L.A Boom Boxes & Ohio Tornado Sirens: The Eclectic Inspirations Behind Dance Artist iimbi’s Debut EP
Categoria: Musica
Technology explores love, one-night stands, extravagance and more through different styles of dance music.
Por Billboard | 05/11/2026
The Ohio-born Issa Leigh moved to New York City on a Chinatown bus while listening to Giorgio Moroder’s 1977 classic From Here to Eternity on repeat, but eventually relocated to Los Angeles, where he lived for eight years. But it was a seven-month visit back to NYC – “to patch up bridges, rekindle bridges, see friends and family” – that pushed him to get serious about iimbi, his musical alter ego. “I decided to come back [to Los Angeles] and really put my full foot forward, diving into music,” Leigh, seated in the lobby of Sunset Tower, tells Billboard of his debut release, Technology . Alternately peacocking and vulnerable, Technology blends trance, ghettotech and world sounds to craft a soundscape beautifully suited for late nights – whether that means packed clubs or your bedroom alone at three in the morning. In terms of its creation, Technology was mostly a solitary affair, with Leigh writing and producing every song on the six-track release. “I have [mixing engineers], but it’s not a lot of hands in the pot. I’m a perfectionist sometimes,” he says. “And basically self-taught.” Here, iimbi (pronounced “ihm-bee”) talks about how the streets and boom boxes of L.A. influenced this project, his musical heroes and why he never messes with AI music. How did the making of this EP start? The seedlings for this started in downtown L.A. I was living in this loft, and I really needed a creative outlet — I hadn’t been working on music for a few years. I had my equipment, and I would just sit there, look out the window and take in all the cityscapes. Downtown L.A. is so special. It’s visceral and raw. When you live there, you have no choice but to pick up the energy and feel the moment. I was living across the street from the Cecil Hotel, and just looking out the window at it, I started fiddling around on the synth. Everything came out dance-y and electronic: the syncopation of people walking, the traffic lights, all of this different stuff. In downtown L.A. there are a lot of guys who walk around with boom boxes, and they’re always playing this breakbeat, ’80s-type music. So that seeped in. I produced basically all of it there. There was ghettotech, and then I had some trance moments and I also had world beat — it was all of these different electronic sounds. They’re all their own separate worlds, but they come together Are you a perfectionist? Do you endlessly tinker with stuff? Let’s talk about “Technology”: How long did that take you? It just depends, honestly. If I’m really in the moment — like “Technology,” that beat just came out. But “CGI Rodeo” is something I produced in 2023, and that took almost a month, because when you listen to it, it’s very much a journey. That song is really close to me, because I’m talking about life and different things I’ve gone through. That beat took a few weeks to make, and I produced it there. I actually didn’t wri