Navigating the inner wilderness of Quadeca

“When you're growing up in that kind of dinner table conversation, you want to have something interesting to add beyond ‘Spongebob is funny,’ you know what I mean?”

Calling in from a street corner in Berlin where he’s rehearsing for an upcoming run of European dates, including a debut London headline which sold out in under an hour, Lasky is articulate, animated and far less jet-lagged than he should be.

From his collaborations with the likes of Danny Brown and Kevin Abstract, to his newest release - the fourth Quadeca album Vanisher, Horizon Scraper - he’s happy to verbosely expand on his quietly seismic career that stems from his early years growing up in California’s Bay Area.

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Around the house, his dad would play British music like The Clash, Sex Pistols and Massive Attack while his mum was more of a singer-songwriter fan, spinning the likes of Joni Mitchell and Norah Jones. But it was an inspirational piano teacher who encouraged his passion for music. “She was a hippie who would come every week and she would close her eyes and listen to the new song that I had made that week, and it was so sweet. She was really, really nice and was treating me like I was a little artist,” he says. “I always loved the idea of writing music. When I was doing piano lessons at six or seven years old, I only wanted to make my own songs.”

In his early teens, Lasky started a YouTube channel showcasing a mix of video game commentary and rap freestyles. It quickly grew and in late 2018, after being called a fraud by fellow YouTuber KSI, he replied with his own diss track. It racked up over eight-million views in ten days.

While Lasky grew up on the platform, his artistry has since evolved beyond its servers. From his debut album, Voice Memos, recorded when he was seventeen, his creative abilities have expanded with each release. “I never want to do an album that's worse than the previous one,” he says. “It's like, okay, what did I struggle with? Everything's just been about learning how to do it all production-wise and then also learning when I need to bring in an instrumentalist.”

Releasing fourth studio album Vanisher, Horizon Scraper through his own, newly founded X8 Music imprint, he’s further building a world around his music. “It's like an untapped opportunity for artfully establishing an ecosystem for the music,” he says. “The other artists that I’m working with to release on my label and my albums that I put on the label, they all create a contrast from each other that then creates a nice little home for them to be in, however different they might be.”

Releases on the label so far include Blush, the fifth album by Kevin Abstract, which also features performance and production by Lasky, and two singles from new artist Olēka, who also guests on Vanisher, Horizon Scraper.

The new album follows the story of a sailor journeying at sea, in search of freedom but ultimately facing destruction. Stunning in its scope, the record takes in a diverse breadth of genre from electronica to folk to hip hop, all hemmed together by the vast landscapes Lasky weaves. Tracks like avant-pop highlight “Monday” platform delicate melody alongside introspective lyrics, while epic album closer “Casper” - featuring Manchester’s Maruja - balances spoken word against a crushing sonic backdrop.

The concept came to Lasky as he began to experiment with the opening song, the radiant “No Questions Asked.” “It feels like a journey in a snow globe or something,” he laughs. “It really invoked the image of a sailor and being out on the ocean. Once I had that thought, it was like this moment that exploded infinite possibilities for a world and a production pallet that I could then explore. I think I get inspired a lot of times to write about these existential searches for meaning. I think that might just reflect my human spirit. Once I was in the mode of that album, I really tried to stay faithful to the feeling that inspired that. Then as the daily occurrences happened, I would shape them within the arc narratively of that story.”

Across the album, Lasky brought in more collaborators to help realise his vision than on any of his preceding work, but the bulk of the record was still written, produced and mixed in isolation. A returning name among the credits is Danny Brown, a longtime creative partner, who features on the explosive single “The Great Bakunawa.” The pair originally connected over DM when Lasky was working on 2022’s I Didn't Mean to Haunt You. “I was like, ‘I have this idea for this song - please, you're the only one who can do this.’ I've come to learn he just loves everything that's really out there,” he laughs. “He really gets excited when it's like, oh this shit hasn't been done before. That's his favourite.”

In the true spirit of partnership, Lasky also contributed to Brown’s recent album Stardust, both as producer and featured artist. “I'm sure we'll continue to do more,” he says. “He's actually the best guy.”

Another dimension of Vanisher, Horizon Scraper comes in the form of a feature-length companion film, shot at sea and in a series of breathtaking, isolated locations. To realise his vision, Lasky even learnt to sail. "It's a steep learning curve and it was really hard and my sailing instructor said I was really one of the worst he'd ever seen,” he laughs.

An arresting and beautiful accompaniment to the album, it continues to grow the world around Lasky’s music. “I was really seeing the album very visually when I was making it and sometimes when I would listen I really would imagine the scenes and I was like damn, I want other people to be able to see these scenes so they can hear the songs the way that I see them,” he says. “So it's all in the effort of helping the story be understood and then it just gives it a little extra chance for the music to click with people properly.”