the sound of a heart full to bursting rather than one that’s breaking - though he’s quite capable of making that happen as well - Mokita’s latest love song ‘ICLYA’ frames an intimate moment in time when you’re locked one-on-one and time stands still. John-Luke Carter as Mokita celebrates love with acoustic electrification, wanting to declare his intentions from a boombox above his head but maintaining a slow jam’s composure.
As glistening licks recall the ‘Boys of Summer’ like late in the day waves lapping at the shore, Carter comfortably projects a lone, heartfelt voice to a balmy backdrop, mapping a long line of potential teen dramas, cinematic set plays and first dances. A chanted finale encouraging everyone to link arms and hold hands, gives the track a grand yet respectful send off.
Mokita: “This was one of those songs that kind of came out of nowhere. There’s this wild thing that happens when you fall in love where you reach this point where you’re like ‘I don’t think it’s possible for me to love this person any more then I do right now’. You can’t imagine doing anything without them but you also can’t imagine waking up next to any other person, or taking any other person home to meet your parents. The idea and emotion behind this song was simple and so I wanted to keep the production super simple as well. I wanted people to be able to feel the emotions that I was feeling at the time”.
A classically trained pianist since childhood and a self-taught guitarist and penner of songs by his teens, John-Luke Carter immersed himself in the singer-songwriter methods of James Taylor, John Mayer, Jackson Browne, Damien Rice and David Gray, before moving to Nashville to hone his own personal sound. Taking something of a left turn, Carter retrained his ear to the tune of EDM-lined pop and tropical dance, subsequently fitting in with the Armada manifesto. Ten million plus streams for the likes of ‘Love Alone’ (Armada, 2018) and ‘When I See You’ (Armada, 2018), a stunning collaboration with R3HAB (All Into Nothing and remixes for Armin van Buuren, G Eazy, Maggie Roggers, Betty Who, and Matchbox 20’s Rob Thomas, have cemented Mokita’s true musical personality.