gave us a new sense of identity as people, entrepreneurs, and as artists.
We channeled this newfound inspiration into our album and that is why we are entitling it IDENTITY. Our goal is to bridge artists from East to West and represent the Identity we have always known our whole life but were unsure of how to embrace it. The theme and sound of this album is inspirational, uplifting, and positive, which was therapeutic to our own personal lives over the last few years and helped give us clarity and direction to build our next movement as friends, business partners, and as artists.
