Toronto’s Witte Beer Releases Single & EP

Witte Beer is the electro-pop alias of Jeremy van Leeuwen from Toronto. The hard hitting sound of Witte Beer evokes likeness to artists like Kim Petras, SOPHIE, and Grimes. Bright bubblegum vocals deliver earworms that float crisply on top of the punchy framework.

After the success of his first single, “Cut You Loose,” Witte Beer is showing no signs of slowing down and continues to expand his musical artistry with his first EP, Fairlight, to be released on August 24. 

For the EP, Witte Beer wanted to create more of a sonic motif than a lyrical one. Most of the melodies come as randomly as humming a tune in the shower, on a bike ride, or browsing through sound banks and all of a sudden creating a riff inspired by a new sound.

The title track, “Fairlight,” was written starting with the intro guitar phrase and portrays a sense of motion and anticipation. The sound came from a CMI Fairlight sound bank, which is a vintage sampler. Witte Beer felt so much inspiration from that single instrument that all of a sudden it became the project name and focal point.

“I spent many years working on electronic music in a bedroom and never releasing any of it as I found it unsatisfactory,” said Jeremy. “Jumping into pop was freeing – even for a relatively formulaic genre. I hated the minute long intros and outros of house music, trying to create those and maintain interest was tiresome, so this transition is a welcome chance.”