Kevin Bronson on March 25th, 2016

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The Gifted are the songwriting/production duo of Louis Castle and James Bairian, who pay the bills by working in film, TV and commercial projects and collaborating with other artists. They’ve now branched out to non-assignment work, over the past year or so compiling a six-song EP showcasing six different vocalists, and in almost as many different styles. The first single is “The Lost Ones,” a pop whistler about feeling directionless in which singer Leah Hayes (Scary Mansion) turns the tables on the supposed wisdom of age: “We should know better / but our mistakes are beautiful / Write my older self a letter / saying don’t forget what you don’t know.” Hayes is herself a producer and co-writer (and author of the graphic novel “Not Funny Ha-Ha”), and of the collaboration, she says, “We had so much fun in the process. … I blew my voice out doing this song, but it was worth it.” The rest of the EP features the likes of Miya Folick, Jamie Jackson (Hot As Sun), Kossiko, Mackenzie Thoms and Jordan Witzigreuter (The Ready Set). A release date for the EP (and the remixes that are in the works) is TBA.

||| Stream: “The Lost Ones”