The new record from Kevin Patrick Sullivan’s Field Medic project feels like the same sort of reinventive statement a late-career self-titled album often makes for artists: light is gone 2 serves as the sequel to Sullivan’s 2015 debut, harkening back to a period before his slacker-rock compositions had fully given way to the lo-fi, alt-alt-country sound he’s come to be known for. Yet this sequel seems to put most of that development onto the backburner as it takes the form of that Don Draper meme earnestly pitching a broadly appealing new concept: “folk music that bangs hard enough.”
It’s evident a minute into the new record that there’s a new force behind these songs, and the catalyst becomes clear as Sullivan shares a playlist of influences on this new direction with us. “Ever since I discovered Bladee in 2020 his influence has had a hold on me,” he tells us, later noting how unexpectedly being subjected to everything from Porter Robinson to the early-’90s pop vocal group Wilson Phillips shaded his new record’s future-pop sonic palette and classic-pop song hooks.
With the record arriving tomorrow via Run for Cover, Sullivan details these unexpected influences and more with the playlist presented below. Read on for his explanations, and pre-order light is gone 2 here.
Yeat, “Twizzy Rich”
I was walking around my neighborhood listening to Yeat and this song came on. The way the 808 drops is so hard I began listening to the song on loop for the remainder of the night. This prompted me to make a tweet that read “folk music don’t bang hard enough :/, and that’s when I realized I needed to add super heavy 808s to at least a few of these songs. It’s the most apparent on track one, “they all seem so happy,” because that song had the most sinister chords for me to work with as far as trying to make something super dark and heavy.
Milli Vanilli, “Girl You Know It’s True”
I’ve always loved Milli Vanilli. I used to have their cassette in my car 15 years ago in my regular rotation. On a tour in 2019 I wound up watching an interview with the one remaining member (Fab) about the difficulties they faced in their career and the subsequent overdose of the other member, Rob. It rekindled my interest in the group and I’ve since spent many hours watching/dancing along to their music videos. They’re so whacky and the production on their music is so lighthearted. “Girl You Know It’s True” has a staccato snare drum part that I implemented in the l track “without you i’d have nothing (and I might even be dead).”
Bladee, “It Girl”
Ever since I discovered Bladee in 2020 his influence has had a hold on me. It was difficult to choose one song of his for this playlist, but I’ve always loved how wavy this song is. This song and Bladee’s discography in general influenced the record with its use of dreamy synths and 808s.
New Edition, “If It Isn’t Love”
This has been one of my all-time favorite songs for a long time. The drum sounds are so amazing. I don’t think I’ve reached anywhere near this level of sounds on light is gone 2, but when I produce new-wave type of songs, this song is always somewhere working in my subconscious.
Wilson Phillips, “You’re in Love”
I found this song on an airplane—it was on the music channel of the built-in TV on the back of the chairs. What really moved me about it was the lead guitar line in the chorus. I think the lead guitar at the end of “the look on her face like a reoccurring dream” has a little bit of that flavor.
PlayRadioPlay!, “Bad Cops Bad Charities”
This song was sort of a subconscious influence for the album. I was in high school when this [type of] music first came out—I had no idea of how drum programming, DAWs, Auto-Tune, or synths worked. It’s been fun to make that discovery later on and be able to implement some of that “MySpace sound” into this record. I’m doing my 15-year-old self a favor.
brody, “comatose”
Brody is a friend of mine and fellow member of Garden Avenue, a producer/artist collective I’m a part of. Brody mixes all of the songs for my side project, Paper Rose Haiku. He’s always been there when I have questions about plugins, mixing, or anything related to producing on a computer, which is relatively new to me. I love all his music and his songwriting. I find the sonics he works with very inspirational.
Fantasy Camp, “Adeline”
Fantasy Camp is also a friend of mine and fellow member of Garden Avenue. Working with him on my side project was what got me using a computer to record in the first place. He’s always also been there to guide me and help me along this journey and is always one of the first people I send a new song to get his opinion. What I love about Jonah [Fantasy Camp] is he always has tons of tracks he’s working on to send right back. His work ethic inspires me and I absolutely love all of his songs. This is my favorite song from his most recent album.
Porter Robinson, “Look at the Sky”
My friend turned me onto Porter Robinson after I sent him a song where I used Little AlterBoy (a plugin) to pitch up my vocal. I hadn’t heard his music before my friend sent it to me, but since then, his album Nurture has been so inspirational as I begin to dive deeper into producing electronic elements around my guitar songs. This song specifically is also so beautiful and nearly brought a tear to my eye the first time I heard it.
