Yesterday, while perusing Pitchfork's Forkcast, we stumbled across a track by an artist named LDFD.
According to Pitchfork, the man behind the name is a Dallas-based 19-year-old producer/songwriter named Justin Ledford. So the glittery title track the site shared, "Outtacontrol" from LDFD's upcoming Outtacontrol EP for Magical Properties Records, came as a bit of a shocker to here at DC9 HQ. We'd only seen his name once or twice before.
So, impressed by the track (give it a listen after the jump), we reached out to Ledford to find out more about him. Turns out, he's not new to the music thing at all; he says he started playing the guitar when he was 10 years old, and that he's been actively playing instruments ever since.
"Recently, I've been staying in and producing a lot more," he says. "But I've played shows all around Dallas."
Like so many others in the electronic realm, Ledford tells us he creates his music mainly with Ableton Live and samples, albeit with complementary synths, a guitar and a Fender Rhodes electric piano thrown into the mix as well. But, in many regards, he's also still figuring out what he hopes to do with his music. His influences, for sure, show a guy with a wide range of interests. When asked, he names Lex Luger (the rap producer, not the pro wrestler), Dam-Funk, Daedelus, Zomby and Machinedrum as his influences.
Makes sense: As opposed to the spacey feel of "Outtacontrol," the song he was kind enough to pass along to DC9 readers as a free download, "Twerk It," has a significantly different, more hip-hop-leaning sound. Give it a list and download after the jump.
Bonus MP3:
LDFD -- "Twerk It"
LDFD -- "Twerk It"
