The video for Are You Listening is a collaboration between Daniel Rafn, Double Plus Good, and Kya Bliss (of dance collective House of Aquarius). Kya's takes were all improvised. She practiced to the song for weeks so that she could be spontaneous in movement yet within a familiarity to the material. The song is a fully re-worked version that originally comes from Double Plus Good's 2014 album You Can Master Life. The video was shot by Kevin England and directed by Rafn.
Daniel Rafn was born and raised in Salem, Ore. and grew up within a tight-knit community of artists and musicians. Influenced by 1980s pop, and early 1990s pop and r+b, Daniel also finds inspiration in entities as disparate as Chopin and Drake. Daniel sometimes performs live using voice and sampler. He has released two albums under the former moniker D.S.R. His 2013 album, Now The Branches Are Coming Into Leaf, continues his earnest exploration of masculine / feminine dynamics, romantic love, and the mysteries of the natural world. He lives in Portland, OR, and is currently working on his fourth full-length.
A collaboration between Daniel and Portland art collective Futro founder Neo G Yo, Righteous / Makin This marks their first joint endeavor. The 'double-single' showcases a back-and-forth on themes of checked self-confidence, tough-love from relationships, and the need to sometimes sacrifice being social in order to produce music.
You & Me Both is from of Calling Out of Context (material from 1973 - 1992, released 2004). Place I Know / Kid Like You comes from World of Echo (1986), an album Arthur Russell chose not to include lyrics to. In Daniel's desire to have specific words to sing for his version, he aimed to 'translate' his vocal phrases into something concrete, while keeping in mind that, as Steve Knutson at Audika Records has said, "Arthur was using sound as language and language as sound." Cello on 'Place I Know / Kid Like You' performed by Nick Emerson.