I have this love affair with L.A. from a distance. I mean, when I'm there I enjoy every ray of sunshine and breeze of seduction I can get. It's a magical place full of hopes and dreams. The only better weather anywhere else is down in SD, but even they don't get the perfect June Gloom right, or the 40 degree nights when you can wear hooded sweatshirts with shorts.

But when I'm not there I seem to miss something about it that I can't quite put my foot on.

"On the road to home, you caught me driving slow

Which direction? I don't know."

For me, it's as if L.A. is this living and breathing thing. This giant living and breathing thing that embraces my craziest thoughts and daydreams and never judges them. Maybe it's just the feeling of being so close to nature when I'm high off of Runyon staring down at the city. I can't name it. All I know is that when I'm not there, something inside of me misses it the way we miss our families back home whenever life gets too crazy. Is that weird? I'm not from there.

"the earth from the air," by thevillainandi reminds me of that. It reminds me of driving down Sunset Boulevard alone at night leaving some nightclub to go up the hill and continue the partying at someone's mansion. Downtown L.A. in the distance. But then it reminds me of how desolate L.A. streets can feel. How lonely L.A. can be.

"I lost my way. I can't be saved."

thevillainandi's debut single is something like that movie, to me. It has this air of loneliness at the start, and then the killer male vocal kicks in and it absolutely takes me to solo street nights within the city of angels. Kind of lonely. Sort of sad.

The swag of the beat, aka the drums and overall production, also do an incredible job of walking with me through that dream, hand-in-hand. Almost the same way that L.A. embraces me while I'm there. Like another breathing and living energy source. I love when music does that to me.

After a minute or so the rest of the production kicks into a higher gear and some super cool melodies happen that make you want to sing them out loud, yourself. I relate those melodies to the random days and nights full of the phony friends we party with to waste some time. Something about the fullness of voices surrounding me that I know only come from effects machines here. Empty voices around me in those memories.

To end it all, my life is no longer out there, so maybe I shouldn't miss it the way I do. Maybe just through great music like this.

"I can't miss you no more."

Tracks by thevillainandi