Virginia To Vegas: flyby. - ft. Mokita
Plaintive vocals nestle atop gently insistent beats, and the results are subtly persuasive.
By Kerry Doole
Virginia To Vegas - flyby. feat. Mokita (Wax Records): The Toronto-based electro-pop artist Virginia To Vegas (aka Derik Baker) has released a new EP, don't wake me, i'm dreaming, and this is one of the focus tracks.
In a press release, Baker notes that "flyby. featuring Mokita is a song that means something different to both of us, so I’m sure it will have its own meaning to you. But for me, it’s the feeling of not appreciating someone special in your life until it’s too late."
The song was written by Baker, Geoff Warburton, John Luke Carter (Mokita) and Mackenzie Jon Thoms. Plaintive vocals nestle atop gently insistent beats, and the results are subtly ingratiating. The harmony vocals of Mokita are an effective addition.
Baker explains the six-track EP this way: "I had a lot of time to spend at home and on Zoom with my friends, and there was a nostalgic feeling to being in quarantine. It's not typical to have so much time at home, with your own thoughts. Stories just kind of came to the surface with being back in Toronto, as this is the longest I've been in the city in a long while. Time kind of stretched and sped by with almost a dream-like quality to it, and I wanted to create a body of work to capture that."
Relocating back to Toronto from LA, Baker has established his own in-house video production, graphic design, music production and songwriting team alongside local artists like Mike Wise (Ellie Goulding, Allie X, Johnny Orlando, bülow), Justin Alexis aka ThatGoodGraphic (Ariana Grande, Lights), David Charles Fischer aka DCF (DVBBS, Wiz Khalifa), Geoff Warburton (Shawn Mendes, Backstreet Boys, 5 Seconds of Summer) and Nathan Ferraro (bülow, Johnny Orlando).
A multi-platinum selling Juno nominee, Virginia To Vegas' run of hits continued with recent single Palm Springs (the way you made me feel), one that earned more than 500K+ streams in its first week of release. Baker is the voice of multiple Top 10 hits, including Just Friends (50m streams), betterman (10m streams), Selfish (65m streams), Lights Out (13m streams) and We Are Stars (Ft Alyssa Reid) (15m Streams).
Read a recent FYI feature on Baker here.
Links
PR: Richelle Umali, Penelope PR
Management: Ron Morse, Wax Records
Agent: Stefanie Purificati
