“I never thought I’d make an album,” says DJ/producer LP Giobbi (real name Leah Chisholm), W Hotels Music Director and FEMME HOUSE founder. “I thought I’d be a DJ and just put out singles,” she admits. “But one day, I met with Pete Tong. And he told me, ‘You know you’re an album artist, right?’”
May 12 marks the official release of LP Giobbi’s debut studio album, Light Places, which is now streaming everywhere via Counter Records. “I wrote Light Places on airplanes, in trains and hotel rooms… And then I flew to Paris where DJ Tennis helped me run it all through vintage synths. He has an insane studio in Paris, with at least $150,000 worth of synthesizers… We ran all the album’s MIDI parts through his synths, recorded live drums, layered them over electronic drums, and brought everything into the same sonic realm,” she says. Coincidingly building her repertoire for her upcoming Dead House after parties, Giobbi says her debut album’s concept originates from a profound Grateful Dead lyric: “Once in a while / You get shown the light / In the strangest of places / If you look at it right.”
LP Giobbi shared a first taste of her debut project last year in August, delivering “Forever And A Day,” featuring Caroline Byrne. Since then, she’s devised a trail of six early-release singles. Her most recent offering, “All I Need,” landed not long ago on April 18, right between her back-to-back Coachella sets in the Yuma Tent. “All I Need,” Light Places‘ final preview piece, samples Clyde McPhatter’s “The Ties That Bind.” “My publisher has the rights to a bunch of different catalogs,” Giobbi told Dancing Astronaut. “Sometimes I’ll get sent these massive libraries, like The Motown Catalog, for example. ‘The Ties That Bind’ by Clyde McPhatter really grabbed me, so I isolated the vocal and built ‘All I Need’ around that… You find your own euphoric joy in sadness, and [McPhatter’s] vocal really screamed that to me.”
Light Places arrives just weeks ahead of Giobbi and DJ Tennis’ recently announced All In An Airstream tour run. From within the confines of an Airstream trailer, the two DJs are preparing to embark on a cross-country roadtrip, offering intimate performances, plus DJ Tennis-led culinary experiences, across a variety of small towns and cities in the United States.
“This tour is a reason for me to just go live my life! There will be a few times that I’ll have to fly in or out, but I’ll mostly be moving only as fast as a car can move. We’ll be popping up in weird places, like literal caves. And the forest, among other non-traditional spaces… We’re touring the Moog Factory at our first stop in Asheville, where we’ll be building synthesizers and interviewing one of the lead designers who worked with Bob Moog. Every stop has something like that. We’ve been working hard to connect with independent promoters to discover the coolest, weirdest thing we can do [in each city].”
2023 is shaping up to be LP Giobbi’s most impactful year to date. From her infectious single releases, to playing both weekends of Coachella, to gearing up for her Dead House and Airstream tours, and now embracing Pete Tong’s irrefutable career advice, LP Giobbi is a force to be reckoned with. And with that, cheers to Light Places. Stream LP Giobbi’s debut studio album below.
FEATURED IMAGE: Sarah Northrop
