About Electric Guest:
Contemporary artist Paul Rousso is credited with the 20th century expression, “Anything is possible with a dollar and a dream.”
Embodying this truism, Asa Taccone chased his dream to Los Angeles in 2007 when an established mentor provided a check for $10,000 so the promising ingénue producer could quit his job and pursue music full-time. Rather than blow it on one of L.A.’s many inherent vices (or a weekend trip to Las Vegas), he incubated this miraculous nest egg until he could subsist and survive off his own songwriting, production, and artistry as one-half of the duo Electric Guest with drummer Matthew “Cornbread” Compton.
Electric Guest embrace the same energy, hunger, and mindset that first brought Asa to this point on their aptly titled fourth full-length album, 10K.
“So, 10K is back to the basics,” he affirms. “Nobody was in the room or on the record but friends. In a way, it feels like this is actually my first album. For me, there was a slow arc of returning to a different place where you’re making art for the sake of art. This is a full circle moment.”
Behind-the-scenes, Asa relentlessly pushed himself as a songwriter and producer, building up a robust catalog in the process. He co-wrote and co-produced Portugal. The Man’s 7x-Platinum “Feel It Still,” earning the band a Top 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and a GRAMMY ® Award for “Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.” His repertoire also expanded with Lily-Rose Depp’s “World Class Sinner / I’m A Freak” for The Weeknd’s The Idol, Aminé’s “Campfire” [feat. Injury Reserve], Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Feels Right,” and more. He’s the rare creative chameleon who can cook up “Cheat Code” for H.E.R. or hilarious viral tentpole tracks for The Lonely Island a la “Natalie’s Rap” with Academy® Award winner Natalie Portman, “Motherlover” with Justin Timberlake, “Here I Go” with Charli XCX, and “3-Way (The Golden Rule)” with Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga, among others. Simultaneously, Electric Guest racked up over half-a-billion streams across Mondo [2013], Plural [2017], and KIN [2019]. Of the latter, UPROXX applauded how “Electric Guest bring back golden-era pop and R&B.” It received further praise from Billboard, EUPHORIA., and more.
Throughout 2025, he hunkered down and poured his focus into Electric Guest. For as much as he concurrently collaborated with top-tier talent, he actually found the most inspiration much closer to home.
“I’d jump from a session with The Lonely Island to some ultra-pop shit with The Weeknd or working with Portugal. The Man, but I really spent a lot of time with my parents too,” he reveals. “Overall, they influenced 10K more than anybody else did. They’re big hippies and were activists. They’d school me about all of their musical experiences like going to Woodstock. They said, ‘When we were coming up, it was all about, ‘What are you saying?’.’ I’m in pop songwriting rooms and nobody asks, ‘What are you trying to say?’ My mom and dad influenced the bigger picture and made me think about what I was saying and how I feel about where I’m at.”
Various friends trickled in and out of the Electric Guest sessions, and the music organically took shape primarily recorded at Asa’s home studio. Now, the single “Stand Back For You” projects cavernous guitar transmissions spun from “a janky guitar pedal” above a rock-solid head-nodding beat. Asa’s breathy high register practically hovers across the dreamy soundscape until he flexes his falsetto on the refrain, “I can stand back for you.”
“It’s the moment in a relationship when you realize that you sometimes have to take the second stage in order for the other person to have the spotlight,” he notes. “Even if you have the agency to do so, there are growing pains. It’s not the first phase in love; it’s the deeper phase when you’re with somebody.”
Elsewhere, “1 Player Game” chops up a sample of the doo wop staple “Bad Boy” by The Jive Bombers. The vocals shiver and swoon as if thumping out of a fifties Jukebox. Meanwhile, he harmonizes with a choir, “Heart of an angel, smile of an angel, I carved our names in the trunk and sealed our fate with our blood.”
“I essentially filtered down the sample and played on top of it,” he recalls. “I had found myself in a triangular love situation. I knew it would come to an end, but there was a lot of love. Maybe I should’ve called it ‘3 Player Game?’,” he jests.
“The Love On High” [feat. Kacy Hill] opens on a relatable note as he states, “One day you’re winning. Then, it feels different.” Lightly plucked acoustic guitar tightens around a wave of synth feedback, and he urges, “Please show me the path. Is there another way back? I’m hoping.”
“This moment in America has eroded a sense of purpose for most people,” he observes. “We thought material gain and status would fill us up. I’m not sure it has. The song is trying to look for something deeper.”
Then, there’s the divinely catchy “Creator.” Sunny electric guitar glows, and glitchy filters add glitter to the handclap-driven chant, “You’re my creator.” Enhancing the tune with another dimension, Asa personally played trumpet on the bridge.
“I’m not particularly religious, but I have my own version of faith and spirituality,” he goes on. “Once again, you’re looking for something outside to depend on. My friends got a divorce after seven years. They were cleaning their shit, and they found my trumpet I thought had I lost, so that’s the trumpet you’re hearing. It was cool to channel my jazz band roots.”
Ultimately, Electric Guest have certainly made the most of 10K.
“I’ve come back to the potency of the arts,” he leaves off. “It means so much to me to be able to put out my vibe and whatever insights I have about life and being a human on earth in 2025. Ultimately, it’s an act of hope even if some of the themes are difficult or dark. This is truly a reflection of my energy, personage, and being.”
-Rick Florino
