Singaporean producer MYRNE aims to keep dancefloors fresh in 2023, after a revitalised past year, with ‘Conflicted.’, his new single and latest collaboration with Filipino-American producer Manila Killa. The track also marks the three-year anniversary of their collaborative EP, ‘Fluorescence’.
With this new track, MYRNE marks a new phrase in his career with a proclamation: “2023 is the year I make music specifically for dancing.”
In 2022, MYRNE began to show signs of activity after a brief hiatus. Beginning with his comeback single ‘What Can I Do’, the prolific dance music producer gave fans a peek into his new outlook as a full-fledged artist, one who battled uncertainty and listlessness after navigating his way in the world as Southeast Asia’s most exciting newcomer in EDM.
‘Conflicted.’ shows him refining his style as he keeps his finger on the pulse. After all, the world of dance music has changed since he first broke out into the scene in 2017. Now, revellers and music lovers aren’t simply looking for the “drop” – they look for unity and clarity in the beat.
“It’s one of the first times I actually thought of making music for the club, while in the club,” MYRNE says of ‘Conflicted.’ “I was at a Soap party in Seoul and they just had the best atmosphere, lights, people and all that.” In the middle of the dancefloor, inspiration struck MYRNE, and he recorded a voice note while the ideas were still fresh.
A song that abides by the four-on-the-floor pulse of house music, ‘Conflicted.’ is injected with cosmic thrills. In it, the dark, mechanic traces of techno entwine seamlessly with the song’s bouncy groove, recalling the retro-futuristic glory of French house with all of its squirmy synth lines.
It’s a refreshing change of pace for MYRNE, but he didn’t arrive here alone. Ask MYRNE on his dream list of collaborators and Manila Killa would be sitting pretty at the top of it – but the truth is that the two had already sparked magic in their 2020 collaborative EP ‘Fluorescence’.
Admittedly, that was a different version of MYRNE: just as hungry, but more eager to incorporate disparate sounds. The MYRNE of 2023 ignites a focused attitude unheard in any of his past full-length releases.
The chemistry between the duo, however, remains the same. “It took less than three takes between us to get it right,” he says. The duo spent time hanging out in Los Angeles, but their collaborative process took place entirely online. “I added a really simple, dark, brooding drum loop and sent it off to Manila Killa,” he explains, “and he flipped the entire song on its head. He turned it into something really energetic!”
“While MYRNE lives on the other side of the world, the way we work is just through sending each other our projects. I was inspired by my nights out in the Philippines, reconnecting with old friends, and I wanted to express that energy in ‘Conflicted.’,” Manila Killa says. “We’re both on the same wavelength when it comes to our taste and direction in music so it was pretty easy to go back and forth to finish the track over the few weeks.”
Where that leaves MYRNE is a long road ahead that shines brighter than ever. When he wrote ‘Conflicted.’, he kept it simple: “I just imagined myself back at that one night in Seoul, having too good of a time.” That attitude is now a mantra as he steps forward: to him, the dance floor is a place of exhilaration and harmony. He intends to keep it that way.
