“What I feel I’ve created on this new album is quite uncurrent in terms of production style,” says Orlando Higginbottom, who records under the artist moniker of TEED but was previously known as Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. “But there has to be some sincerity in working in your own lane – you owe it to everyone to be true to yourself.”
Orlando is reflecting on the creation of Always With Me from the brightly lit LA room he made it in. In constructing its eleven tracks, this artist, DJ and producer invested most of his time and energy honing in on what exactly defines his sonic identity.
“It felt like my own space, and a sound I really wanted to explore,” Orlando states. “One of my rules was ‘no eighties drums’, a texture which seemed so prevalent everywhere but I wanted to do something else. It’s not necessarily a good business decision to work against the crowd but I wanted to try something different, to be more inventive.”
TEED’s distinctive sound and production style has led him to carve out a musical space that's entirely his own. British-born but now LA-based, he’s released three albums of singular electronic pop, all of which have acted as snapshots of where his head and musical mojo were at during its creation. 2012’s Trouble reflected the bigger club beats and dancefloors of his successful touring career, then 2022’s When the Lights Go Out explored the pandemic’s isolation and embracing sobriety. His third record strives for a greater sense of connection and positivity.
“My music is about practice and discipline; it’s a project that is both part of me and separate,” Orlando says. “I see where it takes me, and I try to let the project lead. Working on music for me is an impulse and a need.”
The TEED story has been unfurling since the end of the 2000s and his early releases on the Greco-Roman label, balancing his love of classical music with a hunger for the darker rave sounds of jungle and drum and bass. Orlando has since managed to cut his own path through the music industry with his debut album Trouble emerging in 2012 to a wave of hype and acclaim. At this point in his career, he’s a self-confessed album artist with his mind always returning to the format and how the mountain of music he creates can be brought together into a coherent whole.
“As soon as I put out the last record in 2022, I started thinking about what I wanted to do next – it’s almost like a course correction,” Orlando says of his creative approach. “With hindsight after something is finished, I can see where I perhaps self-sabotaged part of the production process or just didn’t quite get the track right.”
“With this record, I wanted to make something lighter, with fewer elements and – this is a funny thing to say – something more enjoyable to listen to. You’d think all artists consider this but actually, I’d never really thought about it like this before.”
Previously, Orlando worked with a vast amount of hardware and equipment but was forced to sell most of it during the pandemic when funds started to dry up. He subsequently moved house, and currently has no appetite to start developing a studio again.
"I found it to be very romantic, to offer interesting soundscapes and about 80% of the synths on the record are made with it"
“The room I’m speaking from is where I made the record, it’s basically a bedroom set-up and I borrowed a polyphonic synth, this Access Virus TI to produce,” he says. “It’s something really associated with drum and bass producers Ed Rush and Optical who used it to make their album Wormhole. But I found it to be very romantic, to offer interesting soundscapes and about 80% of the synths on the record are made with it.”
The record features some of his most honest and melodic music yet - My Melody is irresistible pop confetti while In Darkness has a more twisted feel, yet the whole collection binds together coherently thanks to his thoughtful creative approach, and the Virus’ aural colour.
“I work by making lots of music, which is absolutely my favourite thing to do,” Orlando states on how the tracks came together. “I don’t think too much about a track or where it’s going to live. Instead, it’s just play time, where I’m waiting for something to appear in my mind as a foundational brick for the record, a sound or song I can hang the rest on.”
Limitations are clearly something that spurs producers like Orlando to become more creative, but he also deliberately pursued different approaches and musical worlds on this record’s creative journey. For album opener Desire, he nailed down the chords, bassline, and vocal, then experimented with various iterations to find something that spoke to him.
“I did a version that was 4x4 floor 16-note banger, then another with a Bicep 2-step style, but it sounded a bit too much like Glue so I ruled it out,” he says. “You kind of feel it out, work through these versions and hopefully a world that sounds like you emerges.”
While Orlando operates as a solo artist, he employed the services of a mix engineer, Jon Castelli, a Grammy-nominated studio expert known for his work with SZA, Billie Eilish and Harry Styles, to find his way to Always With Me’s final version. Plotting his way through the creative undergrowth to the finish line is Orlando’s least favourite part of the music-making process.
“This is when I start to doubt myself, the voices come into my head,” he says. “It’s like a Greek chorus of imaginary critics standing behind me which is when things can go wrong.”
