Welcome to this week’s Launch Box featuring BAIO
Christopher Baio is best known for being the bassist for the NYC based indie-rock band Vampire Weekend, but did you know he also releases as a record producer under the stage name BAIO? His debut album The Names was released through Glassnote Records September 18th. Take a listen to “Sister of Pearl”
During high school, Baio was lead guitarist, song writer, and vocalist in a local Bronxville, NY band known as Underrated. In college Baio was in a band called the Midnight Hours with Vampire Weekend’s current drummer, Chris Tomson and following the breakup of Midnight Hours, Baio worked as a DJ until Vampire Weekend was created.
A year after Baio graduated, Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut album was released. Then in January 2010 they released their sophomore album Contra. The band took a short break between Contra, and recording their third album Modern Vampires of the City. During this period the band members pursued individual projects. Baio performed DJ sets and scored the film Somebody Up There Likes Me.
Baio released his debut solo EP Sunburn in 2012. Rolling Stone said, ” A three-track set of undulating dance grooves that capture a vibe the bassist describes as ‘hopeful melancholy,’ it’s the culmination of a hobby Baio took up half a decade ago as a student at Columbia University in New York.”
Baio drew a lot of inspiration from electronic and dance music and spent much of his time DJ’ing when Vampire Weekend had a light tour schedule. He said, “I’d lock myself in my little office in my apartment with CDJs and a mixer and just practice mixing all day. I did that quite a bit while we were touring the last record and realized when we finished touring that I really wanted to pursue it.” His first completed track was “Sunburn Modern,” which was inspired by a “nasty, modern art”- looking sunburn he got from a trip to Mexico with his girlfriend.
Baio released a second EP Mira in 2013 and announced his debut LP in April of 2015 saying it would contain “Bowie and Ferry-influenced pop songs and dumbsmart arena techno.” The album takes its title from Don DeLillo’s 1982 novel. “The Names is a record that has reverberated through my mind for much of the last five years,” Baio said in a press release. “Its themes began to take shape when I moved from New York to London in 2013. Check out “Brainwash yyrr Face”
Love this Live performance of “Sister of Pearl” – very cool