Classixx Share Their 5 Favourite Faraway Places
Electronic duo Classixx hail from Los Angeles, a city flanked by palm trees and desert oases. Their music – which is accurately described as ‘tropical house’ – can instantly transport you to that sunny isle in Greece or a sail boat in Croatia. It’s smooth in production, bold in execution and something you’d chuck on when you’re feeling inspired to travel.
The boys have just released their second studio album Faraway Reach, which they recorded between Sydney, New York, Cape Town, Johannesburg and their studio in Venice Beach, California. The album features collaborations with Holy Ghost!, De Lux, How To Dress Well and even T-Pain, as well as their new single ‘Safe Inside’ with Michael Angelakos from Passion Pit.
In celebration of the new record, we thought we’d pick their brains about their favourite “faraway” places across the globe. Here’s one half of Classixx, Tyler Blake, on his favourite spots to get away from it all.
Tokyo
Tokyo might be our favourite faraway place to visit. It’s just such an evolved city – it’s very futuristic and postmodern. It’s also just so much fun. There are no shortage of amazing places to eat and drink and be entertained.
One thing we really love in Tokyo is their record bars. There is one called JBS in Shibuya where there cool old dude named Kobyashi plays records from his vast collection and serves you fine Japanese whisky. The album art/sleeve is on display while its being played. You can pick things out too – last time I was there he was playing Roy Ayers which is pretty rad.
The city is also so ahead in terms of fashion and design. We tend to go overboard with shopping just because every store you walk into in Harajuku would be the coolest store in LA. One of our favourite places to eat in the city is a little gyoza spot simply called Harajuku Gyoza. It’s very small and so is the menu but its insanely simple and delicious.
Bali
Mike and I have been to Bali a few times now and it’s one of the places we don’t wanna leave when our return flight comes around. It’s such a beautiful place and everything is so wildly cheap that it’s shocking. We always rent scooters and just explore. You can also get an incredible full body two-hour massage and body scrub for like $6. The way of life there is so chill.
You can also get such great bags and jackets and suits or anything really made for a great price with excellent materials and great craftsmanship. On top of all that, there is amazing Balinese food that is again so inexpensive. Such a cool place.
Berlin
When we tour Europe we usually rent a place in Berlin and use it as a home base to come to and from. It’s such a cool city with relatively inexpensive housing. In terms of electronic music they’ve always been pretty far ahead setting the temperature. Also, the turkish food there is insanely good and cheap. You can’t get a doner kabab here in LA that is nearly as good.
[related_articles]29182[/related_articles]Copenhagen
I think Copenhagen in the summer is about as beautiful as a city can be. Riding bikes everywhere sitting outside in cafes and getting afternoon beers, and eating at great restaurants headed by former chefs of Noma, the greatest restaurant in the world. If you’re lucky and get a reservation months in advance you can dine at Noma itself. We have a lot of friends and loved ones in this city as well, making it one of our favourites.
New York City
What can I say? Even with the whole NY vs. LA argument, it’s impossible to deny that New York is at least one of the greatest cities on earth. The scale of it is just unbelievable. All of the best of everything is right there in that city – restaurants, theatre, arts, business, music, nightlife…everything!
It’s so damn beautiful right before summer when you can walk around in a T-Shirt but not be sweltering hot. I love New York and we probably have more friends there than anywhere else besides our hometown of LA.
Bonus: Sydney
I know we’re supposed to keep it to five places, but I can’t finish this list without including Sydney. Sydney really feels like home when we’re there. It’s really so similar to Los Angeles in many ways, but more beautiful and with better food and bars. We have made friends with so many cool bands and artists there through the years, and we always make some kind of music while we’re there.
Classixx’ sophmore album Faraway Reach is out now.
