Blood Diamonds, aka Michael Tucker, is a Los Angeles-based pop artist best known for his luxurious dreamscapes and infectious, sun-dipped production. What will be his debut 4AD record, the much-talked about ‘Phone Sex’ track is finally getting released on July 16th.

Featuring close friend Grimes (Claire Boucher), ‘Phone Sex’ is a track they made together late last-year in a nightlong quest to create a perfect pop song. Influenced by both K-Pop and big productions, they succeeded in creating something true to their aim, an otherworldly summer anthem. For those new to Blood Diamonds, Mike has been making a name for himself over the last few years.

Coming from a background in classical and modernistic jazz from his adolescence in Kansas City, after moving to Vancouver to study a degree in video game design, he became absorbed in all music electronic and started to make his own, sharing it online. This will be his first commercial release since the ‘Grins’ 7” on Transparent Records last summer and he’s close to finishing off his debut album, which hopefully will be out in early-2013. ‘Phone Sex’ is being pressed as a 12” on transparent pink vinyl and will also be made available digitally.

Tracklisting

A1. ‘Phone Sex’

A2. ‘Ritual’

B1. ‘Phone Sex (Unicorn Kid remix)’

B2. ‘Phone Sex (Jensen Sportag remix)’

“We wanted to do a big pop song and wrote it in my bedroom in a night. Within the same week, I played the track at a Blood Diamonds show with Claire as the secret guest. It was ridiculous. We wore LED glasses and projected the PS2 game Rez into the mise-en-scene of Twin Peaks, whilst performing on a slippery stage due to the opening act (ice skaters on fake ice dancing to a David Lynch cover orchestra). Later that month, I reproduced ‘Phone Sex’ with halo drums and we re-wrote the lyrics together. When Claire came over to work on those, I didn’t have my phone on me and she slept on my complex’s porch for half an hour, I still feel bad about it. The song was mixed down in Kansas City on a board which also used on Thriller (mostly did this for laughs).”

Mike Tucker 

“The song came after a sleepless night in Mike’s room, sipping gin and reading Nabokov over the holidays in Vancouver. It’s our ultimate pop fantasy brought to life.”
Claire Boucher