“But working with Jon was an amazing experience and a real learning curve for me if not initially totally terrifying too. After we did it, I could see which bits of my production were lacking and what worked. He definitely made a better-sounding record, and it ended up being a really fun thing to do.”
"Everyone is now a marketing expert and fans are more interested in the campaign than the music"
Now on his third full-length project, Orlando feels more established and experienced than ever before, operating as part of an electronic music world that has matured since the early days of hedonism and unhinged raves. Although these spaces and parties still exist, the dance music world has grown increasingly corporate, with more attention paid to how music is marketed and sold than ever before.
“The word ‘strategy’ is key to this era,” he says. “Now it seems that we celebrate strategists over artists and everyone is now a marketing expert, fans are more interested in the campaign than the music.
“I think that’s out of whack, although all of our favourites have been good at marketing themselves, even those we thought of as underground heroes. For example, Aphex Twin is someone who people think of as very pure but he’s obviously good at marketing.”
Orlando cites the latest Blawan album, SickElixir, as a current source of inspiration and sonic game-changer. It’s a record that left a jaw-dropping impression, reminiscent of the first time he heard Aphex or other early releases on Warp Records.
“It’s so refreshing, it really reminds me of growing up and hearing Squarepusher on the drum programming and being like - what the fuck?” he laughs. “It’s the same with Blawan’s music and I love that feeling. Even if you gave me a week, I wouldn’t be able to make a bar of his music – it’s really cool and exciting.”
As the Virus has been borrowed from a friend, Orlando is unsure about the musical pastures he will next find himself working within. Currently, he won’t be building a new studio set-up either until the financials add up.
“There is a synth, this Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave, which I have my eye on,” Orlando says. “But I’m lucky enough to live in LA where there are so many amazing places to work in. If I want to, I can record on a Yamaha CS-80 at one of the many well stocked studios here.”
When it comes to advice, Orlando is a firm believer that the process of music production must be fun. This is something everyone needs to remember when grappling with the creative process, he says.
“One thing that has changed since social media became so big, many people think that their entire audience is online,” says Orlando. “But the most important audience and fanbase is your IRL friends and you should play your music to them. It doesn’t matter how they feel about it, you need to focus on how it makes you feel to play your music to them. Usually, you’ll realise immediately if anything needs to change as soon as you play it.”
“Same thing goes with the music industry and any deals or contracts that come your way. Your friends will be able to give you an objective perspective and keep you grounded. The music industry has a way of gaslighting you, and those outside of it will help you keep it real.”
Orlando is also among an increasing number of DJs and producers whose club sets and artist material seem to live at opposite ends of the sonic spectrum. Alongside artists like HAAi, Avalon Emerson and Daniel Avery, he’s part of a wave of creatives that crave the darkness and immersion of the club. However, when it comes to their own compositions, they tend to be more emotionally contemplative and less focused on the dancefloor.
"When I sit down and make music, I’m drawn away from club music and looking for something with more emotional depth"
“It’s funny because I really thought with this album that I was going to make a club record, but obviously I didn’t and I can’t figure it out,” Orlando says. “I started DJing when I was 13 or 14 and it’s been a huge part of my life. But when I sit down and make music, I’m drawn away from club music and looking for something with more emotional depth, like an indie classic. I’m DJing all the time but somehow the record lives adjacent to this side of things.”
Having now lived in LA for some time, Orlando’s experiences in the States have made him more of a house-leaning DJ and away from the harsher breakbeats and bass culture he grew up on.
“I feel very connected to LA and its club music scene,” he says. “There’s a night called Rhonda that has been going for a while, they are family now, there’s a warehouse party called Lights Down Low – amazing promoters who throw great parties, Making Shapes, Into the Woods – they all have a slightly different flavour and crowd. Although some give it stick, I think you can find whatever you want here if you know where to look.”
With Always With Me due for imminent release, it’s in the DJ booth where you will find Orlando for the foreseeable future, both in the US, then Australia come 2026. He’s also contemplating live dates alongside collaborating and producing with other artists.
“I’m almost at capacity at the moment, which is a good feeling, but I’m going to bed extremely tired about 9pm,” he says. “It’s great, this is what you want from a music career. I feel challenged, involved and I’m working across lots of things. At this point, I can’t sit back – I’ve got to keep pushing.”
Always With Me is due for release December 5.
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