Last January our little brother, who was 18 at the time, gave us an album for Christmas. It was Anderson .Paak‘s Malibu, which Alex says was the sound of 2016.

We didn’t know who Anderson .Paak was, but after half a listen of Malibu, we agreed with Alex. The kid was onto something.

That instance of learning about something new – about a wave of music that people much younger than us (or maybe just people in general who aren’t us) know and care a lot about – was an important part of involving ourselves and taking interest in what is happening in music today.

This reminds us of another somewhat similar instance that occurred in early 2014, when we went to Laneway Festival without knowing a single artist well enough to sing through more than two songs. Well… we knew Lorde’s Royals (obviously), and we vaguely knew of Haim’s The Wire, but that was it.

In going to that festival, a special phenomenon happened. Our first experience of and connection to new musicians from around the world (and our own country) was not just through our ears; it was visual, atmospheric, and (due to to the dramaticly hot heat) thermoreceptic.

Now, when we listen to Haim’s album Days Are Gone, we we hear more than the music, we see Este’s bass face and smell sweat and hear the thrum of the crowd around us and we feel that sickly sunburnt feeling in our bellies – we’re taken back to a place in time that was connected to the thousands of people who also saw and smelt and heard and felt exactly what we did.

It gives us a deeper, more lived connection to the music. And that’s why we’re going back again this January.

That, and to see Anderson .Paak. Our little brother knows what’s good.