Alt-pop’s latest shining light, Isaac Dunbar, is creating music well beyond his 17 years. His soaring new EP, isaac’s insects, features eloquent and poignant writing by Dunbar, reflecting on the moments that have touched him the most over the course of a few years. Though many have aligned his sound with pop music, his fearless approach to creating music sees him experiment with an array of sounds and genres. Shortly after sharing the EP, he took some time out to explore the influences that inspired him the most when working on isaac’s insects.
King Princess
The cover art of my EP was shot on film and normally I shoot digitally. For a while, I actually hated how film looked on me, but I then discovered King Princess' album Cheap Queen and the cover art was so captivating to me. It is a portrait of her shot on film and it changed how I viewed film and now I'm obsessed.
Bugs
Bugs really inspired this EP. I had this experience in my old house where a bunch of water bugs crawled up from my four walls and gathered on my ceiling in the middle of my room, and it was so weird. That's what inspired the whole concept of "isaac's insects"... it felt like these bugs saw me for who I was and knew everything about me and it freaked me out.
PC Music
Growing up, I listened to a ton of EDM but I lost my spark of interest towards it. It wasn't until recently that I listened to a lot of electronic music creating isaac's insects, specifically a lot of PC Music. Sophie and Acra and Charli and all the PC girlies. I love layering a bunch of synths to create walls of sound and I love autotune and synths so much.
My life
Another thing that inspired isaac's insects is my life and all of the things I went through when I was 16. I discovered what I like and what I don't like, who I am and who I'm not. I still am to this day, but 16 was the year it all really started. It felt right to go more in-depth with who I am through this project.
Museums
A majority of my EP was conceptualized when I was on tour with girl in red in fall 2019. We had a pit stop in Boise, Idaho and it was so inspiring there. There was a really cool museum I went to and it really sparked something in me. A very creative type of energy followed me from that place. That whole day was so nostalgic and I believe it aided in my creativity making the EP.
Listen to isaac's insects by Isaac Dunbar below:
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