When it comes to musical projects, nothing gets fans talking like the prospect of their beloved artists calling on collaborators to offer blended tunes and diverse vocal ranges. Drawing on this exact premise is the R&B dyad Emotional Oranges. With the bustling LA music scene at their fingertips, the duo recruited a diverse range of talents, including the likes of Vince Staples and Becky G, to feature on their new project The Juicebox, culminating in a melting pot of sounds. And, with the project standing as an ode to their influences, expect genre hacking and era references galore as the pair take you on a tour of their musical past.

Take a look below to read through Emotional Oranges’ track-by-track breakdown of their project The Juicebox.

This track idea started off in Tokyo right before the pandemic, I swear I had covid on this trip! V was downstairs in the Shibuya Airbnb bumping “Feel good” by the Gorillaz with Yoni from Chiiild and our guitar player Mitch. Lyrically, we wanted to write something really provocative that had attitude but felt like it could fit with all the 90s hip hop shit we love. We linked Channel back in LA and he gave it his sauce.

This began as a writing session at Redbull studios in LA with Max & Benji from Slenderbodies. After hours of playing them other ideas, we started jamming and the lead riff came rather quickly. I couldn’t get the mirror scene from Black Swan out of my head and wanted to create something with that level of clarity. Yoni had loved the track from the moment we played him it and the rest is history. oh and we made a candle that smells like how this song sounds and feels – shameless plug!

We have been a fan of Jess ever since we saw her Colours performance a few years back. We’ve hung out quite a bit over the pandemic and this idea actually started off as a bridge to another song that we did (which we’re hoping to finish soon). It took a while to get the production sitting just right – that balance of the warm, soulful chords sitting perfectly underneath those drums is something I’m still proud of. The irony (and only regret I have) is that we didn’t write a bridge since the song started off as a bridge…

I was listening to a lot of Nonso Amadi at the time (“radio” on loop). I posted an acoustic clip of the initial idea on IG and got lukewarm responses so I deleted it and didn’t really think much of it lol. V opened it back up in Tokyo and forced me to flesh it out! I certainly didn’t know we’d eventually get Becky on it or it’d be the first real music video we would do. From start to finish, this has to be one of the most thorough but equally enjoyable processes of my career – have genuinely never learned so much.

This is another one of those Tokyo production ideas we started with Yoni. Growing up in LA, Chronic 2001 has been in rotation all my life and I’ve wanted to make something with that bounce but just a bit more melodic. We took the stems to Dante from THEY. and he really helped us take it there. Rory hit Vince and the song was done that week! Sounds a lot more effortless than it actually was but that’s how I choose to remember it lol.

Dante and Drew played us this last year but said they weren’t putting it on their project. I asked if we could try to re-work it a bit and they kindly obliged! This has to be my favourite V verse on the whole project, the imagery and storytelling while still riding the groove like that. Can’t wait to get back on tour so we can perform this one.

Yendry is one of the most genuine and down to earth humans we’ve ever met! Before our session, I had gone back and forth with this dope producer from London called Tsha and written pieces of the hook and bridge. We wanted to make it feel like a girls conversation – about how to curve the fuck boys – at 7:30 pm in Barcelona and safe to say that V and Yendry nailed it.

Marc Lo from the Monsterz & Strangers and I both have a mutual love for Craig David and late 90s UK pop. We’ve been trying to find the right track to work on with Kiana for a couple of years and couldn’t be happier that she chose this one. She painted such a vivid picture and also embarrassed me vocally but it’s ok because V redeemed us! The writing process on this was very reminiscent of the Volume 1 days; couldn’t be more inspired to finish Volume 3…