Step by Step (Braxe + Falcon song)

"Step by Step"
Single by Braxe + Falcon featuring Panda Bear
from the EP Step by Step
A-side	"Creative Source"
Released	29 March 2022 (2022-03-29)
Genre	French touch
Label	Domino Recording Company
Songwriter(s)	Alain Quême Stéphane Quême Noah Lennox
Producer(s)	Alan Braxe DJ Falcon
Braxe + Falcon singles chronology
"Step by Step" (2022) "Elevation" (2022)
Music video
"Step by Step" on YouTube

"Step by Step" is a song released by the French touch duo Braxe + Falcon. Produced by Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon, it was released as a double A-side single with the duo's track "Creative Source" on 29 March 2022, and as part of the extended play of the same name released on 24 June that year. It features lyrics and vocals by the American musician Noah Lennox, known professionally as Panda Bear.

Braxe and Falcon began work on music demos together around the same time Falcon produced the Daft Punk track "Contact" (2013), not knowing each other beyond family gatherings but bonding over their shared careers in the electronic genre. These demos were left untouched for years until the manager of Domino Records, Peter Bernard, encouraged the duo to finish them. Braxe and Falcon sent one demo, an instrumental, to Animal Collective member Panda Bear, who came up with the lyrics while cooking, and sang vocals, sending his work to the duo around 48 hours later. The song was the first of Braxe and Falcon's demos to be completed.

"Step by Step" received acclaim from critics, with praise for Lennox's vocals and lyrics, Braxe and Falcon's production, and its message. A music video directed by Toru Tokikawa and starring skater Ginwoo Onodera was released on 25 August 2022. Braxe and Falcon performed the song live for the first time with Lennox in July 2023 at Knockdown Center in Queens, NY.

Background and composition

Noah "Panda Bear" Lennox provided lyrics and vocals to Braxe and Falcon's instrumentation.

The producers Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon worked on electronic music in the late 90s and 2000s on Thomas Bangalter's label Roulé. Braxe released the single "Vertigo" (1997) and with Stardust, produced "Music Sounds Better with You" (1998); Falcon produced the extended play Hello My Name is DJ Falcon (1999) and created two tracks with Bangalter as Together, the namesake track in 2000 and "So Much Love to Give" (2002). From then on, Falcon remained largely inactive with music production, taking up hobbies like surfing and DJing, with Braxe continuing to produce music. In 2013 Falcon co-produced the Daft Punk track "Contact", at which point he and Braxe began recording demos together. Prior to this, Braxe and Falcon had only met "maybe ten times at family parties", and had no knowledge of each other's careers in electronic music, something that brought them close. The demos they made together were left untouched for years until the two spoke with Domino Records manager Peter Berard around 2020, who convinced them to finish them.

"Step by Step" was the first of these demos to be completed, crucial to the duo since it was a "downtempo ballad with acoustic drums", a departure from the traditional French house 125 beats per minute format which they wanted to avoid for their return. The demo that became "Step by Step" was originally an instrumental, and "at some point" during the duo's process of finishing the demos, they thought to send it to Panda Bear, who wrote a song to go with it. The duo sent Lennox the instrumental without any comments, only references of the musician's material that they liked, telling him "you're free to do whatever you want to do". They described the instrumental as "a downtempo variation of the Roulé era club tracks". Lennox came up with the title while he was cooking, and remarked the song is a reflection of how much he had been inspired by the duo's sampling work; he said the repetition of the title phrase in the verses, chorus, bridge, and coda reinforces it as a "hopeful mantra". Falcon believes it took Lennox 48 hours to send back his work on the track.

Music video

The music video for "Step by Step" was written, directed, and produced by Toru Tokikawa, and stars Ginwoo Onodera, a skateboarding prodigy. Filmed in Tokyo, it includes footage from Onodera's early skateboarding days as well as shots of him winning awards and landing tricks. A friend of Braxe's, Tokikawa had the idea of showing the growth of a child of a very young age through the practice of skateboarding, something that Braxe and Falcon accepted instantly since they had skateboarded from their youth. It was released on 25 August 2022.

Release

"Step by Step" was released as a double A-side single on 29 March 2022. It digitally released as part of the duo's Step by Step extended play on 24 June, and in vinyl record format on 26 August on Domino Recording Company's Smugglers Way label. Panda Bear and Braxe + Falcon debuted "Step by Step" live during a show at Knockdown Center in Queens, NY on 21 July 2023.

Reception

Pitchfork's Evan Minsker said that Panda Bear "gives the duo’s subtle glow a narrative framework", and that "the synths suddenly come alive, acoustic drums breathe momentum into the song's sails, and Panda Bear—multi-tracked into an elated choir, and delivering the crown jewel of his already laudable 2022 discography—becomes a chorus of trusted advisors whose collective force, and copious repetitions, transform an old self-help chestnut into a life-changing belief system". Another Pitchfork journalist, Philip Sherburne, said it was "a song so good that the rest of the EP pales in comparison", and hailed it as "a languid yacht-rock-disco number that features a chord progression for the ages". He felt the song's best part was Lennox's, who "delivers one of his most stirring performances", whose "idiosyncrasies have a winning relatability that’s uncommon in platinum-dipped dance music", and that "it's impossible not to root for him".

KCRW's Travis Holcombe said Braxe and Falcon's instrumental "emanates warmth and is almost like a slowed-down version of the four-on-the-floor tracks they built their reputations on as French Touch pioneers", and said Lennox's "incredible knack for melody and optimistic lyrics fit perfectly to produce an all-time great track". Stereogum said the duo "welcome the future and imbue that theme into a breezy track", calling it "a comforting reminder that change can be a positive thing — and if you're feeling overwhelmed, just break it down into little pieces".

The staff of KCRW named it among the best songs of 2022, and Pitchfork named it one the best electronic songs of that year.

Personnel

• Alan Braxe – songwriter, producer, mixing
• DJ Falcon – songwriter, producer, mixing
• Panda Bear  – vocals, songwriter, lyrics