“When it came to my debut album, I wanted to give more musicality to the songs—to make B-sides as well as bangers,” LP Giobbi (aka Leah Chisholm) tells Apple Music. “It’s a record dedicated to my parents, who showed me the power of music to spread love and joy.” On Light Places, the Oregon-born, LA-based DJ/producer weaves her influences with a remarkable dexterity and depth, mixing the liberating vibes of the Grateful Dead—you’ll often see her performing in tie-dye—with dazzling piano and house thump. After studying jazz at UC Berkeley, Giobbi released her debut single in 2018 and has since become renowned for her shows, which combine DJing with the emotive melodies of her live instrumentation. Supporting the likes of duo Sofi Tukker, Fatboy Slim and Pete Tong, Giobbi has become a staple on the world’s largest dance floors while also pushing for greater gender parity with her mentoring organisation Femme House. Here, she talks through how the songs on her first LP came to be. “Intro: Mother” “When I’m warming up on the piano, I always play ‘Peace Piece’ by Bill Evans as it’s such a beautiful composition and only two chords. I was in the studio playing around one day and recorded this warm-up, which immediately felt like the perfect intro for the album. It puts the piano front and centre, and sets the tone for the album being songs that aren’t all written for the dance floor.” “If Love Is a Skill” (feat. Sofi Tukker) “It’s only right that Sofi Tukker open and close the record with their two features as they are the people who first believed in me and released my earliest music. I opened for them on their debut US headline tour and pretty much learned to DJ by playing in front of their crowds night after night. We were in the studio, working on something that wasn’t quite coming together, and so I played them the instrumental for ‘If Love Is a Skill’, and Sophie was so inspired, she grabbed my iPhone and sang this vocal straight into the mic. It was flowing out of her, and that became the track.” “Can’t Let You Go” (feat. Little Jet) “I’m a jam-band kid, so I love working with groups and people outside of the dance space. Little Jet is this great psych-rock band from LA who I wanted to collaborate with, and I ended up sending them this instrumental, the first tune I’d written that wasn’t 120 BPM or above. We went back and forth working on this track, and it was a real joy creating something new.” “All I Need (Interlude)” “I had just finished a tour in Mexico, and I celebrated with my tour manager by taking a boat out and having a little party. The next day, he got a voice note from his grandma Shirley congratulating him, and it was just the sweetest thing I’d ever heard. I knew I had to get it on the record and build a whole song around it.” “All I Need” “The main song is me just trying to do justice to the mood and feeling of Shirley’s voice. I also added in a vocal sample that I fell in love with from my publishing group’s audio library. I wrote around those two influences, and the title just came simply from the words that the sample repeats.” “Another Life” (feat. Caroline Byrne) “I discovered Caroline through Femme House when I was asked to mentor her. At the end of our session, she asked if she could share some demos, and they were incredible. I knew we had to work together, and she ended up sending me this vocal idea, which formed the basis for ‘Another Life’. It was the hardest song on the record to finish because it could have gone in so many different directions—it could be a huge pop song, but I settled on the middle ground. I hope it gets a good remix!” “Georgia” “I dreamt that I was jamming with Jimi Hendrix, and he was ripping a guitar solo over these tom fills. I knew I had to pursue the idea when I woke up, so I recorded a drummer in LA and then paired a great bassline with it, as no one else can play like Jimi. The title comes from the chorus of Justin Bieber’s ‘Peaches’ because I was listening to it on the way to the studio.” “Follow the Loop” (feat. Le Chev) “I was asked to work on a Grateful Dead remix project and even played some of their after-parties on tour, which was an insane experience. The remix was a great way to fit guitars into dance music, and for this track, I started with one note from a Grateful Dead guitar line and repitched it and replaced it until this loop happened, which I just couldn’t stop playing and following through the song.” “Feels Just Like it” (feat. Caroline Byrne) “The strings for this track came from a remix I submitted for an artist that didn’t end up being used. I knew they would work so well with a singer, so I reached out to Caroline again and, amazingly, within an hour she’d come up with the vocal that you hear on the track. Her lyrics of ‘This isn’t love, but it feels just like it’ really touched me, and it all came together really quickly after that.” “Body Breathe” (feat. Monogem) “‘Body Breathe’ was one of the earliest tracks I wrote, since it started in a pre-pandemic session. I was warming up with ‘Peace Piece’ again when Monogem walked into the studio and recognised it straight away. She started humming along and just came up with this vocal alongside—we ended up shifting the chords, and it became ‘Body Breathe’.” “All in a Dream” (feat. DJ Tennis & Joseph Ashworth) “This track set the tone for the entire record. I was DJing a festival just after the pandemic, and there were very few people in the crowd, since the headliner had already finished, so I decided to test out my new ideas on the sound system, including the instrumental for ‘All in a Dream’. It turns out DJ Tennis was listening, and he reached out to say that he loved what I played. We ended up getting into the studio the next day and recorded a live drummer on the track, as well as running everything through vintage synths—it was really collaborative and opened up my writing massively.” “All My Life” (feat. Sofi Tukker) “Sofi Tukker are my most trusted allies, and when I was playing them the potential tracklist for the album, they told me they had the perfect vocal for this instrumental. It is such a catchy a cappella, and I’ve been closing all my DJ sets with this track now as it’s a really nice way to send people home with some peace, joy and positivity.” “Outro: Not Fade Away” “The Grateful Dead ends their shows by singing ‘Not Fade Away’ back and forth between them and the audience—it’s such an emotional thing to witness, and I began to close my shows with a ripped version of that sing-along too. It felt like the perfect way to close the album, so I asked my close friends and family to send me voice recordings of the lines to put together like a chorus for this outro.”