"Little Box” is a conceptual album, that combines music with visual art. Every song reflects on a important personal moment in the life of the author, “captured” with music, short stories and followed by pictures that underline the meaning of every song in a visual form. All of this you will find in a CD and its booklet called “Little Box”, which the artist refers to as a “metaphor for the soul”. Raid’s music is a combination of piano based downtempo and trip hop, with a hint of jazz motives. He often uses simple but haunting melodies, which evolve to beautiful arranged songs, spiced up with turntablism, tasty piano, violin and saxophone solos. It is the album filled with honest emotions that will give you a deep insight in the authors life and also, for a brief moment, remove you from reality.

Little Box (Debut Solo Album)

A moment of calm and inner peace is what we crave. It does not come that often, but when it does it's just plain beautiful. This tune is a soundtrack of sorts for all such carefree moments, fleeting, yet eternal. It's not about everything having to be perfect; it's about how we feel. I feel this while making music and I arrive at that point where it's no longer me doing it, it seems to be happening on its own, no thinking, no analysing, you just listen and feel. It's a kind of "nirvana" that doesn't come only through artistic creation. It may happen any time, when you are just plain happy, laying in bed with your girl, while sunlight pours in through the shutters, summer breeze gently caresses the curtains and Chet Baker plays the trumpet. Or when you're sitting with your friends, share stories and enjoy good food. Moments of calm when you feel one with all things and people around you.

Effortless

We live in a generic era. Food chains makes us eat the same stuff no matter where we are. Society makes us believe that we have to behave and dress in certain ways and try to achieve rather shallow goals to fit in and to be accepted. As life becomes more and more generic, the same happens with music. Copy paste chord progressions, song structures and lyrics that are suited for generic emotions. This becomes painfully obvious when the radio is on and same songs keep playing over again; radio stations with a rotation of maximum 400 songs. Songs with the same "hit pattern", made with the ambition of raking in vast amounts of cash, offering nothing in either artistic or aesthetic terms. Pure kitsch, music that will, in time, turn its consumers into people devoid of personality and will continue to engulf any remaining beauty to the point where it is no longer important whether we are playing a radio station or just radio static.

First track on the album and a symbolic opening of the box. I've chosen this track to open the album as, while making it, I've finally managed to let go of the worries and fears that have inhibited me until then. Anyone who is involved in a creative process is bound to be riddled with doubt, insecurity, even hatred towards one's own work. I am quite susceptible to all of it, at times to the extent that they deny me any enjoyment in the process of creation. I've realized that a song, from the very second it comes out, belongs to everyone. Everyone is free to love it, hate it, criticize it or ignore it. All I can do is accept that as a fact. Through my music, I open the door wide open for everyone to see what I feel as a person and what I know as a musician. Though intimidating at times, it still withdraws in the face of the overwhelming urge to create.

Opening

When things, good or bad, happen for the first time, they have a special sort of allure and they stay with us forever. The first record you buy, your first concert, first kiss. First time you get drunk or in a fight, first breakup or loss of a loved one. In a nutshell, they leave a permanent mark in your lives. Some were at their best when they first happened, some become better with time, some hurt as badly every time they happen and some even more. This song is about those nice moments, but if you're a bit masochistic, feel free to remember the bad ones too!

The First

Music has always been with me, since I was a little boy. At age of 15 I've discovered turntablism and it has since been one of the most important things in my life. And ever since I had to justify my choices: why my music is more important than my school, going out or even food. Sometimes I would spend the lunch money Mum gave me to buy a bagel and the rest I'd use to buy a record. That alone was too much for some to understand so you can imagine the reactions when I decided to quit my job and devoted all my time to music alone. I do understand parental fears whether their kid will be able to make the rent, pay bills or buy food, but what I can't understand is the deprecation so strong that it borders hatred. Lack of support is not a problem, the problem is excess of contempt towards something so meaningful to me. This song is for all of you who are sick and tired of trying to justify your choices.


Apprecation

Human relationships can be very complicated. We love a person who lies to us, we hate someone who tells us the truth, just because the truth hurts. We tend to forgive people who've hurt us five times over, only if the sixth time they show some semblance of loyalty and some illusion of friendship, yet some people we begrudge the tiniest mistake. I'd always rather build bridges, than burn them, but in time we have to learn to tell who really is deserving of the effort and who is not. For some of my people I'd single-handedly build bridges many miles long, whereas others are not worth the push of the button to blow them up. I am very lucky to have people in my life who love and support me truly and unconditionally. This song is dedicated to them.

Bridges

Raid is a Composer and Turntablist/DJ based in Belgrade, Serbia. His unique musical style combines Dark and Melancholic Piano compositions with electronic and ambient sounds. Raid composed several soundtracks for theatre plays and instrumentals for Hip Hop Artists, but he is also known for his incredible Scratch skills which allowed him to collaborate with some of the world’s greatest DJs.

Bridges

Raid (official)