Following You

Following You

BACKGROUND

How do you find where you’re going?

Most people who discover their purpose feel as though they encountered something, either real or abstract, that led them along the way. But if you happened upon that link to your destiny — would you recognize it? Would you follow it?

“Following you" is about acknowledging such an encounter, and making the decision to pursue it. It’s about the moment you see your destiny glimmering elusively ahead — the moment you recognize that something that compels your soul is slipping through a doorway in front of you.

You could say this is a song to self. After all, is destiny calling you from beyond, or does your destiny come from within?

“Following You” begins with a late-night, slow-burn aura, a clave in the distance, synths appearing from beyond. Melissa Burgess’s heart-on-sleeve female vocals drift over layers of building synths, a gripping bassline, and a steady beat. Some have pointed out the track has a Lynchian/Twin Peaks aura to it, familiar yet modern and beckoning another world in its composition. Poignantly swelling strings and elegant keyboard motives underpin the vulnerable lyrics that coax toward a space-high resolution to “shake off this cosmic dust” and dive in. Throughout the song, a tranquil ambiance instills a profound sense of hope and awakening to the supernatural.

When much around us can strike in an insincere flash, “Following You” affirms our need to open our eyes and pursue the purest glimmering within us, no matter how foolish or dreamy it may seem. “Following You” is a moonstruck tribute to those of us who follow our inklings.

— Matt & Melissa, Glass Taxi

EP CREDITS

Glass Taxi is Matt Norris & Melissa Burgess
All songs written & recorded by Glass Taxi

Written by Glass Taxi

Mastered by James Auwarter for Coda Room Audio, London/Chicago. (@codaroomaudio)

MORE ON GLASS TAXI

Glass Taxi is an unapologetic love letter to music in all of its forms — distilling memory and intuition into song, visuals, and experience. Songwriters and musicians, Matt Norris and Melissa Burgess, have joined visions to create compelling, whimsical, freewheeling music, with the motto: Nothing is off the table.

The duo has forged this path with a steady string of releases, leaping from the anthemic chamber pop of Take It, to the gutter funk of Whose Ringing Your Bell, to the classic punk power of Copman.

Grotesqualizer said of the recent single Time Sukking: "Glass Taxi superbly presents an extravaganza of joy in a distinctive sound. Disco-goth synths, dance floor misterio-smoke, the strange choir conducted by a robot, and woozy carnival percussion rhythms plunge you into a dream where everything is connected by electrifying, unpredictable, odd flair."

Their next single, “Following You," is about encountering destiny from beyond, and deciding to pursue it. The song was mastered at Coda Room Audio (London/Chicago) by James Auwarter and is joined with a music video directed, choreographed, and performed by renowned dancer Marie-Louise Hertog. Following You is about dreams calling elusively from ahead, mirages of possibility, and the moment you realize a doorway has just opened in front of you and all you have to do is step.

Songwriting, for us, has been inspired by time living & traveling abroad. Our music listening went from a deliberate pressing of “play” to a matter of complete happenstance — catching songs in transport vans, shops, and on the street. Factors of language and catchiness come to bear in how pop music sticks, and unmoored from our usual contexts we began to delight in the randomness of transmission; this playlist built from complete chance. Each of the songs we release this year will ultimately play through that filter: Eschewing a dominant sound that impacts every track, for something more curated & exploratory. Something that translates in the immediate.

We want to build kind of a Wunderkammer of songs and sounds. A Wunderkammer is a cabinet for curiosities, a place to collect otherwise unrelated fascinations, a catalog of wonders. The point is simply to follow our most intense musical obsessions ruthlessly.

Friends since high school, Matt Norris and Melissa Burgess started sending songs back and forth during 2020. Melissa was a portrait painter in Atlanta when she began collaborating with Matt long-distance, pulling from her love of songwriting and art, as well as her experience as a classically-trained pianist. Matt was a fixture in the Atlanta music scene, playing in groups across genres and opening for bands as varied as Deerhunter, Mugison, and, randomly, Mumford & Sons. In 2015 he sold all his possessions (except musical instruments) and left the States, living in Berlin, Krakow, Taichung, and London, before settling in Poznan, Poland