Contact Sports Enters the Playing Field
Contact Sports’ debut self-titled album has arrived. Amidst a digital dreamscape, the artist builds an electric network.
By CHARLOTTE SHELTON
Photographer MEGAN COLLANTE
Stylist AVA LORENTZEN
Contact Sports wears stylists own garments
Contact Sports wears XingYi Liu dress
Contact Sports is stepping up to the plate. Born from the mind of multi-talented Tati Bruening, aka “Illumitati” on Instagram, Contact Sports is a musical project that delves deep into the world of electronic sound. Tati began as a rookie photographer capturing local electronic shows in her Southern California hometown, and over time has grown into the digital and musical force she is today.
However, this musical venture is not an extension of her photography career. Contact Sports, undoubtedly a natural evolution from her adolescence spent circling and capturing the underground music scene, occupies its own terrain. Principle to the ethos of Contact Sports and Tati’s world at large is an investigation of the divide—or perhaps the connection—between the digital and the physical. Even the song titles are inquiries in themselves—“Me & My Machine,” “Attention Economics” featuring Genesis Owusu, and “Xylem + Phloem” (a reference to specialized vascular tissue) lay the groundwork for a project that traverses both the corporeal and the cyber.
The first few notes of the album begin with liminal, floating rain drops that crescendo into a pulsing beat, promising a beat drop. On “(AR) Autonomous Romance),” Tati repeats, “What you looking for / I’m looking for myself,” over an electropop beat. There seems to be a central question to the album: How does one find oneself amid the digital junkyard we all occupy?
“Starting a new practice is a matter of trying to match my taste to a new skill set.”
“Attention Economics” featuring Genesis Owusu brings the listener back into their body. A distorted German voice begins the song by eerily discussing ADHD and the need for Ritalin. Tati’s voice comes in to chant, “Concentration / Concentration is the game / Keep the rhythm / Keep the rhythm just the same,” harkening back to the schoolyard hand game where players stand in a circle, listing items in a category one by one. Cleverly, the song our shortened attention spans induced by excessive screen time while incorporating a childhood game, an unexpected maneuver.
“Contact Sports”, delivered in nearly an hour of fresh electronic pop, exhibits Tati’s curiosity and preoccupation with the social fabric of the 21st century. In the wake of its release, Tati delves into the genesis of Contact Sports.
Contact Sports wears stylists own garments
CHARLOTTE SHELTON: Tell me about your upbringing in Orange County, California as a creative child.
CONTACT SPORTS: I was born in Frankfurt, Germany, which is [completely] opposite from Newport Beach, California. Growing up in Newport was really interesting because it's such a bubble, a complex little microcosm. It's really different to most places in the world in terms of the way the community operates.
Don't get me wrong, it's one of the most beautiful places in the world, but it is a prison for creative people because everybody is hyper-judgmental. It's one of the few places that truly is so insular that it operates on its own wavelength and timing
CHARLOTTE: You began your photography career at local electronic shows in Orange County, and you’re now making electronic music. Is this the kind of music you've always sought to produce and something that you've always been interested in?
Contact Sports wears stylists own garments, Aliya El Samadony mouthpiece
CONTACT SPORTS: I can assure you that the first time I heard “Levels" by Avicii and “Animals” by Martin Garrix, I knew that was [a world] I wanted to be a part of. That [discovery] led me down an insane pipeline, so that I was listening to crazy-niche deep house music by the age of 12. I've always wanted to do [this] but I was kind of too afraid, too shy. I thought that I had to be gifted by the hand of God to pursue a career in music. The bar to entry felt so out of my reach, which is why I started photographing the scene. I wanted to be part of music somehow, but I just didn't think that I would ever be able to create it. I thought I needed to go to music school. It just didn't seem like something that was an option for me and I think that's [the] Newport Beach judgement kicking in.
CHARLOTTE: You can't wait for someone to bestow your dream upon you. As you developed your photographic and digital career, were you also developing your music on the side? How did Contact Sports come to life?
CONTACT SPORTS: I've always had ideas for songs in my head. To be transparent, I’ve downloaded Ableton Live probably 10 times in my life. [Each time] I had a mental breakdown trying to figure it out, because I didn't know anything about music. It really came to fruition when I decided my New Year’s resolution was to make a song. I was going to learn a new skill that year and it was going to be music production.
Coincidently, two months later, I started dating a music producer. I saw the process of music creation, and the walls came down. The bar to entry for creating music was actually much lower than I thought it was.
I dropped my first song, “WWW,” in November of 2024. I had completed my New Year's resolution to make a song, and started making music. It got a bit of internet traction and labels started reaching out. Contact Sports was born.
Contact Sports wears XingYi Liu dress, Zellous shoes
Contact Sports wears Jean Paul Gaultier top, Elliot Zylstra skirt, Saint Laurent shoes
CHARLOTTE: Why the name Contact Sports? Why the distinction between yourself and the musical act?
CONTACT SPORTS: I think there's a couple different things that play here. When I was starting my music project, I didn't want to siphon fans from my existing visual audience, because not everybody that likes my visual work is going to like my music. I don't want to inflate the numbers and the community that can be built around Contact Sports by nepo-ing myself. I decided to make a separate identity.
I was really intentional about keeping it anonymous for a decent amount of time because I honestly didn't have the confidence to attach Contact Sports to my massive internet presence. I was still figuring myself out sonically, and I didn't want to put my face and name on something that I wasn't fully confident in yet.
I wanted to develop [the project] a little bit and develop a strong sense of what Contact Sports was before really pouring some gas on it. That way it's like I'm not presenting something half-baked under the alias that I've built my whole career from/with.
CHARLOTTE: Where does the name “Contact Sports” come from?
CONTACT SPORTS: I always heard the phrase “contact sports," and I felt it was such a clinical and sterile phrase. It's such an interesting term, so weird.
CHARLOTTE: How has your outlook and approach to creativity been challenged by embarking on this musical journey? How has your thinking changed through this process?
“[Music] is a new way of communicating my feelings and self, the messages and stories that I want to tell.”
CONTACT SPORTS: This is a new challenge, in terms of my taste not [yet] matching my skill set. That's always something that artists deal with. I’m developing something that’s a little bit foreign to me. It’s a new way of expressing myself and my feelings, and communicating the messages and stories that I want to tell. It's like trying to learn a new language.
CHARLOTTE: What are the differences that you've noticed about being a photographer versus being a musician? How are those two acts different for you?
CONTACT SPORTS: As a photographer, you're kind of in a service industry. A lot of times, you’re supporting someone else, following another person’s creative vision, or collaborating with bigger teams. When you're a musician, you're really in the driver's seat. As a musician you have a lot more autonomy [over] your decision-making, and you're not [beholden to] other people's creativity, whereas when you're a photographer, the work is a collaborative mission and oftentimes you have to compromise your vision.
Something I've experienced is that people have respected me more as an artist in music than they have in visual arts. They view me as more of an artistic person now that I'm Contact Sports than they ever viewed me as Illumitati, which is a wild thing.
CHARLOTTE: Does that make you feel like good, bad, or a little bit of both?
CONTACT SPORTS: I predicted that would happen. It's interesting to see both sides. Most artists [aren’t afforded] that crossover.
Contact Sports wears eraselis top, Official Rebrand skirt, Prada shoes.
Talent CONTACT SPORTS (TATI BRUENING)
Stylist Assistant AZELLE ANDREAH
Hair and Makeup Artist CHARLOTTE JAMES KENDALL
Executive Producer CHARLOTTE SHELTON
Production Coordinator KARALYN HOSIER
Production Assistant MILA DE LA TORRE