Two Feet is the solo project of New York city musician Bill Dess. A multi-instrumentalist, Dess is one of the few artists today who writes, plays, sings, and produces all his own music in his studio. Reviewers have called his music “mesmerizing” and noted his “silky vocals, low-key beat.” He has developed a style that manages to seamlessly blend genres, allowing him to make some of the most raw and original, emotionally alive music today.
In 2016, when Dess uploaded the smouldering, aggressively titled Go Fuck Yourself to SoundCloud, he had no idea what would happen. Since dropping out of Berklee College of Music, holed up in his apartment in Harlem, he had been spending up to 14 hours a day completely focused on his song writing and playing his guitar. Within days, the jazz-tinted, electro-contorted, heavy-bass Go Fuck Yourself became a viral hit and amassed over 8 million streams. It has since gone on to rack up over half a billion more. Go Fuck Yourself also achieved a Billboard ranking, debuting at No.48 on the Hot Rock Songs ranking December, 2017.
Two Feet’s debut EP, First Steps arrived several months after Go Fuck Yourself. Soon thereafter he released his second EP, Momentum, which drew praise from DJs and influential music curators and included one of his most popular songs, Love Is a Bitch. With its deep bass, and sultry, sinewy guitar line, Love Is a Bitch has gone on to rack up tens of millions of streams and downloads. While initially signing with the internet label, Majestic Casual Records, eventually Dess landed a deal with the U. S. giant Republic Records.
Dess first became interested in music after an elementary school field trip to see the Nutcracker. “I remember thinking it was overwhelmingly beautiful,” Dess says. “For whatever reason, I connected with orchestral, cinematic music as a child.” By middle school he was already composing chamber works that were performed by his school’s orchestra, in which Dess played the upright bass. From there, he started immersing himself in rock, hip-hop, pop, jazz—Chet Baker and guitarists Muddy Waters and Wes Montgomery are favourites—and film score composers such as Ennio Morricone. He also started playing guitar in earnest (“ten hours a day, eleven hours a day”) as high school graduation loomed and today is known as one of the leading guitarists of his generation—which is amply apparent at his live shows.
These formative influences help explain Dess' eclectic approach to music. Jazz, blues, rock and soul intermingle on Two Feet tracks, along with plenty of echoing, guitar work. Although both the First Steps EP and 2017’s Momentum EP drew comparisons to Chet Faker, Darkside and Glass Animals, his work can’t be pigeonholed into one specific genre, and is, as some critics have pointed out, genre-repellent. Two Feet's songs are atmospheric and moody thanks to spacious arrangements, midnight-hued production and muscular hip-hop-tinged electronic beats. Dess combines a soulful, crying electric guitar with floor-rattling synthesized bass to create his unique sound. Blues and jazz accents add backbone, and exacerbate the mournful undertones of Dess’ smoky, conspiratorial voice. Two Feet songs are the soundtrack for staying up late into the night, aching to figure out how to remedy heartbreak, anxiety, and uncertainty.
In early 2018, Two Feet released his third EP, A 20 Something F*CK, an eight-track run that contains I Feel Like I'm Drowning, his breakthrough song that hit No.1 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart. His most accomplished compilation to date it combines Dess’ ability to fuse rock and blues and jazz-tinged licks to create spellbinding sonic atmospherics that deliver raw emotion. Following this EP, he released two additional songs, I want It and his mournful, deeply moving, Lost the Game.
Today, Two Feet’s songs have more than a billion streams across Spotify, YouTube, iTunes, and SoundCloud. He’s performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, at Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Lightning in a Bottle, and SXSW, and headlined his first U.S. tour to sell-out audiences. In 2019, he was the opening act for Panic! At The Disco in 27 cities all across the U.S. He has also toured internationally, playing sold-out shows in Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, and England.
While Dess has provided production work for MØ (Mercy), and is featured on Melvv’s Not Me, and in a duet with Madison Love on Hurt People, collaborations remain rare. “I’m interested in figuring out a way of making pop music on my own that’s not only more original, but also honest,” he says. He’s currently working on a full-length record—the idea of having 10 or 11 songs to stretch out and be creative is enormously appealing—and honing his ability to combine his unique, evocative textures with pop structures. Judging by Dess’ track record to date, expect nothing short of intriguing, inventive results from Two Feet.
