Human Algorithm Takeover | 10.30.23

with artist SUMif 👩🏻‍🎤 + Halloween HA Mix 😱

Oct 30, 2023

For our next Human Algorithm Takeover, please welcome electro-pop artist SUMif. From high school bands to acoustic pop to electro-pop, her sounds have evolved based on her current musical inspirations and has taught herself the production side of things via YouTube and podcasts. SUMif’s latest song “Evie” was inspired by Fred Again…and you’ll definitely have it playing on repeat.

🎶 HA Takeover with SUMif

Can you tell readers a little bit about SUMIf and how it came about? I've been making music and been in bands since middle school, playing acoustic pop through college and moved to Nashville to write and fell into *country* - but when I moved to SF I started consuming music differently - going to more shows than I ever had before and discovering artists on Spotify. I was super into electropop and was like how do I do that?? So I taught myself production basics on YouTube and made my first nonacoustic guitar track. The name came about as I wanted something that was a nod to my inner nerd, something that some people would know as an inside joke kind of, and something that was easily mispronounced because I have a PR theory that if people don't know how to say a band name they just talk about it more. So my co-worker at the time suggested an excel formula... SUMIF.

You recently released a new song called Evie that reflects a new genre for you. What inspired this shift? How did you approach this song compared to previous ones? I've been listening to a ton of Fred Again... and he's such an inspiration. It was a good challenge for me to try something new and build new production skills as well. I listened to a couple of production podcasts with Fred and he explained some tricks he uses on every song so I gave those a shot and watched lots of YouTube videos to learn more.

What's next? Can we expect more songs in this new direction? More music that is forsure. I've been doing ketamine assisted therapy, and I am super interested in making an album specifically for that experience, similar to what Jon Hopkins did with "Music for psychedelic therapy"... TBD!

If you could feature or work with any artist/DJ on your next song or album, who would you pick? Fred Again... or maybe Fletcher for the gays, or maybe Taylor Swift bc I'm a basic bitch!

What is the inspiration behind your mix/playlist? Just great groovy mostly electropop vibes - many of these songs are on my skiing playlist