Angrybaby: 'Back to Life'

The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.

Angrybaby is a dance music artist born and raised in Albany who grew up playing classical piano. After experimenting by making music with rap and hip-hop, he became interested in dance music in college. Previously, he had thought of the genre as cheesy party music.

“When I really started to study it, it felt like the most freeing type of music that I had ever listened to or attempted to make,” Angrybaby says. “There’s this inherent sort of rebelliousness with it.”

He says dance music is the only type of music that allows him to be an artist, producer and singer. With other musical styles he made, he relied heavily on another rapper or artist to rap over his beats.

Angrybaby says “Back to Life” is probably his favorite song that he’s ever made.

“I’ve always thought dance music shouldn’t have a verse, a pre-chorus, a chorus [or] a second verse,” he says. “It shouldn’t be a song. It should be kind of like this ambient droning beat, potentially with a driving baseline. And I think [“Back to Life”] was just so different in that it was an actual song.”

In high school, he was introduced to lip-syncing and enjoyed performing for audiences. Once he started creating his own music and getting a crowd reaction, it became the “most addictive feeling.”

“It’s like you are having this shared experience with this large group of people and it feels just very human,” Angrybaby says.

He says much of his musical content deals with the concept of love, whether it’s between two romantic partners, the relationship with parents or with a friend.

“I’ve always been one to listen to the instrumental portion of music before I listen to the lyrical stuff,” Angrybaby says. “I hope people take away [that] ‘Wow, this is a great song,’ but secondly, I really hope it provides a listener a view into dance music that they wouldn’t normally get.”

Angrybaby will release a nine-song project called AFTERWORK on Oct. 11, announcing show dates soon after, so you can go hear him live.