James Atlas takes off in a new direction with fun, electro-pop shopping anthem “Retail Therapy”
By Kurt Beyers
With a ditty-bopping, hand-clapping dance beat and playful lyrics, Australian artist James Atlas makes fun of and celebrates a kind of mall and shopping culture in his latest synth-pop release “Retail Therapy.”
“It’s about my own shopping addiction, and it’s about me kind of laughing at that while also reveling in it,” he said.
In fact, the inspiration came from one of the world’s most famous malls.
“When I listened to the arrangement for that one, I was walking around Dubai. I’d just been to the Dubai Mall, and the track took my mind straight to what I had just been doing at the mall. They were so closely related in style that I thought it would be funny to do a song about shopping addiction.”
“How do I fill / this void inside of me?” the song asks, and answers:
Oh I know / oh I know
Take it all / home with me
I want more / Of every thing
And I don’t care / what it takes from me
“It’s the craziest mall I’ve ever seen. I've never seen anything like that,” he said.
“Retail Therapy” is the first of 12 tracks to be released in the coming year for what will be his first album, the self-titled James Atlas. The song is also an inflection point in James’s musical style. He has turned from the acoustic sounds of earlier years to a more experimental treatment.
“It’s pretty much electro pop,” he said. “It’s got all synths in it and kind of ’80s style drums and different elements. I put some experimental kind of things in there, like cash register samples and credit card swipes that we thought would be kind of humorous to throw in.”
He says it is a dance track that can be played at a club or that people can sing along with.
“I’m trying to encourage people to use it as a soundtrack to shopping-haul videos or unboxing videos.”
His musical career started as a drummer in metal bands while studying jazz and exploring different kinds of music. He started releasing his songs in 2020 as an acoustic singer-songwriter.
“I started writing on the acoustic guitar—it’s obviously like the perfect instrument to write songs on.”
In his earlier work he was experimenting with the guitar, “and I realized I liked a space vibe.” His Spotify tagline is “Music from the cosmos.”
He got a pedal to trigger samples over the guitar, and then began running the guitar “through different kinds of spacy foot pedals as well.”
Speaking of space and retail, he has used his background in 3D modeling to design and produce a rocket.
“And in the porthole of the rocket will be a QR code, and people can scan the code on their phones and it will take them to the album. I will eventually put them up on the website, and we’ll be selling them at the shows. I think each show we’re planning to give away one rocket—whoever makes the most noise, or something.”
His move to pop, and work on the album, began in earnest in the early part of this year, when he met DJ server and started trying out different sounds.
Born in Australia, he has lived in the United States and Europe. His music incorporates elements of lo-fi, pop, rock and jazz.
“‘It’s the direction I’d love to head in moving forward, and obviously I’ll still mix it up stylistically. We’re already talking about a second album. It was definitely a big, big move for me and pushed me out of my comfort zone in the different genres.”
Of “Retail Therapy,” he said, “I just want it to be everyone’s new shopping anthem.”
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