Daiana Feuer on March 27th, 2017

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After Brooklyn band Ex Cops completed their final tour in 2016, Brian Harding made a spontaneous decision at the airport not to return to New York and find a new home here in Los Angeles. “I’m much happier now,” he says. “Los Angeles gives me city and country. Also I write more when I don’t have to wear a jacket everywhere.” Harding got together with producer Andrew Miller, former guitarist for Dum Dum Girls, to work on Blond Ambition, an eclectic psych-pop project that first got our attention with “Shasta” back in November, accompanying the announcement of an album, “Slow All Over,” set for arrival on May 19 via Swoon City Music. 

“I had a clear vision for what I wanted this project to be aesthetically and sonically,” Harding says. “My dad used to play trumpet for Ray Charles and I used to be obsessed with ‘The Genius Comes to Town,’ which is like a very early world-creation album, and I chose to focus on things like ‘Desert Sessions’ or ‘Channel Orange’  where it’s a record you’re not just hearing, you’re living in it.” The second single is “Stupid Boy/Girl,” which he actually wrote five years ago but felt was right to include in this project. He says, “This song belongs to trans people. For someone to know who they truly are and not be able to be that person because of fear and hate is an epidemic level spiritual tragedy. I hope things get better, and I think they will.”

||| Watch: “Stupid Boy/Girl”