NYC-based musician Ted Davis doesn’t need to explain why he was reluctant to evolve his DJ project from an in-joke among friends to an earnest musical pursuit—the jokes about bad Tinder dates and washed-up indie rockers soundtracking corporate events write themselves at this point. But as he talks us through the making of the four tracks on time to figure things out, his new EP as DJ Stepdad, the context behind this evolution—not to mention the record’s name itself—increasingly feels critical to approaching his downtempo recordings as a narrative, even existential venture instead of merely being an aesthetic one.
Rather than playing into the divorced-guy energy invoked by his moniker, time to figure things out plays like a brief coming-of-age-as-a-DJ story broadly applicable to the urban twenty-something experience, Davis’ skittering deep house providing the perfect musical backdrop for such self-exploration and the sense of wonder that often unlocks. As the EP unfolds from its opening cover of The Radio Dept.’s “heaven’s on fire” carefully restructured to appeal as much to a house audience as it is to fans of the Swedish dream pop outfit, it’s easy to get lost in the sounds—and the sights they elicit—as it takes you on a journey to its good-vibes closer which feels like wandering out of the club at 3 a.m. (incidentally—or not—precisely when the song was written).
With the EP out today, you can stream it and read through Davis’ words below.
1. “heaven’s on fire”
I grew up obsessed with early-2010s dream-pop bands, like DIIV and Craft Spells. But I was always afraid to listen to The Radio Dept. because they put a guy smoking out of a gun on an album cover. When I was, like, 12, it was just a little too hard for my taste. However, last January, I saw a mutual tweet about Clinging to a Scheme and decided to finally toughen up and give it a spin. It’s one of the greatest albums I’ve ever heard.
It’s obviously the big Radio Dept. hit, but I found “Heaven’s on Fire” particularly captivating. I just kept listening to it over and over, and decided the only way I could really work through the obsession was to record a cover of my own. I got in the zone and stayed up for two days straight working on this version, and the outcome is probably my favorite piece of music I’ve ever made. I think the song ended up yielding itself really well to a downtempo reworking, and I had legitimate fun putting my own vocals on a DJ Stepdad track for the first time. I had a really nice moment when I decided to put that Thurson Moore sample from the beginning of the original towards the outro. I know a lot of DJs and electronic artists who are also obsessed with The Radio Dept., so I’m hoping this one scratches an itch that some people didn’t know they’d been missing.
2. “dads can’t step”
I probably wouldn’t have felt inspired to start DJing if I hadn’t watched a bunch of Lot Radio livestreams around when the station first launched. I had the pleasure of doing a set there for the first time in October 2022, on the Wharf Cat Records show. That label has been extremely good to me over the years, and I’m grateful to have become a somewhat-regular guest on their monthly slot.
Before that first mix, I’d been pretty hot and cold about my work as DJ Stepdad. It initially started out as a college party trick, and I’d always been a bit embarrassed to put actual work into promoting my dance music. But that was the night I decided I wanted to put real effort into this project. I ended up spinning after one of my favorite DJs in the world, and a bunch of my friends came through. My mixing that night was…not good! But I had some cold beers in good company while standing in a storage container with a camera on me. It made me realize that New York City is an absolutely fire place to be a DJ who has a predilection toward weird dance and ambient music.
The next day, I made my first track in three years, which ended up becoming “dads can’t step.” Most of my early work was centered on vocal samples pulled from YouTube, but here I decided to switch things up and work with only synths, 808 sounds, and a lo-fi field recording of the rain I captured in the desert. I’m super proud of the end result, and it ultimately sparked the entirety of time to figure things out.
3. “she took the kids”
I’m a pretty goofy person, and I ultimately started making house music because I want people to have a good time. But, to be clear, DJ Stepdad is not a joke. However, I am aware that I might make people think otherwise when I name tracks things like “she took the kids.”
This one started as an attempt to tap into a balearic vibe, and I was also thinking about the first Kilo Kish EP as I sat down to make this. It’s a pretty uplifting, almost celebratory song, and I really like the way the field recording from my dad’s backyard in Arizona adds unpredictable grit to the blissed-out shuffle.
A lot of people are, like, “‘she took the kids’ is such a sad name, yet this song is so happy.” But you have to think about this one from the perspective of a stepdad, not a birth father. By taking the kids, the stepdad in question has been granted full custody, which is something to be happy about. Anyways, dumb tangents aside, I guess this is sort of the warm, happy song on the EP.
4. “bad vibes”
It is an honest-to-god miracle that I finished this EP on my old laptop. That thing was super fried, to the point that the battery would not stay charged for more than six minutes without being plugged in. There were points where I was legitimately worried my computer was going to catch on fire when I fired up Maschine.
“bad vibes” is the final track I cheffed up for time to figure things out, and it’s a miracle that it was completed. I made it in a single evening, and stayed up into the dead of night adding layers at the kitchen table of my old apartment in Williamsburg. I remember finishing this one and walking around at 3 a.m. listening to the EP on repeat and watching all the drunk tech people walk home. I very much pulled from the sonic palette I used for the first DJ Stepdad EP, for my stepchildren volume 1. It’s the only track on the EP to feature a vocal sample, and I was thinking a lot about seminal high school favorites like Shlohmo, Jacques Greene, and Nosaj Thing as I chopped it up. I was also trying to go for the same vibe as some of the releases on this Bristol dubstep/techno label, Livity Sound. I don’t really think it sounds like any of those influences, but I really like how it works as a cathartic ending.
I had a few more elements I wanted to add, but my computer was so low on storage that it wouldn’t let me save any new layers. So eventually I just threw my hands up and called it. I have a huge tendency to overproduce and be way too meticulous when working in the box, so listening back, I actually kind of relish the annoying technological limitations.
