SNBRN’s ‘Raindrops’ takes off at CRSSD

One of the upsides of a new, manageably sized festival like last weekend’s CRSSD is that it can make a palpable difference for even the smallest acts. If a new producer or DJ has one tune that strikes gold, they can walk away from a small stage with a lot of new interest.

That seems to be happening with the L.A. act SNBRN. The production alias of Kevin Chapman has had a rapid ascent with his single “Raindrops,” a fizzy and irresistible bit of summertime neo-house that marks his debut for Ultra Records. It’s got a vocal turn from the Estonian pop singer Kerli that imagines what Ellie Goulding might have done had she kept up that fluttery, uncanny style from “Starry Eyed” and brought it to contemporary dance floors.

Despite being a relative unknown newcomer, the song has already landed 7 million plays on Spotify and more than a million on Soundcloud. It’s been championed by both Pete Tong and the serious danceblogosphere, and soundtracked an unrelated Buzzfeed video about female body imagery in history with over 21 million views (hey, there are worse viral marketing accidents than having your song associated with a Buzzfeed video encouraging women to feel good about themselves).

“It was nice have so many people come out here early to catch my set and have as much fun as I was,” said Chapman, about his two CRSSD sets on Sunday. This was the kind of accessible but wide-ranging show that can turn a crowd from being curious about a single into fans watching his next moves. “This is a much larger scale than other festivals I’ve recently played like Splash House or SnowGlobe. It’s a huge opportunity.”

Listen to the song here, and get ready to hear it many, many more times over summer dance-fest season.

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