L.A Boom Boxes & Ohio Tornado Sirens: The Eclectic Inspirations Behind Dance Artist iimbi’s Debut EP
Billboard ·
Technology explores love, one-night stands, extravagance and more through different styles of dance music.
The Ohio-born Issa Leigh moved to New York City on a Chinatown bus while listening to Giorgio Moroder’s 1977 classic From Here to Eternity on repeat, but eventually relocated to Los Angeles, where he lived for eight years. But it was a seven-month visit back to NYC – “to patch up bridges, rekindle bridges, see friends and family” – that pushed him to get serious about iimbi, his musical alter ego. “I decided to come back [to Los Angeles] and really put my full foot forward, diving into music,” Leigh, seated in the lobby of Sunset Tower, tells Billboard of his debut release, Technology .
Alternately peacocking and vulnerable, Technology blends trance, ghettotech and world sounds to craft a soundscape beautifully suited for late nights – whether that means packed clubs or your bedroom alone at three in the morning. In terms of its creation, Technology was mostly a solitary affair, with Leigh writing and producing every song on the six-track release. “I have [mixing engineers], but it’s not a lot of hands in the pot. I’m a perfectionist sometimes,” he says. “And basically self-taught.”
Here, iimbi (pronounced “ihm-bee”) talks about how the streets and boom boxes of L.A. influenced this project, his musical heroes and why he never messes with AI music.
How did the making of this EP start?
The seedlings for this started in downtown L.A. I was living in this loft, and I really needed a creative outlet — I hadn’t been working on music for a few years. I had my equipment, and I would just sit there, look out the window and take in all the cityscapes. Downtown L.A. is so special. It’s visceral and raw. When you live there, you have no choice but to pick up the energy and feel the moment.
I was living across the street from the Cecil Hotel, and just looking out the window at it, I started fiddling around on the synth. Everything came out dance-y and electronic: the syncopation of people walking, the traffic lights, all of this different stuff. In downtown L.A. there are a lot of guys who walk around with boom boxes, and they’re always playing this breakbeat, ’80s-type music. So that seeped in.
I produced basically all of it there. There was ghettotech, and then I had some trance moments and I also had world beat — it was all of these different electronic sounds. They’re all their own separate worlds, but they come together
Are you a perfectionist? Do you endlessly tinker with stuff? Let’s talk about “Technology”: How long did that take you?
It just depends, honestly. If I’m really in the moment — like “Technology,” that beat just came out. But “CGI Rodeo” is something I produced in 2023, and that took almost a month, because when you listen to it, it’s very much a journey. That song is really close to me, because I’m talking about life and different things I’ve gone through. That beat took a few weeks to make, and I produced it there. I actually didn’t write the song until this year. Music can either fly out, or it can take forever. For me, it just varies.
What’s the story behind “CGI Rodeo”? What influenced the lyrics?
When I started the production on it, I hit this whistle sound and immediately I started thinking about a Western, a rodeo. The beat had this very lonely, lone-wolf feeling. When I listened to it, I thought of Joshua Tree, the desert — that’s how the production came about.
Whenever I’d listen to the beat, I’d think, “This is such a great beat, it deserves lyrics, it deserves a journey, something to go along with it.” The lyrics finally started to come after I’d just moved back from New York — just life, talking about my journey. Also growing up in Ohio. That’s another thing I thought about when I was making it. It made me think of those late nights — back when Walmart was open 24 hours, and you’d drive there. That goes with the whistle, that lonely Western feeling. Even tornadoes: growing up in Ohio, every Wednesday at noon we’d have a tornado siren when they’d test it. Being a kid and remembering that, rainy nights and then moving to California and glamping in the desert. So, just life, being down on your luck. The song talks about the hard times, going through life, but one of the key lyrics is, “You have to get it while it’s hot.” It just means “do it now.” There’s no better time. It doesn’t matter what’s going on in your life — this is the time to do it.
How much did just being in L.A. — living across from the famous/infamous Cecil Hotel, for example — influence this?
Oh my God, a great deal. L.A. inspired so much. Living downtown, that in and of itself — and Chateau Marmont. Prior to living on Sunset, I was partying at Chateau Marmont and it’s that film-noir darkness of L.A., that cinematic quality. Living here, everything is like a movie and everything is moving, like dance music. And the underground culture. There’s a lot of rave culture down in the spice district. There are a lot of warehouses where there are dance parties and after-hours and raves. Even though I’m older now and I don’t really party anymore, back in my early days I remember everyone piling out of a warehouse in the middle of the produce district — the fruit-and-vegetable district — and you’d see remnants of pineapples and oranges. Then just down the street, there’s Skid Row, and you’re waiting for your Uber. Nights like that. Walking down Sunset at night, even Santa Monica Boulevard — it all inspires me.
How would you describe iimbi the artist to someone? How does it differ from you as yourself?
He’s a character. He’s electrifying. He’s my alter ego. He’s someone who’s not afraid to put his music out, not afraid to perform, not afraid to gain inspiration. He’s that electrifying character who goes out and makes art.
And that persona informs the EP’s songs.
They’re all different — not genres, but different types of dance music, different dance styles — and I’m talking about different things. “Technology” is more fun: I’m driving, I’m spending money, doing all these extravagant things, living my life in this alternate world that’s not my real life. “CGI Rodeo” is closer to home. The other songs touch on love, and maybe having little one-night stands. It’s very diverse in the content.
On the single art for “Technology” on Spotify, there’s a lot of analog technology. How much of your process is analog and how much is digital?
It’s a little bit of both. I have an MPC, so I do drum machines. It’s really everything — a lot of digital VSTs, a lot of sample packs. Some stuff is analog. When you look at the Logic sessions, it’s coming from everywhere. I’m not a purist, to be honest with you. But I do not use AI — let’s get that clear. I don’t use AI. I’m not a purist, but I will never use AI.
So AI is a ‘never’ for you ?
I know singers, songwriters and producers — I won’t say their names — who use AI, and that is a deal-breaker for me. There was one session I was in where I just said, “Oh, I have something” and I left. It’s so weird: you’ll be in the studio and they’ll say, “Listen to this song” and it’ll just be an AI song. Or what a lot of people are doing now is creating songs with AI and then taking them to producers to recreate. That takes the fun out of the sport. Making music is very heavenly. It’s coming from a source that’s beyond you, and it’s using you as a voice and I think that’s fun. That’s the beauty of music — it’s coming from these forces, and it genuinely can’t be forced. With AI, it just takes the fun out of that. Don’t you want to sit at the synthesizer and fart around and then go, “Oh, I love that sound”?
What’s the point of being a creative if you’re not creating it yourself?
It’s back to the producers who inspired me growing up. I’ve always known about the producers and songwriters, the people behind the music we hear — I just fell in love. It’s like Timbaland or DanjaHandz, these producers where you’re like, “Where are these sounds, these melodies, coming from?” William Orbit definitely inspired this, the way he was able to make environments with his music. I think that’s why Madonna started working with him — you hear it, and it’s these worlds. Quincy Jones, William Orbit, Giorgio Moroder. It’s not just “do-do-do,” it’s these feelings. They take you to worlds.