Brisbane artist OXLEE has unveiled his latest single, ‘Traction’, an R&B-indebted number penned in the thick of the pandemic.

OXLEE released his debut single, ‘I Wouldn’t Change’, last year, and has released a slew of strong singles since, proving to be a promising force in the Australian pop landscape.

‘Traction’ see’s the budding musician at his most confident. It’s a silky-smooth banger that showcases propensity for writing pop earworms.

The musician’s latest single ‘Traction’, saw him work with New Zealand producer EDY entirely over Zoom. To celebrate the release of the single, OXLEE gave us a play-by-play on how the whole thing went down. Pop on the track below and see what he had to say for himself.

Listen to ‘Traction’ by OXLEE:

‘Traction’ is a song I wrote when I was feeling like it was time for me. I had spent so long trying to be someone else, and trying to please others, that I felt like it was time for me to just accept where I am right now in life, and embrace where the music wanted to take me.

The inspiration for the song came from a place of confidence and acceptance, while feeling a little bit reckless at the same time. I feel like ‘Traction’ is a lot stronger than my previous releases, because I didn’t hold back, and I just wanted to do me behind the mic.

What’s crazy about this single is the fact it was all produced on a Zoom call. I was a huge fan of the producer and artist EDY who lives in Auckland New Zealand, and I reached out to him during the lockdown.

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We instantly connected and saw the vision for a collaboration. It took us a couple of goes, but after about the third beat we straight away found the direction wanted to take this collaboration in.

I wrote all the lyrics within a week and we finished the production via Zoom. EDY was working on a couple of tracks at the time with JARNA and Sam V who ended up contributing on the track; you can hear JARNA if you listen carefully to the backing vocals.

Sam V jumped on a Zoom call with me and we spent the whole night tracking vocals until we were happy with the outcome. This really helped me with my vocal performance as I was recording at my home studio by myself and started getting a bit of cabin fever.

What’s crazy to think is I haven’t met any of these amazing artists in person, including EDY the producer, due to COVID. Hopefully, when things settle down I’ll get the chance to fly over to NZ and catch up with my ‘Traction’ family.

I’ve been listening to some amazing new artists lately including the wide genres of K-pop and contemporary R&B, so I want to feature those in the single as well. Because everything I write is based on my own life experiences.

For years I’ve been writing music as an escape from reality, to help me through some of my toughest times, and some of the songs I’ll never release. But I try and keep my music as honest and real to myself as I can be. Because I want people to look at all the things I’ve been through as inspiration to move forward and keep chasing their dreams.

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